Gamification tools are used by many businesses to improve customer engagement and motivation and, thus, drive sales. The iGaming industry is not an exception. Online casino brands customize the player experience on their website to improve customer retention and boost revenue. While some casino or slot brands develop these promotional tools themselves, others use gamification platforms. This GBC Time article examines a real case of launching the gamification system, which delivers tailored solutions to casino brands. Keep reading to know how to improve a casino’s monthly NGR by 19% using gamification tools.
Alexis Wicen, CEO and Founder of Unibo, has shared his first-hand experience of launching a gamification platform in 1.5 years. The text below is in Alexis’ own words.
Gamification system that creates and brings gamified promo tools for online casino
I think, the most interesting case in my career so far is our efforts with the Unibo Gamification System, which is aimed to build and bring gamified promotional tools to online casinos.
The unique selling point of the project: promotional tools that are not provider-specific
The team behind Unibo has a long history of working with casino management and CRM of casino players. We had seen how the platforms we had worked with had fallen behind in terms of promotional tools, and that game providers themselves started creating promotional tools. Some providers, such as Netent, were early to offer the possibility to set up and run tournaments, whilst others, such as Yggdrasil, Play’n Go, Pragmatic Play, Red Tiger Gaming, and others, really brought new ideas to the table in the form of mystery jackpots, must-drop jackpots, prize drops, achievements, and much more. The tools were great and worked very well when it comes to increasing player engagement. The main difficulty, however, was that the promotional tools were provider-specific, and every provider put their visual touch on the promotions. If you wanted to run an Easter,
Halloween, or Christmas campaign, you could never mix and match any games from different providers. Your choice of campaign type was limited by the games you could offer your players. By starting Unibo, we wanted to remove these kinds of limitations and give back the power and creativity to the casino and CRM teams.
Main goal: to bring campaign tools that work for any game and any provider
We started the development of the Unibo Gamification system in early 2019, with the aim to bring to online gaming a suite of campaign tools that would work for any game, on any provider, for any segment of players, and could give out “any” prize that the gaming platform can make available.
Main objective: to engage the players and bring ROI to the clients
The main goal of any promotional tool is to engage the players and bring ROI to our clients. After working with various provider’s tools in the past, we knew the effect missions, tournaments, jackpots, and prize drops could have on the retention and activity of the players in our casino.
Promo tools helped increase player’s gameplay, longevity, and change deposit patterns
We had seen players increasing their gameplay, longevity, as well as changes in deposit patterns. We wanted to engage players to want them to stay with the brand (customer lifetime), get them to not want to play anywhere else (number of deposits each month) as well as increase the time spent playing with every deposit.
Secondary objective: cut time spent on the campaign and reduce the number of human errors
Secondary objectives included shortening the time to set up campaigns, and minimizing human errors whilst also removing the need to learn a vast array of different provider back offices. With Unibo, everything is handled in one, unified back office.
The project was born out of the limitations of the online casino industry
The management team of four behind Unibo has over 50 years of experience in iGaming, combined, and most of those were spent managing or running online casinos. The vision for our product was born out of our own frustration and limitations in our day-to-day work. We had seen firsthand what was possible and where the limitations were. We knew the problems with lack of resources and too many things to focus on for platforms.
Following our research, we decided to try to relieve as much of the development work from the clients as possible. Unlike many of our competitors, we adapt the Unibo system to fit and work with our clients, rather than the other way around. There will, of course, always be some work on the client’s side, but we aim to keep it to as little as possible.
The team used their own online casinos to test the project
We knew that getting the first customer for our product would be hard, so we decided to become our own first customer, to showcase the functionality to future prospects. Launching our own casinos, while, at the same time, developing our own gamification system to use in those casinos proved to be a quite substantial undertaking, and the team was stretched very thin at times.
Levers framework was useful for identifying the target audience
When determining the target audience, we have found great use of the Levers framework – a framework for identifying and taking action on key areas in your business developed by Amos Schwartzfarb and Trevor Boehm. I would really recommend this book, “Levers: The Framework for Building Repeatability into Your Business Paperback”, to everyone who is looking to do just that – bring repeatability and predictability to your business.
The team included C-level executives, CRM specialists, casino managers, and even bonus abusers
The management team behind the system is probably what I am most impressed with. The team has over 50 years of experience in iGaming (combined) in various positions throughout the industry. We covered:
- C-level experience;
- CRM experience;
- Casino management.
