Pulse

CEGO: ditch the bonuses battle

By William - 14 March 2022

Online gambling operators have long used bonuses to engage players and incentivise them to play at their brands over those of their rivals.

However, this has led to something of a bonusing war with operators forced to offer large deposit matches and hundreds of free spins.

Allan Auning-Hansen, CEO at Danish operator CEGO, says the key to player acquisition lies in providing a fun and entertaining experience – not in big bonuses.

Bonuses are undoubtedly effective when it comes to player acquisition and retention, but if the overall experience offered by the casino does not meet the player’s expectations then they will simply play elsewhere – this is a sector where churn remains incredibly high.

This means that operators are potentially wasting their marketing budgets on bonuses that don’t deliver the long-term player lifetime values they need to achieve a sensible ROI and a profit.

This comes at a time when bonuses are being put under the regulatory microscope due to the way they encourage players to gamble. Indeed, 31 per cent of respondents to a recent UK Gambling Commission survey said free bets and spins caused them to gamble more than they intended.

The long-term value of bonuses as a marketing tool, combined with the scrutiny they are coming under, means that operators should consider other ways of acquiring and retaining players.

This is something that we have focused on at CEGO from day one, taking a different approach to player acquisition and retention. Sure, we use bonuses but they are comparatively small and are designed to allow players to enjoy long playing sessions from low stakes.

For example, the welcome bonus at our new UK online casino, Happy Tiger, is a £20 cash bonus if the player makes an initial £20 deposit.

We then use other retention tactics to keep players entertained and wagering. This includes the constant launch of new games developed by our in-house studio that are only available on Happy Tiger in the UK and our brands in Sweden and Denmark.

In addition, the rollout of our proprietary bingo platform in Sweden and the UK last year has been very well received by players.

What’s more, we continuously launch competitions and always look to engage our players through noteworthy events such as Valentine’s Day, Christmas, etc.

Indeed, one of the most powerful acquisition and retention tools at our disposal is the games that we develop in-house. These games have been designed specifically to meet the preferences of our players and to provide the low stakes, long-playing sessions we have built our brands around.

Our proprietary content includes smart retention tools such as unlockable features that are not available elsewhere. This includes opening up various bonus games within the slot where, for example, players can crawl through labyrinths and build their own burger.

The ability to enter a bonus game is separate from the size of the stake the player makes – at CEGO we want everyone to have fun. This keeps players engaged with our games and coming back for more regardless of how much they have to play with.

Again, games are built around the low-stakes, long-playing session ethos which means players can unlock these features with small deposits. This approach also allows them to try the different games in our lobby from a small initial deposit.

This has seen us achieve some incredible retention rates. We have players that have been with us since we started in 2012.

Of course, retention and long-term loyalty also rely on the player having a superior experience across all aspects of the casino from initial sign-up to making a deposit and finding the right games for them, to interacting with customer support agents.

Players must be entertained at all times – remember, online casino is competing for consumer attention with other entertainment options such as social media, streaming, video and mobile gaming and e-commerce.

While a big bonus may initially excite, once the bonus has been used or the player’s account balance drained while trying to complete the wagering requirement, the entertainment value they receive can decline as quickly as it can significantly.

That is why operators should double down their efforts on the overall player experience and in particular the games they stock in their lobbies with a focus on casual gaming – low stakes, long playing sessions, big fun.

Ultimately, this might be a path that operators are forced to go down as regulations continue to tighten in markets around the world. In Sweden, operators are only permitted to offer a one-off sign-up bonus, for example.

But this should not be cause for concern. We have been active in the Swedish market since 2020 with our Lyckost brand and have been able to acquire and retain players without relying on large bonuses. We are now taking the same approach in the UK and the early numbers look positive.

Another benefit to operators is that smaller bonuses are not as exposed to fraud as larger ones. Small bonuses attract casual players, and these players arrive at your casino to have fun and to be entertained.

That is why it is so important for operators to entertain from the moment players arrive at the casino, and then provide them with a fun and thrilling experience for as long as they want to play.

For CEGO at least, it is all about combining the right products and entertaining our customers even at small stakes in combination with long-playing sessions – it is a formula we have perfected and one that has allowed us to succeed in highly competitive markets without having to engage in the battle over bonuses.