
Sanjulian Nis
Head of VeliEDGE
About the author
In his role as Head of VeliEDGE, Sanjulian presides over the evolution, enhancement, and innovation of the product. With a career spanning over nine years, Sanjulian brings a unique fusion of management expertise, IT development acumen, and leadership skills developed across various business domains.
Breaking into a new iGaming market isn’t just about mastering technology or operations — it’s about crafting an engagement strategy that speaks directly to the unique preferences and dynamics of each region.
At VeliTech, we’ve seen firsthand how tailored player engagement strategies drive GGR growth across multiple regions. And as a Head of VeliEDGE, I’ve had the privilege of watching our clients’ strategies come to life through our product.
In fact, the main reason behind creating VeliEDGE was a growing demand for a versatile solution that adapts to different player expectations and markets. Spoiler alert: it worked exactly as we planned. Today, our clients get to enhance engagement by aligning their channels and communication perfectly with local requirements and culture, while we deepen our understanding of market specifics.
In this article, I’ll share what we’ve learned from helping iGaming businesses thrive in almost every corner of the globe.
iGaming engagement in Africa

Trend: Mobile-first economy and high reliance on mobile internet access.
Characteristic: Predominantly cash-based economy with the profound significance of social interactions.
Challenge: Bonus exploitation undermines fairness and player trust.
Africa is hugely diverse, but one approach is relevant everywhere: mobile-first. We learned the importance of mobile optimisation early on in our journey in Africa with PLAYONGO. It turned out that over 75% of internet users access the web through mobile devices. Therefore, connecting with players has to happen on their terms — through mobile channels like SMS and pop-ups. Our client leveraged VeliEDGE to build customer journeys focusing on features that could easily support mobile-first engagement, allowing the delivery of more thrilling experiences literally into players’ hands.
We also found that physical bet shops remain a notable part of the gaming culture in Africa’s cash-based economy. These spaces act as social hubs where players gather and share their passion for gaming. However, the real opportunity lies in bridging these offline interactions with robust online platforms that deliver more personalised and dynamic engagement.
For example, pop-ups and the Message Feed in VeliEDGE are powerful tools for reaching players online. Unlike pop-ups, which require player consent, the Message Feed integrates seamlessly into the platform without interrupting the experience, leading to significantly higher conversion rates. These features allow operators to deliver tailored updates, promotions, and reactivation messages directly to players, keeping them informed and engaged.
That’s why creating opportunities for connection is so vital. African players are deeply invested in their community, and features like in-game chat and social media integration allow them to continue these interactions digitally — connecting, sharing experiences, and celebrating wins together.
But Africa has a unique challenge to sustaining player engagement: bonus exploitation, where players manipulate promotional offers to their advantage. To tackle this, VeliEDGE introduced an agile system of restrictions that can be tailored to different use cases, ensuring players can only access bonus offers once. This preserves fairness and player trust.

iGaming engagement in Asia

Trend: A growing demand for gamified experiences.
Characteristic: Dominance of specific sports and a strong cultural focus on competition.
Challenge: Adapting to diverse player preferences and cultural differences.
Asia’s diversity shows up in its cultural and sporting preferences: cricket dominates in South Asia, basketball thrives in the Philippines, and football captivates East Asia. These regional passions significantly shape the types of sports people engage with, often requiring operators to adapt their offerings to meet local expectations.
This diversity aligns perfectly with the trends we’ve observed in markets like Greater Southeast Asia, where around 60% of gamers are strongly drawn to eSports. It’s clear that including these options isn’t just a nice-to-have — it’s essential for engaging this highly enthusiastic audience.
That’s where I’d recommend VeliSports, another VeliTech product designed to cater to a wide range of player interests. With over 100 sports and eSports available, it covers eFootball, eHockey, Dota 2, League of Legends, CS2, Valorant, and more.
Effective player engagement in Asia often relies on timely and direct communication. Mobile push notifications, notification centres, pop-ups, and emails have proven to be the most successful channels for keeping players connected. These methods ensure operators can deliver tailored updates that resonate with local preferences.
Adding to this complexity, countries like South Korea and Japan are deeply influenced by pop culture, manga, and anime, which often impact UX design and preferred gaming styles. These preferences highlight why Asia gravitates towards a completely different game stack — a unique challenge for operators seeking to create relevant and engaging experiences.
Another trend in Asia is the strong love for competition. The cultural affinity for achievement, ranking, and social validation makes gamified experiences here not just entertainment but a kind of social currency. Elements like leaderboards, achievement badges, and personalised challenges are key for tapping into your players’ desire for continuous improvement and recognition. With EDGE in combination with VeliHorizon, operators can leverage loyalty points and a robust loyalty system to reward player achievements, fostering deeper engagement and long-term retention.

