Would I Invest? :Slot Machine Android and iOS App

I have changed the “Would I buy it?” to “Would I Invest”  to more accurately reflect the subject matter.

Although I don’t gamble, I’ve always had an affinity for casinos and anything gambling related. It really gets my creative juices flowing when I’m in a casino, horse or dog track. Anywhere there is gambling really, I get motivated. I’m not sure why, I just do. Anyway, this is one reason I am interested in this App. Find out if I would invest in this and why I made my decision.

So with that in mind,  I’m reviewing an app for sale.  I will do a little walk through of the app to see how it is monetized.  For now,  here are the financials of this site.

Age: 4 Months
Revenue:   June $1150    July $1156
Expenses:  June $456   July $456
Profit:   June $694  July $700

Initial Questions I ask myself:

Is there anything strange about the listing?   YES,  the revenue and expenses for both months are almost exactly the same.  The chances of that actually happening are not good.

Can I reproduce the site myself cheaper?   Possibly,  the reserve of $1600 wasn’t met.  But I’ve been tinkering with GameSalad (who has casino templates)  and  also suspect that I could get one made pretty cheaply from a freelancer.   This app has been downloaded over 13K times  in two months.. which tells me people are hungry for these types of games… but I kinda already knew that. 

Does owner get rights to code?   Yes,  very important!

What were the expenses?  Do they make sense?   The expenses seem high,  so I assume he was doing some advertising.

Is the seller Legit?   Seems to be,  he/she has 100% positive feedback with over 100K in sales.

Market Demand   From my research,  there is a healthy demand for casino games.

Are there copyright or trademark issues?   NO

Things I DO NOT like (about the ad anyway) 

The ad seems very “sales oriented”… If you were to buy from him he would teach you exactly how to do it.  I don’t want to pay a premium to learn this stuff… If you are buying this type of app then you should be familiar with how to promote and monetize it.  If you don’t,  find a partner who does or learn yourself.  You don’t want the person selling you the business telling you how to run it.   This is different from a restaurant or other type of franchise where this makes sense.   But this is a VERY passive investment… it’s like someone selling you a stock and then teaching you how they choose the best ones for optimum profit.  It just doesn’t make any sense.   If you remember storesonline.com,  I did a post on them awhile back.  They prey on people’s desire to work from home and spout all the hype of doing so..  Anyway,  I didn’t like that aspect of the ad.  NOT saying he is doing this…  he has a respectable review.  Just food for thought.

He also was not specific on what the expenses were.
He did not mention where the revenue came from.

This is going to be a pretty short post,  because I do not know what he expects from the sale. I DO KNOW it would be a no brainer to pay $1600 for it,  since it apparently brings in over $1k a month…. but this is not the case.   In light of this,  I won’t be doing my usual financial calculations.

Would I Invest in this?   Probably not for what he is asking.  I may not even for $1600,  depending on how much it would cost me to have them built or build it myself.   There is an opportunity cost to EVERYTHING,  so I’d  definitely take all facets of putting something together like this into the equation.

Summary

If you don’t know how to get traffic (besides organic, that’s easy) to the app or know how to make sure their is no funny business in the code,  then I would highly recommend you find someone you trust who does,  learn about it,  or bypass these kinds of investments all together.

What do I mean by funny business in the code?   The developer could very easily switch out your advertisements to hers pretty much at her command.   You would likely never know the difference.  There are other things they could do,  but suffice it to say,  unless you know what you are doing, then stay away from this….

My Other Would I Buy It or Would I Invest Posts

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