Boosting player engagement through personalised and gamified loyalty programs

With so many operators available, and welcome bonuses consistently offered to new players, what challenges do operators face in encouraging player engagement and retention?

“The need for insanely large bonus incentives has been well-rooted and articulated in the industry where game data has not been available to create player experience.

“There has been a growing trend in the industry over the last couple of years to create stimulating infrastructure and set of functionalities, which unlock the potential that advanced analytics and AI powered solutions can provide through products such as Giselle V2 and our recent IN-GRID Gamification Engine and loyalty programme.

“Most of the new operators and white labels rush into investing heavily in the acquisition of new players as brands are built on legacy technology, which offers very little control over the player journey.

“What happens is that most of the newly registered players tend to churn after the first deposit due to a disappointing experience. Unsatisfied customers generate poor revenues and then they churn. The hardly generated revenue is invested again in acquisition campaigns with generalised “one size fits all” offerings which further skyrocket acquisition costs.

“Then things get even worst. The lack of operational transparency and clearly designed customer journeys due to insufficient real time reporting data sentences new operator to misguided business initiatives involving high repetitive bonus costs which decrease the chances of long-term profitability. 

“Fortunately, in the last couple of years we were focusing on simplifying operational tasks and sophisticating user experience while eliminating the overreliance on third party suppliers.

“Dench offers a true turnkey gaming solution, which strengthens critical and problematic areas such as player retention, real time player interactions and provide tools such as IN GRID Gamification Engine and recently released JACK-Y Exclusive Jackpots Engine that will help you differentiate your brand from the rest and allows to create captivating and immersive gaming experiences.

“Not to mention that within the Dench Core Gaming Platform and Giselle V2 Marketing Automation solutions, a number of day to day tasks are either fully automated or provide enough signals to significantly reduce the number of people needed to handle day to day operation.”

How does Dench support partners in achieving their goals with personalised loyalty programs like with the IN-GRID Loyalty Program product?

“Our suite of products and especially our recent stars in the product crown – IN-GRID Gamification Engine and JACK-Y customisable jackpot system are cultivating an organizational culture where experiments are well encouraged.

“Igaming companies are dealing with too many moving parts. Game providers, payment services, communication, and engagement providers, one size fits all marketing tools. This creates operational gap where marketing, operation and bonus teams are trying to solve the same problem using different parts of the product puzzle. Lack of fast data integration and usage of a number of third-party tools are blocking the successful execution of more personalised and engaging experiences.

“This simultaneously reflects on simple day to day tasks related with player data reviews, payment processing or even KYC verification, where quality also degrade.

“Having constant, immediate real time access to transactional and aggregated customer data, collected with the particular purpose of being used in the igaming operator context and through the broader sense, allows operators to fire and forget several must-have automated bonus campaigns, change things quickly and measure results effectively. Hence, it enables everyone across the organisation access the same actionable data and create experiences that are more authentic.

“All above-mentioned are steps towards creating more immersive gaming experience. However, as the pace of technology disruptions is accelerating, management should focus on opportunities to automate and deploy gamified, localised and tailor-made promotions, loyalty programs, introduce exclusive selection of jackpots under their own control, enhancing all of these with easy-to-use CMS and engagement tools, creating next-generation user experiences which are fully automated.”

How important is gamification of loyalty programs for boosting player engagement? What data points should operators draw on to understand the unique preferences of each player?

“Gamification of the loyalty programme have been a powerful instrument for us, and it had been a central topic of the development teams planning for the last year and a half.

“It helps make our turnkey platform more engaging and fun for users, and more profitable for the operators. Our latest innovative casino map which encompasses several casino missions across the different levels, blending igaming with casual gaming, offering players an experience they’ve never seen before, which significantly boosts player engagement and retention. 

“This is achieved through allowing vast selection of data points around player activities, financial transactions, gameplay, preferences.”

How did you decide what features to include with Dench’s IN-GRID loyalty program? What research did you undertake to understand what operators are looking for?

“We have been involved in the igaming industry as product stakeholders for the last two decades now and we are still amazed how far behind it is comparing to social media and other industry.

