Interviews
Exclusive Q&A with Sujit Unni, Chief Technology Officer at Paysafe
How important are payment methods and speed of payment processing important for customer experience in online sports betting?
We talked with Sujit Unni, Chief Technology Officer at Paysafe, which had conducted a survey among US punters. He provided insightful and detailed answers on this and several other questions.
Read on for some fascinating perspectives on the past, present and future of the payment process and its role in online sports betting.
Q. Let’s start with the recent survey that Paysafe conducted among US sports bettors. What are the key takeaways from the survey?
A. Here are some of the conclusions we came to after surveying sports bettors in eight regulated US states:
Available payment methods influence players’ decision to use a brand: To fully capitalize on the growing opportunity of online sports betting, sportsbook operators should strongly focus on the player experience at the checkout. The payment methods that are available and the security of said methods are critical for players when it comes to evaluating which brand they choose to place their bets with.
Transaction security factors highly into choice of sportsbook: When asked to identify which criterion was most important when depositing funds with a sports-betting brand, bettors said the security of the transaction was more important than any other characteristic.
Easy and fast payments are critical: Just as important to players is the speed and ease with which they receive their winnings when they wish to cash out. According to four fifths (79%) of US sports bettors we surveyed, they have a negative impression of the sportsbook when their expectations related to cash out speeds aren’t met. This can result in the sportsbook taking a large reputation hit. A poor reputation spreads among players and can result in a significant brake on its growth.
The online sportsbooks themselves must be fast and efficient: It’s important to make sure the sportsbook’s payment platform is moving quickly and efficiently. The easier it is for a player to access payouts, the more likely they will be to continue using the platform. Those who adapt to these demands will position themselves well for significant growth.
Q. Everybody talks about the speed of payments. How does speed factor into the mobile process as a whole, and how does it contribute to the overall success of an online business, especially an iGaming business?
A. iGaming is changing more rapidly right now than ever before. Mobile’s role in this evolution is huge, given apps’ potential for speed and the strong relationship we’re able to build with end-users: We’re right there, in their pockets, whenever they pick up their phone.
But proximity alone is not enough. End-users will grow bored or burnt out if their experiences are slow, or if we’re not constantly offering new experiences and improving what’s already available.
Increasing the speed of our processes and the user experience is critical in that every second of load time anywhere within the app literally costs every company money, especially in iGaming, which is less of a considered purchase than traditional mobile shopping or eCommerce. iGaming customers are making fluid, real-time decisions; the more time they have to wait to get to the next step, the less patient they become and the more likely they are to drop off.
Speed is a function of many factors, and there are a number of processes that power the payments experience. We work with mobile DevOps platform Bitrise to increase the speed of all of the mobile processes that power the user experiences leading up to and including payments, as well as the behind-the-scenes operational processes that influence our ability to release updates to the app stores more frequently and faster.
The payments part of the mobile process is a particularly expensive place to be slow. Out-pacing competitors in that process is what’s creating the winners in this space.
Q. What are the ways by which Paysafe tries to accelerate its mobile processes and e-payments?
A. If you look at it from a very high level, the two primary ways we accelerate our processes and e-payments are through having the best talent and technology.
We stay competitive on the talent side by attracting and – just as importantly –
retaining the best people in the world in this space. We have been able to build on their expertise to constantly improve the speed at which we deliver value for merchants and consumers alike.
When you are investing in this level of talent, it’s important that you are not wasting their skills on things like troubleshooting, waiting around hours to test builds, or doing manual fixes to problems that could be automated. So, on the technology side, our mobile engineering teams use Bitrise to test all new code, reduce build times from hours to minutes, identify issues that might interfere with the user experience, and so on, before submitting releases to the app stores.
Our goal is to always do everything as fast as possible, without sacrificing our standards of quality and security.
Q. It looks like the ‘slow and steady’ will not win the races anymore. But could the focus on speed–especially in payment processing–be detrimental to the fraud-prevention measures?
A. Building on my last answer, it’s imperative to not sacrifice security to save time. I will say that one of the upsides of investing in technology like Bitrise is that it allows us to get the best of both worlds: Speed and security. In our mobile engineering processes, for example, Bitrise allows us to automatically run a number of security tests and checks that were previously slow, manual labour. Now they take up less time, are more consistently executed, and actually free up the team to work on innovations for our merchants and consumers. That’s not to say that there aren’t manual checks involved anymore, but those are fewer and more meaningful.
