Nowadays, we are witnessing a time when we are increasingly using cell phones for various purposes. The mobile revolution has engulfed online gambling which makes it a perfect tool for the gambling industry. Let’s admit it – we check our mobile devices every few minutes, so the high open rates of SMS messages work perfectly for the online gambling companies and their mobile marketing efforts. This way, they can enhance their brand awareness and increase marketing effectiveness and personalize text messages, so the user feels like it was sent on a one-to-one basis.
Online gaming – any kind of game that involves wagering money (poker, casino games, and sports outcomes) and takes place online.
When did this multi-billion-dollar industry show up? The first online casino dates from 1994. By 2024, the online gambling industry is expected to be worth more than 94 billion US dollars. Due to the convenience of gambling from the comfort of your own home, online gambling is becoming more and more popular. Over the years, the quality of the user experience, as well as the quality of the games, has come a long way.
How Gambling Industry Can Benefit from Using SMS?
Utilizing SMS in betting has several advantages for the gambling industry and the main ones will be highlighted below:
- Cost optimization
SMS channel is cheaper compared to the traditional channels (TV, radio), not to mention that marketers can sometimes end up spending a lot of money on these channels and not get a proportionate return. In the gambling industry, email usage is present as well, but due to the number of emails that users receive, many of them get deleted without reading. If we look at what statistics show, it takes about 90 minutes for a person to respond to an email and of course for someone it might take hours or days to look at it. On the other hand, the average response time for SMS is 90 seconds.
- Personalization
SMS gives the online gambling industry space for engaging with their customers way more than via traditional channels. Phone number databases can be used for sending targeted campaigns depending on the betting interests of the users (football, horses, etc.), therefore they are much more likely to succeed. If some user expresses an interest only for horse betting, receiving SMS regarding some football game will not be of interest to him. In fact, it can produce the opposite effect and damage the overall user experience.
- Effectiveness
Compared to the other channels, SMS campaigns can be executed in a single day, which gives marketers and the whole company time to focus on other activities and growth. Using SMS, small betting companies can keep up with the big players and along with the updated phone number database can score the same or even better response rate.
How Gambling Industry Can Utilize SMS?
E N G A G I N G
- Mobile marketing:
Given everything that was mentioned above, it’s not surprising that online gambling companies find SMS as a good marketing channel for their CRM efforts. SMS communication can be used for communicating different loyalty programs, special offers, welcome bonuses, promoting additional services, etc.
Mobile SMS marketing brings a couple of benefits for online gambling companies such as quick communication, cost-effectiveness, targeted audience, high open and response rates, etc.
- SMS Alerts/Notifications:
Gambling companies can use SMS service to notify their users about upcoming tournaments, events, new betting opportunities, their account status, new levels, launches, etc.
- SMS Customer Surveys:
Companies can use SMS to send surveys and gather feedback about their services.
P R O T E C T I N G
Fraud is a real threat when it comes to online betting, therefore companies must fight against it. One security breach can damage reputation on a huge scale and if the company comes to that point where their users’ data and overall privacy is violated, losses are immeasurable. For this purpose, we suggest two key solutions:
- Phone-based verification
Phone-based verification gives gambling companies the ability to assure the security of their user accounts and therefore gain the trust of the users. It can be applied during the signing up for a new account, mobile app downloading, online payments etc. Current trends in the industry demand additional layers of security and phone verification are one of the top choices due to its global accessibility.
How does phone verification work?
A user is asked to insert his phone number in the required field. After doing so, he receives a one-time code via SMS which he must type back in the field. This way, a user’s mobile phone is used for confirming his identity.
- 2-Factor Authentication
Two-factor authentication (2FA), referred also as two-step verification is a process where a user must provide 2 different factors to verify themselves. One is something they know (user’s password) and second is something they get (one-time code they receive via mobile device or a physical token). In case of using SMS as a 2-factor authentication tool, a user will receive SMS containing a one-time code whenever they sing in from a new device. This way, companies will be sure that even if someone has their users’ username and password, they will not be able to enter their account without access to their mobile devices.
If you are still considering adding SMS as an option for engaging and protecting your users and have some doubts whether it would be of value for your company, I bet you’ll be interested in our global SMS platform with the capacity to cover all of your markets and in our experience to guide you through this process and make sure you get the best out of SMS.
Sources:
http://www.grouptravelorganiser.org/5-types-online-gambling-just-good-casino/