Industry News

“Players Who Feel Safe Are More Likely to Stay with A Sole Operator For Longer”

Published

4 years ago

March 21, 2022

Reading Time: 5 minutes

While iGaming brands amass social responsibility fines by the millions allowing unhealthy behavior go unchecked, a better way exists for both operator and player

Responsible Gaming is more than just an industry buzzword or something to look out for. It has real-life consequences for everyone involved: brands, operators and, more importantly – regular people. As the National Council on Problem Gambling marks its Gambling Awareness Month, we stopped to take stock of social responsibility in the iGaming industry – is enough being done? What is holding us back as an industry? And what will the future bring?

The Brands & Regulator

Recent years have seen a crackdown by the regulator on many iGaming fronts, specifically social responsibility or as we know it – Responsible Gaming. In 2021 brands amassed more than £15M in fines for failing to meet social responsibility regulations and protect at-risk players. The trend is gaining momentum, just three months into 2022, operators have already amassed over £15M in social responsibility fines, yes, similar to the entirety of 2021. The total sum of penalties in 2019 covering all violations? A ‘mere’ £17M. Operators need to comply and fast to keep the money on their side of the table.

The people

The human price of operators’ reluctance to comply with social responsibility regulations is clear. There are degrees of unhealthy behavior, but at its worst, a gambling problem can devastate a person’s life, affect their loved ones, mental health, livelihood, and more. The risk shouldn’t be underestimated, regulatory zeal suggests.

“From my study and understanding these pathways, it seems that the need for entertainment and escapism leads certain players. In other cases, they’re driven by more impulsivity issues and a lack of ability to control one’s behavior,” said Sally Gainsbury, Director of the University of Sydney Gambling Treatment & Research Clinic.

“This doesn’t only affect the individual themself, but also 6-10 people around them. That’s why it’s important to prevent harm before they reach this critical level.”

So what’s stopping operators from simply, you know, following Responsible Gaming regulations? “The biggest hurdle is the lack of understanding of the appropriate KPIs and required actions brought down by regulators to work best towards minimizing gambling harm,” said Gainsbury.

If operators limit their most active players, the VIPs of sorts, it’s only reasonable to assume they’ll suffer massive revenue hit, much higher than any fine. But acting on RG makes more financial sense than one might think. “In the modern iGaming world, which includes land-based casinos, sports betting, digital, and all gaming forms, you don’t have to choose between revenue and socially responsible gaming,” said Michael Pollock, Spectrum Gaming Group’s Managing Director.

“The companies that tend to be the most profitable and the market leaders are the ones that take this responsibility seriously for several reasons: One – if you’re irresponsible, you’re leaving your customers dry. You want the customer to afford what they are spending. That’s the heart of responsible Gaming. Two, if you want the public’s trust and to be recognized as one that can be trusted with their money, RG has to be front and center in your business practices. If not, you’re not going to be a market leader. And three, if you don’t take the responsibility seriously, regulators will prevent your brand from renewing your license,” added Pollock.

The solution

Optimove, the leading CRM Marketing platform, has a different approach to Responsible Gaming. It offers a predictive model to identify players-at-risk and recognizes three maturity levels of an operator regarding responsible Gaming:

Basic – Providing players the ability to self-exclude at any time. This is typically also the most rudimentary requirement of most regulated regions.
Competitive – Exploring the various attributes that players demonstrate before they self-exclude. By creating a segment of customers who self-excluded, operators can identify suspicious attributes to try and mitigate them and reduce the number of players who become at-risk players.
Advanced – Implementing a machine learning algorithm that helps operators predict which players are likely to become at-risk ahead of time. Such algorithm also allows operators to differentiate between at-risk and VIP players, who often share a few similar attributes.

VIP or At-Risk?

In the UK there has been a clear move by the main Operators towards a mass market/recreational customer. The average player values dropped accordingly and VIP programs have basically came to an end. This has been driven by the concerns around problem gambling and the big overlap between what was previously described as a VIP and what is now understood to be problem gambling issues.