Q. Could you talk about the recent innovations that Paysafe brought to the payments ecosystem?
A. Given the nature of our business we are constantly evolving our value proposition and anchor around our philosophy of customer outcomes. We tend to think of innovation around key pillars including:
- Evolving our business to be a true cloud-based platform that supports multi-sided markets. This allows existing customers and merchants to access new features and stay engaged with our platform. The recent introduction of Openbucks, a product that allows store gift cards to be used at point of sale at other merchants in the Paysafe network, benefits customers who can now use restricted gift cards across a wider merchant base, and allows our merchants to accept a non-traditional payment method.
- Building out hybrid-business models with the wider finance eco-system through the launch of capabilities like pop-up banking with traditional banks like TSB. While serving as a revenue stream, this also allows banks like TSB to optimize their branch footprint and enables customers to access simple transactions using the Paysafe network.
We have also spearheaded a suite of embedded finance offerings with partners like Amazon and Google. Our offerings of cash to digital, digital wallets and processor agnostic payment methods makes us one of the few firms that can offer industry specific open loop and closed loop solutions.
Q. Allow me now to bring a customer perspective. What benefits do companies, especially those in the iGaming sector, gain from integrating the accelerated payment solutions of Paysafe?
A. Given our “born in gaming” origins, we believe we are one of the few payment platforms in the market that has a full suite of solutions to support both store based and online operators. This means our combination of brick and mortar, wallet, and cash solutions allow customers to seamlessly transact and play across the in-store and online offerings of our gaming merchants.
Solutions like our single integration API give our gaming merchants access to payment processing platforms that are accessible in multiple geographies through different processors, a host of local payment methods and a global network of banks. This in effect improves the customer experience and reduces revenue losses from declined transactions.
Effective risk and fraud management is a key differentiator, given the deep expertise and geographical coverage we provide the industry. Our investment in our risk and fraud infrastructure protects both merchants and customers while ensuring a seamless payments experience.
Q. The new technologies in the payment space have blurred the boundaries of national currencies to an extent. What are your thoughts on the influence of the laws and regulations of different countries on the growth of payment processes, especially for a highly regulated industry like iGaming?
A. The world is definitely a smaller place from a payments perspective today than it was five or six years back, largely enabled by the rapid adoption of disruptive technologies like blockchain, API driven ecosystems, and standardization of messaging services.
Like any financial service, payments are heavily influenced by regulation – and fortunately in a good way for the most part. Governments have been quick at recognizing how critical a scalable and democratized payments infrastructure is to drive economic growth and, as a result, we see regulation being enacted in in many markets. This is helping build out global payment ecosystems – for instance, UPI in India, Open Banking in Europe, or FedNow in the US. As this ecosystem continues to evolve, we see the emergence of trends like pay by bank and local payment methods continuing to grab market share from the card schemes, which will benefit both consumers and merchants.
iGaming is still in its infancy and, in certain markets like the US, can ride this wave of an open payments ecosystem to provide a far superior experience to its customers. Regulation in gaming is still evolving and it will look to more mature markets in Europe for insight as it starts to put in place legislation for the industry. Paysafe is leveraging its established presence in the EU to bring insight and product offerings to the US market that allow our gaming partners to not only grow their business in line with established legislation but also to build and offer products that consider future legislation that we think could be enacted.
Q. What is your take on the growth of mobile payments over the last few years?
A. Smartphones are a part of our daily lives today and are to a large degree considered indispensable. In the few years leading up to the pandemic, we were already seeing steady growth in mobile payments. The onset of the pandemic accelerated that growth by as much as 75% in some segments.
Some of the key drivers are:
The influence of digital transformation: As industry sectors, particularly financial services, have increasingly been disrupted and transformed, the mobile phone has emerged as an important customer engagement channel. As customer behavior matured to using mobile phones as a transaction medium, the need to support payments drove adoption.
The rise of emerging digital economies: The other big influence was the rise of emerging economies. India, for example, had a head start in becoming a digital economy with its population armed with mobile phones before they even had access to desktop computers. Countries like India that are supported by digital friendly government regulations, have a large unbanked population and an industry that’s very willing to provide payment and banking solutions, witnessed exponential growth in mobile payments.
