The worldwide iGaming market is rising quickly, with projections indicating it is going to surpass $153 billion in international market worth by 2030. This development is being boosted by elements just like the accessibility of cell gaming, which made up 60% of the trade’s complete income in 2023, and an increasing person base, which forecasts predict will attain 290.5 million by 2029.
Chief Analyst at AppRefinery, Kalle Heikkinen, and Christie Crable, Director of World Gross sales at AppRefinery, just lately hosted a webinar exploring totally different strategies of driving person engagement in iGaming apps. The pair mentioned what motivates customers to obtain an app, promotional methods entrepreneurs can use to spice up person acquisition, and engagement options to construct a loyal and energetic person base.
On this weblog submit, we unpack the most important takeaways from Crable and Heikkinen’s webinar, Unlock the Secret to Profitable Massive: Driving Person Engagement in iGaming.
Understanding Viewers Motivations
Earlier than we will study the precise ways iGaming apps can make the most of to drive person engagement, it’s necessary to know what attracts audiences to apps within the first place.
Briefly, there’s no single reply: most individuals are pushed by varied desires and wishes that have an effect on whether or not they are going to select to obtain an app. In iGaming apps, for instance, some customers may be motivated by the leisure worth and pleasure generated by an app. Others may be significantly drawn to social options, which permit them to foster a way of neighborhood. In distinction, some may prioritize private security and safety in the event that they’re putting bets on-line.
However that doesn’t imply there isn’t a option to perceive viewers motivations. Enter AppRefinery’s Person Motivational Framework, which has been developed to interrupt down the primary elements that inspire customers to obtain and preserve coming again to an app. This framework is split into seven most important sections, every representing the first motivational drivers that customers expertise on the cell market. These are social, administration, safety, exploration, expression, escapism, and mastery.
When you perceive these motivations, you should use that information to optimize app options, person journeys, and engagement methods, which is vital for driving retention and monetization.
The Competitor Archetype
To assist customers perceive the Person Motivational Framework, AppRefinery additionally applies these motivational drivers to a number of archetypes, which symbolize the primary character teams within the cell market.
Certainly one of these archetypes is the Competitor. Customers who fall underneath this Archetype are pushed by their need to win, enhance, and showcase their abilities—whether or not that’s in opposition to different customers, the chances, and even their very own previous efficiency. It’s arguably the most important person archetype in iGaming, as most gamers have a tendency to interact with iGaming apps for the joys of successful.
Nevertheless, customers who fall underneath the Competitor archetype additionally rating extremely in different areas of the Person Motivational Framework, particularly social standing and competitors, attaining milestones, and effectivity enchancment. In different phrases, these customers reply effectively to options that acknowledge their accomplishments or enable them to inform others about them—similar to leaderboards, achievements, and the flexibility to share wins in social feeds.
Case Research: DraftKings
Making use of these person archetypes to an app could make a world of distinction in attracting and retaining goal audiences. DraftKings, one of many key gamers within the iGaming house, provides us an ideal instance by putting a powerful emphasis on aggressive and social options.
DraftKings app customers aren’t simply putting bets however actively competing in opposition to, enhancing on, and fascinating with others. Its social feed, BetFeed, encourages social interplay, which performs into the necessity for social standing, and the app’s aggressive nature satiates each the need for competitors and to realize milestones.
iGaming App Promotional Methods
iGaming apps rely closely on promotional methods to draw new customers. New participant and first-time deposit gives—the place new customers get a bonus to present them a head begin on the app—play an enormous function in convincing customers to enroll and have interaction with iGaming apps.
There are a number of approaches to those gives, with the perfect promotions designed to scale back friction and create quick worth for the person. Bonus bets, for instance, are a extremely efficient kind of first-time deposit supply. These give customers extra cash in bonus bets in the event that they make an preliminary wager themselves. This extends playtime for a person, encourages risk-free exploration, and helps customers instantly have interaction with the app.
