Alex Antsyferov, CBO at Trueplay: “Look closely at customer acquisition cost and payback time”

Trueplay CBO shares insights on how to keep players coming back.

Interview.- Alex Antsyferov, CBO at Trueplay, has shared his thoughts on the fast-changing opportunities of the igaming industry, and Trueplay’s approach to challenges in terms of player retention.

What are the major retention challenges in the iGaming industry today?

The very first challenge I would like to highlight is that a user usually comes to a project, plays for one to three days, and then moves on to another one. There are various reasons for such behaviour: game content preferences, unoptimized bonuses, or aggressive marketing campaigns from competitors. In this case, the customer acquisition cost hasn’t paid off, and the ROI is critically low.

The second challenge is that classic retention methods aren’t enough, as they yield fewer and fewer results with each passing year. I’m talking about push messages that get disabled, e-mails that end up in the spam folder, calls that go nowhere, etc.

And my third point is that most of the exclusive game mechanics that crop up in various projects are easily reproduced. Any competitor can launch a similar game sooner or later.

In your opinion, what are the most significant opportunities for improving player retention in the igaming industry?

It’s difficult for companies to improve retention on their own, with purely in-house resources. Major enhancements drive up development and operations costs and are no guarantee that they will work. This is where third-party companies can and already are helping out. Gradually, the focus will shift from games, content, and payment methods to retention.

“For any casino and platform provider who wants to stay in the game, I would advise looking closely at customer acquisition cost and payback time.”

Alex Antsyferov, CBO at Trueplay.

Looking into the future, what innovations or trends do you foresee playing a crucial role in shaping player retention strategies for the igaming industry as a whole?

One emerging opportunity in igaming is first-person streaming — a trend that already exists and is growing. Streamers — based on their role and impact — can be rightfully called influencers. While playing on a platform, they pose as brand ambassadors in their own right, staking their reputational capital on the platform. Streamers inspire trust and confidence and make viewers want to be involved and engaged.

I believe igaming brands will be exploring streaming opportunities in the near future.

How is Trueplay positioned to tackle the challenges and opportunities mentioned above?

Trueplay is a SaaS company that makes igaming brands both more attractive and more profitable.

Our clients get an effective WEB3-ready multipurpose marketing tool. Players get loyalty tokens for basic actions such as KYC completion, first deposit, and many others. Those tokens are a versatile tool that can be used, for example, for staking through the Hold to Earn program to get more in the future.

So, to recap, users get project tokens for actions and bets and then can stake them to get even more. When participating, they get incentives to come back in eight hours, one or three days to harvest the reward. This forms a habit and makes it more beneficial for players to stay than to go to another project. 

What are your plans for the future?

We are working on new exciting features that drive engagement and are associated with streaming. New announcements are coming soon, and I hope they will help our clients to grow even faster.