iGaming Daily

[Music]

We all know that gamification is a

powerful tool for iGaming operators to

create genuine player loyalty,

but what specifically should you be aware

of to promote higher rates of engagement,

and what mistakes should you be avoiding?

Welcome back to iGaming Daily, supported

by Optimoove, the creator

of positionless marketing

and the number one player engagement

solution for sports

betting and iGaming operators.

I'm Charlie Horner and today I'm joined

by Optimoove's director of

gamification, Kalev Karpuk.

Kalev, thanks for joining me. We're live

at ice at the Optimoove

stand. How's it going?

Thank you for having me. I'm doing

perfectly fine. We're very excited.

This is the first time that we're

actually being able to speak, not only

speak, but also show

all the advances that we have done in

gamification and in Loewet specifically.

So it's not only slide shows anymore. Now

we're actually

looking at working products.

So we're very excited about that.

Yeah, it's been a really busy 12 months

for Optimoove on the gamification front

and we're starting to see the fruits of

that here because the sand's really busy.

It's only the first day. There's plenty

of time to go. So I guess really, how's

the interest been so far?

It's been extraordinarily high. Like if I

remember, like, why did I even

start this gamification thing?

Back in like 2014, like 12 years ago

already, when I was working in New York

in a gamification design agency,

then it was at a stage where people kind

of knew the concepts and maybe wanted to

have different types of

experiments with gamification.

But no one really knew what they wanted

or how to how to

obtain the actual solutions.

And now the contrast that we see here

today, I think very large parts, like

very large reason why we see this huge

interest right now is now

companies have the tools.

So we didn't have the tools before and I

personally created, I manually created a

bunch of gamification solutions,

which all needed to be created from zero

to do the exact same thing.

But now with the tools where everything

is configurable, everything is very kind

of, you know, you can really build

whatever you imagine.

Now people actually get the opportunity

to make gamification live and start using

them. And that's what we're seeing here

in the booth as well.

So you mentioned that you've been in this

for 12 years and it's a long

time to have been in this space.

How do you sum up the importance of

gamification in 2026? Is it a case of if

an operator doesn't utilize these tools,

they're already two or three steps behind

the rest of the pack?

So you can make an argument and I would

actually make a case of you're in a good

position if you're not using it right

now, but you are definitely planning to

use it in a very near future.

And the reason I say it is because there

are companies and operators who use a 10

year old solution. Right. But 10 years

ago, gamification was very primitive.

Right. So we were only looking at very

specific game design aspects. We were

only looking at missions. We were only

looking giving away

badges and points and so on.

And a lot of those softwares that enable

those companies to do those things were

kind of locked in architecturally to do

only those specific things.

And now, as you mentioned, as well,

gamification has evolved

into more creative space.

Companies wanted to do like really their

own creative stuff like level journeys

and then hero maps and so on.

And now with the tools that are getting

released here and in our gamify solution

as well, then if you start using it

today, then you can really, you know, use

all the kind of optimized

and state of the art solutions.

So you're definitely not late, but you

definitely need to start doing it because

the results do speak for themselves.

I like to say it's a zero cost retention

model because it doesn't cost you

anything to to create this kind of

intrinsic value system of points and

tournaments and so on.

But it keeps the retention going because

people do want to engage and you want to

experiment with all the different

gamification functionalities

and operator or can provide.

You say that more and more operators are

coming towards gamification.

It's interesting because all the forms of

online entertainment or other online

verticals have adopted

gamification quite significantly.

So different e-commerce brands have

implemented these kind of retention

strategies in place.

Do you think iGaming can learn things

from those other verticals that have also

implemented gamification tools?

That's actually a very good question

because what I've actually thought like

sometimes I thought that gamification

works best in an environment where it is

fresh, where it is new, where it's and in

retail and even in like

financing, banking and crypto,

people are not used to seeing those

gamification design

aspects we're getting used.

And that's why it's like, you know, it

gets a little bit more

interest from the end customers.

And then again, what like how do you

missions and how do tournaments work in

retail are a little bit different because

they do utilize of using, you know, using

different aspects of their

existing e-commerce store.

Or if you take a bolt, for example, then

then you're doing a taxi ride.

But this taxi ride has a lot of

parameters like how long was it?

How expensive was it? What car was it?

And all of these parameters

can be turned into missions.

So I guess if I want the spot to kind of

think of new solutions, then yes, gaming

operators can also, I think, leverage

more of the attribute data

that they have in their events.

So it's not only whether you play the

game, but exactly what happened in the

game that can be turned into a mission.

So, you know, it does require a little

bit of analysis, but it's a creative

process of coming up with the correct

design principles of gamification anyway.

Yeah, it's all about getting those

principles right as well. And, you know,

there are right ways of doing things.

There are perhaps wrong ways of doing

things. What are the most common

misconceptions about gamification or some

of the mistakes that you

see operators fallen into?

There's actually one thing that I started

noticing, like within the last year that

we've been developing it.

I'm very surprised that a lot of the

software don't make gamification public.

So it is my like, I'll die on this hill

saying that

gamification should be public.

You haven't like the end players have an

option to opt out of it.

