Online gaming and gambling have become one of the most lucrative industries in the world, experiencing constant growth and gaining more and more players each year. But does that happen? The industry is adapting fast to the times and taking advantage of big data analytics, data visualization tools, and smart marketing to give players what they want.
Data visualization tools are compelling. They can help shape the individual betting experience and enhance betting confidence among players. Additionally, it can maximize the advertising efforts of operators and play a significant role in the online gaming industry. This may not be important to players, but for operators it’s imperative they use data to learn about player behavior and how it translates to the future of the industry so they can improve their marketing efforts and grow revenue.
Big Data – The Cornerstone of Good Marketing
To enhance the online gaming experience for players, operators always collect data. They do so in a safe and legal manner, ensuring their players’ privacy is not violated in any way because they are under intense scrutiny from governments and other regulatory bodies. But how do they collect data? The truth is, as soon as a player opens an account, the operator starts recording basic data, such as gender, age, and location, then, through continuous monitoring of the player’s activity, additional data is collected. All of this data, including, the time of day a player prefers, the length of their visit, the games they favor, deeper insights line win-to-loss ratio, changes of online behavior after a win or loss, and more, is collected into a profile which forms the player’s online persona.
One of the main reasons operators collect players’ data is so they can create marketing campaigns that will help enhance user experience and boost players’ betting confidence. When the operators have an overview of the types of games that are most popular, or which games are losing traction, they can adjust their selection and advertise the games to bring the most revenue.
Beyond Advertising – Using Data to Boost Gaming
Data analytics in online gaming and gambling goes beyond creating all-encompassing campaigns. Even though such campaigns play a significant role, gathering information and statistics on an individual level is becoming far more important. Online venues are recognizing that individually customized gaming experience is creating customer loyalty. And tracking big data is what enables them to determine which promotions and bonuses are more appealing to specific players, as well as which games are more popular to different demographics.
Once the information is collected and analyzed, operators can create individual campaigns for loyal customers and offer them a tailored experience. Additionally, operators are noticing that platforms that have integrated services like new communication features, achievements, reward systems, and gameplay statistics, and all kinds of tracking a visualization of their gameplay is encouraging players to play and spend more. Interestingly enough, leaderboards, achievements, badges and other forms of visible progress are becoming essential components of online gaming.
But players are also starting to understand the value of data and starting to take advantage of data analytics as well. Online gaming sites are aware, and they use the power of data to offer players better odds, more jackpots, and higher winning chances. And players love this, but they do not limit the use of data only on one platform. This is especially the case with poker. Numerous sites keep track of statistics from poker games around the world. Smart online poker players are using the statistics to track the odds so they can play more games where winning odds are higher.
Another way operator’s use data to enhance players’ betting confidence, especially in skill based betting games, is allowing players to monitor their scores outside the gaming platforms, discuss their results, analyze and adjust their playing strategies. All the play analytics and data visuals are focused on the player as an audience so that players can view all types of statistics and visualizations of their gameplay data and achievements. Moreover, the players don’t need expert knowledge to be able to understand the data visualizations. The interesting thing here is that data visualizations have a catalytic effect on players, especially when going through a winning streak – players are encouraged to play more, for more extended periods of time.
Data Visualization for Better Player Experience
The use of specific data and presenting it in a useful and attractive manner, enabling players to track their playing stats and track the odds, in addition to good marketing, has become one of the most important things in both, game design and customers experience. Online gaming platforms can now offer a tailored experience for each player.
While this is now becoming the new norm for online gaming, there are still many sites that can’t utilize big data to improve playing experience on an individual level. But one thing is certain, use of big data and data visualization tools are inevitably going to take over the gaming world since it is changing the way players approach gaming and has an even stronger impact on players than traditional marketing.
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