SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Commerce research strategist’s SuperData have reported a decline in social and mobile casino gamers, reporting a shrinking in the number of monthly players from 109 million to 85 million in 2014.
SuperData stated that the market had entered a new stage of maturity, as social gambling operators shift focus from player acquisition to generating revenues from registered and acquired customers. The researcher further claims that retention issues, now dominate social casino operations, with operator seeking to gain maximum value, from players who have multiple social casino options to choose from.
Joost van Dreunen, CEO of SuperData commented on the findings “As the number of available casino-style games on Facebook and mobile continues to grow, a subset of the audience has cycled out of the abundant but relatively low-quality offering and moved on,”
“No longer is it enough to merely acquire new users. For one, because it is becoming increasingly expensive. The current market landscape forces publishers to consider a strategy centered on player retention. And it’s working. In April we recorded a record month in terms of revenues, totaling $175 million in the U.S.”
Speaking to start-up technology news source – Venturebeat.com, van Dreunen noted that the coming months of 2014 would be important to social gambling operators, as the industry would likely see new strategies outlined and undertaken by sectors market leaders.
van Dreunen further notes that social casino operators would be looking to create more authentic casino style experiences and refining free to play strategies, as the operators would likely shift focus on creating first time depositors on social casino verticals.
