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There are myriad challenges for operators of online casinos appealing to players in the United States. Compliance, security, attracting players’ attention and striving to differentiate themselves from competitors are all among them.
Numerous service providers aim to assist online gambling companies with some of the facets of their business, providing solutions for components like rewards programs and services like marketing. Three of these vendors have teamed up to improve the quality and variety of services offered to online casino operators.
Optimove announces new partnerships
According to a news release from Optimove, the company has formed new working relationships with Captain Up and Gamanza Engage. Optimove provides marketing solutions for online gambling companies.
Gamanza Engage licenses its gamification and loyalty program features to online casino operators. Captain Up also provides customizable loyalty features.
Optimove says gaming companies “can now deliver an unparalleled AI-orchestrated gamification experience, driving higher retention rates and deeper player engagement.”
While that might sound great, many players might be wondering what that actually means for their experience.
How these relationships could change online casino players’ experiences
Cutting through the jargon makes the potential implications of these partnerships simple.
Tomer Imber, US gaming senior director of sales for Optimove, says that, “for US casino players, these partnerships mean that there is an additional way to interact with and have fun with an online casino.
“Modules use real-time data elements like granting XP points, tokens, boosters, or assigning missions/tournaments to add to the enjoyment of traditional bonuses and content. Because of AI-orchestration, the gamification will meet players’ personal interests, and messages from the online casino operator will be personalized.”
These capabilities now exist because of Optimove’s new partnerships. That doesn’t mean you should expect to see them integrated into your favorite online casino app immediately, though.
New interactions could come piecemeal
Currently, Optimove counts several gambling companies that operate US online casinos among its clients. These include bet365, Penn Entertainment and Entain (co-owner of BetMGM). These companies choose for themselves which of Optimove’s products and services to deploy and to what extent they do so.
That means the various apps associated with these companies might implement these new interactions at varying levels and on different timelines. Furthermore, there could be differences in how these interactions function from one US jurisdiction to the next because of disparate regulations.
Operators may choose to deploy these interactions in different ways within those regulatory structures as well.
What to expect from Optimove clients
For those Optimove clients that deploy these functions, the goal is to make marketing more effective. Gamification and personalization are two key components of that streamlining.
For example, an online casino operator could use these tools to promote a new game by offering special game-related tokens or other bonuses. The casino might require players to play the game a certain number of times to earn the token.
As far as personalization goes, the effect of these partnerships might look like game recommendations based on past play or alerting players that there is a current promotion that they can utilize on their favorite games. With a new level of gamification and personalization in the online gambling space comes concerns about gambling safely, though.
Gaming companies need to balance interactions with education
The reason that gamification and personalization work as marketing tools is because they scratch the human itches of accomplishment and collection. Real-money online casino operators must take care in these regards, however, because of the potential for players to develop gambling-related behavioral pathologies and incur significant harm.
In addition, players that experience gambling-related harms are bad for online casino operators’ businesses. A person who plays regularly and enjoys their play because they are able to do it safely is worth more over time for such companies.
To counter such issues, gaming companies must increase their spend on safer gambling practices education as they improve their marketing techniques. Players must be informed of the risks of following through on the prompts they will receive.
To preserve a healthy regulated online casino industry in the US, effective marketing and robust consumer education are both necessary on equal levels. Tools like those which Optimove provides can aid operators in both endeavors.
