There are few industries as competitive as iGaming. Setting yourself apart from the competition is essential for survival, but it’s no cake walk. Here, Slotegrator outlines 8 steps to take if you want your platform to stand out in 2025.
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Offer hyper-personalized player experiences
When it comes to the player experience, the bar has been set very, very high.
Players now expect a certain baseline of treatment at a gambling platform. They don’t want to be treated as if they were just another member of a herd; instead, they need to be treated as individuals. The strategies and technologies you need to make that happen are completely available, and if you don’t use them, players will ditch you for someone who does.
When you open any streaming service, the first thing you see is a list of shows you might like, based on what you’ve enjoyed in the past. Using AI, iGaming platforms can (and should) do exactly the same thing. When players come to your platform, the first thing they should see is games they’ve played before next to games they might like to try.
But the experience can’t stop there. Personalization is the key to retention. By using AI tools, you can give the right bonus at the right time — after a losing streak, after a long period of inactivity, etc. — as well as offering free spins (or whatever else might appeal to players) when they’re most likely to use them.
While real-time marketing will start with the right segmentation, based on age, gender, and location, going into personal details like game preferences, playing habits, and favorite brands will increase conversion and lifetime value.
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Localize, localize, localize
Localization is more than just translation.
Every piece of content on your site should be in the local language, taking cultural considerations into account — especially regional variations of the same language. There are significant differences between the Spanish spoken in Spain and in Colombia, and in the Arabic spoken in Morocco and the UAE.
If you’re running multiple branches facing different markets, then you have to take local tastes into account. The interface that a European player will expect — smooth and minimalistic, with just enough detail for brand differentiation — will be different from those popular in Japan, which will feature all the bells and whistles of a pachinko parlor.
Aside from moments of desperation — such as the middle of a pandemic — most players won’t be tempted by obscure sports in faraway countries.
Instead, they’ll want to see local options. The content offering should reflect the tastes of the target market — not just football, but which football leagues? The English premier league is popular the world over, but bettors in Latin America and Africa, for example, have their own local leagues, cups, and tournaments that they’d love to bet on — so let them.
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Make it social and embrace gamification
Socializing online has become a normal part of life, especially for younger players. By offering them a place to connect with each other, you can build a community while you’re building your brand.
Chat options, especially those featured in live dealer games, offer a great avenue for players to communicate with each other. Younger players have come to expect it, and view gambling as less of an experience for its own sake and more of something to do with their friends. And speaking of things to do with your friends, tournaments offer a chance for friendly competition, and leaderboards bestow bragging rights upon the high performers, creating the perfect balance of socialization and gamification.
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Lightweight, user-friendly UX
Not all markets have the same bandwidth
Keeping your app lightweight means it’ll be easier for players to use and ensures there will be no lag time and no dropped sessions. In fact, in some markets, lightweight apps will be the only ones that work.
Some brands offer a lite version of their app that is specifically engineered to run smoothly on older devices using 3G or even 2G networks. This is especially useful when targeting developing markets like those in Africa and Asia.
On top of keeping it lightweight, it’s essential that every step of the user experience is comfortable and flows from one stage to the next, with the player’s desire never more than a few clicks away.
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Everything’s better live
Modern streaming technology has reached such a high level of quality that there’s almost no difference at all between going to a casino and connecting to one from your kitchen.
The live dealer revolution picked up steam during the pandemic and kept going, becoming an extremely popular vertical in global markets. With constant availability and multi-camera setups, live dealer games create a fully immersive virtual experience that players can enjoy 24/7. Additionally, there’s the social dimension, where players can chat with the dealer and with each other.
And don’t forget sports betting. In-play betting is absolutely massive, with fans of every sport eager to wager on who will score the next goal, get the next assist, or draw the next penalty. In-play betting is a great way to keep engagement going throughout the entire event.
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Integrate the latest tech
Crypto is no bubble.
The crypto and iGaming audiences have a huge overlap, and focussing on accepting crypto payments can even be a great way to differentiate your brand. For many players, payments in currencies like bitcoin and ethereum might even be one of their only options.
And the technology that crypto is built on, blockchain, offers even more possibilities to appeal to players.
Provably fair games, such as those from BGaming which use smart contracts to independently verify the results of every game round, have created a new level of transparency that has tremendous appeal for tech-savvy audiences. Zeroing in on this kind of tech creates a great marketing opportunity — you can clearly signal to players that your priorities are in technology and transparency.
While the NFT art market didn’t have the same staying power as cryptocurrencies, they’ve become great retention tools for brands looking to hang on to tech-centric players. NFT-based rewards systems, like the airplane avatar in Avaitrix’s highly popular crash game, give players a reason to keep coming back to your platform.
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Make sure payments are fast and frictionless
Payouts should be instant, or as close to it as possible. Players have zero interest in waiting around for their money to come out.
To get them on your platform in the first place, you should offer a variety of the most popular payment methods in your target market. The classic methods, bank transfers, debit cards, and credit cards, are a no-brainer, but that doesn’t mean you can stop thinking there. Every market has its favorite local payment methods. In Kenya, for example, (as well as in many other African markets) players will expect to make payments through their mobile money carrier, most often through the M-Pesa service.
And, of course, crypto is a great way to go.
Doing the research on your target market to determine the payment methods your players will expect is a great way to show players you care about their interests.
Slotegrator’s Moneygrator is the best way to integrate the payment systems you need. Moneygrator offers over 150 payment options in over 150 currencies and 100 cryptocurrencies from over 30 providers, meaning no matter what market you’re facing, you’ll have the payment service your players expect.
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Employ the latest marketing techniques
To draw a modern audience, you need modern marketing.
The affiliate space has long been the keystone of iGaming marketing strategies, but recent years have seen the rise of influencers, in particular streamers on platforms like Twitch. Slot streamers can develop a huge audience, and collaborating with them can bring in a specific niche of players, so if you can find the right streamer for your branding, it’s a marketing match made in heaven.
Some iGaming brands are also reaching out to audiences and differentiating themselves with micro-content, or short videos, sometimes meme-based, spread on video platforms like TikTok and Twitter. These are a great opportunity to showcase your brand’s identity, using your unique voice and personality — the perfect way to stand out from the crowd.
“In an industry as competitive as iGaming, companies have to do everything they can to stand out from the competition,” says Slotegrator Managing Director Yana Khaidukova.
“With the right mix of personalization, gamification, social aspects, and targeted marketing, brands can compete, but they’ve got to make sure they’re doing it the right way.”
Slotegrator offers free business consultations for entrepreneurs looking to start an iGaming business and established businesses looking to expand operations.