[Music]
We all know that gamification is a
powerful tool for iGaming operators to
create genuine player loyalty,
but what specifically should you be aware
of to promote higher rates of engagement,
and what mistakes should you be avoiding?
Welcome back to iGaming Daily, supported
by Optimoove, the creator
of positionless marketing
and the number one player engagement
solution for sports
betting and iGaming operators.
I'm Charlie Horner and today I'm joined
by Optimoove's director of
gamification, Kalev Karpuk.
Kalev, thanks for joining me. We're live
at ice at the Optimoove
stand. How's it going?
Thank you for having me. I'm doing
perfectly fine. We're very excited.
This is the first time that we're
actually being able to speak, not only
speak, but also show
all the advances that we have done in
gamification and in Loewet specifically.
So it's not only slide shows anymore. Now
we're actually
looking at working products.
So we're very excited about that.
Yeah, it's been a really busy 12 months
for Optimoove on the gamification front
and we're starting to see the fruits of
that here because the sand's really busy.
It's only the first day. There's plenty
of time to go. So I guess really, how's
the interest been so far?
It's been extraordinarily high. Like if I
remember, like, why did I even
start this gamification thing?
Back in like 2014, like 12 years ago
already, when I was working in New York
in a gamification design agency,
then it was at a stage where people kind
of knew the concepts and maybe wanted to
have different types of
experiments with gamification.
But no one really knew what they wanted
or how to how to
obtain the actual solutions.
And now the contrast that we see here
today, I think very large parts, like
very large reason why we see this huge
interest right now is now
companies have the tools.
So we didn't have the tools before and I
personally created, I manually created a
bunch of gamification solutions,
which all needed to be created from zero
to do the exact same thing.
But now with the tools where everything
is configurable, everything is very kind
of, you know, you can really build
whatever you imagine.
Now people actually get the opportunity
to make gamification live and start using
them. And that's what we're seeing here
in the booth as well.
So you mentioned that you've been in this
for 12 years and it's a long
time to have been in this space.
How do you sum up the importance of
gamification in 2026? Is it a case of if
an operator doesn't utilize these tools,
they're already two or three steps behind
the rest of the pack?
So you can make an argument and I would
actually make a case of you're in a good
position if you're not using it right
now, but you are definitely planning to
use it in a very near future.
And the reason I say it is because there
are companies and operators who use a 10
year old solution. Right. But 10 years
ago, gamification was very primitive.
Right. So we were only looking at very
specific game design aspects. We were
only looking at missions. We were only
looking giving away
badges and points and so on.
And a lot of those softwares that enable
those companies to do those things were
kind of locked in architecturally to do
only those specific things.
And now, as you mentioned, as well,
gamification has evolved
into more creative space.
Companies wanted to do like really their
own creative stuff like level journeys
and then hero maps and so on.
And now with the tools that are getting
released here and in our gamify solution
as well, then if you start using it
today, then you can really, you know, use
all the kind of optimized
and state of the art solutions.
So you're definitely not late, but you
definitely need to start doing it because
the results do speak for themselves.
I like to say it's a zero cost retention
model because it doesn't cost you
anything to to create this kind of
intrinsic value system of points and
tournaments and so on.
But it keeps the retention going because
people do want to engage and you want to
experiment with all the different
gamification functionalities
and operator or can provide.
You say that more and more operators are
coming towards gamification.
It's interesting because all the forms of
online entertainment or other online
verticals have adopted
gamification quite significantly.
So different e-commerce brands have
implemented these kind of retention
strategies in place.
Do you think iGaming can learn things
from those other verticals that have also
implemented gamification tools?
That's actually a very good question
because what I've actually thought like
sometimes I thought that gamification
works best in an environment where it is
fresh, where it is new, where it's and in
retail and even in like
financing, banking and crypto,
people are not used to seeing those
gamification design
aspects we're getting used.
And that's why it's like, you know, it
gets a little bit more
interest from the end customers.
And then again, what like how do you
missions and how do tournaments work in
retail are a little bit different because
they do utilize of using, you know, using
different aspects of their
existing e-commerce store.
Or if you take a bolt, for example, then
then you're doing a taxi ride.
But this taxi ride has a lot of
parameters like how long was it?
How expensive was it? What car was it?
And all of these parameters
can be turned into missions.
So I guess if I want the spot to kind of
think of new solutions, then yes, gaming
operators can also, I think, leverage
more of the attribute data
that they have in their events.
So it's not only whether you play the
game, but exactly what happened in the
game that can be turned into a mission.
So, you know, it does require a little
bit of analysis, but it's a creative
process of coming up with the correct
design principles of gamification anyway.
Yeah, it's all about getting those
principles right as well. And, you know,
there are right ways of doing things.
There are perhaps wrong ways of doing
things. What are the most common
misconceptions about gamification or some
of the mistakes that you
see operators fallen into?
There's actually one thing that I started
noticing, like within the last year that
we've been developing it.
I'm very surprised that a lot of the
software don't make gamification public.
So it is my like, I'll die on this hill
saying that
gamification should be public.
You haven't like the end players have an
option to opt out of it.
