Gamified Player Acquisition: Using Community Loyalty Tokens and Web3 Rewards to Drive FTDs

As you can imagine, gamification relates heavily to the subject of video games.

The iGaming sector seems particularly invested in reminding its fans that it spawned not just from the gambling market, but also from the gaming industry. Online casinos are doing their best to use tropes and clichés from the world of gaming to enamor a new audience. Even Casino Groups and publishers like them have noticed and commented on this trend. 

But what does it mean for an online casino to engage in gamification? That is a question with a multi-faceted answer. The goal we’ve set out is to go over some of the ways in which iGaming operators are utilizing gaming tropes to titillate a modern audience. 

Loyalty Tokens

A noteworthy trope of gaming is that the longer you play, the more rewards you get. This “grind” as the gamers have come to call it now has become a staple of the gaming experience. But it seems that online casinos are attempting to replicate it in their own way. One of the ways that they’ve achieved this is by implementing so-called loyalty tokens. 

Loyalty tokens are digital units that an iGaming operators might issue to a customer for any number of reasons. One noteworthy reason would be continued activity, which is where these assets get their name from. Loyal customers might be rewarded for their continued patronage with a specific number of loyalty tokens depending on the length of time that they’ve been involved with the casino. But the best part is how loyalty tokens can be utilized by consumers.

Players can exchange loyalty tokens for an assortment of rewards, such as free spins bonuses, access to a wider gaming library, or a whole slew of other rewards. Long-time gamers can certainly draw a parallel between exchanging these tokens and using in-game currency to upgrade your character’s equipment in the roleplaying games that have taken the world by storm. 

Web3 Rewards

Another trend that so many industries seem to find fascinating is the crypto craze that has taken the world by storm. Most people are certainly familiar with the success of Ethereum, Tether and of course Bitcoin. But there are plenty of altcoins and stablecoins that can be just as useful in the realm of iGaming. At least that is what the numerous casino operators who have decided to launch their website on a blockchain seem to believe. 

A lot of casino website hosts have bought into the idea of the upcoming world wide web revolution, which will result in the new age of the internet. This “Web3” is going to bring about an era of anonymity and freedom that early internet users fondly remember. But what does that mean for iGaming? It means that Web3 rewards are going to be a lot more common than they are today.

As the name suggests, Web3 rewards are assets that casino goers can expect to attain when playing at their favorite crypto casino. Because these rewards will exist entirely on the blockchain, the player is going to have full ownership and control over them. They can manifest in the form of local tokens, NFTs, and staking rewards. Many crypto casinos are already utilizing this new reward style. But if web3 becomes reality, the popularity of web3 rewards is bound to grow drastically. 

Is Gamification a Fleeting Trend?

There are those who are not too sure about the staying power of this gamification fad. Some believe it is a passing trend, and that most industries are going to forget about the concept as soon as the video game market falls off in popularity. Others yet believe that it isn’t the success of video games that led to gamification, but rather the exact opposite. 

Let us be honest, the tropes we associate with gamification did not come about recently. Loyalty programs and leaderboard mechanics have been a part of human industry for centuries now. Before video games ever came about, sports utilized many of the similar tricks and tactics to get fans invested. The marketing sector has been using tricks like loyalty programs for years as well. So, while gamification may be fleeting, the concept behind it is certainly here to stay.