Promo abusers provided invaluable help with tools development
We even had a few promo/bonus abusers in the team. As we all know, when there is a promotion, there will be abusers. Having a few bonus abusers on board really helped when designing the tools and functionality in the Unibo system.
The project required a high six-figure investment for the initial phase
I will not go into too much in detail on this one, but we took in a significant investment to develop this system over the last 3 years and we feel that it has truly paid off. The initial development phase required a high six-figure investment, but it is an active product so development never ends.
The gamification system is now live in 20+ casinos with 10+ in development
We are now live with Unibo Gamification in over 20 casinos, with 10+ more in the pipeline. We’re expecting to be live with more than 40 casinos by the end of the year, and 2023 is looking like it will be a very good year.
The system helped increase casino turnover per deposit by 30%, the number of monthly deposits by 25%, NGR by 19%
We have done several case studies of our system and how our various clients use it. All of the case studies point to an increase in key metrics, such as:
- customer lifetime;
- turnover;
- number of deposits;
- net gaming revenue.
In our latest case study, we looked at the difference between players who didn’t win a prize and players who did in a Unibo-powered campaign. The results were significant and showed a likelihood to increase their turnover per deposit amount by 30%, increase the number of deposits in a calendar month by 25%, as well as a 19% higher average net gaming revenue.
Creating a tailored player experience is a key to getting the most from the gamification system
During the period, the brand in question ran daily missions, combined with regular tournaments and a few prize drop campaigns. On average, about 50% of the players in any given month won one or more prizes from the Unibo promotions. Creating a tailored experience with different sorts of gamification to attract different types of players, is key to getting the most out of the Unibo Gamification System. Some players love the individual challenge of Missions and Chases, whilst other players enjoy the competitive thrill and the chance to beat their fellow gamblers for big prizes. Jackpots and prize drops add that extra “anything can happen” chance on every spin. To put it simply, make it so there’s something for everyone.
It took 1.5 years to go live with the first brand
It took us one and a half years from the start of development to when we had gone live with the first brand (Scatters). After that, it didn’t take long before more casinos started showing interest in our product, and by the end of 2020, we had six brands using our product to create better gaming experiences. The satisfaction of our customers and our continued growth is a testament to the engagement and return on investment our tool can bring.
Working closely with the customer helped me get a new perspective
In our case, as the first client was the first brand of our sister company, we worked very closely with the “customer”. Working with the product from the perspective of a customer has helped our team tremendously in identifying improvement areas, but also to give guidance and training to our other customers. It is much easier to teach people the do’s and don’t’s if you have actually done it.
Real-world experience helps in further communication with a client
Our customers appreciate the insights our account management team can provide them with. These insights are based on significant real-world experience. This open dialogue also allows our clients a direct route for feedback and we take such feedback very seriously and work to incorporate suggestions into the product. Our customers have been great in that sense, providing feedback and ideas for improvements to the system.
Having a clear vision of the end product helped the launch
We had a clear vision of what the product should be and how it should work. Ironing out that vision made it bigger than expected, and thus longer. We could have worked better early on to define the limitations of each of the functionalities in the system.
The flexibility of the promotional system often led to delays
We often chose the more flexible route for the system, so that the user could be able to do more things. Building a flexible promotional system, where the user can build the promotion exactly the way they want, is very good when you’re finished, but it has also led to additional work and delays along the way.
The biggest challenge was delivering the project on time
As most with experience in IT-development projects know, the biggest challenge is delivering on time and our project is no different. If I were to do the project again, I think I would have secured more financing earlier on, to be able to start with more developers and deliver the system and its further development quicker. Getting an experienced team with a clear vision and vast experience.
Expert’s advice for those working in iGaming
Use online gambling products to understand your customer
The best advice I can give to anyone who works in iGaming is to use the products. If you never
gamble, you will never truly understand why players like it so much. So, if you do not gamble at the moment, that is definitely the first thing to start doing. Of course, don’t go ahead and lose your savings, but spending €20 per month just trying out the product is something I recommend to everyone. Companies that can offer a small monthly gambling budget for their employees are even better.
Examine the behavior of your players
The second piece of advice I would give is to study your players. The best way to understand something is to study someone who knows what they are doing. Study how players played in your promotions, what the result was, and if/how some players seem to be able to win more than others.
Read more: Best iGaming Aggregators
