We are poised to enter a golden era for online casino

“Sportsbook for show, casino for dough” is a maxim shared with me by a sportsbook CMO years ago and which neatly summarises the industry’s perplexing schizophrenia towards the casino vertical. Yes, it’s the economic engine of the industry, but no, we’re not going to talk about it too loudly.

This mindset long led the industry to focus its efforts on sportsbook acquisition, aiming to cross-sell those customers into casino through customer relationship management (CRM) campaigns to increase their value. Marketing budgets, product roadmaps and internal resources concentrated on the sportsbook shop window.

Direct casino marketing was virtually non-existent and the product offering often a hastily assembled hodgepodge of commoditised third-party games, merchandised in an apathetic wall of 1,000 s****y game tiles.

Now, in 2024, that approach increasingly looks outdated. Driven by global market expansion, regulation and the continuing rise of both crypto casinos and sweepstakes casinos serving the unregulated market, we are seeing a growing focus on casinos in their own right. Encouragingly, this innovation is coming from all areas of the supply chain across all markets.

On the content side, Spribe shook up the industry with the launch of Aviator and its thousands of imitators, while Nolimit City has raised the bar on creativity and production values.

We’re now seeing new mechanics and themes, from bet365’s Penalty Shoot-out to Roobet’s Snoop Dogg-themed joint-smoking crash game, which have redefined player expectations of what a casino game can be. Operators are also taking a sledgehammer to the ‘wall-of-games’ approach to merchandising. The most extreme example being Rivalry’s casino.exe.

The esports-focused operator has re-imagined the casino lobby as a 1990s computer desktop, complete with a Microsoft Word Clippy-like virtual assistant and vintage 1990s video game-style box art designed to appeal to old farts like me.

More modestly, typical crypto casino lobbies are buzzing with big-win tickers, chat lobbies and other social features.

Social gathering

This focus on distinctive branding and player experience has fostered a sense of community more common to the video game industry than sports betting.

Today, thousands of players are participating in vibrant discussions and sharing memes in dedicated Discord servers and Telegram channels hosted by their favourite casino operators.

The marketing approach has also transformed, from cross-sell emails and bonus-heavy affiliate sites to communication increasingly focused on celebrating the content and experience of casino gameplay.

This is most pronounced in the rapid rise of game streaming, now so deeply ingrained in the marketing mix that Stake’s reaction to being banned from Twitch was to build its own casino-friendly streaming platform. The resultant Kick recently passed one billion cumulative viewing hours and is now the headline sponsor of the Sauber Formula 1 team.

In May, VC-backed crypto/sweepstakes casino MyPrize launched its streaming-focused casino, allowing players to ‘bet behind’ their favourite streamers.

Most encouragingly, this innovation and focus on the vertical is reaching the top of the online gambling industry. Jason Robins, CEO and co-founder of DraftKings – an operator with sports deep in its DNA – recently described igaming as the company’s “hidden gem”. It has invested significantly in direct marketing and a differentiated product offering, including exclusive in-house titles such as Rocket.

Rival operator FanDuel recently acquired multiplayer-focused BeyondPlay to bolster its product offering, while leading igaming supplier Evolution made a similar acquisition in Livespins, announced in February, and continues to experiment with game design through titles such as its recent crash game, Stock Market.

After years of stasis and neglect, the industry now seems to be undergoing a Cambrian explosion of innovation, with ripples across the entire user experience. For players interested in a more accessible, social, entertaining and high-quality casino experience, the future looks bright.

Brendan Tinnelly is a consultant focused on online casino. Having supported some of the industry’s largest brands in digital marketing strategies, he is recognised for his expertise in leveraging paid social channels to drive growth. Tinnelly’s insights make him a sought-after adviser for brands looking to enhance their online presence.