“Companies such as Netflix and Tik Tok have successfully managed to ride the wave of personalisation and anticipation of users wants and needs and are actively competing with the iGaming operators for screen time and their disposable income.

“Now more than ever, operators need to be looking for innovative and engaging instruments beyond the usual scope of push notifications or pop ups on login or massive welcome bonuses.

“With this thought on mind, we have decided to add an additional layer of engaging instruments on top of the already existing marketing instruments already available in Dench Core and Giselle V2.

“We recently introduced our IN-GRID Gamification Engine as part of the loyalty programme at fully regulated online casino Slotino.bg in Bulgaria. The operator is one of the flagman brands that is sandboxing almost all our innovative products, and it is registering strong levels of engagement among player and longer game sessions on month over month basis.

“This is true particularly when it comes to Slotino casino loyalty program, which is a gamification element that offers players an interactive experience where they get to explore a road trip starting from the capital of the country Sofia going through the country’s landmarks as they progress on their casino journey to the Black Sea.

“The brand also has its own Slotino Points system that offers rich rewards, as well as a unique set of missions that all registered players can participate in and exchange points for cash once they reach certain levels.”

What holds the future in terms of new products Dench is looking to develop to help operators boost engagement and personalisation?

“Gamification and personalisation will continue to influence user preferences and behaviors. Dench therefore predicts that players would gravitate toward companies that offer more cross-game and  gamification features with the game itself, with an emphasis on including customizable jackpot management features.

“The most recent product solution JACK-Y – a tailor made jackpot system from Dench provides an extensive range of features and customizations that enable operators manage jackpots and create in game additional lawyer where players can follow levels and experience the thrill of watching the jackpot levels pile up over certain configurable period of time.

“With JACK-Y, an in house bult jackpot management system, operators can design their own prizes for any combination of games and/or vertical of that matter and any player group.

“Traditionally, jackpots have been part of the casino game providers portfolio of services, and they have been attached to a specific game vendor where contributions were made only playing specific games and operators had a very little or no control over the contributions or when exactly the jackpot can be awarded. This makes budgeting and promotional activities very hard to be managed and ends up in unpredicted costs that operators need to cover and can damage the long-term profitability of the brand.

“The diversity of jackpot types such as mystery jackpot, progressive, community or even daily or hourly jackpots can offer a new layer of excitement and anticipation during gameplay and potentially increase the session duration and profitability and forge a long-lasting relationship with the players.

“Operators that offer jackpots can drive player engagement by running branded and network jackpots.”

What impact does market by market legislation have on operator decisions towards diversifying their offerings and establish loyalty programs, particularly those that are personalised? How does Dench help them overcome these localised concerns and encourage retention?

“With or without regulation, product localisation and personalisation were key. Until recently these were accessible for large scale established operators while nowadays, with IN-GRID or similar solutions, which not only provide you with the functionality to customise your loyalty program mechanics, but also enrich it with various pieces of content, you can do it in a matter of minutes with a few dozen clicks.

“Aside from the high-level view on this, legislation makes it harder for operators active in numerous regulated markets with a single brand to localise it or personalise their entire content on a market-by-market basis.

“This has always been important for us as we always strive for our products to reduce overhead and not create more of it. That’s the case with our multi-label multi-frontend infrastructure – operator can have as many UIs for as many markets which are all connected with a single back office and backend infrastructure.”

Do you have any plans connected with AI and your products whether core functionalities or marketing and personalisation wise?

“I remember 2017, when we were pitching our Giselle V2 product at ICE. There was no AI in it back than and still no AI in it today, but there were several statements from people listening the product description that that’s AI. It was not.

“Back than AI was still in its very early days at least outside of academic rooms and research labs. We knew this will continue until it solves a particular use case, or it can be easily presented to the world. As we all know this is happening as we speak, and we hear of it impact on organisations.

“In 2024 we’ve established a dedicated AI R&D team which was keeping a close eye on everything AI. We started experimenting and looking for smart ways to embed it within our products.

“I’m happy to say that in beginning of 2025 we will see our first igaming AI Agents available straight in our back office which will be capable in assisting operators with their day-to-day operations. These will be capable of helping with payment processing, creative, content, customer support and probably much more.”