3 Questions that Foster Responsible Gaming in Today’s Economy
3 Questions that Foster Responsible Gaming in Today’s Economy
Responsible gaming is top of mind now more than ever. That’s because inflation, interest rates, and credit card balances are all high, as total U.S. consumer debt climbs to new heights. U.S. consumer debt hit $17.19 trillion in late 2023, up more than 3 percent from 2022.1 Put simply, the economy is challenging and some players may not have the same ability to spend as they once had.
Case in point. According to new research, 42 percent of young adults who gambled within the year said they took financial risks in doing so 36 percent of the young adults surveyed said they borrowed money or sold possessions to place a bet.2
As a gaming organization, it’s on you to figure out who can afford to play (and who can’t). That way you can better identify the players who can afford to pay and target them with optimized offers and promotions. Here are three simple questions you can ask to reasonably grow your viable gaming customer base in today’s dynamic market.
How do I find the “right” players who have money to spend?
It’s the burning question every gaming organization should be asking today. The answer involves looking beyond standard demographics like age and gender data. For example, you might already know the most engaged player is male, aged 25 to 35, and lives in a large metropolitan area. Yet a more fiscally wise and targeted view of today’s players might include a better understanding of a player’s total financial capacity, including the following factors.
● Total income including wages, investments, businesses, and retirement funds.
● Affluence insights that reveal likely spending capacity relative to current debt obligations, including estimated income and home equity.
● Discretionary spending insights that estimate the funds available to spend, save, or invest after paying the fixed expenses of life.
● Credit capacity based on aggregated credit data and behaviors such as credit utilization and delinquencies.
● Financial durability which measures an individual’s ability to keep spending, even when under financial stress.
Taken together, these insights can point to an individual’s financial resilience. This is their ability to withstand cost-of-living spikes, job losses, and other unexpected financial bumps in the road.
Ultimately, these are the prospective players you’re seeking to help grow your business since they’re more likely to have the ability to consistently spend and play, in any market.
How can I better personalize player experiences?
After expanding your view of prospects and customers with economic data (versus only using simple demographic data), use the insights to intelligently segment new prospects and existing players. Then adjust and personalize your promotional offers to better engage these audiences based on their current spending capacity.
It’s all about gaining deeper insight into where your players are in their lives so you can meet them wherever they are with the right offers and promotions.
For example, you can elevate the content in online ads and direct mailers with offers that better align with the financial strength of players. Here’s what that might look like:
● Offering your VIP players an even better promotion than normal because you know they can afford to participate.
● Growing mid-level players to a VIP by better understanding their spending power.
● Promoting the “lower risk” thrill of gaming with you to players and prospects who have modest discretionary income.
● Excluding those who lack the ability to spend from promotional ads and mailers (which they might normally receive based on simple demographics).
In short, a more personalized, economics-based approach can power more efficient and productive marketing. It can supercharge your revenue potential. And, it can provide big-picture views of your customers that facilitate more responsible gaming practices. The list of competitive advantages is long, including the ability to:
● Identify and target high-potential prospects based on their estimated financial capacity.
● Gain deeper, more actionable views of target markets.
● Grab interest and attention with personalized online ads and version creative based on likely buying ability, financial profile, and more.
●Increase conversion rates, while also synching and streamlining omnichannel engagement.
● Plan and market smarter by better understanding new markets ahead of promotional launches.
● Craft repeatable, data-driven strategies that advance responsible gaming practices.
● Protect your bottom line against the risk associated with players who simply can’t afford your services.
Where can I find high-quality consumer economic data?
For this, turn to an experienced third-party data provider that’s capable of providing differentiated, multisource economic data through a single-provider relationship. It’s the most cost-effective and efficient approach. It saves the time, money, and resources required to manage multiple providers and data streams (which can quickly become overwhelming).
This is where Equifax can help gaming organizations stand out. By enriching your existing prospect and customer data with our detailed economic insights, you can access real-life financial measures that help you identify and target players who are more able and likely to spend money with you.
Specifically, we offer direct access to anonymous and aggregated financial and economic data—all built without personally identifiable data—that includes:
● Direct measures of $27 trillion in anonymous U.S. consumer investable assets, covering nearly every household in America.
● Extensive scale of data that allows you to easily link key insights about income, wealth, assets, property, and more to better understand an individual’s financial security, resilience, and durability.
● Consumer channel preferences, so you can engage players over the “right” marketing channels, meaning the ones they like and use the most.
Put another way, it’s the big-picture data you need to target the right players, with the right message, at the right time, via the right channels.
Looking ahead, nobody knows what’s around the corner as the economic landscape remains uncertain. But one thing is for sure. Gaming organizations that have data-driven visibility into the changing finances and spending ability of their players are better positioned to responsibly grow their business in any market.
To learn more about the differentiated economic insights data available through Equifax and the many flexible access and delivery options. Click here to learn more.
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