The iGaming business is a tough playing field, with more than 5,000 providers competing for gamers’ attention in 2024 — up 5.2% from 2023.
But while iGaming relies heavily on marketing for player attraction and retention, technology is equally critical. With a robust online gaming solution, you have a high-quality product and a smooth experience to welcome players when your marketing pays off. Plus, a reliable tech foundation can handle all your behind-the-scenes operations, leaving you more time to work on your brand marketing.
Most importantly, you can keep up with forward-thinking rivals who already recognise technology as an enabler of smooth gameplay, secure transactions, and comprehensive data analytics.
We talked to Irakli Kakhidze, Product Head of VeliHorizon and VeliGames, about what it takes to become one of those forward-thinking rivals. His advice for what makes the difference? Opt for a turnkey iGaming solution with a scalable infrastructure, customisable bonuses, rich payment options, analytics, and robust compliance and reporting.
If you’re struggling to choose an iGaming platform for your business, read on as we explore Irakli’s expert suggestions on what to look for.
Your iGaming platform is your business foundation. Make sure it’s strong enough to support you as you grow.
– Irakli Kakhidze, Head of VeliHorizon & VeliGames
Essential features of a turnkey iGaming solution
Brand reputation, a price that suits your budget, bonus programs, and security measures in the iGaming platform are all obvious things you need in a software solution. But as Irakli points out, there’s much to consider, starting with the scalability of turnkey solutions.
Technical scalability and support for market expansion
A forward-thinking company anticipates future issues instead of having to redo everything from scratch tomorrow. Furthermore, the right all-in-one solution lets you focus on building your player base rather than dealing with tedious backend operations.
– says Irakli.
So look for the following:
Proven service support: Support and maintenance services for iGaming platforms will usually run 24/7, but quality can vary. Look out for testimonials that highlight a positive service and support experience.
A microservice architecture: A microservice setup splits infrastructure into small, interconnected blocks that each focus on one task. Just launching another microservice is much simpler than re-architecting the whole platform.
Peak-time traffic handling: Make sure any vendor you work with has guarantees in their SLAs around uptime during peak loads.
Cost-effectiveness: Read up on online gaming platform providers’ pricing, and check the small print. There will usually be different tiers for licensing, support, and possibly revenue sharing. Make sure pricing aligns with what you need now, and that you can scale up or down as things change.
Localisation: Having different currencies and languages built-in means your interface, games, and promotions will all feel more welcoming to international players.
With these priorities met, your platform is set to grow alongside your business. When choosing the right iGaming provider, you should also explore other key features such as analytics and reporting.
Reporting and analytics in turnkey solutions
Here are the crucial analytics and reporting features that should be on your checklist.
Use unified data warehouse and BI features: A single place to store all your data — gaming stats, transactions, support tickets, and promotions — helps you see the full picture of your operations. Business intelligence tools such as Tableau let you analyse these insights for data-driven decision-making.
Integrate ML tools: ML capabilities take your data insights further by unearthing hidden patterns in platform performance and player behaviour. Choosing an iGaming vendor with built-in ML means you don’t need to worry about extra licensing costs and configuration.
Leverage funnel analytics: Funnel analytics help you see exactly where users drop off, helping to fine-tune your strategies for higher player retention.
Your turnkey iGaming solution should let you understand who your customers are, which goes way beyond account IDs.
– Irakli Kakhidze.
Once you know your users, you can segment them to get the most out of your promotions and campaigns. That’s why segmentation tools are so important.
User segmentation
Segmentation can feel like a chore or a breeze, depending on your platform. The right platform will let you get creative and tailor promotions and offerings specifically for different groups of players. Here’s what makes the difference:
Aggregated segmentation: Basic segmentation by demographics and general playing habits might not be enough for targeted campaigns — for example, if you want to reach high-stakes players within a short timeframe or check the size of bets for a slot game at a national level. Combining and analysing multiple attributes, like bet levels, player value tier, and responses to previous offers, lets you engage more effectively with your players.
