Player verification in gambling: an opportunity

As part of the ongoing endeavour by the egaming industry to better protect players, the UKGC introduced stricter regulations around age verification in May 2019. The focus of these rules was to set a standard for operators to adhere to when it comes to making sure that underage consumers are protected.

At first, an additional barrier to player acquisition seems like an attack on operators, but it actually presents an opportunity. The headline reasons for this are: player protection is good for the industry, improved cashier experience, and forced product innovation. The key theme that runs through these opportunities is loyalty and retention.

Player protection: good for business

It comes as no surprise that the egaming industry is coming under increasing scrutiny from government, media and society as a whole. Operators have a responsibility to protect vulnerable players at all stages of the journey, from sign-up to deposit patterns.

An investment in getting better at this will also pay dividends in years to come. In a recent report published by 3radical, insight was given by the director of BD at RISQ, Julian Borg-Barthet: “One prominent CEO once told me, ‘If I look after my player, (s)he’s going to be betting with me for the next five years. If I don’t protect them, (s)he could gamble away their livelihood.’”

This is a clear example of where social responsibility and business performance overlap. New player acquisition costs are a very notable part of operator outgoings, so tenure and lifetime value are key to business success. Player protection feeds into that mix and is therefore good for business.

Improved cashier experience 

One of the biggest frustrations that players express when asked is that they can’t withdraw their funds without further verification. This broken player journey has largely been fixed with new regulation as that process happens before the first deposit, not just before the first withdrawal.

The impact of this is a much-improved player experience – players are much more likely to redeposit if they know that access to winnings is a swift and straightforward process. This, of course, improves player lifetime value and helps to recoup (and profit) from the acquisition spend.

Approval and withdrawal times feed into the loyalty a player has to a certain operator. It is this loyalty that will fuel market share growth for operators in 2019 and beyond.

Tom Ustunel, betting and gaming director at News UK, has this to say on the matter of loyalty: “Transparency will build long-term loyalty because customers will feel like they’re being looked after. In the moment they might get annoyed, but they’ll hopefully realise that we’re looking out for them. They’ll see that we could have more money and didn’t, which should build trust and loyalty.”

Forced production innovation

Increased competition and well-funded acquisition offers are forcing operators of all sizes to innovate. The products offered are typically very similar across the industry and so there is a need to stand out.

Product innovation and player protection go hand-in-hand. Business insight tools and big data are enablers of enhanced player protection, while also providing a better, customised player experience.

Simon Collins, non-executive director at Gaming Realms, explains: “Good data collection and visualisation is imperative. Each firm should have a BI function and department, and that team should be responsible for looking at all the data points from real-time personalisation (RTP) through to user engagement. I think the use of AI in this area is very interesting. With the advancement in technology, we should be able to do a better job of segmenting our user base and getting access to interesting user information. This allows us to reward people at the right time, and with the right incentive, to enable us to achieve the best results.”

Competition is fierce but, with a more onerous account set-up process, there are signs that players are becoming more embedded with their operators of choice. Once you have a player, you have the opportunity to provide a product that will make your site the only one they need and want to visit.

The success of this then comes down to the operator’s implementation of loyalty programmes and technology. Player protection is good for business.

Rachel Swann, commercial director at 3radical, has extensive experience of engaging customers, clients and consumers, be they in fast-moving consumer goods, manufacturing or gaming. She is responsible for client acquisition, retention and project delivery across the UK and Europe, and is passionate about equipping clients to improve engagement with their customers. With a particular interest in the gaming industry, Swann is a regular at those industry events and is constantly exploring ways to use non-financial incentives to increase player activity rates and retention, as well as within the responsible gaming agenda.