“iGaming operators have always been at the forefront of personalization”

Can you share a bit about your professional journey and what led you to your current role at Optimove?

I began my professional journey two decades ago, always focused on product management. In my first ten years, I worked across diverse industries, including aerospace and drones, homeland security, and automotive. For the past decade, I’ve specialized in Marketing Technology.

Before joining Optimove, I served as the VP of Product at a B2B marketing automation company, where our clients included professional sports teams in the US and Europe.

When I joined Optimove nearly six years ago, I initially focused on the Betting and iGaming industry, as Optimove is the #1 CRM Marketing platform in this sector. In the past few years, I have expanded my industry knowledge as our company has become a significant player in the retail sector, representing brands like Staples, Sephora, SodaStream, and others.

A year ago, I relocated to the U.S. when I took on the additional role of General Manager of Optimove’s Americas operations. My diverse experience with clients from a broad range of industries and regions has sharpened my skills in product strategy and design, enabling me to integrate ideas and concepts to effectively meet the needs of the leading brands who are our clients.

How do you see the role of personalization evolving in the iGaming industry, and what impact does it have on player retention and engagement?

iGaming operators have always been at the forefront of personalization, and it’s safe to say that today’s marketers know that batch-and-blast is a thing of the past. And now, with the combination of higher-than-ever customer expectations, fierce competition and the importance of safety and social responsibility, we believe that brands must adopt data-centric and AI-powered decision-making as a core to driving highly personalized player experience strategies.

We think about personalization as a four-level process:

1. Segmentation: The foundation of our personalization strategy begins with determining which segments a player falls into. This emphasizes our “start with the customer” approach. By understanding the unique characteristics and behaviors of each customer and each segment, we can more effectively tailor our interactions to meet the specific needs and desires of different players.
2. Campaign Targeting: Once segments are defined, the next step is to determine which campaign a player should be targeted with out of all their eligible options. Remember, as you scale your personalization across lifecycle campaigns and journeys, behavior triggers, special events and so on, the more segments and campaigns you create, and players become eligible to multiple campaigns and offers at the same time. Here, AI-powered decision-making plays a crucial role in prioritizing the best campaigns for each player while excluding players from lower-priority campaigns. Importantly, this decision-making isn’t solely driven by short-term revenue goals but is increasingly based on customer experience (CX) KPIs, long-term lifetime value (LTV) and profit margins. This shift ensures that personalization strategies contribute to sustainable growth and player satisfaction.
3. Offer and Channel Selection: Within the selected campaign, we then decide which specific offer or promotion a player should receive and through which channel(s). This step goes beyond simple consent and preference management; it also considers the need to avoid outdated approaches like traditional A/B testing, where “the winner takes it all.” Instead, we focus on continuous optimization techniques that reflect the dynamic nature of player preferences and assign each player with the specific offer that most resonates with them.
4. Last-Mile Content Personalization: Finally, within the campaign variant, we implement last-mile content personalization. This includes using personalization tags, conditional language, and dynamic real-time personalized content or AI recommendations. These elements ensure that every interaction feels uniquely tailored to the individual player, enhancing the overall engagement and experience.

One key area where our approach truly shines is in “generosity optimization.” This concept involves fine-tuning the level of generosity offered to each player, whether through bonuses, promotions, or other incentives, based on their specific behaviors, preferences, and predicted lifetime value. By leveraging advanced data analytics and AI, operators can offer the right level of generosity to each player and automatically optimize it over time.

For example, some NFL buffs may not need much incentive to engage with your brand during NFL season, but as soon as NFL season ends AI will notice their engagement level drops, and automatically prioritize higher generosity offers to them. This continuous optimization strategy not only enhances the player experience but also significantly improves profitability for operators, creating a win-win scenario that drives both player loyalty and business success.

It is important to note that when discussing highly personalized experiences, maintaining symmetric messaging across channels is crucial. For example, you wouldn’t want your players to engage with a specific email, only to click through and be caught in an entirely different A/B test running on your website serving different content. This creates a disjointed experience and undermines all your hard work on personalization. By orchestrating from a single tool, we ensure that players receive consistent and coordinated messages, regardless of the channel they interact with. This not only strengthens the brand experience but also deepens player engagement and improves retention.

