Author: Sebastian Scheplitz
International expansion is a crucial objective for most iGaming brands.
And why not?
The advent of the internet has made it possible for brands across industries to pursue this tried-and-tested growth strategy and grow their market share exponentially.
It’s a shrewd bet for online casinos and sportsbooks seeking to maximize their revenue, increase their client base, and boost their clout in new and exciting markets.
With almost 3 out of 4 Fortune 500 companies actively channeling resources towards localization to expand and extract revenue from booming international markets, it’s clear to see where the smart money is going.
Regardless of company size, everybody’s getting in on the action.
There’s little doubt that translation and localization have become focal points of iGaming brands’ expansion strategy to international markets.
However, getting it right can be a rather tricky proposition for iGaming brands.
Tapping into global markets requires vast cultural and linguistic expertise.
And ultimately, understanding the local culture and incorporating aspects of it into players’ iGaming experiences is what will win over hearts and minds and get them to play at a particular online casino or sportsbook.
What Does Content Localization Mean?
However, localization is more than just translation.
In essence, content localization is the process of adapting visual and textual content, such as games, software, iGaming platforms, websites, and other assets to best suit clients all over the globe.
This can include creating software versions and entire websites for each region, editing media assets to suit the cultural milieu, editing word usages that may be deemed inappropriate to other cultures, re-recording audio to suit dialects based on the cultural, linguistic, and contextual nuance of local markets.
Want to go DIY? Check out our guide on do’s and don’t of localizing marketing content for iGaming brands.
Want to outsource to professional translation and localization agencies to get a superior result? Let’s watch this summary before we discuss more on this topic:
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Should You Outsource iGaming Content Localization?
Clearly, the benefits of content localization are more than one can shake the proverbial stick at.
On the other hand, not all companies need or have the bandwidth to employ a full complement of in-house iGaming translators and linguistic experts at every turn.
The question thus remains: should your iGaming business develop its own in-house localization capability, or should you just bite the bullet and outsource localization and translation to an iGaming translation agency?
No worries. We’ve put together a list of 5 reasons why outsourcing content localization is more beneficial for online casinos and sportsbooks to access global audiences.
1. Efficiency When Several Projects Need to Be Simultaneously Completed
Entering new markets means tight schedules and even tighter deadlines to get iGaming content marketing campaigns up and running.
Doing things in-house may seem logical at first thought. But be wary about the realities of needing to train staff at just the right pace to stay on top of your iGaming localization strategy.
Oh, and budgets and things, too.
Having a dedicated resource to handle complex and competing requirements when all hands are on deck is a lifesaver for brands that don’t have this capability. Then, translation work can be outsourced accordingly, smoothing out the kinks that its management entails.
Outsourcing your iGaming content localization efforts ensures that you have another set of eyes on your project that ensures that every detail of your marketing strategy is carried out to the letter.
2. When You Don’t Have the Resource to Hire In-House…or That One Guy From the Customer Support Department
Translation projects come and go in ebbs and flows as workflows at a frenetic, uneven pace and in runs.
Therefore, it’s difficult for most companies to keep in-house resources occupied when the work begins to taper off while guaranteeing their capacity to take on the absolute height of peak season.
On the other hand, relying on translations from multilinguals in your customer service department typically means extremely mixed and usually bad results.
That’s not because of your customer support agent’s own ineptitude with the language. Rather, it’s because you often have no idea whether the individual has a sufficient command of his mother tongue in writing or speaks a different variant of the language you’re localizing for (think Latin American Spanish or a Chinese Malaysian who didn’t grow up in China).
Moreover, they might not have the expertise in a particular field. For instance, a multilingual specializing in customer support might not have the same linguistic experience in cryptocurrency and iGaming-related terms.
Or maybe they just think that their expertise would be enough to craft thoughtful translations or content.
The reality is that 90% of companies don’t need to have their own in-house language translation capability.
Quite frankly, 100% of the work can be outsourced to iGaming translation agencies. Those with the appropriate linguistic expertise would have project managers to handle your iGaming marketing campaigns every time you need them.