Apps, wallets, and subscription services: As the number of apps hosted on Apple and Android platforms grew, people are increasingly using mobile phones to purchase a range of services, from buying tickets to ordering rides and subscription services. This adoption led to the creation of a full payment supportive ecosystem, including wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, and our own Skrill digital wallet, among others) and emerging payments volumes driven by a growing library of subscription services.
Payments continue to become easy and reliable: Having a credit or a debit card used to be the only way to make a payment on a mobile phone. However, payments have evolved to keep up with the emerging digital landscape. Today beyond these traditional payment methods, customers can pay with their bank accounts, cash, and by using over 200 local payment methods specific to geographies –which has democratized payments. That coupled with regulation to promote open banking systems and reliable real-time payments as well as faster payment infrastructure has helped drive the surge of mobile payments.
Increasingly secure and safe transactions: Wherever there is a financial transaction there is also the risk of fraud. Because of this, mobile phones have evolved to continually make transactions both convenient and safe. Whether it’s by using face ID, biometrics or contactless payments, the ability of the manufacturers to deliver secure payments was critical in driving the wider adoption of mobile payments.
Q. Let’s conclude with something about the future. Could you reveal some of the changes that you foresee coming in the mobile space? What about the payments sector?
A. With app store operators seeing pressure from governments around the world to loosen their grips on the mobile ecosystem – especially in terms of payments – we expect to see some massive changes soon.
Alternative app stores that allow more app choices for end-users and more payment processing choices for app store publishers are benefitting both merchants and consumers.
Additionally, we expect the consumer’s need for speed to increase even further, widening the divide between those businesses that can deliver on this expectation and those that can’t.
We’re confident that, between the talent of our team and partners like Bitrise, we’ll land on the right side of that divide.
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Following his appointment as Chief Product Officer at iGaming software pioneer Tequity, industry veteran Alex Scott outlines his vision for the company’s expanding product suite. With over 20 years of leadership experience, including driving WPT Global to become the world’s second-largest online poker room, he shares his insights on how Tequity’s approach is redefining both the games players enjoy and the way they are distributed.
You have held senior leadership roles at major operators and suppliers. What convinced you to join Tequity, and what are your main priorities as CPO?
Tequity is a business that I’ve admired since I first became aware of it. In that time I’ve heard so many positive things about how the company is able to move very quickly and decisively, while still delivering ultra high quality products for its partners. When I started interviewing for the position and meeting the people involved, that only reinforced the positive impression I had. It was clear to me that this was a company that is at the forefront of innovation in the iGaming space, creating and delivering content that is fresh and exciting.
My priority as CPO is to further accelerate the development of top-quality products that are highly relevant to today’s players. I’m excited to roll up my sleeves and get stuck in – there are so many possibilities!
Tequity recently secured BMM Testlabs certification for its RNG and the first batch of Originals titles. How does that accelerate your product roadmap?
This certification will open up many more potential customers for Tequity, and therefore many more opportunities for businesses to take advantage of Tequity’s services, like our bespoke Exclusives and our top-performing Originals. Operators fighting for market share are always looking for those added-value elements that can set them apart from the competition and our fully brandable, customisable and feature-packed content offers that key point of difference.
It will also enable the studios using our RGS and Publishing solutions to widen their own distribution and reach many more potential customers as well – just another reason to choose our RGS. We have seen the strong demand for our games and solutions from partners all over the world, and we believe that this appetite will be more than matched by operators in the regulated market space.
Finally, it represents s a step towards a wider regulated market expansion which I am excited to be involved in.
Player preferences are moving decisively toward fast-paced, community-driven experiences. How do Tequity’s game divisions cater to this next generation of player engagement?
One of the things that sets Tequity apart is that the company truly understands what the modern generation of players are looking for. They are discovering online casino in a very different way to past generations, and require simpler, easier to understand, more socially-driven content if you want their full attention. Today’s players expect instant gratification and seamless, mobile-first experiences that fit into their fast-paced lifestyles. They also want gameplay to feel like less of a solitary activity and more of a shared event.
Having spent recent months immersed in casino game development for the crypto generation, I’m really looking forward to contributing to these efforts and having an impact of my own.
You will be joining the Tequity team at iGB Live in London next month. What is the key takeaway you want operators and studios to leave with?
As the newest Tequity signing, I’m looking forward to meeting the rest of the team and many of our partners and customers at iGB Live.
