Personalization in the iGaming Journey: From Safer Gambling to Happier Customers

Personalization and AI have been deployed successfully to not only ensure engagement, but also strengthen responsible gambling, and help players and businesses operate in a safer and more sustainable way. Leigh addresses this exciting technology in the face of changing consumer habits, business needs, and not least – the big regulatory picture.

Q: Future Anthem has recently teamed up with EveryMatrix to help them personalize the customer journey in iGaming. What are the broader implications of this partnership for your company and your product?  

Platforms and aggregators have an incredibly important role to play in the online gambling market. They are imperative in helping their operators grow and offer great player experiences.  

The opportunity to partner with EveryMatrix to distribute our personalized AI product is hugely beneficial to their customers, they are able to benefit from the latest in artificial intelligence and personalization. It’s a really interesting partnership for all parties that opens up a world of opportunities. 

Q: Have we really arrived at a time when we can talk about a personalized player journey in iGaming? Is the technology truly able to provide players with the type of content that they want as opposed to something more generic in a sense? 

Simply put, yes. The flexibility of technology at this point in time is truly incredible. The investment companies such as Microsoft are putting into the cloud (and other tools) that allow us to offer one-to-one player journeys in real time based on algorithms that analyze player behaviors and patterns.  

The time for real-time is right now, this is backed by the numbers. Our purpose-built platform has processed more than 1 billion transactions and 45,000 years’ worth of player activity which is unrivalled. 

Q: Do you think personalization is now becoming a focus of casino operations or are casinos only now finding their bearings when it comes to personalization?  

Rarely have we come across an operator that doesn’t have personalization in their top five strategic priorities. Personalization is quite difficult to achieve given the myriad of systems they already have within their business. Many businesses are still quite early on their journey in this area, but they all recognize the importance of it and are keen to push forward. 

Q: Personalization is tied to improved retention and conversion, but are there other gains for the companies that use it? 

Absolutely! We see improved retention rates from 29% from day one to day two, but there are other really great metrics out there such as spins per player, we see 4x more spins per player for those that receive personalized recommendations.  

Elsewhere we have recorded 10% improvements in net gaming revenue for players that are having a poor experience, our AI is able to intervene and provide them with a better session overall.  

We are also seeing a move towards personalized safer play that is far from the broad communications we’ve seen before. Personalization adjusts to a player’s risk score and can help them have a much safer gaming session, which is what we all want to see. 

Q: Touching on how regulation is changing around the world, do you reckon that, at a time when customers are encouraged to spend reasonably and tight spending limits are being set in, the introduction of personalization would allow players to get a greater satisfaction out of their experience rather than worry about “restrictions?” 

AI and personalization could be used in progressive regulatory environments – the technology is able to react in real time to player behaviors, allowing for a more bespoke approach to player well-being and safety.  For example, it’s absolutely possible to set things such as dynamic stake limits if they are introduced based on a player’s betting history, as opposed to broader caps and limits on spending.

Similarly for RG checks – rather than blunt messages, make them personal to the player at the moment they’re playing, not afterwards.  There’s no reason why the technology we have right now can’t be used to build a regulatory framework that is based on a person’s individual preferences. 

Q: How far can personalization in iGaming go? Is it a matter of just choosing the right games for the right audience or something else as well?  

Personalization is so much more than just choosing the right games, it’s about understanding where the player is in their life cycle, whether they are game-diverse or game loyal and ultimately how they should be communicated based on these factors. Similarly, personalization can help operators understand when players might leave their ecosystem, and what the reasons for that departure are.  

It’s very important that operators utilize the latest technologies to deliver the best experiences they possibly can in order to retain and grow market share because if they’re not using them their competitors most certainly will be. Real-time personalization is now!