There’s an adage in our industry: “sports for show, casino for dough.”
Nothing generates excitement like the global thrill and drama of real-time sports action, which is why many operators cite sports betting rights as the ultimate promotional content and acquisition driver for their brand.
The marketing potential of sport’s most memorable moments is unrivalled when it comes to customer acquisition and growth, few more so than the FIFA World Cup. With a record 48 teams competing across 104 matches, this year’s competition promises to attract more customer interest than ever. However, the seasonal nature of the sporting schedule inevitably causes fluctuations in player activity, value, and commercial revenue, especially in the form of a potential ‘World Cup hangover.’
Where hybrid sportsbooks are different
Online gaming content, on the other hand, is not bound to such time constraints, so a comprehensive offering and catalogue of games can provide the backbone for player retention and consistent revenue generation.
While total revenue generated from sports betting can vary greatly (from 10-45% of total gross gaming revenue), Sportradar clients typically report that customers using both sportsbook and casino services can deliver up to 600% the lifetime value of sports or casino-only players. The cross-sell opportunity from sports to casino is therefore incredibly lucrative.
So-called ‘hybrid’ books, who offer both sports and casino content, are acutely aware of this fact and comprise approximately 90% of all betting operators, according to our research.
Despite this knowledge and their concerted efforts to increase the number of sports fans playing iGaming content, traditional cross-sell promotion sees only 10–45% of sports players naturally try casino verticals. Overcoming this challenge remains elusive as no correlation has been established between the sport content bettors enjoy and the potential casino games they may be interested in.
Where AI can play its part
At Sportradar, several of our hybrid operator clients have approached us with this conundrum in the hope that our expertise using data and AI to unlock greater customer retention across both sports betting and iGaming will yield a solution.
For nearly a decade, we have used data modelling and machine learning to obtain granular insights into the consumption patterns and preferences of betting customers and provide them with personalised offers, bonuses, and content recommendations. These enhanced experiences have delivered huge uplifts for operators’ customer loyalty and player activity, and significantly mitigated churn. The results clearly show; personalised experiences outperform non-personalised experiences across all metrics.
The same data-driven understanding of player behaviour and their interests can be applied by hybrid operators to more accurately recommend casino content to sports players. The key lies in moving beyond educated guessing and offering real-time, continuously informed, and personalised recommendations that are powered by AI and deep learning algorithms. This approach has led to the development of Sportradar's casino-to-sports cross-selling tool for operators.
How industry tools can work for operators
With tools like this, in practice, operators simply place a tile of casino content on a highly visible area on their app or website, such as a homepage, sidebar, or in-play area. This kickstarts the personalisation process, as AI immediately starts collecting player data to inform personalised and more effective cross-selling. Using a click-based model, the exposure of casino games to sports audiences trains the AI to track and understand customer content preferences and refine exactly which titles get recommended.
If a game title is shown and clicked, the model registers customer interest. If a game is shown and no click? This registers a down vote, another title is more likely to be shown, and the cycle continues. The more clicks content receives from sportsbook players, the more that game and similar ones are likely to be recommended again.
All of this happens in real time, powered by AI that is continuously training, learning and balancing the exposure of new unexplored content and popular games. This ensures the best results possible for players who have not yet engaged with casino content.
Following initial deployment, the tool collects data and updates minute-by-minute to serve ever-improving recommendations for existing players who have generated clicks, creating a truly unique and individualised experience. These seamless and non-intrusive suggestions facilitate a smooth and effective migration of sports fans to more profitable casino content, unlocking value and loyalty from each individual customer, and a higher gross gaming revenue for operators.
How operators can stand out – and win
With the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup providing the perfect opportunity for operators, those who succeed will attract sportsbook customers and captivate and retain them with casino content.
While such high-profile sports events always provide an influx of new signups and the reemergence of dormant customers, boosted cross-sell marketing efficiency can unlock a previously untapped revenue stream within an operator’s player base.
As our industry’s competitiveness shows no sign of slowing down and consumer demand for personalised content only increases, it will be the operators who generate the most value from each individual customer, across both sports and casino, that are likely to be most successful long term.
Sportradar this week issued a statement rejecting factual inaccuracies in recent short seller reports
