How to use it
- Pick the platform model. White-label, turnkey or custom changes the hints, not the maths: what matters is the setup fee, the monthly fee and any share of GGR in your quote.
- Enter every quote you have. Licence setup and annual fees, the aggregator’s setup fee and GGR share, the payment provider’s setup fee and fee on deposits, and the cost per KYC check with your expected checks a month.
- Add the running costs. Team per month, and marketing either as a monthly budget or as CPA × first-time depositors (FTDs) a month.
- Set the scenario. The monthly GGR you want to test and the total budget you have.
Nothing is pre-filled. Quotes vary widely by market, licence and provider, and we only pre-fill figures our guides state with a source. Empty fields count as €0 and are listed under the results, so a missing quote is never hidden.
The maths
Launch cost is everything you pay once before the first player deposits:
Launch cost = platform setup + licence setup + aggregator setup + payments setupMonthly costs split into fixed lines, which you pay whatever the casino earns, and lines that grow with GGR. The licence’s annual fees are spread over 12 months. A fee on deposits becomes a share of GGR through your hold, the share of deposits that ends up as GGR.
Fixed monthly = platform monthly fee + licence annual ÷ 12 + cost per KYC check × checks + team + marketing + otherVariable rate = platform GGR share + aggregator GGR share + payment fee % ÷ hold %Monthly cost at GGR G = fixed monthly + G × variable rateBurn is what the month costs beyond what it earns. Runway is what is left after launch divided by that burn, and break-even is where burn reaches zero:
Monthly burn = max(0, monthly cost − GGR)Runway (months) = (budget − launch cost) ÷ monthly burnBreak-even GGR = fixed monthly ÷ (1 − variable rate)Reading the break-even
Take made-up percentages to show the arithmetic, not quotes: a 10% platform share, an 8% aggregator share and a 3% fee on deposits at a 30% hold. The payment fee is 3 ÷ 30 = 10% of GGR, so 28% of every euro of GGR goes to variable costs and 72% is left to pay the fixed lines. Break-even GGR is then your fixed monthly costs ÷ 0.72. If variable costs ever add up to 100% of GGR or more, no level of GGR breaks even, and the planner says so.
Run it twice: once at the GGR you expect in your first months, and once at break-even. The gap between the two, multiplied by the months it takes to close it, is the cash your budget has to carry.
The line people forget
The build is a one-time cost; player acquisition is a monthly one that keeps running long after the build is paid for. Put marketing in from the first month, not as an afterthought: a fully licensed casino with no traffic burns its runway with nothing to show for it. Our guide on what it costs to start an online casino walks through every category, and white-label vs custom explains how the build model shifts cost from setup to revenue share.
What it doesn’t include
Gaming taxes, bonus costs, chargebacks and fraud losses are not separate lines: add them under other monthly costs. GGR is treated as your revenue before those deductions, and the planner models one month at a time rather than a ramp; to plan a ramp, run it at each stage’s GGR.
FAQ
How much does it cost to start an online casino?
It depends on the build model, the licence and the providers you choose, so any single number is a guess. This planner adds up the quotes you actually have: one-off setup fees give the launch cost, and monthly fees, GGR shares, payment fees, KYC, team and marketing give the monthly cost.
How is the break-even GGR calculated?
Fixed monthly costs divided by the share of each euro of GGR that is left after GGR-based costs. If platform and aggregator shares plus payment fees take 28% of GGR, 72% is left, so break-even GGR is fixed monthly costs ÷ 0.72.
What does runway mean here?
The number of months your budget lasts after paying the launch costs, at the monthly GGR you entered: (budget − launch cost) ÷ monthly burn. If GGR already covers the monthly costs, there is no burn and the runway is unlimited at that GGR.
Why are there no default prices?
Quotes vary widely by market, licence and provider, and a made-up default would anchor your plan to a number nobody offered you. We only pre-fill figures that our guides state with a source, and none of the cost figures this planner needs is published that way yet.
For operators and founders, not players. Gambling is for adults 18+ (or the higher minimum age in your market) and only where legal. Results are estimates from the figures you enter, not a quote or financial advice.