But if you cannot showcase your

achievements, if you cannot showcase your

badges, if you cannot look at other

players profiles, then you're really, I

believe, are missing out.

So one large mistake is showing the

achievements to only

that person who got them.

So I definitely encourage you to leverage

more of the social aspects, those public

profiles, public competitions, way more.

There's of course more. There's a lot of,

you know, maybe getting a little bit more

like design technicalities.

But I have seen gamification systems

which are designed to end. Right.

So there is a finish or some of the

gaming loops have a finish.

Like once you reach to that point, then

there is no further call to action.

So that's definitely something that you

should never do. A gamification loop

should be never ending.

There are tricks how to do it, but some

very technical details. Sure.

And gamification is kind of just one part

of the wider

marketing and retention cycle.

Do you see some operators perhaps over

relying on gamification or using it in a

way that isn't perhaps as effective as

part of that wider ecosystem?

I'm not sure I heard your question

correctly, but given the

usage of the wider usage,

it's one thing that we have also designed

very detailedly into the kind of

technical capabilities of our system,

which means that, yes, there is a very

large portion of the gamification

activities that happen

on the operator's site.

Right. So a player will log into their

profile. They will see

tournaments to participate.

They will do all these actions, but

they're still in that profile

or like in their own website.

But there is also an additional marketing

layer, which is the SMS marketing, which

is the email marketing,

which is the pop-ups, which is the all

the other channels that you can utilize.

And it is only correct to you and like to

combine those channels.

So if you send out an email, then in that

email, you can say that, you know,

you will also get some specific virtual

currencies by clicking

by reacting to that email.

Or you can send out an SMS saying, you

know, there is a, you know,

a batch that you can earn.

And the batch can be called like quick

grabbers or something, which can only be

earned if you react to this message with

the life within like

five second time frame.

So so it is very correct to take the

gamification experience,

optimize it for the websites,

optimize it for the user's journey, but

then improve it and initiate it from

other places as well.

And then quickly, just before we go to a

short break, how easy is it to integrate

gamification engines

into an operator's platform?

And then once it's integrated, how easily

customizable are those solutions?

So I don't know if anyone ever has ever

heard me speak about

gamification over the last year,

specifically about the game, the system

that we're building for optimal.

But there is one thing that I have

promised and I've always said that once I

do the platform, then

there is no integration.

And that is so I'm

not a sales guy, right?

I'm a product guy, which also means that

that I only talk about the passion of

building the best products.

And I believe the best product contains

zero barrier of entry.

So in our case, it's really if you flip a

switch, then everything already works.

Now it's only about the configuration.

And of course, it's really my passion to

build products which are as customizable

as possible, which basically means you

will just if you if you want to create a

tournament or a mission or a battle pass,

then then it's really just making choices

of the events and attributes and then

deciding of which type of

a mission you want to do.

And actually, we've gone a step further.

I've taken into the UX analysis of like

if you if you think that I want to create

a mission that make 10 bets where each

bet is at least $50 within three days,

then the way that you create this mission

is exactly how you say it.

So it's like typing it out and then press

save and then it's done.

So I'm very passionate about

customizability of low integration.

So so there is no integration.

Besides the actual getting the real time

events into optimal, but

that's what happens anyway.

If you're if you're integrating a CRM.

Sure.

We'll take a quick break and then we'll

come back and we'll

continue the discussion.

Welcome back to iGaming Daily.

I'm joined by Optimooves, director of

gaming education, Callev Karpuk.

Callev.

And we're on the show floor.

It's a time when, you know, people right

across this hall and all the other halls

will be showcasing new products, new

solutions and Optimooves is no different.

There's a new loyalty

solution that you bring into market.

Could you could you outline

what that load solution is?

What is it? Who is it for?

And what makes it stand out?

Yeah.

So again, like going back to like why I

created the game education software at

all, like before it was an act and then

Optimoive acquired the act and the act

was about creating many game.

Creating mini game interactions very

quickly, very easily.

So you can choose from like 60 different

mini games and create them with like 30

minutes and publish them

to your segmented audience.

But actually, like under a veil of

secrecy, once whenever I actually created

the acts as it is, as it was five years

ago, I actually wanted to create

something that we are creating today.

That was always my passion to build a

loyalty system that is really complete

that has not only the mini games part,

but it has all the kind of mission

interactions, has those potential

leaderboards that people can track those

public profiles and everything that kind

of makes people want to engage with every

part of your software.

Right. So that was my passion.

And and today we have really made the

first largest step towards it, which

means that the entire infrastructure is

now done, which means

everything else is a cakewalk.

Like if you know how to build products,

then infrastructure is the

is the most difficult part.

And what we can already demonstrate is

that it doesn't matter how many

interactions or events doesn't matter

which types of events.

Everything can be today configured to

give out gamification rewards and be

turned into tournaments

and missions and so on.

So in ice, we are showcasing the kind of

the kind of first actual usable software.

And we can actually start testing the

testing the entire software against the

real data with no

integration, as mentioned before.

