Engagement tools have been around for a long time in the casino space with many suppliers launching their own suite of tools and new innovative features frequently being introduced.
We are now seeing similar products being developed for sportsbooks. In this roundtable, an Altenar spokesperson speaks to suppliers in the space about how these tools take the sports betting experience to a new level and help increase engagement and retention levels in this traditional vertical.
1. Sports betting differs hugely as a vertical to casino with players betting on upcoming or live sports events which might only take a few seconds to place. How can engagement tools and gamification elements be implemented in practice to further enhance this experience?
These engagement methods can help to enhance gamer experiences within the sports betting industry, and as we see a greater adoption of Esports and Fantasy leagues, certain types of engagement tools like amazing content, undeniable odds and gamer incentives will continue to bring players back to our operators' sites and is something we employ at Altenar.
In terms of gamification, this naturally lends itself to Casino for instance, though it could have amazing features for betting in the fantasy leagues, or as a modified and gamified version of bet building … but as for now, traditional and next generation gamers come for the content and ease of use, sports betting grows with tradition at its core, even if gamers are betting on fantastical creatures instead of football players.
2. What needs to be considered when developing engagement tools for the sports segment as the customers differ from casinos?
This will be specific to a country and its players, some countries still prefer more traditional aspects of betting, whereas, other countries enjoy the thrill of fantasy play, for this reason engagement tools must be nuanced to these differing markets.
We have to add the aspect of stability meets flexibility here, which has worked well, displaying only the content the players want to see, there’s no need in having league of legends as an offering on the site if a player won’t engage.
It comes down, again, to sports content for engagement and the desire to feel like their custom is repaid … via better bet builders, odds, and betting options.
3. What can we expect from this area in the near future? Will gamification tools become the norm in sports betting and will things as simple as tournaments be a game changer in this space?
I think we will see the essence of gamification appear in increments and stages, because there’s something straight-shooting about sports betting that traditional and next generation gamers often love. It’s not gimmicky so to speak, we let our content speak for itself, as is the historical nature of sports betting and this works tremendously well in engaging players.
It could be a game changer, but it will take some time to become player-demanded.
