Gamification is used by a whole host of different online businesses to give customers the greatest possible experience. Gamification techniques are inspired by video games and are used to make monotonous tasks more entertaining. These techniques are therefore used by lots of online businesses and marketplaces to keep customers engaged and coming back for more. Some online niches which take full advantage of gamification include fitness sites, language apps and online casinos.
Online casino websites have taken a lot of inspiration from video games – the use of gamification included. Casino gaming has come along way in the past decade. Gone are the days of old-fashioned slot machines being marketed to casino gamblers. The high level of competition within the online casino niche has meant that online casinos have been forced to upgrade their software, user friendliness and user experience.
The best casino sites will offer their players enough fun and level increasing opportunities so that they do not leave to play at rival casino websites – and this is what gamification is all about. Gamification techniques used by online casinos almost always offer players ‘levelling up’ opportunities. For example, according to an interview with Game Industry, Megaways.Casino uses gamification to allow players to level up at their site when they complete certain tasks. This is not unique to a Megaways Casino, though.
The majority of online casinos encourage players to play by issuing rewards and trophies for when players complete certain tasks. For example, some casinos will reward players with trophies if they spin the reels on a Megaways slot game such as Eye of Horus Megaways for seven days in a row. Once the trophy is unlocked, it can reward players with 50 bonus spins to be used on any slot game of their choice. These trophy rewards can increase in prosperity too. A casino can reward players with cash rewards if they unlock 10 trophies for example. This gamification keeps players entertained and gives them a meaning to keep playing at the casino.
Gamification and iGaming
Due to the continuous and consistent upgrades in technology, iGaming companies have been able to increase their user experience capabilities massively. The iGaming industry is made up of online gambling sites including: online casinos, sportsbooks, bingo sites and to a lesser extent, esports betting sites. The longer a gambling website can ensure their players stick to their site, the greater revenue they can generate from that player – thus a player’s lifetime value to the iGaming site is increased.
The manager of Megaways.casino, an affiliate site catering to online casinos tells us how they only work with gamification casinos:
“Online casinos that provide their players with the best experience possible are the ones which will survive and thrive. The online casino industry is dog eat and dog and only the ones which use gamification in order to reward players will succeed.
“The iGaming affiliate business works by sending players from its own website to an online casino to play at. The affiliate then receives a percentage of what the casino earns from that player, so it is important for us to send players to high quality casinos.
“We choose to only work with casinos which can give players adequate rewards for playing regularly.”
Gamification and the future
It is clear that gamification is here to stay. As more and more of the world moves online, gamification becomes imperative for attracting website visitors and not losing customers to rivals. Health and language apps are experts at this, the competition aspect really encourages users to pick up their phone and achieve their daily rewards. iGaming companies have become super smart and have even been able to recruit workers from the video gaming industry in order to work on improving their own video game style aspects.
There has been an increase in online casino regulations due to Covid-19, resulting in the dwindling of revenue for both online and land-based gambling businesses. Despite this, it has never been more important for casino sites to adopt the most exciting aspects of video games – mainly, high quality gamification.
