Imogen Goodman discusses why the personalisation of sports betting, gaming and gambling could be the future.
Personalisation, of all the buzzwords causing a stir within the gambling industry is one that’s both prevalent and difficult to define.
It has become a term that is used to describe a wide range of new technologies and trends, from targeted advertising and personalised betting, which could solve industry problems, such as improving the customer’s experience, and reducing the churn.
For experts, who worked on artificial intelligence (AI), and personalisation long before current hypes began to emerge, personalisation in betting and gaming is a natural progression.
Chris Reynolds is the CEO and founder of Epoxy. Epoxy provides AI and Machine Learning (ML) driven personalisation solutions for the betting and gaming industry.
The application of technology has been in use for many years, be it TV, music or ecommerce. These technologies allow us to gain greater insight into the user’s behaviour, streamline processes and calculate key metrics such as customer lifetime value.
Betting Heroes research in 2023 showed that customers found that non-personalised apps were difficult to use. In fact, 75% of them found it hard to navigate.
Adoption Issues
The industry’s adoption of AI-driven personalized services has been slow. Operators are still struggling with the organisational and technical hurdles that come along with it.
Jason Angelides, Epoxy’s co-founder says that the issue is one of organisational structure, technical knowledge and prioritisation. The industry has a keen understanding of its value proposition but implementing personalisation on a large scale can be incredibly difficult. There are other priorities to consider.
Angelides argues that the adoption of AI may require a rethinking certain deeply entrenched systems and ideas, like siloing in sportsbooks and casino. He says that “a large number of organizations are fragmented, both technically and operationally.”
Many operators are trying to determine where AI and Personalisation is most useful and will add the greatest value for both them and their customers. This starts in the first phase of the customer’s journey, and has a huge impact on everything from harm reduction to retention.
“See what sticks” Mentality
Alex Kornilov is the founder and CEO at advertising solutions provider Betegy. He believes AI will bring about a change in the marketing mentality of “seeing what sticks”.
Kornilov, who started his career in sports data visualisation, soon realized that sports betting had an even greater need to find new methods of communicating complex data, such as stats, schedules, and odds.
He discovered, after transitioning to the betting sector, that the consumers responded better to dynamic, personalized advertising rather than static, one-size fits all advertising. He explains that “not just a little better, but much better” is what he means.
This will be much more effective than a banner saying ‘Bet Now’.
Betegy uses data to customize advertisements for each player, based on their sports preferences and teams that they support. The solution then tracks the effectiveness of these ads and how much the player is worth over time.
Artificial Intelligence is the Answer
Kornilov believes that AI can only be the solution for this type of segmentation. This is especially true in the case of sports betting where the odds are affected by everything, from the sport, to the schedule of the game, and even the odds before and during the games.
He adds, “The product depth is significant. It requires a large number of data points be added to the system to ensure that the ads you send to your audience are relevant and scaleable.”
AI will allow brands to have a much more detailed view of their marketing. It’s likely that in the future the joke “Half of the advertising money I spend is wasted, but I can’t tell which half is” will lose relevance.
Kornilov says that the current acquisition strategy for every brand in America is to spend money on the products and see what sticks. This creates a great deal of uncertainty and makes it impossible to know what really works.
This is why, for instance, there was a problem on the acquisitions side last year. How long can you sustain aggressive growth if we buy a player for 300 dollars and his lifetime value is 10?
Create a gaming customer persona
Every operator is aware that the key to increasing revenues does not end at acquisition. Retaining customers and increasing lifetime value are also important.
Chris Reynolds, Epoxy’s CEO, says that AI-driven individualisation is best used in this area.
Epoxy’s insights tool can segment customers according to as many variables that the operator desires: bet preferences and tolerances, risk, ability to be a VIP or churning, favorite teams, players, favourite wagers, favourite parlays, etc.
Reynolds explains that this data can be used to enhance the customer experience, improve retention, decrease churn, and boost overall engagement.
The tyranny and the choice
Epoxy’s “Betflix”, a personalised website and app that is tailored to customer betting and gaming preference, similar to many popular streaming and ecommerce websites.
This type of interface has been shown to increase an app’s stickiness, and decrease churn. In a Betting Hero survey conducted recently, 21% New York betting users cited the “easiness of placing bets they like” as their primary reason for using their favorite app.
The personalisation of a product can also help counter a psychological phenomenon known as “choice overload”, which is the overwhelming feeling people experience when presented with too many choices.
A choice overload in ecommerce could lead people to leave an online shop without purchasing anything, while a betting player may feel overwhelmed by the number of options and decide not to place a wager.
Theoretically, by removing sports from the list that customers don’t care about and making personalised suggestions for them, they can streamline their workflow and be directed to those wagers which are most likely to win. A streamlined, personalized experience means removing the choice tyranny.