By outsourcing translation and content, companies can be free from the heavy burden of human resources, including recruitment, assignment, and management of translation talents.
Without worrying about the follow-up arrangements for translators, all they need is a manager responsible for quality control and critical decisions related to the outsourced translation (i.e. Should it sound formal or informal? Would you have a specific glossary of words to use? etc).
3. Cultural Relevance to Engage and Convert Local Audiences
Localization also means providing contextually-relevant content and more. This could mean localizing landing pages and web designs relevant to your visitors’ locations.
Location relevance is now an expectation for most users as another facet of optimizing customer satisfaction and conversions.
Therefore, iGaming brands must tread carefully and not take a cavalier approach to use specific imagery, words, or gestures that may be culturally inappropriate.
One of the more egregious blunders was when Japanese automaker Mitsubishi launched its 4×4 sport utility vehicle “Pajero” in Spain after its success in Asia and the rest of the world.
Unbeknownst to them, pajero is equivalent to the obscenity w*nker in Spanish. The subsequent gaffe led to the vehicle being renamed as the more neutral “Montero” for Spanish-speaking markets.
The same can be said for the visual content.
Colors can signify all sorts of meanings. For instance, red is a prominent color in Chinese culture, symbolizing good fortune, happiness, and abundance.
Not surprisingly, plenty of Chinese-facing websites use plenty of red in their visual assets.
On the other hand, Middle Eastern cultures might associate the same color with evil. This level of nuance is one of the primary reasons why iGaming brands might want to outsource their localization to the pros.
4. Leverage Professional Expertise
Translation and localization, first and foremost, is a professional industry.
Being a native speaker doesn’t automatically qualify oneself as a professional.
Understandably, however, it’s tempting for companies to have native speakers wear two hats by giving them additional translation responsibilities apart from what’s already on their plate.
This might seem to be an ingenious solution for some companies who don’t wish to take on the costs of hiring a professional iGaming content marketing agency at first.
But it’s doubtful to end up creating quality translations.
On the other hand, partnering with a third-party language service provider like us, Translation Royale, gives you exclusive access to a fleet of dedicated project managers, editors, and expert linguists trained to deliver consistently flawless iGaming translations and content.
Outsourcing is a vital tool for companies lacking technical know-how and language capability.
5. Getting iGaming Content in the Proper Context
The majority of content localization all boils down to ensuring your audience understands your iGaming content in the appropriate context.
That means creating relevant, engaging, and above all, useful content that leaves no margin for the most egregious and common language gaffes in the industry.
Localizing iGaming content involves its own universe of exceptions and particulars, such as stylistic turns of phrase and technical gambling jargon that players from various countries wager high stakes on.
Therefore, local relevance and context are paramount; IGaming brands that consider players’ local context deliver a better user experience, resulting in better conversion rates.
BONUS: SEO Optimization For Local SERPs
A well-executed content localization strategy – including SEO optimization of content in targeted local languages – will produce higher rankings across search engines and local search results in the countries and regions they are targeting.
Moreover, the primary reason professional translation and localization is a critical element for SEO is that it raises the quality of local search results in the target market.
Google is partial to sites that provide useful, accurate, and practical information – as are all other search engines too.
Thus, harnessing the power of localization makes brands’ content relevant and right in line with Google’s focus on providing just that to visitors.
For companies that do not have the ability to handle SEO in-house, working with a qualified language service provider and international content marketing agency like Translation Royale makes perfect sense.
Are you ready to leave it to the pros?
And there you have it – here are five reasons why it is beneficial to outsource iGaming content localization in 2022, just as it has been in recent years.
It will remain just as critical in the coming decades.
Ultimately, 75% of the world’s population aren’t English speakers, and content localization for online casinos, sportsbooks and their affiliates is a proven growth strategy.
It’s time to create that de luxe and bespoke customer experience for the global markets your brand wishes to target to drive expansion.
Header Image Source: gersey on freepik
How did you like Sebastian Scheplitz’s blog post “5 Reasons Why Outsourcing Igaming Content Localization Is Important in 2022”? Let us know in the comments if you have anything to add, have another content idea for iGaming blog posts, or just want to say “hello.” 🙂
