Online gambling companies face the constant challenge of balancing security and user experience. Minimizing friction for returning players is an essential part of making betting enjoyable, and it can be a meaningful differentiator when players have many sites to choose from. In fact, players prioritize ease of use over innovations in visual design when it comes to what draws them to iGaming sites. At the same time, knowing who your visitors are is fundamental to reducing fraud and meeting strict regulatory requirements.

One important key to this balance is device intelligence, which allows websites to improve the return user experience (RUX) when they recognize returning devices. Businesses in every industry have to make customers feel welcome to get them to come back, but it’s especially significant for online casinos, sportsbooks, and lottery games. Players who enjoy themselves are more likely to keep returning and to stick around longer. This post examines how RUX helps with these challenges by adding personalization, facilitating seamless login, and smoothing transaction flows for trusted visitors.

Balance player experience and KYC rules in online betting

Online gambling companies face formidable user experience challenges due to the stringent Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations they must comply with. Depending on the jurisdiction, these rules could require practices like periodically verifying players' identities at transaction touchpoints, determining their approximate location, or taking steps to detect when someone other than the original registrant is using the account. Regulatory requirements protect players and discourage fraud, but can add friction to gameplay if not done smoothly.

These KYC regulations are often similar to those for financial institutions, but unlike banking, customers expect to enjoy their experience on your site quickly. Imagine a player who has already gone through the multi-step verification process to sign up for an account and is now looking forward to a breezy, entertaining environment. The last thing players want is to encounter more hassle when logging in when they come back to play or try to add or withdraw money.

Online gambling sites face pressure to compete and innovate

A quickly growing marketplace makes it more critical than ever for online gambling sites to balance these competing forces. The global market for iGaming is projected to climb from $93 billion in 2024 to $172.8 billion in 2033. While this expansion represents a significant opportunity, it places heavy competitive pressure on gambling companies to offer seamless, personalized gameplay to reduce customer churn.

Many operators have turned to sophisticated machine learning tools to help deliver a competitive edge when it comes to tailoring each player’s experience. However, to make the most of these types of customization, the customer journey must be easy and personalized from the moment they return to your site.

Retaining players requires making a return visitor feel like a valued regular. Here’s what a great RUX might look like:

• When they arrive at your site, the landing page displays their favorite games or teams before they log in.
• There's a leaderboard that tracks their wins and shows new promos or bonuses relevant to their interests.
• The sign-in process is easy, with multi-factor authentication (MFA) seldom required.
• They can add funds, place bets, and withdraw money without jumping through extensive hoops.
• You can identify players who haven't been back in a while and might be more excited to engage if they see a personalized bonus or promo.

When you recognize returning devices, you can roll out the red carpet for legitimate customers from the moment they first come back and maintain a low-friction user experience throughout.

How Fingerprint’s device intelligence can help

So how can you reliably know which account holder is returning before they log in? The answer is device intelligence, which uses combinations of signals from browsers, devices, and networks to assign each device that visits your app or website a unique visitor ID that persists over months or even years. It operates entirely in the background and does not affect load times.

The unique visitor ID allows you to provide the kinds of personalization described above. When a player shows up with a unique visitor ID already known to your site, you’re able to give them the “valued regular” treatment you’d give to a familiar customer walking into your brick-and-mortar establishment. When it’s time to log in or conduct transactions, device intelligence allows you to verify that the device matches details from a previous visit. For trusted devices, you can let users skip MFA without compromising security.

Fingerprint makes this possible with a device intelligence system that uses over 100 signals for industry-leading device ID accuracy. Our unique visitor ID is also more effective than cookies (which can be deleted) or IP addresses (which can be hidden behind a VPN). It persists even when players visit using incognito mode.

The costs of ignoring RUX

Any part of the customer journey that makes logging in, adding or withdrawing funds, or placing bets difficult can drive players away. One study from Betting Hero found that 40% of customers who had trouble placing a bet would try another app as their first response. With device intelligence, you can improve RUX by making transactions easier for trusted visitors without additional visible security steps.

Just as device intelligence can make things easier for trusted visitors, it also works to keep out fraudsters. Protecting RUX includes identifying bots, tampered devices, and account takeover attacks to make betting safer and more enjoyable. Online casinos and sportsbooks that let in bad actors risk failing to meet compliance requirements and damaging the playing experience for good customers.

Invest in player retention with RUX

Ease of use is among the most critical and challenging parts of a good online betting platform. It's a tall order to provide an exciting, engaging experience while meeting the security demands of handling high volumes of financial transactions. Device intelligence can help meaningfully improve RUX by identifying valued customers as soon as they arrive.

Fingerprint identifies more than 4 billion unique devices worldwide each year from more than 250 countries and territories. Leading online gambling and fintech companies worldwide use our platform to make their customer experiences safe, secure, and enjoyable. Fingerprint is ISO 27001 certified; SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and CCPA compliant; and meets the SCA requirements as outlined by PSD2 in the EU.

Want to learn more about how Fingerprint enables iGaming companies to deliver seamless logins and personalized experiences, even for anonymous traffic? Get in touch with us today.