The effectiveness of marketing campaigns in the online gambling industry

Abstract

The iGaming industry has grown rapidly over the past decade, resulting in a large range of online gambling websites entering the market. This has naturally led to a highly competitive environment in which online gambling providers must constantly find ways to acquire new customers and retain existing ones. As such, the aim of this study is to discover the most effective marketing tools that can be applied to advertising and promotions to attract individuals towards a specific iGaming company. It aims to address which tools, amongst the number of different types of offers available, are the most attractive to pre-existing online gambling customers and which are compelling enough to cause a loyal customer to switch to a different gambling website. The main tool that will be researched is the use of promotions. This is because the use of promotions is common amongst all iGaming companies to gain new customers, maintain existing ones and to re-attract lapsed customers. A thorough literature review identifies the gaps in the literature which contributed towards the development of a number of hypotheses. The research questions are answered through the distribution of a self-administered online questionnaire. The responses received show that promotions are not the defining competitive factor within the online gambling industry. Nevertheless, they are still of great importance particularly for customer acquisition. The sample indicates that there are three categories of bettors determined by the number of online gambling accounts held, as well as interest in promotions. Based on the collected sample, there is also a deep longing for control amongst bettors in terms of their exposure to advertisements and promotions as well as the usability of online gambling websites. It is thus recommended that iGaming companies identify the categories in which their customers fall and appropriately target them. It is also recommended to provide bettors with the control that they crave. Further research may be undertaken to assess the impact that focusing on promotions to increase customer acquisition may have on revenues.