How Game Innovation Is Boosting Retention By David Natroshvili, Founder And CEO At SPRIBE

How Game Innovation Is Boosting Retention By David Natroshvili, Founder And CEO At SPRIBE

David Natroshvili, Founder and CEO at SPRIBE, talks through the features and tools built into its Aviator title that help foster a community around the game and in turn take operator retention to the next level.

Player retention is critical to the success of an online casino.

The cost of acquisition is so high that operators need to keep players engaged for a prolonged period to ensure a return on their initial investment.

Engaged players also make for an incredibly strong foundation from which you can develop and grow an online casino brand – you’re not going to last long if players are constantly churning.

But retaining players is becoming increasingly difficult.

Players are incredibly discerning yet highly promiscuous. One slight bump in the road and they are more than happy to jump to another brand, never to return.

This is why operators have smart bonusing and reward systems in place to prove to players they value their loyalty and to thank them for their continued custom.

But weekly free spins bonuses are no longer enough and online casinos need to create such a strong sense of FOMO around the brand that players are compelled to regularly return to the casino.

But how does an online casino generate FOMO among its players?

The most effective way is to build a community around the brand as well as certain games within the lobby, and this is something that we have seen with Aviator.

The next generation of players are seeking social interaction through the entertainment experiences they engage with and it’s this shared experience that generates FOMO.

Building a community is easier said than done but one of the most effective ways is to add content to the lobby that has been designed to provide social interaction from the get-go.

And this is partly why crash games like Aviator have become so popular – Aviator has 42 million active players per month across 5,000 online casinos with more than 350,000 bets placed every minute.

Aviator is multiplayer with the largest win multiplier from each round displayed on a real-time leaderboard with players able to talk to each other via the chat function.

Players can also watch other bets being placed on the left-hand side of the screen – again, in real-time – and are free to interact at all times.

We’ve also just rolled out a group bet function where players can join forces with their friends and compete for a share of “community wins”.

Joining a group bet is super easy – players can see active groups or friends who are about the place a bet and then join if they like via a single click.

Once in a group bet, all participants share the outcome which means the game’s payout is divided among them based on the amount each player has bet.

This delivers social interaction in spades while bringing another strategic element with players discussing when to cash out collectively.

The feature has been integrated into the game interface so it’s accessible and easy to use and we’ve seen high levels of engagement with it.

That’s not all.

Once a player has cashed out their bet they continue to watch the action to see how others perform and just how big their win could have been if they’d stuck it out.

There’s also a treasure chest of statistics from previous game rounds to dive into – they can check their performance, monitor their spending and see how others are doing.

We take this to the next level with the bonus features and rewards tools built into the game. Aviator comes with Free Bets that operators can use to market the game to their players and encourage them to give it a go for the first time.

But for even greater engagement, we have developed a Rain Promo feature that allows operators to drop Fee Bets into the chat function where players can claim them.

Not only that, but players can also make it rain Free Bets out of their own balance and even share their wins with other players.

This has proved to be crucial in creating a sense of community around the game, with operators able to acquire new players through word of mouth while boosting session times and retention.

As you can see, the chat function is the heart of the community – it’s where players come together to share big wins, strategies and general banter about Aviator.

To effectively retain players, online casino operators need to give them such a good experience they don’t want to go anywhere else. They need to fear missing out.

Ultimately, this experience comes down to the games they play within the casino, and that’s why as a studio, we have pushed boundaries in terms of the engagement features and tools Aviator offers.

Sure, bonuses can tempt a player to try a new casino but if the wider experience is not up to scratch and the games in the lobby don’t offer what they’re looking for, they won’t stick around.

And this is why it’s important for studios to understand the role they play in supporting operator retention efforts.

For me, these retention efforts must be focused on building a community and in Aviator, we have one of the most powerful tools for doing this.