The iGaming space is relying more than ever on AI to help it acquire new users
Online casinos started using artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) around six or seven years ago, but those early efforts weren’t targeted nearly enough. That is finally starting to change as iGaming marketers are rapidly incorporating the technology to solve very specific issues, such as refining their customer retention efforts, targeting their competitors’ customers and creating profiles of their ideal prospects or customers. This is giving the marketers greater abilities to attract and acquire new customers in a market that continues to become more competitive.
The use of AI for competitive marketing is in the early stages, but, as more iGaming operators have success with the technology, the pace of adoption is quickening. As a result, the technology is likely to completely penetrate the mass market in the next couple of years. While rudimentary AI has been around for some time, machine learning (ML) and deep learning, subsets of AI, have become industry buzzwords in the past few years. AI performs the grunt work, such as triggering email campaigns, while ML drives more advanced use of AI, such as lead qualification scoring.
Though the terms AI and ML are often used interchangeably, there is a distinction that should be made between the two. ML is an advanced subset of AI and enables CRM systems to learn to find insights without being told what they should look for. This helps create the ideal customer profile and, once that customer is identified, the operator uses that knowledge to attract and convert prospects into bonafide customers more efficiently.
AI can also help forecast potential profitability, finding patterns in past user behavior to predict lifetime values of customers at the beginning of their life cycles. This information can then be used to improve the allocation of resources and enhance campaign management while also serving to calculate the ROI of the marketing investment.