Are Casinos Becoming Tech Startups?

—TechRound does not recommend or endorse gambling, financial, investment or casino advice. All articles are purely informational—

The casino industry was once known for being about hospitality and the arts of running gambling games. To remain a leader within it, you had to know the game inside out. Today, the skill set required to run a successful casino is much closer to being a tech startup. And, we can see this in the numbers; hundreds of online casinos are created each year.

The New Casino Operating Model

Casinos use lightweight frameworks and APIs to improve their efficiency. Instead of creating and the games themselves, they outsource most of the development and odds-making to specialists. So, while they host it on their website, they mostly can’t even tinker with the games or their odds and returns.

But, this provides a scalability that enables quick growth. As seen at the online casino, development is mostly centered around the platform’s UX and payment system, and once this is established, efforts become focused on marketing and promotions.

It also means that running an online casino is highly data-driven, but not so much by the gambling itself. Rather, it’s about how much value each customer is worth and what they can afford per acquisition of said customer. Then, they can roll out aggressive PPC campaigns, affiliate marketing deals, and attractive welcome bonuses.

Game choice also becomes a matter of A/B testing different games with different users and measuring the results. Machine learning may be implemented here to spot patterns.

FinTech Integration

Financial technology has also transformed online casinos by offering players a more secure and flexible experience. E-wallets, mobile payments and prepaid cards have become increasingly popular with players. This opens the door up to anonymous gambling, like it kind of was in the past, but now online.

Mobile payment systems like Apple Pay and Google Pay make it exceedingly easy for fast deposits and withdrawals, particularly among mobile users. In fact, the majority of online casino transactions in the UK are performed through a phone.

We are also seeing crypto casinos emerge for a supposedly more efficient and private experience, but these remain a legal grey area.

Strategic Partnerships with Tech Giants

Casinos are also forming partnerships with major tech firms to drive innovation. One notable collaboration is between Casino Group, Google Cloud and Accenture. This partnership was to implement digital solutions that boost efficiency and improve customer satisfaction.

A key result of this partnership is the rapid growth of RelevanC, Casino Group’s data marketing arm. By using Google Cloud’s advanced analytics and machine learning, RelevanC can now understand customer behaviour on a deeper level to deliver targeted marketing campaigns. This personalised approach.

Once adopted by competitors, it’s often a race to the bottom where the real winner is the customer. In other words, more relevant adverts are shown to you, and due to the increased conversion rate, more bonuses can be awarded.

The casino industry is constantly changing through digital transformation. As the tech allows for lightweight set-ups, the barriers to entry decrease. As a result, although it resembles a tech startup from the outside, the battles are being fought by marketers and data scientists working in tandem.

—TechRound does not recommend or endorse gambling, financial, investment or casino advice. All articles are purely informational—