But if you cannot showcase your
achievements, if you cannot showcase your
badges, if you cannot look at other
players profiles, then you're really, I
believe, are missing out.
So one large mistake is showing the
achievements to only
that person who got them.
So I definitely encourage you to leverage
more of the social aspects, those public
profiles, public competitions, way more.
There's of course more. There's a lot of,
you know, maybe getting a little bit more
like design technicalities.
But I have seen gamification systems
which are designed to end. Right.
So there is a finish or some of the
gaming loops have a finish.
Like once you reach to that point, then
there is no further call to action.
So that's definitely something that you
should never do. A gamification loop
should be never ending.
There are tricks how to do it, but some
very technical details. Sure.
And gamification is kind of just one part
of the wider
marketing and retention cycle.
Do you see some operators perhaps over
relying on gamification or using it in a
way that isn't perhaps as effective as
part of that wider ecosystem?
I'm not sure I heard your question
correctly, but given the
usage of the wider usage,
it's one thing that we have also designed
very detailedly into the kind of
technical capabilities of our system,
which means that, yes, there is a very
large portion of the gamification
activities that happen
on the operator's site.
Right. So a player will log into their
profile. They will see
tournaments to participate.
They will do all these actions, but
they're still in that profile
or like in their own website.
But there is also an additional marketing
layer, which is the SMS marketing, which
is the email marketing,
which is the pop-ups, which is the all
the other channels that you can utilize.
And it is only correct to you and like to
combine those channels.
So if you send out an email, then in that
email, you can say that, you know,
you will also get some specific virtual
currencies by clicking
by reacting to that email.
Or you can send out an SMS saying, you
know, there is a, you know,
a batch that you can earn.
And the batch can be called like quick
grabbers or something, which can only be
earned if you react to this message with
the life within like
five second time frame.
So so it is very correct to take the
gamification experience,
optimize it for the websites,
optimize it for the user's journey, but
then improve it and initiate it from
other places as well.
And then quickly, just before we go to a
short break, how easy is it to integrate
gamification engines
into an operator's platform?
And then once it's integrated, how easily
customizable are those solutions?
So I don't know if anyone ever has ever
heard me speak about
gamification over the last year,
specifically about the game, the system
that we're building for optimal.
But there is one thing that I have
promised and I've always said that once I
do the platform, then
there is no integration.
And that is so I'm
not a sales guy, right?
I'm a product guy, which also means that
that I only talk about the passion of
building the best products.
And I believe the best product contains
zero barrier of entry.
So in our case, it's really if you flip a
switch, then everything already works.
Now it's only about the configuration.
And of course, it's really my passion to
build products which are as customizable
as possible, which basically means you
will just if you if you want to create a
tournament or a mission or a battle pass,
then then it's really just making choices
of the events and attributes and then
deciding of which type of
a mission you want to do.
And actually, we've gone a step further.
I've taken into the UX analysis of like
if you if you think that I want to create
a mission that make 10 bets where each
bet is at least $50 within three days,
then the way that you create this mission
is exactly how you say it.
So it's like typing it out and then press
save and then it's done.
So I'm very passionate about
customizability of low integration.
So so there is no integration.
Besides the actual getting the real time
events into optimal, but
that's what happens anyway.
If you're if you're integrating a CRM.
Sure.
We'll take a quick break and then we'll
come back and we'll
continue the discussion.
Welcome back to iGaming Daily.
I'm joined by Optimooves, director of
gaming education, Callev Karpuk.
Callev.
And we're on the show floor.
It's a time when, you know, people right
across this hall and all the other halls
will be showcasing new products, new
solutions and Optimooves is no different.
There's a new loyalty
solution that you bring into market.
Could you could you outline
what that load solution is?
What is it? Who is it for?
And what makes it stand out?
Yeah.
So again, like going back to like why I
created the game education software at
all, like before it was an act and then
Optimoive acquired the act and the act
was about creating many game.
Creating mini game interactions very
quickly, very easily.
So you can choose from like 60 different
mini games and create them with like 30
minutes and publish them
to your segmented audience.
But actually, like under a veil of
secrecy, once whenever I actually created
the acts as it is, as it was five years
ago, I actually wanted to create
something that we are creating today.
That was always my passion to build a
loyalty system that is really complete
that has not only the mini games part,
but it has all the kind of mission
interactions, has those potential
leaderboards that people can track those
public profiles and everything that kind
of makes people want to engage with every
part of your software.
Right. So that was my passion.
And and today we have really made the
first largest step towards it, which
means that the entire infrastructure is
now done, which means
everything else is a cakewalk.
Like if you know how to build products,
then infrastructure is the
is the most difficult part.
And what we can already demonstrate is
that it doesn't matter how many
interactions or events doesn't matter
which types of events.
Everything can be today configured to
give out gamification rewards and be
turned into tournaments
and missions and so on.
So in ice, we are showcasing the kind of
the kind of first actual usable software.
And we can actually start testing the
testing the entire software against the
real data with no
integration, as mentioned before.
And now the next steps is really just
enriching it with new functionalities
such as, you know, we're bringing in
battle passes, we're bringing in
tournaments, we're bringing in stores,
we're bringing so many
large creative stuff.
