Optimove iGaming Pulse – April 2019

iGamingBusiness.com has agreed a new partnership with marketing and customer retention specialist Optimove to bring readers exclusive insights into player habits from a range of different markets, across all igaming verticals.

In April’s edition, research lab team leader lead Omer Liss reports on an uptick in player activity and investigates the impact of the first leg of Tottenham Hotspur’s Champions League semi final against Ajax Amsterdam.

The below data is available here exclusively before being made publicly available next week.

Looking at Optimove’s iGaming Pulse for April, we see that just in time for Spring, bettors are waking up from their winter slumber.

Following a slower March, sports and casino operators are showing monthly revenue per player numbers up 17% on average (from €76 to €88.) There’s also a steadily rising trend in the new players retention rate from the beginning of January 2019 from 37% to 40%.

Putting seasonality aside, monthly deposits show a year-on-year lift of 27% from April 2018 to April 2019, and the new retention rate shows a 39% uplift compared to April last year. Conversion is up 47% year-on-year.

In sports, monthly revenue per player shows an increase from €61 to €73 on average: a 20% uplift per player, which may be explained by players’ activities around the quarter finals and one semi-final game in the Champions League which occurred during April.

When comparing all countries’ average deposit amount to the Netherlands’ average deposit amount, we see that in the Netherlands, the average deposit amount is almost 60% higher than the total average for all countries.

That staggering figure pales in comparison to the UK’s average deposit amount which was 130% (!) higher than the total average for all countries. Both of these metrics can be explained by the Champions League semi-finals game between Ajax and Tottenham, which occurred on the very last day of April.

Another interesting sports insight shows a continuously rising trend in new retention rate following a drop in August 2018 due to the aftermath of the World Cup. The rise is steady at 48% since August 2018, and 13% year-on-year.

In Casino, we see the average number of monthly deposits per player is up 16% year-on-year.

The monthly revenue per player is showing a rising trend in general, going up to €100 per player in April 2019, compared to €77 in April 2018. There’s a rising trend in monthly revenue per player, and at the same time, a steady average deposit amount. One explanation for this could be that players are making smaller deposits more often, meaning they are more active and engaged with brands.

Another interesting observation is the mobile bet rate which shows an overall rising trend of 8% year-on-year, and 2% month-on-month. Over all, more than half of the bets (52%) made this month were made via mobile. The mobile bettors ratio is showing the same rising trend.

KPI Close-up:
Margins: Margins are determined by calculating the following:

Margin = 1 – (win amount divided by bet amount)

Simply explained, the margin is the profit an operator makes from any bet a customer places. A 10% margin means that for every 100 the bettor places, the operator makes 10.  While the margin for sports betting is higher, casino betting has higher rollover, so in fact, operators profit more from their casino players than their sports players.

Omer Liss:
Omer Liss leads the Strategic Services research team at Optimove, helping leading marketers optimize their customer retention strategy. As a marketing data scientist, Omer has vast experience consulting clients, analyzing their customer data and revealing actionable, data-driven marketing insights. Omer holds a BSc in Industrial Engineering and Management, specializing in Information Systems.

About iGaming Pulse:
iGaming Pulse is an industry benchmark tool for the gaming sector. iGaming Pulse enables gaming operators to accurately assess their overall performance against industry-wide key performance indicators.
Its figures are updated on a monthly basis. It enables gaming operators to gain a clearer understanding of how their KPIs compare against the rest of the industry, broken down by geography and game type. This type of data, which is made publicly available for the first time, provides operators with the ability to conduct comparative analysis and derive insight into how their performance compares with industry averages.

iGaming Pulse comprises of data collected from over 200 online casinos and sports betting companies, including industry giants and boutique operators, providing an accurate, statistically significant sample of the industry. Access to this information is vital for operators that are limited to only their own data. Optimove’s iGaming Pulse is now fully accessible, ensuring operators will have a clearer overview of how they compare to the industry.