Tequity is an extremely fast and capable company that builds high-quality, interesting products at the cutting-edge of the industry. My hope is that operators and studios leave the event understanding our expertise and capabilities. But I also want them to leave with a sense of the enthusiasm and passion that we have for building great games that stand out from the crowd.
The post Q&A with Tequity’s new Chief Product Officer Alex Scott appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Check out our latest Q&A w/ Robert Miller, President, Kiron North America.
Everyone is talking about the opportunity presented to the North American market by the World Cup. Just how big an opportunity do you believe it is? And what is the size of this opportunity for virtual sports?
For live sports betting, the World Cup is one of the biggest opportunities available. It drives significant betting volume, attracts new customers and creates moments of engagement that few sporting events can match. For virtual sports, the opportunity is different. The World Cup can help introduce new players to a broader betting ecosystem, but virtual sports are not dependent on major tournaments to succeed. Their real strength is providing consistent engagement throughout the year. While the tournament creates a short term surge in activity, the long term opportunity lies in offering customers engaging experiences every day, not just during major events.
Events like the World Cup present a huge demand for content from operators. How can virtual sports help operators in North America during these times?
Live matches will always be the centrepiece of the World Cup experience and rightly so. However, operators also need ways to keep customers engaged between matches and throughout the wider tournament journey. Virtual sports complement live betting by providing continuous entertainment and additional touchpoints when there is no live action available. The greatest value comes when virtuals are integrated into a broader engagement strategy that keeps players connected to the platform before, during and after major sporting events.
The North American market has been maturing significantly in the last few years, does a tournament as big as the World Cup showcase the strength of the market? Or highlight the flaws in its set-up?
It does both. The strength of the market is clear in the scale of customer participation and the growing appetite for sports betting experiences. Major tournaments demonstrate just how much demand exists. At the same time, they highlight one of the industry’s biggest challenges: retention. Many operators are highly successful at attracting customers during major events, but maintaining engagement afterwards remains a key focus. Long term success will come from building experiences that keep players engaged throughout the year, not just during peak sporting moments.
North American sports fans have a very different relationship with football compared to European or Latin American audiences. How does that affect the way virtual football products need to be positioned or presented in this market?
Product positioning needs to reflect the realities of the local audience. Football continues to grow in North America, but it does not yet have the same cultural position it enjoys in many other regions. For that reason, virtual football products should focus on accessibility, entertainment and ease of engagement. Players respond to experiences that are intuitive, fast paced and easy to understand. The emphasis should be on delivering continuous action and a compelling user experience rather than relying solely on familiarity with the sport itself.
The World Cup has a jam-packed schedule and the North American sports calendar is one of the most packed in the world. With so much live content available, how do you make the case for virtual sports to operators who believe they already have enough sports action to offer?
The conversation is not about choosing between live sports and virtual sports. The most effective operators recognise that the two can work together. Live sports naturally create periods of inactivity between events, while different player segments engage with content in different ways. Virtual sports fill those gaps and create additional opportunities for interaction. When positioned correctly, they enhance the overall entertainment offering rather than compete with live sports.
When the World Cup has finished, what is the lasting impact on virtual sports in North America and how do providers ensure they do not lose any momentum they have gained?
The lasting impact comes from what operators do with the attention generated during the tournament. Major sporting events create opportunities to introduce new customers to products and experiences they may not have explored previously. Maintaining momentum requires strong operational integration, seamless customer journeys and products that continue to deliver value long after the tournament ends. Providers that focus on year round engagement rather than short term spikes will be best positioned to benefit.
The post How Virtual Sports Can Help Shape The North American Market During and After the World Cup appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
2026 FIFA World Cup
Roundtable – More than just a Match: How Can Online Casinos Benefit from Increased FIFA World Cup Traffic
Participants
David Nilsen, Editor-in-Chief, Kongebonus
Yoni Sidi, CEO at Winpot.mx
Edvardas Sadovskis, CPO at ICONIC21
Summary
The 2026 FIFA World Cup begins this June, and it is set to create one of the biggest acquisition opportunities the iGaming industry has witnessed. Naturally, all of the attention this summer will turn to sportsbooks, but with many operators also offering online casinos, how can they ensure that their casinos benefit from this football-driven traffic increase?
The opportunity is real, but so is the risk of missing it. Many casual bettors will be signing up for a summer of betting action, and this represents a new, untapped audience for online casinos. However, converting sports bettors into online casino players, and vice versa, is a notoriously difficult challenge, and it is one many operators will be hoping to overcome this summer.