A/B testing: A/B testing uncovers what drives your players’ behaviour in more depth. Check whether your platform has A/B testing support to help you optimise your marketing strategies and better target future campaigns.
Integration capabilities of iGaming platforms: Even if a platform has great segmentation but no built-in testing, don’t dismiss it yet. As long as it connects with other marketing tools through APIs, you’re set.
In summary, once you’ve mastered segmentation, you can create meaningful connections that make players come back for more.
Seamless, secure, and compliant transaction processing
Payments are the fuel that keeps any gambling website running, whether they’re financial transactions or virtual payments like bets and spins. Irakli comments:
Regulatory compliance in iGaming has matured with the sector, and your reporting has to follow suit.Any worthwhile vendor will offer various payment processing options for iGaming — cards, e-wallets, bank transfers, and, of course, crypto. But how they do it is key. Regulatory compliance in iGaming has matured with the sector, and your reporting has to follow suit.
Here are the more subtle factors to consider in iGaming solutions:
Intelligent routing and cascading: Payments orchestration involves routing payments through your provider network. Intelligent or AI-based orchestration routes transactions to the provider with the highest chance of automatic approval, which speeds up player payments and betting.
Regulatory activity tracking: Logging transactions in an audit-friendly format is critical for demonstrating regulatory compliance. Major gaming software providers offer built-in regulatory reporting: make sure your choice supports it too.
Social money transfers: P2P iGaming transactions, where players transfer funds or virtual currency to each other, are growing in popularity. For example, people can send funds to help friends enter a big poker tournament or pool together for VIP events. Features like these make gaming more social and your platform more attractive.
Scalability, analytics, segmentation, and compliance all ensure your platform runs smoothly and you know your player base. The last things to look for are player engagement and retention features in turnkey solutions.
A range of bonus engine capabilities
No matter how good your welcome bonuses, free plays, and cashback rewards are, you’ll need some extra features to attract and retain your players.
Bonus customisation: Basic bonus engines can only create standard promotions for the entire player base. However, a high-stakes player will find little value in a bonus intended for casual slot players. With a solid solution, you can combine different bonus types into unique deals and configure eligibility rules, game inclusions, limits, and more to truly personalise your offers.
Real-time bonus triggers: Advanced bonus engines let you apply more sophisticated trigger rules — for example when players achieve a new personal best win amount or participate in special event games. Sophisticated triggers allow you to control when to reward your customers, instead of relying on a simple engine algorithm.
Multicurrency bonus rewards: Offer bonuses in different currencies when you expand globally. Otherwise, since bonuses are usually small amounts, currency conversion fees can eat into their value.
A final tip from Irakli? Rather than meeting your needs with several platforms, find a vendor that provides all these features. This way, you can seamlessly tailor your offering to VIPs, casual players, and everyone in between.
Get a winning hand with VeliTech’s all-inclusive platform
You may think it’s impossible to find one provider that could offer all the key features in one package. VeliTech proves that wrong. We provide a whole range of products to power your casino business.
Choosing the best turnkey iGaming solution for your business is a big decision you shouldn’t rush into. There are tons of features, and you need to ensure the combination you pick is the right one for your business.
– says Irakli.
Our iGaming payment solution, VeliPayments, guarantees smooth transactions 24/7 with 99.9% reliability.
VeliGames gives you access to a huge collection of high-quality casino games, and VeliSports provides live betting capabilities and regulatory compliance monitoring.
With the VeliHorizon player account manager (PAM), you get a 360-degree view of your customers, a built-in BI tool, a flexible bonus system, and more.
Our AI-based CRM, VeliEDGE, includes aggregated segmentation so you can target your customers pointwise.
To sum up, VeliTech offers everything your online gambling business needs to succeed: uninterrupted back-end operations, a game aggregation powerhouse, a sportsbook platform with a massive range of sports and markets, and a payment solution with over 350 payment service providers. And with our PAM, it takes just two weeks to launch your online casino brand.
Contact VeliTech to learn how you can get a winning hand with the turnkey iGaming solution.
