The personalisation arms race: How igaming can match Big Tech expectations

Netflix knows what you’ll watch in three seconds. TikTok predicts your mood. Amazon surfaces the product you didn’t know you needed. Your players bring those expectations with them: when they land on an igaming site, they want their sport, their language and their cultural context to all be there – immediately.

As chief client officer at GR8 Tech, I partner with operators across regions and see the gap between Big Tech‑grade personalisation and today’s average sportsbook. The good news: you don’t need anything drastic to close the gap. Start at the entry point with geo‑targeting, then compound the impact with inside‑the‑platform tactics: CRM, retention and VIP strategies tuned to local norms.

Start at the door: geo-targeting that personalises the homepage

Make first-time and returning visitors feel ‘this brand is for me’ within seconds. Geo-targeting localises the experience pre-login, surfacing the right language, payments, promos and sports lines the moment someone arrives. It allows people to reach meaningful actions faster and with fewer clicks. That immediacy builds trust: the platform meets players where they are. For operators, the feature is managed through the unified back-office, where content managers can configure geo rules and regional variations without developer support.

Build the engine: inside‑the‑platform personalisation

Behind that smooth entry sits practical building blocks: region‑specific feeds, easy line display controls and an adaptable frontend on a widget‑based, no‑code architecture. In this setup, geo-specific presets hold the rules for each market in your brand’s country list, and the platform applies them immediately. A preset sets the essentials for each geo: language and locale, currency and payment methods, which sports lines and content modules lead, plus the right compliance and performance profile. By default, these presets carry the local context through the rest of the user journey – from homepage to registration, cashier, betslip, cash out and re-engagement messages.

Data-driven CRM then personalises further by looking beyond demographics to behaviour: deposits and withdrawals, wins and losses, session timing and preferred markets or games. Predictive models can infer likely interests even for newcomers with thin data and trigger a relevant welcome journey rather than a generic blast. Launch sports and casino journeys in parallel so the system learns fast, and orchestrate SMS, web, push, pop-ups and the notification centre from one hub to keep timing consistent. In deployments, this setup has delivered up to 25% more first-time deposits, up to 80% retention on targeted cohorts and 75% of MAU engaging with gamification.

Retention strategies that earn trust

Retention is the outcome of personalisation: keep the experience relevant and give players control. Use real-time models to tailor events, markets and content; when feeds adapt in the moment, operators see up to 20% more bets. Pair that relevance with transparent partial and instant cash outs – no hidden logic or delays – so high-stress moments create confidence. And remember: ‘personalised’ must also mean dependable on older devices and low bandwidth; optimise delivery so the right content loads every time.

Personalisation works when it matches how people make decisions. Use clear progress to reduce choice overload, light time-bound cues to focus attention and transparent framing to minimise loss aversion. Turn these into product elements via the Promo Lobby and Gamification Profile: opt-in quests, achievements and loyalty paths that players can customise.

VIP handling: high‑touch versus self‑service cultures

VIP should be personalised to the player’s preferred service style. Use behavioural and cultural signals to decide whether a cohort leans high-touch or self-serve, then let each player switch at any time. For high-touch users, surface a named host, timely pre-match check-ins and priority cash outs; for self-serve users, make tier criteria, perk selection and limits fully transparent in the app. Track satisfaction, time-to-resolution and value per contact to keep the model honest, so the VIP feels personal.

Pitfalls that quietly kill personalisation

• Legacy stacks that throttle mobile performance and personalisation latency.
• Generic promos that ignore culture, timing and intent.
• Geo copy‑and-paste: each market is unique, and the platform must adapt.
• Opaque cash outs and surprise friction that erode trust.

The bottom line

Switch on geo‑targeting for your top countries so the homepage feels native on day one. Launch micro‑segmented CRM journeys that learn quickly and speak through the channels your users actually notice. Turn on real‑time recommendations in the sportsbook feed and make the cash out experience crystal clear. Tune VIP for culture, ensure the product holds up on older devices and weak networks and pilot a single‑stream UI for a key cohort while you measure behaviour changes.

Big Tech set the bar for instant relevance and zero friction. In igaming, we earn the right to grow by meeting that bar: local at the door, individual inside and transparent throughout. Let AI models identify preferences with up to 99% accuracy and use CRM and culture‑aware service to do the compounding work across diverse player behaviours. That’s the heavyweight mindset we champion: platforms that earn trust, react in real time and deliver under pressure.

Ready to push boundaries? Join the Heavyweight Club – our operator community and co-innovation programme for trust-driven, real-time personalisation – and meet us at SBC Summit Lisbon, 16-18 September, stand С350.

Kateryna Pozdnysheva serves as chief client officer and head of CRM Business at GR8 Tech. Her work is rooted in the philosophy that client success starts with creating a seamless ecosystem where product quality, service excellence and user experience align to drive results.

Pozdnysheva brings her deep industry expertise, strong leadership and passion for client success to drive strategic growth and operational excellence in both areas under her lead.