James Bond is not in it for the bonuses

I am registered with quite a number of online casinos. Hence, I should be exposed to diverse marketing. However, I am not. I get the same messages with little or no variation from a vast number of outlets. Deposit a certain amount and get bonus money and freespins. I get this from television, texts and email. There is no edge, no love for the game. I think we might have lost something. This is supposed to be fun.

I am afraid that the lack of innovation and creativity in the marketing of casinos will create fatigue among the players and could potentially lead to the demise of the industry in the very same fashion once experienced by the poker industry. There are obviously some major differences between poker and casino, mainly the fact there are no sharks present in the casinos (even though some regulating politicians like to think differently).

However, showering players with higher and higher bonuses with massive turnover requirements will only lead to token inflation and less trust in the industry. Deposit one and get two was maybe a working tactic back in 2008, but today it is deposit one and get 20. And you get this offer in different shapes and marketing channels on a weekly basis. In terms of conveying any other message than just price I find very few current examples in the market. At the same time regulators and the general public are scrutinising the industry.

For the love of the game

I strongly believe the industry needs to find its way back to the love of the game. Bean counters might be good to please the stock market in the short term, but this is supposedly the most fun industry around. It is great that we now are able to measure every penny spent. John Wanamaker’s old saying does not hold water any longer (“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”) However, we forget what this is about, why people play and why this is one of the world’s oldest and biggest industries.

It is all about the entertainment, enjoying some thrills and getting a break from everyday life. The stuff dreams are made of. Hope and despair in fertile dualism. Just because you can measure everything doesn’t mean that metrics-driven marketing is the only tool in the toolbox that you are allowed to use. Wrestle the marketing back from the Excel guys and make gambling marketing fun again.

Getting on top of player integrity and responsible gaming is crucial for the industry to survive. But we also need to get to that casino feeling of James Bond in Dr. No playing the bank in Baccarat. In Bond’s favorite version of the game, Chemin de Fer, the house advantage is about 1%. If we want to see a significantly higher potential than that for the long-term survival for the casino industry then we need to recapture the heart of it all.

Players have very strong emotions and feelings about the game. So why do we just communicate price?

Everyone loves watching Mr Bond hustle his way around the pallet. Does anyone get anything out of the current price marketing? Does it stir your pot? If we don’t shape up, soon everyone will stop listening. We will be in a situation of casino marketing fatigue. Where those dreaded bonus texts in your phone are simply blocked. James Bond was never in it for the bonuses.

Mikael Pawlo is founding CEO of automated accounting start-up Red Flag. He is co-founder and former CEO of Mr Green. Pawlo is also the chairman of leading live score app Forza Football, which has two million weekly active users, and is an investor in several online gaming companies.