For this roundtable, we’ve brought together a panel of experts from different sectors of the industry to explore how online casinos can take advantage of this opportunity, what kind of casino content interests sports bettors, and more.
With millions of new sports bettors expected to sign up, what can operators do to make the most of this window?
David Nilsen, Editor-in-Chief, Kongebonus
The goal is simple. Get people active and keep them active for the whole tournament, not just one match. The audience is genuinely there. Deutsche Bank reckons US handle alone lands somewhere between 2.5 and 4.1 billion dollars, more than double Qatar 2022. But a clean, fast sign-up is everything. These are casual punters.
They will abandon a long registration mid-game, so any friction at deposit, KYC or withdrawal costs you the customer on the spot. Once they are in, that is where you open up the cross-sell into a casino and live casino.
At Kongebonus we see this with our Norwegian audience every tournament. The mistake most operators make is treating the sign-up as the win. It is not. It is just the door. The actual work is giving someone a reason to come back for the next match day, and the one after that.
Yoni Sidi, CEO at Winpot.mx
The sign-up moment is everything. Onboarding flows need to surface casino products immediately, and welcome offers should reward exploration across both verticals from day one.
New registrants during a tournament are impulse-driven, and the window between matches is prime casino time. Operators need automated triggers that capitalise on those gaps. This means post-match lobby pushes, half-time promos, and next-day re-engagement.
KYC and payment friction will kill conversion faster than any competitor, so operators who have invested in fast verification and instant withdrawals will win the acquisition battle.
And don’t treat it as a pure volume play. Segmenting new users early allows for smarter casino cross-sell from the very start.
Edvardas Sadovskis, CPO at ICONIC21
The market will be saturated with promotions, that’s a given. Providers should go beyond the standard offer and think carefully about how they build their promotions to fit their operator partners needs: the mechanics, the timing, the creative execution, and crucially, how well it reflects the season.
At ICONIC21, personalization is at the core of what we offer, and the FIFA World Cup is exactly where that capability becomes a real competitive differentiator. We can move quickly to adapt games and content to a specific theme and audience profile. Football Cup Roulette, Football Cup Blackjack 360, Football Cup Gravity Blackjack are all examples of that in practice. Operators don’t need to rely on generic, off-the-shelf content during one of the biggest acquisition windows of the year. The technology and the partnerships exist to do something genuinely distinctive. The question is how operators choose to use them.
What have previous tournaments taught us about how sports bettors interact with casino products, and how can the industry prepare?
David Nilsen, Editor-in-Chief, Kongebonus
We have learned that cross-selling into casino is genuinely hard, and most operators reach for the easy route. Halftime free spins. You will see them everywhere this summer. There is nothing wrong with that. A free-spin offer while someone is already logged in is a sensible nudge. But be realistic about who these people are.
Most FIFA World Cup traffic is occasional punters who log in, stick a tenner on Norway or a correct score, and move on hoping for the best. Research shows this type often does not know the sector’s vocabulary and will not sit through a long process mid-match. So the lesson is straightforward. Do your retention work while they are actually active and engaged. That window is short. Once the match ends, the attention is gone, and no amount of clever follow-up brings it back.
Yoni Sidi, CEO at Winpot.mx
Euro 2020 and Qatar 2022 both showed the same pattern – casino engagement spikes on match days. The gap days are where operators lose people.
Live casino consistently outperforms slots during tournaments because it mirrors the event feeling of watching a match.
The clearest lesson is that operators who built cross-sell journeys before the tournament started outperformed those who reacted in real time.
Loyalty and gamification mechanics that ran across both verticals – a FIFA World Cup leaderboard rewarding sports and casino play alike – showed meaningful uplift.
It’s important to understand that the preparation window matters more than in-tournament creativity.
Edvardas Sadovskis, CPO at ICONIC21
What past tournaments consistently show is that the boundaries between verticals are more permeable than we sometimes assume. A player who arrives through sportsbook during a major tournament is not necessarily a sportsbook-only player forever. Context and theme play an enormous role in where attention goes.
Cross-sell remains one of the most valuable and underutilized levers in the industry. During this season, actually all verticals matter, and operators who maintain a healthy, well-curated mix of live casino, slots, and RNG content alongside their sportsbook offering, if available, are the ones best positioned to capture that wider engagement.