“It’s very efficient, I might argue, for brand spanking new customers who could also be hesitant to position giant bets instantly,” Kalle defined. “Giving them this buffer can improve the possibilities that they are going to discover totally different betting choices and begin growing betting habits and in the end proceed participating past this preliminary deposit that they’ve made.”
Wager Security Nets are one other extremely efficient first-time deposit technique—these goal customers who might really feel not sure or nervous about making their preliminary bets. ESPN, for instance, leverages this technique with its first wager reset supply. This supply implies that if a person loses their first wager, they get their stake again in bonus wager credit, permitting them to attempt once more.
FanDuel’s Double Incentive Construction
FanDuel has differentiated itself by utilizing a “double incentive” construction which, in contrast to commonplace bonus bets, pairs it with an added reward—three months of NBA league cross. This strategy appeals to 2 person segments: sports activities lovers who worth entry to dwell NBA video games (making a direct hyperlink between betting and sports activities) and savvy bettors who need to get essentially the most worth out of their bets.
BetRivers’ Prop Packs
BetRivers is one other modern instance of attention-grabbing promotional gives with “Prop Packs,” a gamified strategy to the prop betting system that strikes past easy wagers. As a substitute of simply putting a wager and ready for the end result, customers obtain tiered digital playing cards, every that includes a particular participant. If that participant achieves a efficiency goal, the person wins a bonus, with the cardboard tier dictating how good the reward is.
This attracts on widespread cell gaming mechanics like gacha, creating pleasure and inspiring return visits to trace participant efficiency and unlock rewards. It blends probability, performance-based bonuses, and gamification, enhancing person engagement by making every wager an thrilling expertise.
iGaming App Engagement Options
iGaming apps make the most of a wide range of engagement options to domesticate a loyal and energetic person base. These options transcend the core betting or on line casino expertise, strategically incorporating psychological triggers to encourage sustained interplay. Day by day login rewards, for instance, incentivize gamers to return to the app, whereas streak programs reward consecutive play to construct participant habits. These options are all rigorously designed to make iGaming apps really feel rewarding even when gamers aren’t actively putting wagers.
The first goal of engagement options is to create a sample of routine engagement, with the app changing into part of the person’s every day routine. Within the fiercely aggressive iGaming panorama, strong engagement options are very important for participant retention and rising person engagement, as fostering a way of progress, competitors, and social connection will increase total participant worth. Let’s have a look at some real-world examples.
DraftKings’ Wager Feed
DraftKings’ BetFeed function helps social engagement by letting customers see and work together with different bettors’ wagers in actual time. This creates a social media-style information feed the place customers can uncover trending bets, observe high-profile wagers, and use this info to information their betting choices.
“It faucets into the idea of social proof, the place customers usually tend to take part once they see different customers actively engaged with the platform,” Kalle defined. “BetFeed additionally enhances the sense of neighborhood, making the betting expertise extra interactive, moderately than one thing you do by yourself.”
FanDuel’s Day by day Shuffle
One other instance of engagement options in iGaming apps is FanDuel’s Day by day Shuffle. This function makes use of behavior formation and development mechanics to encourage customers to return to the app every day, turning their expertise right into a week-long journey. Gamers choose a random prop wager every weekday and earn larger rewards relying on the variety of profitable cumulative bets.
Kalle added: “That is very efficient, in my view. It creates every day behavior formation and encourages you to examine in usually. You’ve got this development slash streak ingredient, so customers have an incentive and really feel motivated to finish all 5 days as a result of the extra you full, the higher the rewards.
“The shuffle function lets them shuffle their decide in the event that they’re not glad, including unpredictability and retaining the expertise recent. And, positively, this works as a retention driver. It builds a way of dedication and helps to maintain customers returning to the app all through the week. It gamifies engagement and makes betting really feel much less transactional and extra like an interactive problem you need to full.”
For extra info on have interaction customers in iGaming apps, ensure you watch the complete webinar right here or by clicking on the button beneath.
Need to be taught extra about AppRefinery? Click on right here to request a demo.
