The world of iGaming has often been associated with a one-size-fits-all approach, particularly as it relates to software and platform providers. Entangled by stringent regulatory demands and well-established, end-user expectations, B2B providers have historically struggled to push the envelope beyond adding new markets, games, payment options, and languages.
This has led to a general perception of the industry as boring and outdated. After all, it's difficult to innovate with your hands tied behind your back. But as technology and player experience comes to the forefront, good enough is no longer good enough, and platform providers such as Soft2Bet are rewriting the narrative with cutting-edge gamification features, boosting user retention and engagement in the process.
Soft2Bet is a technology-focused iGaming provider that has grown explosively since its inception in 2016, securing licenses in Sweden, Denmark, Ireland, Romania, Malta, Greece, and Italy, and with Germany, Portugal, and Ontario, Canada, also on the cards. Today, the company handles more than 450,000 monthly registered players and manages 2.5 million payment transactions.
Having excelled in the traditional iGaming growth verticals, Soft2Bet sought to take its operations to the next level by integrating gamification to deliver a new and better player experience — and dispel stereotypes of a stagnant industry. The company's approach to gamification is to blend the traditional iGaming experience with other gameplay niches like mobile casual games, consoles, and real-time skill gaming.
A gamification approach any industry could learn from
Soft2Bet's success in gamification rests on three pillars — customising the technology stack to meet specific gamification goals, creating personalised experiences, and spearheading the project with a cross-functional team. An approach that has proven to be a winning strategy.
Customising the technology stack and defining goals
To breathe new life into the iGaming experience, Soft2Bet approaches gamification with a clear and data-driven strategy.
"The first step in customizing our technology stack for gamification is a thorough assessment of our goals," explains Yoel Zuckerberg, Soft2Bet's CPO, emphasising the importance of goal setting. The company collaborates closely with its product and marketing teams to establish measurable objectives, such as enhancing player engagement, boosting loyalty, or driving specific player behaviors.
Through pairing clear objectives with data insights, Soft2Bet gains a deep understanding of player behavior, preferences, and pain points, allowing the company to pinpoint where and how gamification can have the most impact.
“We regularly conduct A/B testing to assess the effectiveness of our gamification strategies. This iterative approach allows us to fine-tune and optimise gamification elements based on real player feedback and behavior.”
This is made possible by the company's technology stack, which is built on a flexible and scalable architecture, enabling rapid integration and iteration of features without disrupting the player experience. Moreover, since this new frontier in iGaming develops by day, flexibility is key for being able to adapt to changing strategies.
Creating personalized and trusted experiences
Another critical component of gamification is personalization — delivering personalised experiences that resonate with players, boosting engagement, as well as retention by ensuring a continuous, reliable, and tailored experience for the individual.
Moreover, it's a fascinating technical challenge that presents ways to integrate the latest technologies, says Soft2Bet.
“Our technology stack includes AI and machine learning capabilities that enable us to deliver personalized gamification elements to individual players.”
Still, applying cutting-edge technologies can be like navigating a minefield, particularly in a highly regulated environment such as iGaming, where compliance is always the top priority and the trust of the players is at stake, too.
Hence a meticulous, measured approach paired with a hyperfocus on security is a must for anyone in the industry. That's why Yoel points out that it:
“integrates robust security measures into our technology stack to protect player data and maintain a fair and secure gaming environment.”
Relying on cross-functional collaboration
Customising a technology stack for gamification involves a holistic approach that combines data-driven insights, flexible infrastructure, personalised experiences, compliance, and iterative refinement.
Respectively, it cannot be a single-department initiative, but something that can only take shape effectively through tight collaboration between a diverse range of experts and stakeholders.
“At Soft2Bet, we bring together cross-functional teams, including product managers, designers, developers, and data scientists, to work collaboratively on gamification initiatives. This multidisciplinary approach ensures that both the technical and user experience aspects are well-considered,” says Yoel.
It's a lesson well worth taking seriously for any company embarking on a gamification project — it's critical to establish processes and channels for cross-functional teams to collaborate effectively or else risk disjointed results that, at best, may slow down the project, or, at worse, jeopardise it entirely.
A breath of fresh air
Fresh avenues for innovation promise to rekindle some excitement in the iGaming industry. Still, the regulatory burden may prove to be a barrier for smaller companies without the necessary resources to legally and technically navigate the limits of what's possible or allowed.
That said, as long as trailblazers don't slam the doors behind them, iGaming's in for a dynamic and game-changing evolution, promising to dispel deep-rooted preconceptions about the industry's lethargic landscape, with companies like Soft2Bet developing powerful engagement tools that drive up revenues (+65 percent) and average revenues per user (+70 percent) and importantly, a 300 percent increase in players’ screen time.
You can learn more about Soft2Bet here, or catch them in person at industry conferences like ICE London this coming February.
Lead image via Soft2Bet.
Would you like to write the first comment?
Login to post comments