The theme itself does a lot of the work. Football enthusiasm creates a mood and that mood travels across verticals. Players who might not ordinarily gravitate toward a slot or a live table will engage with one that feels connected to the moment they’re already excited about. The industry’s job is to make that journey feel natural.
How do casino-first operators stay visible and relevant when sportsbook brands dominate the tournament?
David Nilsen, Editor-in-Chief, Kongebonus
Honestly, this worry is a little overblown. Casino-first players stay casino-first players. If they fancy a FIFA World Cup bet, they already know exactly where to find it, so you do not need to fight hard to cross-sell them. And here is what people forget. If a big operator runs a huge sportsbook campaign and that same player already uses their casino, the player is being reminded of the brand, not lost to it. Nobody suddenly forgets what an operator does just because the marketing went football-flavoured for a month. So, casino-first brands should not panic and try to out-shout the sportsbooks. Stay true to the product. Lean into what makes you different.
Trust that your audience knows you. The summer noise fades by July. Your core proposition should not move an inch while everyone else is shouting about Mbappé.
Yoni Sidi, CEO at Winpot.mx
Casino-first operators shouldn’t try to out-shout sportsbooks on football, because they’ll lose that battle on media spend.
The smarter play is owning the moments between matches and positioning casino as the entertainment layer around the tournament, not a competitor to it. Influencer and affiliate channels that are casino-native can carry the brand without getting drowned out in sports media noise.
But the real weapon is CRM. Direct-to-player communication doesn’t compete with broadcast budgets, and a well-timed push notification at 10pm after the final whistle will outperform a TV spot every time.
Edvardas Sadovskis, CPO at ICONIC21
Relevance comes from keeping content fresh, timely, and specific and that’s where well-structured promotions earn their place. They represent content engines and player acquisition tools. The entire technical setup of the promotion shapes how a provider’s portfolio feels to a player during a tournament window.
We’re running the ICONIC Showdown football cup tournament across 11 of our games, with a particular focus on our limited-time personalized titles: Football Cup Roulette, Football Cup Blackjack 360, Football Cup Gravity Blackjack and The Kickoff. Alongside the promotion, we’ve launched Soccer World Championship, a football-themed slot designed to encourage natural cross-play between verticals.
Casino-first operators don’t need to compete with sportsbook on sportsbook’s terms. They need to offer an experience that’s thematically connected to the season while playing to the strengths of their own offerings.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup spans three countries and multiple time zones. How does the fragmented schedule affect preparation, and can content counter it?
David Nilsen, Editor-in-Chief, Kongebonus
The schedule is the single biggest challenge for us in the Nordics, and also the biggest opportunity. With matches landing late at night or at odd hours, the Norwegian fan is often watching alone. Partner asleep, no one to react with. That gap is exactly what we built the Kongebonus World Cup hub around, what we are calling the home of the second screen. It centres on a live, moderated chat where fans follow the action together, share predictions and react in real time, alongside a free Pick’em game and a leaderboard. From a content angle, the answer to a fragmented schedule is not more odds. It is connection. Give people somewhere to actually be during those midnight kick-offs and the awkward time zones stop being a reason to switch off. They become a reason to show up.
Yoni Sidi, CEO at Winpot.mx
With matches running across the USA, Canada, and Mexico, there’s no clean primetime window. Kick-offs will be spread from early afternoon through late evening, depending on the market.
Honestly, this is an opportunity for casino. There will always be a gap in any time zone where no match is live, and smart promotion scheduling around local match times can fill those windows.
For operators serving Latin American markets – particularly relevant given Mexico’s co-hosting – the operational challenge is CRM.
Campaigns need to be time-zone aware. A blanket broadcast approach will underperform, which means timing localisation is as important as language localisation.
Edvardas Sadovskis, CPO at ICONIC21
The fragmented schedule is actually less of a constraint than it might appear because not everything needs to be tied directly to a specific match time or result. The atmosphere and the theme carry their own power, and content that captures that energy will perform regardless of which time zone a player is in.
Our approach with the ICONIC Showdown reflects that thinking. We’re running the promotion from the 9th to the 19th of July, aligning with the quarter-finals, semi-finals, and the final. Those are the moments that carry the most weight emotionally and commercially. That gives players a meaningful window to engage at their own pace, rather than chasing a narrow match-by-match timeline.