And now the next steps is really just

enriching it with new functionalities

such as, you know, we're bringing in

battle passes, we're bringing in

tournaments, we're bringing in stores,

we're bringing so many

large creative stuff.

I think the next step is going to be on

March in two in two months time where

we'll actually make

it publicly available.

You mentioned that, Kalev, that it was a

long standing passion project for you and

a long long lasting ambition for you to

develop products like this.

But but why was now the right time to

bring it to market? Was it based on any

particular client feedback or was it just

that now is the right time that you have

the technological capability to do so?

Yeah, so definitely two parts to it.

Number one, the client feedback was

enormous. Before joining Optimo, I had no

idea about the necessity and about the

actual like the kind of scale of desire

from clients to actually want to have a

very well designed gamification solution.

So that's definitely a very large part of

it. But then you can also ask, like, why

didn't I start from, you know, why did I

build that first? And now I'm building

this because technologically, it is a

very large challenge.

And if anyone says otherwise, I'm very

surprised because at the end of the day,

Optimo brings millions and millions of

queries per day, which all need to be

processed in a resource efficient way.

So they have perfect technology to do it.

We could very that's one of the reasons

why you can develop it so fast. We can

use their existing very well built out

infrastructure, which I could never have

access to if I hadn't joined Optimo.

So it's definitely both increased desire

from the clients, but also a very good

tech stack to build it upon.

And obviously the products will be

available in full for people to try in

March. But what impact are you expecting

it to have on your clients and their

ability to maintain and grow

that player loyalty over time?

Yeah. So actually, like in order to play

around and to test, you can already do it

today. But like from March is where we

where they can actually

use and make it public.

So the impact, I think like mostly I am

very like inspired by this emotional

impact of them seeing like this is

exactly what I wanted to build and have

the tool to, you know, to actually have

fun building it and kind of enjoy the

process of bringing something to life

that I actually imagined.

But I do expect that that given the

missions and then the kind of

interactions are built out really well.

It's like a breath of fresh

air for all their customers.

You know, there are so many operators and

so many companies in general that are,

you know, struggling with what's the next

innovation in large corporations.

You know, you cannot just shift the

entire boat different way. But this is

like this opportunity to really, you

know, make them different from their

competitors to bring

something new to the platform.

And I'm sure that all the end players

will appreciate it a lot. And also, it's

a good point to say that that one thing

that that I also noticed as a weakness

from from a lot of different softwares is

that if a client is using a software,

then you know that you know exactly what

sort of that they're using because

they're kind of looking the same. In our

case, every solution is completely

different visually as well.

So it doesn't appear that you're already

using an existing solution. So anyway, I

do kind of I'm excited about the faces

and the reactions when they can actually

start playing around and

building what they wanted.

Yeah, absolutely. And just in terms of

the rollout, is it going to be available

for all OptiMove clients moving forward?

Or is it something that you're looking to

maybe target tier one operators with, you

know, who's who's the target client for

this kind of product?

So the decision of like who can actually

use like it is definitely not like like a

name based or whatever. It's mostly about

tech based. So there are specific

features like if an operator uses like

multiple brands of products,

multiple brands across multiple

different, you know, tenants or

infrastructures, then it requires a

little bit of additional technical

support, which we're of course rolling

out as well, like within

a month's time and so on.

Initially, it's like the simpler your

setup, the more sure you can be that you

can use all the features. If you have

more complicated and more custom setups

and more like really very fine tuned

custom event scenarios, then it may be,

you know, a month or a little bit more.

And you can use it to the full extent,

but you can still do it. Everybody can

start using it at the moment we launch

it. Just some of the features need a

little bit fine tuning because it is so

important for any game application

software not to crash ever.

So we're taking it very seriously.

Sure. And then just finally then, Calav,

what else can we expect to see from

OptiMove and your team this year in terms

of gamification? Because this is sort of

the curtain raiser for the year and this

is you showcasing what you've done and

the products you've developed.

What else can we expect

to see moving forward?

Are you not entertained?

No, no, I'm very happy

with our... It's very...

Because, you know, I said as well, I'm

not a sales guy or product guy, right?

Which means that if I say something out

and if I promise something, then I'm

delivering it as well, right?

My main focus is to deliver the things

that I promised as good as possible. But

I also know that there will be a very

large roadmap from June and so on.

Most of these additions are a lot of

those custom requests that clients have

been asking us, like their own custom

ideas, their own custom player-based

missions and different specific widgets

to make them kind of stand out even more,

which are all a part of

this entire large solution.

But right now we're focusing on to get

all the main functionality to work and

then we're actually, you know, whether

the entire system can be in multiple

languages that is all

automatically translated.

Whether we have, you know, visual editor

where they can visual, like without any

coding, they can modify all

the widgets in full extent.

Whether we have player avatars and

integrations with, you know, 3D avatar

models and so on. There is so much to do,

so you can definitely expect the system

to evolve to like an unrecognizable level

by the end of the year.

Certainly sounds like a very exciting

year ahead. Khalev, thanks very much for

sharing your expertise with us today. And

thank you very much to the listeners for

tuning in to today's episode of iGaming

Daily and come back tomorrow to keep up

to date with all the

latest global gambling news.