“Everybody Bets” – or at least would like to try…

Just up to NYC from Costa Rica, I wasn’t in the habit of wearing socks. 

“So, you really don’t think ‘Everybody Bets’ do you?” the ESPN anchor asked me on TV. 

I crossed my naked ankles wearing Prada loafers. “Rent or buy? Have life insurance? Jew, Christian, Muslim, atheist? Walk when it says ‘Don’t Walk’? Everybody bets every day,” I wanted to say. 

But, nervous and sockless in a popular national sports broadcast, I waffled. 

Fifteen-plus years later, my tagline for Sportsbook.com “Everybody Bets”  has never been more true. And we’re STILL just starting. 

I recently opened a presentation with an AI-modified variation of Nicolas Cage’s great opening lines from “Lord of War” (after the greatest opening titles in the history of cinema): “There’s 800 million players in the world. That’s one in every 10 people. The only question is: how do we get the other nine?” 

Sure, the mobile revolution has come, shocker! Even my recent research on Canadian players, a very mature market, showed 90% of visitors to an igaming site were on mobile (not clear what LTV  on mobile versus desktop is, I’m betting on desktop though). 

In Asia, it’s closer to 95%-100% of real players on mobile, the desktop guys being us industry players (or regulators or worse) checking out competition. 

Yeah, some people are using crypto in igaming… and quite profitably for operators as their players are BY NATURE gamblers. But it’s really just the Neteller (although way harder for most folks) of the post-Black Friday igaming era. 

But I can’t help but look at the “Tier One” operators’ bounce rates…. And churn rates. What are we doing, or NOT doing, to “get the other nine”? Not to mention keep them playing. 

Over the last 15 years, there have been improvements across the sports betting industry. Live betting, instant cash outs, single game parlays…. A long time coming for an industry NOT known for its innovation. 

And the cost of this? Where sportsbetting WAS half of the industry (in revenues), and casino a quarter, and everything else (bingo, lottery, poker…) the rest. Now, online casino is half the industry, sportsbetting a quarter and the rest the rest. ALL thankfully growing across the world. 

Because casinos, and slots in particular, started really innovating. Games and features got better—way better, check out Pragmatic Play’s Empty the Bank (note that nothing hits on the first spin in the feature though)! “Buy the feature”, a short-cut to the best part of many games… personally, I advise against using this (except on NoLimit City games where the feature has a HIGHER RTP than the base game—and the industry’s best graphics bar none) is so attractive that Play’N’Go suggests banning it. 

But if you MUST try it (and it’s tempting) then drop your bet the minimum and then go ahead and see how much you lose. 

Improve your odds of hitting the feature with a slight increase in spin bet? Cool. Thank you, Pragmatic Play, for taking the slots-leader mantle from Playtech. Thank you, Big Time Gaming for Megaways, (although I’m personally not fan, preferring fewer paylines) but players love it and actively search for it. 

And that’s a big change as well: over 50% of players landing on your site search for a specific game or game supplier. Don’t have a search box and a list of providers on your home page? Good luck. 

At least casino lobbies have improved: select by providers, buy features, jackpots, number of paylines, sort by RTP, volatility or even max win multipliers. 

For experienced players (which have the highest LTV) these options are best and a far cry from the A-Z listing of RealTime Gaming’s lobbies 15 years ago. Achilles was their number one game for ages because a. it was first in the lobby, b. it has a medium volatility and c. had a jackpot.

“Everybody bets.” Or wants to. We have to help them enjoy the process.