Future prediction
Experts in the gaming industry believe that, although generative AI like ChatGPT has gained the majority of attention in the media in recent months but predictive analytics or predictive AI has much more potential.
It is possible to predict the future behavior of users based on their preferences and previous behaviour. This includes the most efficient marketing, their gambling habits, and their likelihood to churn.
Betegy’s Kornilov says that this type of advanced analytics is used to monitor the performance and health of young athletes. Sports coaches and teams are able to predict a player’s likelihood of injury or decline using key biomarkers gathered from routine testing.
AI is still in its early stages of development.
Kornilov says that this type of technology could also be very effective in the gaming industry. However, he believes it is still “very early days” and the Wild West. Certain uses of predictive analysis can be highly beneficial for operators.
The CEO of Betegy says that behavioural models help CRM teams identify players who are likely to leave several weeks in advance, giving them time to nurture the relationship and bring it back to life.
He explains, “It is difficult for a brain to divide all of this up.” “You cannot create micro segments. To ensure that everything runs as smoothly as possible, you’ll need certain tools along with big data analytics and AI.
Both Epoxy founders believe predictive analytics should be a major part of CRM for the gaming industry. This will give operators a better understanding of a players’ individual characteristics and behaviour patterns over time.
Reynolds says that this allows operators to market more efficiently to their users.
AI to combat harm
Predictive models are not only useful for marketing or increasing customer retention. They can also be used to develop innovative, personalised solutions that reduce gambling-related harm.
The supplier of safer gaming software GameScanner is a good example of how AI can be used. It uses cutting-edge neurology and AI to detect players who are at high risk of becoming problem gamblers.
Mindway’s algorithms were trained by combining the expertise of many psychologists, psychiatrists, and neuroscientists with brain scans. This created a tool which can be used as an early warning system.
According to Gaming Laboratories International, a testing and certification firm, 99% of the players that are identified manually as potentially problem gamblers will also be classified by GameScanner either as at-risk gamblers or as potential gamblers. At least 88.5% have been classified as problem gamblers.
The tool not only gives operators an overview of the pool of clients, it allows for much more personalized interventions. For example, young players may be better reached via push notifications or texts, whereas others might respond to emails.
Rasmus Kjaergaard, Mindway CEO says: “We’ve come a very long way when it comes detection and monitoring gambling behavior. The next step is to look at sophisticated tech support for the intervention.”
In other words, our solutions empower operators to take a much more proactive approach to the problem and at-risk gambling behavior that they detect.
Tip the Scales
The gambling industry seems to be only just beginning this journey, even though most people are aware of the importance AI and personalisation will have in the future.
Justin Le Brocque is the manager of Yolo Group’s operations. He says, “I would not say that the balance has tipped quite yet.” Personalisation has become a necessity, not merely a nice-to-have. We can still deliver these manually and that’s often the best method to get the results you want.
Le Brocque admits, however, that “things move extremely fast” and Yolo has already implemented new AI-driven technologies across its business to stay ahead of the competition.
He says, “For the moment, we are happy with our balance, but expect it to change rapidly.”
Experts in the industry believe that AI-driven personalized live betting is one of the future frontiers. It will create enhanced and integrated multimedia experiences.
Genius Sports’ AI vision
BetVision is the latest product to tap into this potential. It’s a solution by sports data experts Genius Sports, which combines live streaming with in-game wagering and personalisation, for an integrated experience.
Tom Holland, Genius Sports’ product director for BetVision describes the technology as “a synthesis of all we do today”.
He says that when you start getting events identified in real-time by computers, you will be able to link them back to the users and begin to build a personal experience. This is how you separate yourself and give the customer a truly unique and memorable experience.
Holland says that by gathering and analyzing live data during fast-paced sporting events, operators can create engaging narratives to appeal to the emotions of fans and increase engagement.
He explains that “all the markets are basically stories I want to participate in.” What we are trying to achieve is tie everything together, and create more detailed stories that focus on your narrative.
A convergence around an unified experience
AI is expected to be able to deliver this kind of integrated, personalised service in the near future.
Epoxy’s Angelides says that in three to five years it will be hard to deny the convergence of major tech companies around a unified user experience, including gamification and real money.
These silos will break down, and things that logically converged are going converge. This is especially true when it comes media and sports gambling.
Angelides believes that in four years people will be hard-pressed to find any betting operators who don’t use AI to customize their products.
Kornilov believes that this is the exact reason operators should consider AI as an important strategic decision made at the top level.
He says that if you are competitive you can’t afford to ignore the latest technology to solve problems. The companies that can implement it and do so quickly and inexpensively will be the ones to win.
