In this interview with CalvinAyre.com’s Becky Liggero, Harry Lang of Pinnacle explains why he thinks bonus reliance acquisition strategy is now a thing of the past.
It has been quite a norm for many operators to lure players by dangling money in front of them. After all, who will resist the temptation of grabbing the money being offered by gambling operators?
But the thing is, players are now evolving and the old tack may not anymore be applicable to the present situation. That’s what Harry Lang of Pinnacle thinks as he said that offering bonuses to players have become an unnecessary evil.
He believes that it is now the right time for gambling operators should try to get away from bonus reliance acquisition strategy since bonuses isn’t as important at present.
“I think 10 years ago when they were new, everyone has field day with bonuses. You put out these bonus, it marks there well and everyone will turn up and real players will stay,” Lang told CalvinAyre.com. “These days, the same bonuses, richer bonuses less players, higher CPAs. It is more competitive.”
According to Lang, today’s players aren’t buying the massive welcome bonus offered to them because it now sounds unfeasible. He believes that using bonus retention has a lot more sense than using bonuses for acquisition because then you are actually rewarding incremental players in the course of a long lifetime.
“Bonus, don’t forget, is actually real money. Even with play through requirements, you are giving away money. Where’s that coming from? It is coming from the lifetime value of the player. Ultimately, you need to try and retain as much as the lifetime value as possible,” he said. “The massive welcome bonus I think has its day, and the players aren’t buying to it anymore because it sounds unfeasible. Quite frankly, with the play through requirements, it often is.”
Lang, however, admitted that there’s no magic bullet in terms of attracting new players without offering bonuses. He, however, is optimistic that operators will be able to find ways of appealing people in different manner.
“I think you are talking about value differentiation, product differentiation, and also marketing innovation. The value proposition of looking at the retention bonus and the VIP management, segmenting the data, better UX, looking at the mobile platform, we are the best mobile platform and people really like it, and they really get how to get to the best odds or the best gaming content, they like to plan and stay a bit longer,” he said. “I think a lot of people can differentiate the extent. I think it got to be a sliding scale away from the bonuses for some operators. Unfortunately, I don’t see a magic bullet whenever they stop offering them unless they’ve become deregulated and quite frankly at the moment, they are regulated and managed. They are not going away anytime soon.”