Can you explain the importance of segmentation in the iGaming market and how it differs from other industries?

Segmentation in the iGaming market is vital and distinct from other industries due to the unique behaviors, preferences, and engagement patterns of players.

Unlike more transactional markets like e-commerce, iGaming is driven by intense emotional experiences associated with winning and losing, requiring real-time, personalized messaging to sustain engagement and build loyalty. The frequent and high-intensity nature of player interactions within gaming sessions also generates vast amounts of data, making it more challenging to accurately understand player behaviors and preferences.

Additionally, iGaming is a highly promotional industry, where bonuses, offers, and incentives are often used to attract and retain players. Proper segmentation plays a crucial role here, as it allows operators to target promotions more effectively, offering the right incentives to the right players. This not only enhances the player experience but also helps save money and improve profit margins by preventing the overuse of promotions and ensuring that marketing efforts are both relevant and cost-efficient.

Advanced segmentation tools, powered by AI, enable operators to dynamically adjust strategies based on real-time data, ensuring that marketing efforts remain highly relevant and effective. This targeted approach not only maximizes engagement and retention but also contributes to a more sustainable and profitable business model. These factors underscore why segmentation is not only more critical but also more complex in the iGaming industry compared to other sectors.

Could you describe the typical process of how Optimove collaborates with its clients to develop and implement marketing strategies?

At Optimove, we collaborate with clients through a structured and comprehensive approach that ensures they not only benefit from our technology and products but also from a wide range of services that maximize the value of their investment. Our process includes several key steps:

1. Technical Integration and Onboarding: We start by facilitating a seamless integration and onboarding process. This includes the ingestion of all relevant data sources into our CRM Marketing platform, integrating with the operator’s bonus engine, and assisting with the implementation of our web and/or mobile SDKs and API. We also set up campaign execution channels, empowering marketing teams to independently access data, insights, segmentation, promotion assignment, and campaign execution and analysis. This foundational setup is critical to ensuring operators can fully leverage our technology.
2. Customer Success Management: Each client is assigned a dedicated Customer Success Manager (CSM) who provides ongoing support, training, and guidance. The CSM acts as the primary point of contact, ensuring that clients not only utilize Optimove’s platform effectively but also continuously optimize their strategies to achieve better results. This personalized support helps operators fully realize the benefits of their investment in our products.
3. Strategic Services: Beyond technology, our Strategic Services team offers customized, data-driven customer marketing and monetization strategies. With extensive iGaming and CRM Marketing expertise, this team collaborates closely with clients to significantly enhance their marketing contributions to revenue. These services are specifically tailored to meet the unique needs of each client, ensuring that our strategies are both effective and aligned with their business objectives.
4. Pre-set Offerings: To further support operators, we offer a range of strategic pre-set offerings designed to ensure CRM Marketing excellence throughout the client’s business lifecycle. These include onboarding projects focused on benchmarking and quick wins, advanced VIP marketing practices, early detection of bonus abusers and at-risk players, and more. These offerings are designed to provide immediate value and long-term success.
5. Custom BI Reports: We also create customized Business Intelligence (BI) reports using Optimove’s BI Studio. These reports provide crucial insights through executive dashboards, affiliate performance analyses, and customer behavior predictions, enabling marketing teams to make informed, data-driven decisions. This service is instrumental in helping operators extract actionable insights from their data.
6. Custom Projects: For clients requiring a more bespoke approach, we offer pay-as-you-go plans that cover a wide range of services, from event-specific marketing strategies to predictive modeling and full CRM Marketing operations management. This flexibility allows operators to access specialized expertise and services that complement their use of Optimove’s technology, ensuring they can meet their specific goals and challenges.
   By providing both cutting-edge technology and a wide array of tailored services, we help operators fully realize the benefits of their investment in Optimove. This holistic approach drives substantial business growth, enhances customer engagement, and ensures long-term success.

