By Michael Baker-Mosley, Chief Marketing Officer at iGP
Loyalty programmes remain widespread in iGaming, yet few meaningfully change player behaviour. As acquisition costs rise, operators must rethink how retention is built, measured, and scaled.
Everyone in iGaming knows loyalty is not working as it should. Retention keeps slipping while acquisition becomes more expensive, and most loyalty systems fail to change player behaviour in any meaningful way. And this is happening despite the fact that many operators already sit on databases of thousands of registered players.
This challenge extends far beyond iGaming. Beyond airlines and supermarkets, and perhaps a handful of land-based casinos, loyalty has struggled to deliver lasting impact.
What sets the iGaming industry apart, is how fast churn, in today’s environment, turns into financial and operational pressure.
In this fiercely competitive market, operators that fail to shift their strategy toward retention will find that constant acquisition to replace lost players is simply not sustainable. Your loyalty strategy will be one of the few remaining differentiators.
An Industry Built Not to Keep
A lot of attention was put on acquisition. Growth meant traffic, campaigns, launches, and expansion. Loyalty was well understood, but the tools operators reached for were were largely the same, bonuses, free spins, and repeat offers, often optimised for short-term uplift rather than long-term value.
The problem is that loyalty systems were never the focus, and most follow the same familiar pattern, points accumulate, levels unlock, rewards trigger, players notice briefly, then move on.
The technology behind these systems receives little attention, even though it shapes the entire experience. Many loyalty tools were built for a slower market, a single brand, and predictable player journeys.
That world has changed as players move between brands, switch products, and dip in and out of activity. Loyalty experiences that treat every player the same struggle to hold attention.
Why Retention Keeps Losing the Budget Battle
Retention takes time and depends on understanding behaviour rather than reacting to it. When budgets tighten, acquisition usually wins because the impact feels immediate.
That trade-off is becoming harder to justify. Retention is often overshadowed by acquisition, yet a 5 percent improvement in retention can lift profits by 25 to 95 percent. Retaining an existing player can be almost five times cheaper than acquiring a new one.
Also, because of regulatory changes, advertising restrictions continue to increase. Costs rise and margins narrow. Operators pay more for players who stay for less time. Retention is no longer a secondary discipline. It is one of the few remaining levers operators can still influence.
Even so, these legacy loyalty systems often fall short. Data sits in silos and rewards lack connection to real player behaviour. The gap between player behaviour and the infrastructure meant to support it is quite obvious.
A Problem That Sparked iGP
Nearly a decade ago, a group of B2C experts encountered this limitation firsthand. They wanted to build stronger player experiences but could not find tools that offered enough flexibility or even insight.
That frustration contributed to the creation of iGP.
From the start, promotional tools were treated as part of the core platform rather than added later. Campaign logic, behaviour tracking, and reward mechanics were designed to work together. The focus was control, visibility, and consistency rather than volume.
Over time, this approach influenced the development of campaign automation, segmentation layers, and promotional tools across the wider platform. Loyalty remained part of the discussion, waiting for the right moment to evolve further.
Loyalty Needs a Different Shape
Loyalty cannot rely on static progression as it needs to reflect behaviour, pace, and context.
It is very important that players understand what they are working toward and why it matters. Operators need to see clearly what loyalty is actually doing for the business across different brands and products, without having their teams buried in manual work just to get there.
This is exactly where many existing loyalty frameworks struggle. They reward activity without understanding intent and apply the same logic everywhere.
And this is why loyalty programmes are widespread yet rarely memorable.
Where the Industry Is Heading
The cost of acquisition is only going to increase and that is not going to change.
Retention will therefore move closer to the centre of strategy, with loyalty operating as a core layer rather than a peripheral feature. It will sit alongside behaviour, brand identity, and real time data, shaping how players are engaged across products and brands.
This shift is already taking shape. At ICE Barcelona 2026, we will introduce iGP VIBE, Value Incentive Bonus Engine. Rather than adding another standalone loyalty product, VIBE brings together the loyalty and bonus capabilities across iGP, including bonus engine, promotional tools, the Bonus Shop, the Twist of Luck fortune wheel, and the iGD Jackpot.
Loyalty becomes easier to manage when incentives, progression, and engagement mechanics are no longer scattered across separate tools. In a market where acquisition is harder, attention is shorter, and relevance matters by default, that cohesion is becoming increasingly important.
The Quiet Advantage
Loyalty declines when the systems shaping that experience stop making sense. Players then stop caring.
Operators who recognise this early gain a difficult advantage to replicate. Retention becomes more predictable, with spend turning out more efficient and player relationships lasting a lot longer.
As acquisition grows louder and more expensive, the real opportunity may lie in strengthening the part of the business that compounds value. For many operators, that means redesigning how loyalty supports sustainable growth rather than relying on constant replacement to fill the funnel.