There’s also a practical advantage to this approach: a lot of providers are running activations across the entire tournament period, including the build-up. By focusing on the decisive phase, we’re competing on quality of moment rather than volume of coverage and giving the promotion room to breathe.
What casino content will perform best, and are operators treating casino and sportsbook players as one connected audience?
David Nilsen, Editor-in-Chief, Kongebonus
If your cross-sell strategy is a tired football-themed slot, it will not work. It is lazy and players see straight through it. And please, do not just default to Starburst either. The way to actually turn a football crowd into casino play is to put your best content in front of them. The most genuinely fun, highest-quality slots you have, football-themed or not. People do not engage with a mediocre game because it has a ball on the reels. They engage with a great game. So yes, treat them as one connected audience, but respect them as one.
The connected-audience thinking only pays off if the product on the other side is something a person would actually choose to play. Quality is the cross-sell. The theme is just decoration, and decoration has never retained anybody.
Yoni Sidi, CEO at Winpot.mx
Football-themed slots are the obvious answer, but the honest truth is most underdeliver.
The studios doing it well are building mechanic-first games that happen to carry a football skin, not the other way around.
Live casino, particularly game shows, is the format most likely to resonate with sports bettors, because they provide real-time, social, high-energy action that feels closest to watching a match.
The harder truth is that the industry remains largely siloed, with separate CRM journeys, separate bonus budgets, and separate teams. The player doesn’t see two products.
The ones who will win this summer are those with a unified player view who serve casino as a natural extension of the sports experience.
Edvardas Sadovskis, CPO at ICONIC21
Themed content will lead. Players respond to content that reflects the moment they’re living in, and football is one of the few cultural events that cuts across demographics broadly enough to work across all verticals simultaneously.
Our power lies in the breadth of what we offer: live casino, slots, and RNG games, representing three verticals that each bring something distinct to a player’s experience, and that together create a genuinely comprehensive product environment for operators. During the World Cup, we are using exactly that mix.
On the question of treating casino and sportsbook players as a connected audience, the reality is that the audiences will remain largely distinct in their primary behaviours. But they can absolutely be united by theme, by atmosphere, and by an experience that makes movement between verticals feel intuitive.
How can operators balance short-term acquisition with long-term retention after the tournament ends?
David Nilsen, Editor-in-Chief, Kongebonus
Be sober about this. Long-term retention is always the hard part at a mega-event. Huge numbers of occasional players come in, have two or three bets on their country, and they are gone. That is just the nature of it.
Spamming them afterwards genuinely does not work. The real strategy is to use the active window to show a product worth returning to, then plant a hook into the future. Get them to place a season-long outright on the next Premier League or Champions League, or a bet on the opening weekend with a small reward attached. Optimove found 65 percent of US bettors plan to keep wagering even after their team is knocked out, so the appetite to stay is there. You will not turn most occasional punters into casino regulars. That is a fantasy. But you can become the operator they instinctively return to next time.
Yoni Sidi, CEO at Winpot.mx
The biggest mistake is building welcome offers that are purely sports-focused – you acquire a sports bettor, and that’s all you ever have.
Structured onboarding that introduces casino in week one, not week five, is critical. First-session casino exposure, even light-touch, significantly improves 90-day retention across both verticals.
Retention mechanics also need to outlast the tournament itself. A World Cup loyalty campaign that ends after the final leaves players with nothing to stay for.
The programme needs a natural handover, such as seasonal sports, ongoing casino promotions and VIP pathways.
LTV modelling should reflect the reality that a player who touches both verticals in their first 30 days is worth multiples of a single-vertical player. That should be driving investment decisions, not treated as a nice-to-have.
Edvardas Sadovskis, CPO at ICONIC21
It’s worth broadening the frame. It’s equally about an operator’s existing, loyal casino audience, who arrive at a World Cup window expecting something seasonal and new players, maybe coming from competitors or sportsbook-only platforms to join a promotion.
Short-term promotional content that performs well during the tournament doesn’t have to disappear. A limited-edition live table can remain in the lobby after the promotion ends reverting to its standard theme and continuing to serve as a player favorite.
That thinking is what separates acquisition-focused operators from retention-focused ones. The FIFA World Cup creates the spike. Smart content strategy and a well-structured lobby are what convert that spike into sustained engagement across all the verticals.
The post Roundtable – More than just a Match: How Can Online Casinos Benefit from Increased FIFA World Cup Traffic appeared first on EE Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
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