Episode #3 - Why Players Come Back and Why Big Prize Campaigns Work

This article covers the player retention segment from episode 3 of Legacy Makers, the weekly iGaming brief from the Legacy Builders Podcast, where our founder Laurent Zachar joined the show again to discuss industry news. This piece covers the three things that bring players back to a casino, how a small operator can offer all three, and why big end-of-year prize campaigns work for both online and land-based casinos. The full episode is embedded below.

• The three things that bring players back
• How a small operator can cover all three
• Why Teslas and iPhones beat plain cash prizes
• Where the prize money comes from
• Why land-based casinos spend so much on events
• How an online casino can create the same excitement
• FAQ

The three things that bring players back

The episode opened with a Yogonet report on Infingame, an iGaming aggregator, which named achievement, competition and anticipation as the three key motivations behind casino engagement. Infingame ties them to three tools: Challenges for achievement, Tournaments for competition and Jackpots for anticipation. Its COO, Dmytro Kryvorchuk, put the takeaway this way:

There is no universal engagement mechanic because there is no universal reason why players engage.

Laurent agreed with the framing and added his own ranking:

There are three elements. One is achievement: you want to achieve something when you’re gambling. Then there’s competition, because you want to be better than others. And the last one is anticipation. I think anticipation is the number one criterion out of those three, but that’s my personal opinion.

He said every online casino today covers these three, and the good ones do it better than the rest. He tied each element to a feature players already know:

You need challenges, for example, and this is what creates the achievement feeling. Let’s say you come back ten days in a row. That’s a challenge, and you get a small hit of dopamine. Then you have tournaments and leaderboards, which are the competition. And then you have jackpots, which create the emotions we’ve been talking about.

Asked why this matters for a brand-new casino, he used a car comparison:

If you miss one of these elements, your brand is not going to be successful. It’s the same as building a car and forgetting the motor. The car is not going to go very far. Those three elements are what makes players come back, so if you don’t have them, there’s no point.

How a small operator can cover all three

The next question was how a small operator can offer all three without a big CRM team. Laurent’s answer was to buy the tooling instead of building it. He said this is one reason Whitelabels.com sits at number one in our ranking, and he pointed to what other platforms charge:

Some of the online casino platforms simply wanted to charge more for all of those elements, like the CRM, the Happy Hour, the airdrop.

His own pick was Whitelabels.com, at a $99 setup fee and a 20% revenue share. His advice for a first-time operator was about limiting risk:

If it’s the first time you try it, I would not put 100k on the table to try this. I would just go with Whitelabels.com and have it ready in a day, just to get a start.

Check the exact packaging before you plan around the full feature list. The base platform includes a CRM and a free Jackpot tier. Tournaments, Challenges and Happy Hour sit in optional gamification tiers on top, as our Whitelabels.com review breaks down.

To compare what each platform includes, use our list of five platforms with built-in tournament and gamification tools.

Why Teslas and iPhones beat plain cash prizes

The hosts then brought up Bloomberry Resorts, which gave players Teslas and iPhones in an end-of-year campaign. Laurent tied the answer back to the three elements from the start of the episode:

Promotions trigger two of those elements. Number one, achievement: you want something. And number two, anticipation: you’re about to win something. Online casinos are not charity. They only do things that bring them revenue.

His point on why a car beats cash is about marketing, not the prize itself. In his example a Tesla costs about 30k, so a 30k cash prize is the same money. The car is easier to sell:

You can make much more advertising. You can show someone driving the Tesla, you can film him coming to a big place and getting it. You can make much more material with it.

The follow-up question was whether a small casino can run something similar without a big budget. Laurent was honest about the limit, then gave an option:

It’s difficult to give a Tesla if you don’t have the budget for a Tesla. However, I know that on casino software such as Whitelabels.com, you can still have some proper VIP management. You can say, this guy is really playing a lot, so we’re going to send some flowers to his wife. Or if he’s playing a specific amount, he gets to go to a football game in a specific stadium.

Where the prize money comes from

The hosts also mentioned Sycuan Casino Resort in El Cajon, California, which is giving away $1 million in cash and prizes for its 43rd anniversary in November. The prizes include two Mercedes-Benz cars and a $650,000 bingo game. Laurent used it to make a point that applies to online and land-based casinos alike:

Those companies are not charity. You should never think, okay, you won this for free. Either those prizes are funded by what other players lost, or they’re funded by what you lost.

His example for high rollers was blunt:

If you’re a VIP and they fly you in a private jet to Vegas and give you a free villa, you have to keep in mind that at the end of the year they look at it: for this VIP, we spent two million in entertainment, and he lost only one million with us. Do you think they’re going to do the same for you next year? Absolutely not.

He added that he likes gambling himself, and he was clear about the trade-off:

No casino is operated for charity. All casinos are operated for profit, and you always have to remember this. You always have to know where the money is coming from. That’s the most important. I like gambling myself, and I know it’s a little bit against me, but this is part of the business.

Why land-based casinos spend so much on events

Asked why land-based casinos put so much money into events, Laurent said the payoff is free press coverage:

It’s physical, so you can invite a lot of journalists and make press releases. If you do your job well, all the journalists in your region pick it up and take nice pictures. Maybe you invite a TV team, and it’s just free advertising. It also shows that you’re a trustworthy operation, because you’re paying your winnings.

A wire transfer to a winner makes no story. A winner collecting a car in front of cameras does, and the winner can say how much fun it was. In his view the giveaway works as an advertising budget, and online operators should copy the idea:

I recommend operations do those physical wins, because it gives you PR that you can use afterwards.

How an online casino can create the same excitement

Laurent said an online operator has two routes. The first is built into the software. He listed what Whitelabels.com offers:

They have a tournament function, airdrop function, Happy Hour function, jackpot function, and challenges where you can challenge your friends. So this is one way to create the excitement digitally.

The second route is to pick your biggest players and give them an experience worth filming. His example was a Mexican operator:

Say you run an operation in Mexico, and there’s a Grand Prix in Mexico. How about you give your biggest player three or four tickets, but he has to come on camera and say he’s happy that Casino XYZ invited him? Then you can use it as free PR in the Mexican media and on your social. It shows real people’s faces, so people feel it’s a reliable brand.

An offer like this works best when it fits the market. Our guide to games and payments by country covers how players in different markets play and pay, which is the starting point for a local campaign.

FAQ

What are the three things that bring casino players back?

Achievement, competition and anticipation. In the episode they map to challenges and daily streaks, tournaments and leaderboards, and jackpots. Laurent ranks anticipation first, though he calls that his personal opinion, and he says a brand missing any one of the three will struggle.

Why do casinos give away cars and phones instead of cash?

Laurent’s answer is marketing value. A car or phone triggers achievement and anticipation, and it gives the casino footage and press material that a cash transfer does not. In his example a Tesla costs about the same as a 30k cash prize.

Where does casino prize money come from?

Laurent says it comes from player losses, either from other players or from the winner. He points out that a casino tracks what it spends on a VIP against what that VIP lost, so lavish treatment one year does not guarantee the same the next.

Can a small online casino run big campaigns without a big budget?

Yes, on a smaller scale. Laurent points to platform tools like tournaments, jackpots and challenges, plus VIP gestures and event tickets for top players, filmed with their permission and used as PR.

Where can I watch the full episode?

The complete episode is embedded above, and also available on YouTube directly. It’s the third episode of Legacy Makers, the weekly iGaming news segment on the Legacy Builders Podcast channel, following on from episode two’s regulatory roundup and our founder’s original two-part interview. The rest of the episode, on anti-fraud friction, stablecoins and prediction markets, is in part two.