Who Faces More Challenges: INEOS or an Online Casino Owner?

Owning any kind of business comes with unique and demanding challenges. But there are also a lot of similarities in roles at the top, thanks to the necessity of managing complex systems from public relations and marketing, to people.

Parallels extend across industries too, as the owner of an online casino will be placed in many of the same operational situations as the owner of a football club. There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes in both to reach the same target of delivering a great experience to the public.

Here we explore how INEOS, the de facto owners of Manchester United and online casinos may have more in common than you may think.

Leadership, Risk and Big Decisions

A company’s vision, be that a giant football club like Manchester United or a top online casino, comes from the top. Strong leadership is pivotal for working towards those long-term objectives. Many of the big decisions come from successfully navigating high-powered negotiations.

That could be an online casino striking a deal with slot game providers to fill their portfolio, or INEOS looking for sponsorships to fund the new stadium at Old Trafford.

Leadership in dealing with risk is important as well. Football club owners invest heavily into their club, money filters through to the facilities, players, managerial team and more. That is all done at the risk of a project going badly wrong and suffering a disastrous relegation, or in United’s case, failing to qualify for the Champions League.

For an online casino, while the house odds help to mitigate some of the greater risk, big wins can still impact the cash flow of an operator.

Producing an Entertaining Product

Parallels between online casino and football club owners continue with the drive towards delivering an entertaining product. The online casino industry is very crowded, so a site has to be competitively appealing to customers. That can be achieved through a theme, special promotions, big features like extensive live dealer games or a minimum deposit sometimes as low as £3 like at legalcasino.uk/casinos/minimum-deposit/3-pounds/.

The same is true for Man Utd – it needs fans pouring into the stadium on a match day to boost revenue, and the more entertaining the football team is, the more people are going to be inspired to get out and watch them. It also becomes harder to raise ticket prices (read: matchday revenues) when the team is playing poorly – i.e. the product is of a low quality.

Public Profile and Trust

Reputation is everything for online casinos. They have to be valued as being trustworthy, reliable and competent by the players who use the platform. Casino owners rely on players responding to good playing experiences, and this is why they invest so much into creating strong branding while ensuring that regulation compliance and strong customer support are in place. The more trusted a casino is, the better for future customer acquisition and advertising deals.

Similarly, the owner of a football club has to ensure that a good relationship with its supporters is maintained, taking into account things like ticket allocations, membership perks, and the overall direction of the team.

Managing Talent

A football club boss can’t oversee every single aspect of running a club. What they can do is ensure that talent management is good and that the best people are hired to fill the positions that will ensure the smooth operation of the club.

Similarly, the owner of an online casino needs the right people in place pulling the strings, from the live dealers to project managers, customer support and IT.

Managing Crisis

Every business has to deal with problems at some point. For a football club one of the most difficult decisions is to make changes, especially when performance on the pitch isn’t up to scratch. Manchester United for instance, decided to part ways with Ole Gunnar Solskjær in December 2021. Despite his previous association with the club, a string of unsatisfactory results left the team struggling to stay in the top flight. Faced with mounting pressure from supporters and journalists alike, the club’s owners realised they had to act quickly. They appointed Ralf Rangnick as a caretaker manager in a bid to turn things around and stabilise the club.

For an online casino, that could be a drop in user interaction or new customer acquisition levels for two consecutive months. The ability, skill and confidence from an owner to pull through tough moments and reassure stakeholders that there is a way out, is crucial.

In Conclusion

There are many parallels between what online casino and football club owners have to do as part of their commitment and investment to their given enterprise. It takes a lot of skill, risk and leadership to sit at the top and run any business successfully, no matter the industry.