[Gaming Amid Corona, Update 3]: Live Dealer or Slots? Casino Games Deep-Dive
You must be asking yourself in which games should you invest? Should you consider a cross-sell strategy? To which players? Here is how to answer these crucial questions
With the launch of the casino games trends (broken out by slots machines, table games, and live dealer) in our iGaming COVID19 Pulse, new insights are being uncovered regarding the great increase in online casino activity. In which games should you invest? Should you consider a cross-sell strategy? To which of your players? Why even bother?
Leverage the new casino games activity data to find out.
Increase in Players. Same Distribution
The increase in the number of casino players is noticeable to almost every online casino brand that tracks its periodic trends. Our daily analysis shows an average increase of 25% in the number of daily online casino players in the last week of March, compared to the first week in February.
Both multi-product companies and online casino standalone brands should try to leverage the increase either to cover some of the sportsbook losses or to earn more from their uprising product trends.
We also asked ourselves, was the infamous virus able to create new casino players just because people are at home? Or did it drive back some former churn players? According to our research across +50 European online casino brands, the answer is undoubtedly “yes” to both.
The graph below presents casino players distribution. “New Casino Players” are players who were acquired (first depositors) during the given week. “Former Casino Players” are players who aren’t new to the business. While the absolute number substantially grew, the new/existing players distribution remained relatively stable; therefore, we can conclude that the growth occurred within both states.
Casino Games: The Baselines
For us to understand what is different these days, we need to be familiar with our baselines. The pie charts below is presenting casino players distribution by main games: slots machines, table games, and live dealer casino. While there could be significant differences between brands when analyzing the most popular game, most of the brands showed a certain similarity when analyzing the number of games a player played within a week: on average, 64% of the players played on a single game during a week, while only 1% played all 3. Among the single-game players, most enjoyed pressing the “SPIN!” button.
Are there any connections between games? The table below emphasizes the strength of slots machines in terms of playing activity. In essence, 88% of slots players have played only on slots, while table games and live dealer players are more diverse and tend to mix their betting activity with some slots spins. For live dealer players, the chances of playing also table games are relatively low (4%).
Similar and other analyses may help you understand how hard it would be to cross players between different brands, and by that, how much (resource, time, and bonus money) you should invest.
Is It Worth It?
Absolutely. It is worth crossing players and encouraging them to play on several games on your site – but which movements drive the highest value? The below table aggregates game type possibilities and the average weekly revenue generated by each combination:
Let’s breakdown the key lessons from above:
The Live Dealer rules – It generates the highest revenue among the group in each player state.
The more, the better – having more games yields higher revenue.
Although live dealers can make a significant impact on weekly revenue, it’s imperative to mention that retention rates are higher for those that play several games, which ultimately drive long-term revenue.
Your Biggest Opportunity
The comparison to the beginning of February is a practice we use (also on the our COVID19 iGaming Pule) in order to understand the shifts in the industry. In the previous update to the COVID-19 Gaming Pulse, we saw the breakout of the rising trend in all 3 casino games – but do the new/former players have different gaming behaviors?
The trends below present the change in multi-game players distribution compared to the 2nd week of February, broken down by players state in the same week.
Let’s zoom in on week 14: Overall, the casino distribution of multi-game players increased by 28%. Breaking out new vs. existing players, we see that the newcomers multi-game distribution grew by 41% while the former players rose nearly 20%.
We can clearly conclude from the above that new casino players experienced the most considerable change, and more of them are placing bets on multiple games (the kind of players who are more willing to explore different games and try more of our features). Moreover, it seems like staying at home also affected the existing casino players, who increased their multi-game distribution as well. Did someone say opportunities?
Beyond the apparent growth that this new situation brings, there are also hidden opportunities to seize. Only through in-depth analysis and data-driven insights can you ensure you’re doing all to maximize this potential.
Stay tuned for more analysis, and in the meantime, check out our vast Marketing Amid Corona coverage:
Omer Liss is Optimove's Director of Strategic Services, helping CRM executives of top online entertainment and e-commerce businesses optimize their customer retention strategy. 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.
