Everi FinTech brings an array of digital funding options giving casino players easy access to their money and strengthening their relationship with an operator.
Victor Newsom, senior vice president of fintech commercial strategy for IGT, views the payment ecosystem as an essential element for enhancing player loyalty. Providing choice in how customers can buy into a game, make a sports bet, pay for amenities, or get their winnings makes the transactions more personal because operators can provide each customer access to their money “when, where, and how you want,” he said.
Michelle Foot, Everi’s vice president of loyalty product management, said the range of options makes the experience for patrons and operators even more frictionless.
For example, QuikTicket allows customers to make a debit card purchase of a gaming ticket. QuikTransfer enables customers to transfer funds to an eligible payment card almost instantly, and specialized ATMs enable customers to convert approved forms of cryptocurrency to cash.
More than 900 land-based casinos throughout North America employ Everi’s CashClub cash access suite, while more than 500 use its loyalty programs, and more than 40 use the CashClub digital wallet.
“Loyalty and engagement are all about doubling down on experience and connections,” Newsom said, “and payments is all about enabling experiences and connections.”
He said customers using mobile loyalty apps have far more engagement with their casino than those with just a physical card. In addition, “mobile engagement is far richer, has far more activity, and, of course, better data.”
With payment capability added to a mobile loyalty card, customer durability and engagement could increase by 5x, he added, because users are not just checking loyalty points but also spending money and monitoring cash balances.
Digital wallets give players multiple options for funding a casino visit, including debit card, e-check, crypto, PayPal, and Apple Pay, among other electronic transfer methods.
“A wallet consistently drives 30 percent more spend on average to the operators that choose to have wallet, and that 30 percent is not coming at the expense of financial accountability,” Newsom said.
In addition, much of the increase driven by digital wallets comes from new customers, Newsom said. For every six digital wallet customers who sign up, five more who had never had a documented financial transaction at the property also enroll.
“If you’re in a competitive market, that dollar is coming from someone else,” he said.
Foot added that the combination of mobile loyalty and digital wallet provides operators with additional data that can be used to foster additional customer engagement. “With an integrated ecosystem, you can see what your patrons are doing across all these different product lines,” she said.
The first deployments of Everi’s Vi solution, a unique all-in-one combination of digital wallet, mobile gaming, and loyalty card, have shown that it increases both customer loyalty and spending.
Vi was launched this year with two Class II tribal operators, Muscogee Nation in Oklahoma, which has a dozen casinos, and Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation’s casino in Mayetta, Kan., near Topeka.
Foot said Vi gives operators a way to engage customers at home, in the casino, and online, enabling multiple touch points throughout the guest experience. “We’re using mobile adoption and mobile apps to engage the patron at home, and then bring them into the casino based on offers, push notifications, and marketing campaigns,” including current and upcoming drawings or other events.
Newsom described Vi as a wrapper for a multitude of products and services that provide an “inherently omnichannel” patron experience. “Instead of thinking of Vi as e-commerce, we have loyalty payments and games all wrapped up in a mobile EGM footprint that can go anywhere around the resort or beyond, based on the regulatory structure of that jurisdiction.”
Muscogee Nation allows mobile gaming anywhere on its reservation, for example, while Prairie Band limits it to within the Kansas casino.
“The converging interconnection of online and land-based retail, gaming, sports, entertainment, and lodging become different venues for the continuum of your experience as a consumer, whether you’re gambling or not,” Newsom said.
