Seven player behaviours that signal loyalty or risky behaviour

For operators focused on optimising customer lifetime value, achieving sustainable growth requires a careful balance between acquiring and retaining high-value players and managing the risks associated with potentially vulnerable or problem gamblers.

Getting to the heart of the issue requires a deep dive into data. However, transactional digital footprints only tell part of the story.

To gain a full picture of a punter requires layers of additional behavioural datasets, helping to break down the traits and datapoints that identify high-value or high-risk players.

Data-driven context

For Emma Philip, EMEA lead solution engineer at Fullstory, the key is to expand upon the data that shows when users are depositing, withdrawing and placing bets.

“It can be misleading,” Philip says. “For example, if a player is placing large deposits and stakes, that could be an indication that they’re a high-value player, but it could also indicate that they are at risk in a responsible gambling context.

“So, as well as having that transactional data, it is important to layer behavioural data, which shows us more about the user. What else are they interacting with on the site? What are they doing between the deposits and the bets? Are they engaging with other content? How long are they spending online?

“Are the responsible gambling features that brands have actually ignoring the reality checks? There are lots of different ways that we can look at behaviour to see if we need to intervene with a customer.”

With this in mind, Fullstory has identified seven key player behaviours that signal either loyalty or risk.

1. Deposits that increase over time

Deposit trends, when viewed over time, reveal patterns beyond top-line transaction data.

“If it’s a gradual increase in deposits, that would indicate high value,” Philip explains. “However, if it is a little bit erratic, it could be a sign of risky behaviour.

“High-value players usually display more steady behaviour, so their deposits will follow a pattern and they won’t have major spikes or dips along the way.”

2. High engagement with promotions and bonuses

High-value players are more likely to engage with personalised promotions and game recommendations that are tailored to their individual tastes, as well as loyalty programmes and gamification.

“As they are engaged with the platform and the experience, they are more likely to want to try out these things that are being put in front of them,” Philip says. “If we’re seeing high engagement with that type of personalisation, that’s usually a good indicator of a high-value player.”

3. Smooth and fast sessions across sign-up and deposit flows

Unpredictable behaviour in the sign-up and deposit processes can be an indication that there are responsible gaming issues.

“High-value players are more likely to follow a predicted pattern of going between those steps smoothly,” Philip says.

“A risky player is more likely to be more aggressive and frustrated in a conversation with support, for example, if they have sign-up issues.”

4. Rage clicks on deposit, bonus or withdrawal

Building on the previous point, Fullstory captures so-called ‘rage clicks’, when a user aggressively and repeatedly taps their screen or clicks their mouse.

According to Fullstory’s new benchmark report, error-driven exits have actually jumped 40% year on year and frustration is building, with rage clicks way up on mobile in particular.

“This could be a sign that a player is exhibiting erratic behaviour and they are at a higher risk of problem gambling,” Philip says.

“These rage clicks really highlight frustration from a customer. Alternatively, if you know someone is a high-value player and you can see they are getting frustrated, that’s also a sign that you should be reaching out to them.”

5. Repeat verification failures

A multitude of error messages can be a red flag when it comes to identifying users who are at a greater risk, especially with Know Your Customer (KYC) verifications.

“If users aren’t passing KYC checks and their payments aren’t going through, it’s an indication that this player is at risk, but it’s also a good sign that you have taken necessary preventative steps as a business,” Philip adds.

“It’s not just about what users have clicked on, but also what the error messages are saying. Is it a KYC message saying that an image is too blurry? Or is it a different message that indicates a user should not be able to move forward with creating an account?”

6. Bouncing between pages without completing key actions

Switching between different platform pages before completing certain actions is another sign of erratic behaviour, Philip says.

“Fullstory can see when users have multiple tabs open and are moving between them, and how quickly they’re doing that and refreshing pages,” she adds.

“It can be a sign of frustration as well as not being engaged. It is likely to mean they are not a highly engaged, high-value customer as they are not too bothered by the content.”

7. Abandoning a bonus after initiating it

There is also a potentially pivotal engagement issue if a player abandons a bonus unexpectedly.

“If customers are following a journey and then dropping out it means that either they don’t want to engage – or they can’t follow the process, meaning they’re not necessarily a high-value customer that knows what they’re doing.”

Philip says this might be because they’re new, because they’re not in a good state of mind, or simply because they don’t have the funds to proceed.

Timely interventions

Identifying and acting on the seven key player behaviours above can be hugely consequential for operators, as well as the customers they serve – and timeliness is a key factor in successful interventions.