Many companies still have two separate departments, CRM and RG, but the reality is that the result of this operational setup and the contradictions between definitions of success in each field, means that the different teams are not necessarily driving in the same direction when it comes to player care.

Use outreach to educate

Instead of creating player journeys consisting of only promotional campaigns, operators should begin putting a heavier emphasis on educational and informative content that encourages players to adopt healthier behaviors and reduce the number of players who become at-risk.

Operators must communicate carefully in the competitive gaming market, where 1-to-1 marketing communications is still an integral part of the experience. By segmenting customers into tiers based on their risk levels and adjusting the informative-to-promotional campaign ratio accordingly, operators can maintain the marketing aspect, and improve their revenue, while instilling more robust socially responsible practices.

Metrics to monitor

If traditional CRM marketing focuses on promotional offers to measure incremental Net Gaming Revenue as the main KPI, socially responsible marketing mix needs to measure player migrations from one risk level to another and overall retention rates.

To identify the marketing strategies that work best to maintain a high level of healthy-player engagement, operators should measure their campaigns’ impact on player behavior over time. Similar to A/B/n testing different treatments, entire player-journeys should be tested to evaluate how they affect player behavior and risk-level migrations.

Using different CRM Marketing tools, like Optimove, operators can easily create entire marketing flows and monitor how players migrate from one risk level to another, and adjust their marketing strategies as necessary. Gaining insight into how both campaigns and flows perform can empower operators to optimize their marketing strategy and reduce the number of players who become at risk.

For instance, one gaming operator segmented its customers into tiers based on their low, medium, and high-risk levels. Players with a low-risk level were given the occasional promotional campaign, while players in the medium risk level received 30% of the promotional campaigns, and so forth.

The future

On the predictive side of things, there is a huge amount more that operators can be doing to identify behavioural issues at a much earlier point in the customer journey. Once predictive models – which help identify at-risk players – are in place, operators do not need take a manual binary decision on whether to cut the player off or leave them alone, but can begin taking the customer through a RG journey that may first provide instructive content around the issue. If the behaviour doesn’t change, then limits can be brought in before finally cutting the customer off.

In the near future Responsible Gaming will be integrated into all business sides and will not remain a siloed responsibility of few. That means an organizational overhaul around the issue as every department within an operator or platform must be guided by RG principles. For example, in CRM terms, it means CRM Teams will have:

A clear understanding of what RG principles need to be followed.
These principles will be converted to customer attributes that are easily trackable and monitorable.
Teams will have programs in place to foment healthy gaming behavior.
Teams will have marketing tools that autonomously redirect customers to those programs when needed (to prevent and amend situations).

Doing this at scale however is challenging which is why AI should be the lead in predicting, identifying and managing at-risk players. Once a player is identified as being at-risk, the AI algorithm will autonomously reassign them to the appropriate segment, where the messages are less salesy, focusing more on adjusting the behavior, understanding the problem better and taking a step back if needed.

Industry News

Ex-Binance exec Ryan Horn joins Press Box PR as Growth and Business Development Advisor

Published

17 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Wladimir P.

ex-binance-exec-ryan-horn-joins-press-box-pr-as-growth-and-business-development-advisor

Press Box PR, an award-winning digital PR agency specialising in betting, gaming, sport, consumer, retail, and hospitality, has announced the appointment of former Binance sports partnerships leader Ryan Horn as its new Growth and Business Development Advisor.

Horn will work closely with Press Box PR’s leadership team to drive strategic growth initiatives, advise on international opportunities, and support clients navigating the fast-evolving intersection of sport, payments, gaming, and emerging technologies.

With offices in London and Manchester, Press Box PR is renowned for securing earned media coverage across gambling, sports, consumer, finance, hospitality, and catering publications. The agency also helps brands increase visibility in AI-generated answers, citations, and large language model (LLM) recommendations. Press Box PR was named PR Agency of the Year at the 2026 European iGaming Awards.

