Can affordability be a source of competitive advantage?
Perhaps not before time, the gambling and gaming industry is taking responsible gambling seriously. And whilst nobody would deny that regulatory pressure is part of the reason for this change in attitude, it would be churlish not to acknowledge the very real efforts now taking place, all with the aim of protecting all players from serious financial difficulties relating to gambling.
Consider this statement from Flutter Entertainment’s most recent annual report:
“Throughout this extraordinary year, protecting our customers while they enjoy this legitimate pastime has been our highest priority and this commitment is embedded in our culture and values”.
Or this, from the equivalent source for Entain:
“We continue to lead the market in the critically important area of responsible betting and gaming.”
At ClearStake, we know from first-hand experience that these are not empty words. Every operator we have spoken to is investing significant time and money into protecting their customers to the greatest extent possible. Which is as it should be.
This is all good news. And here’s some more: a focus on responsible gambling doesn’t have to harm the bottom line. In fact, it can improve it. We can’t name names, but we’ve heard reports of double-digit revenue growth - solely thanks to faster, smoother due diligence around affordability.
Let’s talk about how that happens.
Reducing churn amongst your most valuable customers
At a certain point in time, any responsible operator is required to establish whether a customer can afford to lose the amount of money they are staking. This is just a fact of life in today’s regulatory environment.
What happens at that moment is critical to the success of your business.
There are, broadly speaking, three options available:
The first is to mark that customer as a problem gambler and stop taking their money. This is rare, but not unheard of. When a customer increases their staking pattern suddenly, it can (quite rightly) be flagged by int