Philip highlights how transactional data is often 24 hours behind the play, but Fullstory’s behavioural data takes place in real time. Furthermore, early and smart interventions can have real-world, bottom-line benefits.

“One client engaged us after being sanctioned by the Gambling Commission,” she says. “By working with us, they could demonstrate through an audit that they were more likely to be able to intervene early with responsible gambling measures.

“Another customer used Fullstory to identify fraudulent users – who are also more likely to be at-risk gamblers – who engaged in bonus abuse and had multiple accounts. Using behavioural data, they identified about 1,000 more of these users per month than they had with traditional methods. They estimated that this saved them more than £300,000 per year.”

Real-world impact

The impact of such data-driven analysis was explored in detail during an iGB webinar hosted in partnership with behavioural data analytics experts Fullstory in June.

A panel of experts delved into how data can be used to acquire high-value players and provide them with a better experience – while simultaneously preventing high-risk gamblers from continuing uninterrupted.

The webinar featured Game Lounge’s director of customer experience and optimisation, Jason Attard, as well as Dubravko Blaće, marketing technology and analytics lead at Casumo, alongside Aaron Bali, Fullstory’s manager of solutions engineering in EMEA.

Player behaviour insights

Both Game Lounge and Casumo have worked with Fullstory to help serve up soomther player journeys while supporting an ROI-driven mindset.

Casumo implemented Fullstory as a gaming analytics solution, leveraging  tools like Session Replay and Watched Elements, to address the challenge of gaining in-depth insights into user behaviour. The technology enabled Casumo to accelerate issue detection by 50% and reduce the time to resolution by 87%. This reduction of time-to-resolution enables more efficient releases and a smoother experience for high-value users.

Meanwhile Game Lounge wanted to improve their understanding of how users were navigating their affiliate sites. With Fullstory’s support, Game Lounge can now validate assumptions, identify areas of confusion and enhance the user experience after analysing retroactive session replays and event tracking. These updates contributed to a 70% improvement in dead clicks and a 50% reduction in error clicks.

AI-driven technology

The Fullstory technology is supported by artificial intelligence (AI) and integrated through an add-on script to a platform’s backend to capture all behaviours without the need for manual tagging. The AI-powered service is called Fullcapture and collects all user interactions across web and mobile (micro data points – like what users play and pause, copy and paste, where they zoom in and out). It’s comprehensive and retroactive.

“We use AI in this, so once we’ve got this data, we can start to track patterns and summarise user behaviour,” Philip continues. “Users can be online for hours, which is time-consuming to follow, so we are using our service StoryAI to make it quicker to get accurate summaries of what they are doing.”

Fullstory has automated templates set up for responsible gambling and high-value customers that can be triggered with real-time alerts. This means that if, for example, an at-risk player is identified, the right team members at an operator can be alerted for further intervention.

Intervention signals

As Philip outlines, there are numerous more indicators of problem gambling – ranging from being online at unsociable hours to trying to use multiple payment methods to trying to create numerous accounts.

“Declined deposit error messages, high-frequency spend, chasing losses, a rapid increase in stakes and duration of play are all flags,” Philip says.

“Also, interactions with responsible gambling features can be a key indicator. Are they trying to alter deposit limits or amend self-exclusion rules? There are lots of trends that can be identified, and we’ve built our responsible gambling offering with our customers from behavioural data.”

Centralising data

Aside from engaging specialists like Fullstory, Philip also highlights how operators can take a major step towards being more proactive in identifying customer value and personas by breaking down data siloes.

“We often speak to different teams in a business and they’re all using different data and different tools,” she says. “Having that centralised approach ensures you get as much valuable data as possible – and making sure teams are trained in how they can access data and what data is available to them supports real-time analysis.

“Having centralised, retroactive data is important for seeing changes in behaviour over time, so that you can track a player who may have been fine at the start but then becomes a risk.”

Power of personalisation

Personalisation is also vital, Philip says, by helping to enhance responsible gambling efforts while maintaining positive relationships with high-value players.

“You could have personalised messages that highlight unusual behaviour that may require intervention, while for high-value players, it is about making sure features and recommendations are based on what they like,” she says.

“We know that a small number of high-value players can make up the bulk of the revenue for a business. So, if you see one of them struggling, you want to be able to reach out to them swiftly and provide support – and also check in on them.”

As regulatory pressures intensify and competition for player loyalty grows, operators who embrace real-time behavioural insights will be best placed to drive sustainable growth. It is clear that such data-driven interventions are no longer optional – they are operationally essential for maintaining edge.