Horn brings over 20 years of experience at the crossroads of global sport, commercial partnerships, and digital innovation. He has collaborated with major organisations including FIFA, UEFA, the International Olympic Committee, Formula 1, and the Rugby Football Union, helping connect global brands with some of the world’s largest sporting audiences.

He co-founded Brandtix, a sports data intelligence company that introduced a data-driven approach to sponsorship measurement, and later held senior roles in the global advertising sector, including Chief Business Development Officer at Euro RSCG, managing sponsorship strategy and campaigns for top-tier brands.

More recently, Horn led sports and digital asset partnerships at Binance, working with figures and organisations such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Mike Tyson, and Italian Serie A club Lazio, with a focus on the convergence of sport, digital payments, fan engagement platforms, and online gaming ecosystems.

In his role at Press Box PR, Horn will provide strategic insight on emerging areas shaping modern sports business, including AI-driven fan engagement, tokenised commerce platforms, global payments infrastructure, and the digital transformation of sport.

Alex Donohue, Founder and Managing Director of Press Box PR, said:
“Ryan has spent his career at the intersection of sport, technology, and commercial innovation. His experience and network will be hugely valuable as we expand internationally and support clients across sport, betting, and fintech.”

Horn added:
“The digital transformation of sport is creating entirely new commercial ecosystems. I’m excited to join Press Box PR and help clients navigate and communicate their role in this evolving landscape.”

The post Ex-Binance exec Ryan Horn joins Press Box PR as Growth and Business Development Advisor appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

Choice Gaming

Choice Gaming: Expanding Across Slots, Crash, Instant and AI Live Casino

Published

17 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Wladimir P.

choice-gaming:-expanding-across-slots,-crash,-instant-and-ai-live-casino

Choice Gaming produces and distributes content across four key verticals: slots, crash games, instant formats, and live casino offerings via its dedicated Kiss division. The company maintains full control over concept development, visual direction, and release scheduling, ensuring a cohesive and strategically aligned portfolio.

Collaboration-Driven Product Development
A cornerstone of Choice Gaming’s approach is integrating public figures and cultural collaborators directly into the design of its games. In the crash segment, Evra Crash was developed in partnership with football legend Patrice Evra, incorporating his likeness, persona, and competitive identity into the game’s mechanics and presentation.

In the instant category, Mono Choice was created alongside contemporary artist Alec Monopoly. The title embeds elements of his signature artistic style throughout the creative execution, extending well beyond surface-level branding.

The collaboration approach also extends to live casino offerings. As part of its cross-vertical strategy, the company launched Evra Sic Bo, a live table game featuring Patrice Evra’s identity integrated into the format.

Live Casino: Kiss Division
Through the Kiss division, Choice Gaming operates an AI-driven live casino infrastructure. Kiss AI Live Casino replaces traditional fixed studios with digitally generated environments and AI-controlled dealers. Operators can customize dealer appearance, ethnicity, attire, language, atmosphere, and studio design without altering the table structure.

The live portfolio includes multiple Sic Bo tables, each offering distinct dealer presentations and visual styles, creating differentiated table experiences within a scalable framework.

Slot Portfolio
Choice Gaming’s slot catalogue features fully in-house developed titles designed for multi-market deployment. Each release adheres to a defined concept and visual framework, avoiding reused layouts or re-skinned games. The company’s roadmap includes continued expansion of slot themes and innovative design directions throughout the year.

Crash and Instant Segments
Beyond collaboration-led releases, the crash and instant categories continue to grow with titles built around streamlined mechanics, clear visual identity, and structured gameplay positioning.

Scaling with Control
Choice Gaming continues to expand across all verticals while retaining complete oversight of production, creative direction, and collaborative integration, ensuring consistent quality and innovation across its portfolio.

The post Choice Gaming: Expanding Across Slots, Crash, Instant and AI Live Casino appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.

Groove

Groove Rolls Out Next-Gen Instant Tournaments Solution

Published

18 hours ago

March 10, 2026

Wladimir P.

groove-rolls-out-next-gen-instant-tournaments-solution

In an industry where player attention spans diminish rapidly, leading platform and aggregator Groove has launched what could be the most valuable weapon in the fight for engagement: their groundbreaking Instant Tournaments Tool.