What are Optimove’s goals for its U.S. iGaming market presence over the next few years?

Over the past years, Optimove has become the #1 CRM Marketing solution in U.S. iGaming, working with eight of the top ten operators according to EGR’s 2024 U.S. Power ranking. To support this rapid growth, we have expanded our presence and recently announced our larger U.S. headquarters in New York City.

Our overarching goal is to help U.S. operators achieve sustainable growth through existing players and increase player loyalty by delivering highly personalized player experiences, improving customer engagement, and increasing retention rates. To that end, we have recently expanded our offering by adding turnkey CRM Marketing solutions dedicated to Sweepstakes and Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS) operators, both fast-growing categories in the U.S.

In the next several years, our goals for the U.S. market are to continue driving operator growth and enhancing player engagement through product innovation. For example, Opti-X, our Realtime personalization platform, enables hyper-segmentation and personalized interactions, ensuring players receive the most relevant offers and experiences. We’ve introduced OptiGenie, an AI-powered, customer-led marketing assistant that guides marketers through every step of their workflow. With OptiGenie’s AI Insights, AI Creation, and AI Orchestration, operators can deliver top-tier, personalized experiences that delight their players at every touchpoint. Leveraging advanced AI, we deliver deep player insights and orchestrate personalized marketing journeys, optimizing player engagement and retention.

Additionally, with Responsible Gambling becoming increasingly important in the U.S., we support this initiative with AI-driven predictive models that help identify and mitigate risky behaviors among players.

With these tools and future innovations, Optimove aims to enhance player satisfaction, foster loyalty, and drive sustainable growth in the U.S. market.

Based on your experience, how does the U.S. iGaming market differ from other regions?

The U.S. iGaming market stands out with several distinct characteristics:

1. Market Maturity: The U.S. iGaming market is still in its growth phase, particularly compared to more established markets like Europe. While online casino gaming remains a growth opportunity, with approval in only a few states, online sports betting has experienced explosive growth and is now legally permitted in most states. This presents significant opportunities for innovation and market share capture but also necessitates substantial investment in player education and customer acquisition.
2. Acquisition Cost: The unique nature of the U.S. market is reflected in the high cost of customer acquisition, which underscores the critical need for a robust CRM strategy. Brands must focus not only on acquiring the right customers but also on optimizing their offers and spend in order to retain valuable players, thereby reducing the need for repeated and costly re-acquisition of the same players.
3. Player Preferences: U.S. players exhibit different preferences and behaviors compared to players in other regions. The strong interest in sports betting, for instance, has fueled the popularity of Daily Fantasy Sports (DFS). Successfully catering to these unique preferences requires a sophisticated CRM Marketing platform that can adapt to the specific needs of U.S. players.
4. Multiple Popular Sports: While the NFL dominates as the most popular sport in the U.S., other major sports like the NBA, MLB, and NHL also have massive followings. In contrast, Europe is heavily centered around soccer, with no clear second-place sport, which poses different challenges during the off-season. In the U.S., operators can seamlessly transition from NFL season to NBA, and so on, providing continuous engagement opportunities throughout the year.
5. Brand Loyalty and Engagement: Building and maintaining player loyalty is critical in the U.S. due to the competitive landscape, which varies significantly by state. For example, New Jersey has more than a dozen legal sports betting sites, while Florida has only one. Despite the number of operators, the competition for the player’s entertainment dollar is fierce, with iGaming companies facing competition both within and outside the iGaming industry.

The U.S. iGaming market is dynamic and full of potential, requiring a tailored approach that takes into account its complex regulatory environment, player behaviors and preferences, and technological demands. At Optimove, we have a proven track record of helping operators navigate these challenges and capitalize on the opportunities in this exciting market.

In closing, Optimove empowers iGaming operators to improve business results through advanced AI-driven data analytics, orchestration and decisioning. Our CRM Marketing platform enables hyper-segmentation to deliver real-time personalized marketing strategies.