The importance of cross promotion in gambling: how to attract users with various content

How to earn more and spend less? It’s the number one dilemma in every business. iGaming operators know that retaining players is much cheaper than acquiring new ones — money, time, and effort spent to get a new user to register can pay off big if you find a way to keep players’ attention for longer, according to Slotegrator. 

Players have habits. 19% of sports bettors place bets several times a week, while another 13% do so once a week, and an average online casino player spends up to 5 hours a week on their favorite games. But betting regularly doesn’t mean they never get bored. On the contrary; fighting player disengagement is a critical challenge for online casinos and sportsbooks. But how?

Retention rates can grow or decrease depending on several factors, including the quality of the games and the platform, the user experience on the website, player support, game choice, and bonuses and promo campaigns. One of the most effective and low-cost marketing tools to boost retention rate is cross-promotion.

"Cross-promotion in the gambling industry is a great way to attract a diverse range of users by using different content formats. Engaging users through tailored offers, events, and media across various platforms can help boost visibility, bring in more traffic, and keep users coming back. When promotions are aligned with user preferences, operators can create personalized experiences that reach a wider audience, ultimately increasing engagement and loyalty," comments Barb Tasci, Co-Founder & CBO at Revpanda Group.

Cross-promotion is the strategy of advertising a product to consumers of a different — but somehow related — product. For example, a platform might offer free spins to a football bettor to invite him to play slots. This way, when players want to try something new, they stay on a platform or switch to another of the same brand. Players rarely churn because they stop gambling. Instead, they normally look for something different and new — so why not give it to them within the same brand?

While gambling advertising is often subject to strict regulation, cross-marketing is almost never restricted, since it doesn’t break responsible gaming rules and is directed at already registered users. Another benefit is the opportunity to expand and diversify your audience by bringing sports bettors to your casino and vice versa.

“When it comes to cross-promotion for players, our observations show that it increases player loyalty towards the company. If a product is willing to share its player base, it clearly understands its positioning and value. It also recognizes that even if a small percentage of players leave, the impact will be minimal. Additionally, cross-promotion is great from a business perspective because it allows you to gain valuable insights and learn from others’ experiences at no cost,” says William Sarto, PR & Marketing Specialist at CasinoRIX.

Cross-promotion is more efficient if it’s targeted. Online casino operators optimize their marketing efforts by analyzing their players' habits and demographics. The strategy works best if the audiences have common parameters, including:

• Age
• Gender
• Average bet
• Bet frequency
• Device 
• Favorite games

“It’s always about the data. Players tell us everything themselves — read the platform statistics and find out what they like, when they play, and how much they are willing to bet. That’s why we focus on data-driven decisions and pay so much attention to the Business Intelligence module of our turnkey platform. It gives operators access to all key metrics, generates reports, and allows us to compare them with competitors,” says Svetlana Kirichenko, the Head of Marketing at Slotegrator.

Slotegrator is a B2B provider of online casino platform software and associated solutions for gambling businesses. One of its top solutions is APIgrator, a game integration protocol that enables single-session integration of over 17,000 various games. Having such a deep and varied catalog not only gives players a wide choice of gaming content, it gives operators countless cross-promotion opportunities. 

To learn more about online casino and sportsbook marketing, read the Academy section on Slotegrator’s website and contact the team for a free consultation about cross-marketing opportunities specifically for your project.