Examples of the Analytical Tools’ Introduction in Gambling

Smart Money experts talk about business intelligence and its role in the entertainment industry. You will learn what solutions and programs can be used to effectively manage casino startups and protect them from risks and market changes.

About the Concept

BI can be described as systems and programs that collect data within the company's field of activity, create reports, and visualise the results. The gathered info is used for a variety of tasks, from the assessment of the interim results to the formation of a long-term strategy.

Today, such analytical tools are applied in many sectors of the economy, including gambling.

The concept is closely related to another IT area — big data. BI solutions also collect and process various details. After that, they are transformed into a single and understandable form.

At the same time, BI interacts with smaller amounts of insights, so here, unlike in the case of large datasets, huge computing power is not needed.

The main sources of information for algorithm analytics:

1. Cloud storage. These are Oracle Cloud, Google BigQuery, Microsoft Azure, and other web connections.
2. File systems. They include Excel, XML, PDF, etc.
3. Relational. The category contains popular databases and such visualisation tools as SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, and others.

Why Entrepreneurs Need Such Tools

The main advantages of using BI in gambling:

1. Making objective decisions. Programs of this kind provide detailed information about the entertainment product, transactions, players, and other aspects. Thanks to this, casino owners can make sound choices based on facts, not assumptions or hypotheses.
2. Optimisation of business processes. High-quality data analysis allows entrepreneurs to identify weaknesses in the work of iGaming platforms and quickly neutralise them. For example, one company needs to improve technical support. Another brand needs to change its marketing strategy and a third firm should diversify its portfolio of slot machines. All these problems can be solved using BI tools.
3. Interaction with customers. The use of business analytics allows operators to better understand the needs and preferences of clients, their behavioural patterns, and factors affecting people’s choices. Thanks to this, project owners can create personalised offers (content line-up, bonuses, and tournaments) that will definitely interest the target audience.
4. Compliance with industry trends. Special solutions can predict future tendencies in the casino and sports betting niche. Entrepreneurs can prepare in advance for upcoming market changes (in the fields of taxation, licensing, and wages), without losses or uncertainties for enterprises.
5. Reduction in operational risks. The use of BI improves the company’s risk management, allowing project owners to respond to any negative factors faster and with greater accuracy.
6. High-quality visualisation. Data is transformed into a clear form. These are comparative tables, graphs, diagrams, video presentations, and conclusions. The results of the analysis are easily accessible to users and facilitate the adoption of important decisions.
7. Innovation and growth. Interpretation of large arrays of information helps to identify points of rapid growth, develop a unified strategy, and maximise the brand’s profit. It is almost impossible to do all this without detailed analytics.

BI in Online Casinos

Let us consider what data entertainment firms focus on:

Gaming Activity Analytics

It can be used to track the following factors:

• the behaviour of users;
• the audience’s preferences;
• frequency of visits;
• time spent on the platform, and other metrics.

The obtained data allows operators to better understand the interests of their clients and identify patterns in the behaviour of all gamblers or individual customer groups.

Project owners can optimise their current offer to meet the needs of the target audience, offer personalised bonuses or promotions, and generally improve the user experience.

Reports and Metrics Management

The built-in CRM system is a gold mine of important details.

The program makes it possible to track the following KPIs:

• gross (GGR) and net (NGR) gaming revenue;
• conversion (CR);
• return on investment (ROI);
• return on marketing expenses (ROMI);
• customer lifetime value (LTV), and others.

Based on the information received, entrepreneurs can make adjustments to their business plans, forecast future income and expenditures, and change advertising strategies or partnership agreements with affiliates.

Market and Competitor Analysis

Operators can take the indicators of the largest iGaming brands in the selected segment as a basis and then compare them with their KPI metrics.

Such actions help business owners evaluate their position against competitors, highlight strengths, and identify growth opportunities.

Performance Tracking

This is a study of the technical parameters of an online casino (its individual applications, functions, or games) to identify possible failures or problems, as well as increase the fault tolerance of an iGaming project.

Thanks to this, it is possible to correctly distribute the load on the IT infrastructure at peak times (for example, holidays) and protect the website from hacker attacks.

Popular BI Tools in the Gambling Niche

Let us consider basic solutions that will be useful for entrepreneurs:

Google Tag Manager

The program offers advanced features for analysing online casino traffic. They can be easily integrated without changing the source code of the digital platform or mobile betting application.

All this makes the solution one of the most popular services in the market: it is preferred by both beginners and experienced analysts.

The system allows operators to track any activity on their gambling portals:

• clicks;
• filling out and sending forms;
• file uploads;
• scrolling;
• video views;
• conversion, etc.

Casino owners can also effectively manage all tags and codes on websites, as well as generate detailed analytics on their work.

Google Analytics

Currently, entrepreneurs have access to the fourth version of the system with a large selection of filters and advanced customisation settings.

The tool collects and processes information about:

• online traffic and its sources (search engines, instant messengers, social networks, and direct transitions);
• user behaviour (views, clicks, reels in slots, participation in tournaments);
• conversion (transitions from simple views to target actions);
• player demographics;
• devices and browsers used to log in;
• download speed;
• refusals (shut off pages without interacting with the gambling resource).

Google Analytics is an indispensable solution for developing a marketing strategy, launching advertising campaigns, and checking the results.

The program makes it possible to monitor what is going on in online casinos in dynamics, quickly evaluate the effectiveness of selected communication channels, and instantly make changes. All this simplifies and speeds up the promotion of brands. It also helps operators to get rid of unnecessary advertising costs.

Amplitude

The BI tool is used to analyse the behaviour of players inside the mobile betting application. Its main advantage is the high-quality segmentation of clients. They can be grouped by various criteria, from geography and demographics to activity in the mobile casino, as well as the number of clicks and views.

The decision to install the option will simplify the launch and tracking of the results of advertising campaigns. Besides, project owners can conduct many experiments and A/B testing to understand which changes in the design and functionality of mobile wagering apps are the most effective.

Amplitude is available in 2 versions:

• a free service with basic settings;
• a paid solution with advanced metrics.

How Market Leaders Use Business Analytics

Let us study the experience of leading gambling companies:

NetEnt

The Swedish provider uses BI tools to design proprietary slots.

Before creating each digital product, the developer carefully studies market trends, as well as the audience’s demands and interests. This includes relevant themes (fantasy, holidays, and popular film franchises), modern gameplay, and lucrative bonuses.

This approach makes NetEnt content extremely in demand: customers eagerly await it, and operators happily buy such entertainment.

The vendor provides its B2B partners with the following valuable data:

• quarterly reports on network performance;
• game performance updates;
• statistics on demographics and odds.

Paddy Power

One of the world's leading bookmakers started using BI back in 2010. The manufacturer created a scalable QlikView platform based on Microsoft SQL Server and SQL Server Integration Services.

The main advantages of the system include:

• expanded access to information;
• formation of favourable odds and tracking them over time;
• effective protection against fraud;
• control over the audience’s behaviour, and much more.

The Main Things about BI in Gambling

This tool is extremely important for the casino and sports betting industry.

Key aspects that entrepreneurs need to take into account:

• The advantages of using the service include accelerated informed decision-making, effective interaction with players, and reduced operational risks. The owners of entertainment brands can automate many processes, identify growth points, and scale their companies.
• Among the popular BI tools, we can name Google Tag Manager, Google Analytics, Amplitude, etc. They are available in free and paid versions.

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From us, you can also order the following useful services:

• games for sale and rent;
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