I think the next step is going to be on
March in two in two months time where
we'll actually make
it publicly available.
You mentioned that, Kalev, that it was a
long standing passion project for you and
a long long lasting ambition for you to
develop products like this.
But but why was now the right time to
bring it to market? Was it based on any
particular client feedback or was it just
that now is the right time that you have
the technological capability to do so?
Yeah, so definitely two parts to it.
Number one, the client feedback was
enormous. Before joining Optimo, I had no
idea about the necessity and about the
actual like the kind of scale of desire
from clients to actually want to have a
very well designed gamification solution.
So that's definitely a very large part of
it. But then you can also ask, like, why
didn't I start from, you know, why did I
build that first? And now I'm building
this because technologically, it is a
very large challenge.
And if anyone says otherwise, I'm very
surprised because at the end of the day,
Optimo brings millions and millions of
queries per day, which all need to be
processed in a resource efficient way.
So they have perfect technology to do it.
We could very that's one of the reasons
why you can develop it so fast. We can
use their existing very well built out
infrastructure, which I could never have
access to if I hadn't joined Optimo.
So it's definitely both increased desire
from the clients, but also a very good
tech stack to build it upon.
And obviously the products will be
available in full for people to try in
March. But what impact are you expecting
it to have on your clients and their
ability to maintain and grow
that player loyalty over time?
Yeah. So actually, like in order to play
around and to test, you can already do it
today. But like from March is where we
where they can actually
use and make it public.
So the impact, I think like mostly I am
very like inspired by this emotional
impact of them seeing like this is
exactly what I wanted to build and have
the tool to, you know, to actually have
fun building it and kind of enjoy the
process of bringing something to life
that I actually imagined.
But I do expect that that given the
missions and then the kind of
interactions are built out really well.
It's like a breath of fresh
air for all their customers.
You know, there are so many operators and
so many companies in general that are,
you know, struggling with what's the next
innovation in large corporations.
You know, you cannot just shift the
entire boat different way. But this is
like this opportunity to really, you
know, make them different from their
competitors to bring
something new to the platform.
And I'm sure that all the end players
will appreciate it a lot. And also, it's
a good point to say that that one thing
that that I also noticed as a weakness
from from a lot of different softwares is
that if a client is using a software,
then you know that you know exactly what
sort of that they're using because
they're kind of looking the same. In our
case, every solution is completely
different visually as well.
So it doesn't appear that you're already
using an existing solution. So anyway, I
do kind of I'm excited about the faces
and the reactions when they can actually
start playing around and
building what they wanted.
Yeah, absolutely. And just in terms of
the rollout, is it going to be available
for all OptiMove clients moving forward?
Or is it something that you're looking to
maybe target tier one operators with, you
know, who's who's the target client for
this kind of product?
So the decision of like who can actually
use like it is definitely not like like a
name based or whatever. It's mostly about
tech based. So there are specific
features like if an operator uses like
multiple brands of products,
multiple brands across multiple
different, you know, tenants or
infrastructures, then it requires a
little bit of additional technical
support, which we're of course rolling
out as well, like within
a month's time and so on.
Initially, it's like the simpler your
setup, the more sure you can be that you
can use all the features. If you have
more complicated and more custom setups
and more like really very fine tuned
custom event scenarios, then it may be,
you know, a month or a little bit more.
And you can use it to the full extent,
but you can still do it. Everybody can
start using it at the moment we launch
it. Just some of the features need a
little bit fine tuning because it is so
important for any game application
software not to crash ever.
So we're taking it very seriously.
Sure. And then just finally then, Calav,
what else can we expect to see from
OptiMove and your team this year in terms
of gamification? Because this is sort of
the curtain raiser for the year and this
is you showcasing what you've done and
the products you've developed.
What else can we expect
to see moving forward?
Are you not entertained?
No, no, I'm very happy
with our... It's very...
Because, you know, I said as well, I'm
not a sales guy or product guy, right?
Which means that if I say something out
and if I promise something, then I'm
delivering it as well, right?
My main focus is to deliver the things
that I promised as good as possible. But
I also know that there will be a very
large roadmap from June and so on.
Most of these additions are a lot of
those custom requests that clients have
been asking us, like their own custom
ideas, their own custom player-based
missions and different specific widgets
to make them kind of stand out even more,
which are all a part of
this entire large solution.
But right now we're focusing on to get
all the main functionality to work and
then we're actually, you know, whether
the entire system can be in multiple
languages that is all
automatically translated.
Whether we have, you know, visual editor
where they can visual, like without any
coding, they can modify all
the widgets in full extent.
Whether we have player avatars and
integrations with, you know, 3D avatar
models and so on. There is so much to do,
so you can definitely expect the system
to evolve to like an unrecognizable level
by the end of the year.
Certainly sounds like a very exciting
year ahead. Khalev, thanks very much for
sharing your expertise with us today. And
thank you very much to the listeners for
tuning in to today's episode of iGaming
Daily and come back tomorrow to keep up
to date with all the
latest global gambling news.
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