This groundbreaking advancement enables operators to envision, set up, and initiate high-stakes tournaments straight from Groove Command’s back-office faster than it takes to make a pot of coffee, no developers needed, no delays, only sheer competitive excitement at the speed of now.

The development team, under the guidance of Product Development Head Shay Kababie, observed with pleasure as the initial live test occurred. An experienced casino operator, who was initially doubtful, launched a $10,000 Blackjack Blitz with only a few clicks. The outcome? A sudden increase in players, soaring engagement statistics, and revenue boosts, all happening before lunchtime arrived.

“This alters everything,” the operator said, observing leaderboards illuminate in real-time.

For years, creating tournaments involved managing intricate technical specifications, relying on overloaded development teams, and hoping that everything would run smoothly at launch. Groove’s approach completely eliminates these obstacles.

The new advancement in the Groove Command platform is already causing a stir in the iGaming industry, as beta testers indicate significant increases in player involvement and earnings.

“This isn’t just an upgrade, it’s a fundamental shift in how operators compete,” says Rachel Tourgeman, Head of Partnerships at Groove. “Our partners have been begging for a solution that keeps pace with player demand. Now they can create high-stakes tournaments faster than most teams can schedule a meeting. We’re seeing operators launch tournaments around live sports events, viral trends, even competitor outages, all in real time.”

Operators can now react to market trends with the quickness of day traders, identifying an opportunity in the morning and profiting from it by afternoon. Looking to take advantage of a competitor’s downtime? A competition exists for that. Looking to reconnect with inactive VIPs? The ideal challenge is merely a few clicks away.

This advancement integrates effortlessly into the Groove Command ecosystem, the most robust back-office platform in the industry. In this scenario, establishing a tournament is merely one tool in a well-equipped arsenal. Operators have total control over their operations, encompassing detailed game management, real-time financial analysis, compliance protections, and now, immediate competitive experiences that engage players continuously.

The consequences are significant. While rivals may take days or weeks to set up tournaments, operators using Groove can experiment, refine, and enhance various tournament formats in just one afternoon.

The platform’s user-friendly interface masks its advanced features, customizable prize formats, interactive leaderboards, and specific player segmentation can all be effortlessly set up via a sleek dashboard.

“Speed has become the ultimate competitive advantage in iGaming,” explains Kababie. “We’re not just giving operators tools, we’re giving them the ability to outmanoeuvre competitors at a strategic level. The team that can launch a perfect tournament when a trending slot drops, or capitalise on a major sporting event in real-time, that’s the team that wins.”

Looking ahead, Groove’s roadmap promises even more disruptive innovations, including AI-driven tournament suggestions and automated optimisation algorithms. But for now, the message to the industry is clear: the tournament landscape has changed forever, and operators who hesitate will find themselves hopelessly outpaced.

Yahale Meltzer, Co-Founder and CEO of Groove, explains the strategic advantage: “For years, operators have been trapped in a cycle of slow, expensive tournament development. We’ve broken that cycle. Now when an operator sees Messi score a hat-trick or Drake tweet about a new slot, they can capitalise immediately. That agility is worth millions in today’s market.”

Perfectly incorporated into the Groove Command platform, the Instant Tournaments Tool complements a range of operator-centric innovations such as real-time analytics, automated compliance verification, and data-informed game suggestions. The user-friendly interface of the system enables operators to configure personalized rules, prize frameworks, and qualification criteria effortlessly through easy dropdown menus, eliminating the need for coding skills.

In the future, Groove has hinted at new features such as AI-driven tournament enhancement and large-scale cross-operator events. However, as Meltzer observes, “The true revolution is occurring at this moment, in the possession of operators who realize that speed is the new greatest competitive edge.”

Meltzer states, “The tournament arms race has changed permanently and Groove has just given operators the nuclear codes.”

The post Groove Rolls Out Next-Gen Instant Tournaments Solution appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.