Keeping pace in a fast-moving industry

Jo Dennis, Chief Commercial Officer at Incline Gaming Marketing, on why service providers need to evolve their offerings in line with the ever-changing demands of the marketThe global online gambling industry is fast-moving, with revolution and evolution constantly driving things forward. The pace of change is reflected in the transitions operators and suppliers have gone through, not only since the inception of the industry, but just in the last few years.

This change can also be seen in the different service providers supporting operators and suppliers, and this includes marketing and creative agencies such as Incline Gaming Marketing.

Where once agencies would specialise in one or two areas, such as SEO or creative, in today’s highly competitive market, they have had to become full-service. And this is the approach we have taken at Incline Gaming Marketing.

We also ensured that we are more than just a service provider, and very much become an embedded partner in the business if that’s the level of support required.

Since being founded by industry veteran Peter Laverick back in 2020, we’ve added services organically and through acquisition (including the takeover of Random Colour Animal in 2024) to become a full-service digital marketing and creative partner focused exclusively on the regulated gambling industry.

We are not just a supplier of campaigns or assets; we run marketing operations end to end for our partners, functioning as part of their in-house team.

Our expertise covers everything from branding and web development to SEO, user acquisition and CRM, making us a one-stop shop for operators looking to launch brands or build even more equity in their current brand assets.

We break these services down into three connected disciplines that together form a complete managed marketing service. Let’s take a closer look at them.

User acquisition:

We plan, execute and optimise campaigns across Meta, Google, TikTok, Snapchat, Apple and programmatic networks, managing multi-million-dollar budgets. In fact, we’ve handled more than $75m in ad spend over the years.

As an approved Facebook Business Partner, we’ve been rated the most effective media buyer in North America’s online gaming sector, achieving a 99.9% efficiency score.

Our approach combines data-driven precision with creative excellence to acquire high-value players who fuel the entire customer ecosystem. It includes data-driven targeting, omni-channel execution, AI-enhanced optimisation, creative integration and real-time reporting.

Why does this approach work so well? Because more than 90% of sports betting handle in states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Michigan comes from online and mobile channels, and this makes mobile-first UA execution absolutely essential.

This trend isn’t unique to North America. Regulated markets continue to grow at pace: in Q1 2025, Great Britain’s online GGY rose 7% year-over-year to £1.45bn, led by slots revenue of £689m and record player activity. In 2024 overall, the UK’s online market delivered £6.5bn in GGY, up 2.8% year-over-year, despite tighter controls.

As markets expand, the opportunity grows too, and in our experience, personalised advertising can deliver a 5–8x ROI on spend and lift sales by more than 10%. It also allows operators to test and optimise creatives weekly, allowing them to achieve up to 50% higher CTRs compared to static creative sets.

Customer relationship marketing:

Our CRM specialists handle the full player lifecycle from onboarding and first-time deposit conversion to long-term retention and reactivation. We combine data-led segmentation with targeted offers and creative to grow lifetime value while controlling bonus spend.

Our approach includes lifecycle engagement, with carefully crafted personalised journeys that increase retention, reduce churn and maximise LTV, segmentation and targeting, multi-channel communication, real-time triggers and performance analysis.

This is a powerful combination and approach driven by real-time CRM interactions that can outperform scheduled campaigns by up to 50% in terms of immediate revenue uplift.

What’s more, players acquired via referral programs can have a 25% higher retention and LTV compared to organic or paid channels. Finally, personalised retention campaigns can reduce churn by up to 15% and boost repeat purchase frequency by up to 20%.

Creative:

Incline Gaming Marketing is a creative machine, producing more than 1,000 assets per month from brand identities and websites to broadcast-quality TV sports, slot game creatives, supplier content packs and conference materials.

We combine seasoned industry expertise with AI-powered tools and processes to execute at scale, delivering hyper-personalised, dynamically optimised campaigns that drive measurable results. Our weekly “best performer” analysis ensures fresh, data-based creative iterations that keep campaigns competitive in any and every market.

Our approach also takes in performance-driven design, data-led insights, AI-enhanced production, access to a creative library with more than 5,000 casino ad creatives tested for performance marketing, plus multi-format capability.

This approach is proven to work because personalised creative delivers up to 5x higher conversion rates compared to static, non-targeted creatives, while A/B testing assets can improve CTR by up to 50% and significantly extend campaign longevity.

We also know that creative refreshes can reduce cost-per-acquisition by up to 30% in performance-driven campaigns.

These have been our core service offerings for some time now, but given the ever-changing landscape, we have recently expanded into SEO and affiliate program management so that we can continue to support our partners in all aspects of their digital marketing and creative work.

When our partners win, we win – a saying that applies to the global online gambling industry. And that’s why at Incline, we never stand still and are always moving with the fast-slow of the sector, specifically when it comes to how our partners acquire and retain high-value customers at scale.