Ed Dickerson, Fast Track: “The way in which the industry tries to measure the value of players and bonuses doesn’t quite do what it’s intended to do”
Shows & conferences - 21 October, 2026
During SBC Summit Lisbon 2026, Focus Gaming News sat down with Ed Dickerson, Product Director at Fast Track, to discuss how operators measure player value, the case for bonuses based on real value and the company’s True Value product.
Dickerson argued that the industry’s usual way of valuing players and bonuses “doesn’t quite do what it’s intended to do”. Operators rely on metrics such as three-month GGR and deposit-to-bonus ratios, he said, and even sophisticated ones that predict bonus value from historic data cannot say what a bonus would be worth in a new market, with new games or with changed terms.
True Value, he explained, measures the value of a player’s session instantly, without historic data, even for a new player on a new game in a new market with a new bonus. The product grew out of Greco, Fast Track’s tool for flagging bonus abuse in real time: understanding the mathematical value of each session was the best way to detect advantage play, and the company then realised the approach applied to every decision with a monetary element, from VIP status to affiliate traffic quality.
He said poor metrics can lead operators astray in both directions. VIPs who win big early may be missed, as “you’ve just missed the biggest VIP because you’re looking at the wrong metrics”. At the same time, he noted, bonuses have no value in themselves, because the same offer is worth different amounts to different players depending on how they play. Strict operators risk under-bonusing and under-recognising valuable players, while aggressive ones risk “paying to bring back the wrong players”, so retention can rise while GGR does not.
His recommendation is to look at the whole player base through its true value and budget accordingly: minimal-value or no-value offers for negative-value players, to encourage engagement without cost, and retention efforts concentrated on the higher-value segments.