iGaming engagement in LATAM

Trend: Real-time streaming and live interactions.
Characteristic: LATAM players prefer dynamic social gaming beyond traditional gameplay.
Challenge: Navigating regulatory uncertainty and complex tax requirements across countries.
Latin America’s vibrant energy extends into its iGaming habits. Similarly to Africa, players in this region don’t just want gameplay — they want an exciting, interactive experience that builds community. Social media, live streams, and in-game chats are all good ways to support them. Additionally, community-building strategies such as creating player forums, fostering social interactions through local influencers, and integrating culturally relevant content can play an important role in deepening player engagement.
At the same time, Latin America presents unique challenges for operators. Player behaviour in this region can be complex, with many individuals simultaneously engaging with multiple brands and seeking the most attractive bonuses. Players in Latin America often exhibit burst-like gaming patterns, engaging intensively over short periods and then switching to another platform. Because of low brand loyalty, combined with relatively short player LTV, operators need to re-engage players to maintain their interest.
Here, personalisation and player segmentation are essential for giving your platform the edge. At the same time, you need tools that can analyse player data efficiently and optimise your engagement strategies. With this in mind, we integrated features into VeliEDGE that centralise data from multiple sources, enabling operators to segment players more precisely. EDGE includes RFM (Recency, Frequency, Monetary) analytics that allows businesses to identify and categorise players based on their activity, which is crucial for targeted marketing efforts. Creating an RFM analysis in EDGE is a straightforward process that enables the delivery of personalised, and timely communications based on player behaviour and preferences.
Other significant challenges for LATAM iGaming platform providers include sudden changes in gambling laws, inconsistent enforcement of regulations, and varying tax requirements across countries. The key here is adaptability — operators must quickly adjust to changes and continuously monitor the legal landscape. This is where VeliEDGE excels, offering tools that enable operators to swiftly adapt their workflows and engagement strategies to align with evolving regulations.

iGaming engagement in established markets: Europe & USA

Trend: A growing focus on compliance, trust, and data protection in player engagement.
Characteristic: Strict regulations like GDPR and state-specific laws demand high security and privacy standards.
Challenge: Navigating complex regulations while maintaining trust and a seamless experience.
In established markets like Europe and the USA, player engagement isn’t just about offering an exciting gaming experience — it’s deeply rooted in trust, transparency, and compliance. These regions are heavily regulated, with frameworks like GDPR in Europe and strict state-specific laws in the USA that require operators to align every engagement aspect with legal requirements.
One of the significant challenges here is navigating integration with local government systems, implementing player-blocking mechanisms, and complying with restrictions on sending messages. And we’ve built VeliEDGE to handle these challenges, with needed functionality in place.
At the same time, players expect value and recognition for their time spent on a platform. Personalised rewards and loyalty programs work well here, so a strong CRM is a must. To communicate with your players in established markets, consider email, as it remains a highly effective channel there. You can confidently rely on it to engage and retain your audience.
We developed VeliEDGE with innovative features that enable iGaming operators to create custom loyalty programs. And since compliance is non-negotiable, we focused on creating a CRM platform that aligns with the data protection and security requirements of established markets. With VeliEDGE, iGaming providers can centralise and automate communication workflows, ensuring that all player data is handled securely and in full compliance with regulations. This allows you to focus on player engagement strategies to grow your player base while meeting the highest security standards. And we’re proud to share that VeliEDGE has earned the SOC 2 Type 1 certification, a testament to our commitment to securing player data and ensuring compliance.

As we’ve explored, maximising player engagement across specific markets requires an understanding of unique regional characteristics. From the mobile-first environment in Africa to the highly regulated markets in Europe and the USA, each region demands a different approach if you want to capture player interest.
Besides that, a feature-rich and adaptable CRM platform is required. Choosing a tool from the right iGaming solution provider could be a real challenge. So, let me help you make up your mind with the custom Scorecard Template.
With this tool, you can:
– chart the infinite number of considered CRM iGaming platforms;
– evaluate all iGaming software providers by the most important criteria;
– systematise your research and trust the player engagement to the winners!

With VeliEDGE, our vision was always to create an AI-powered CRM for iGaming engagement that could evolve alongside the changing demands of the industry. As we worked with a wide range of markets, each with its own unique challenges, we quickly realised that flexibility and adaptability were essential. That’s how VeliEDGE became the no-code CRM that it is today — designed to streamline your player engagement while allowing you to adapt quickly to market and regional trends.

Our collaboration with Rival Fantasy is a great example of how we boost engagement for iGaming brands. Rival Fantasy faced the challenge of winning players in the competitive fantasy sports market, so they turned to our product to streamline their player engagement and marketing.

Thanks to VeliEDGE, the client tailored their communication based on advanced segmentation criteria, like player behaviour, interests, and sports preferences. Rival Fantasy seamlessly crafted its marketing campaigns for distinct user segments by leveraging our intuitive no-code customer journey builder. This helped them communicate effectively with newcomers and reactivate inactive players with personalised campaigns, boosting loyalty and lifetime value.
With advanced segmentation, AI tools for player engagement, and a user-friendly interface, VeliEDGE simplifies the process of engaging players and drives long-term loyalty. So, if you’re looking for an iGaming CRM software that adapts to the evolving needs of your players and market dynamics, VeliEDGE is the answer.
Ready to enhance your player engagement strategies? Let’s talk.
