How a social casino works
A social casino is a platform where participants can gamble without risking their money. It is impossible to lose or win real money here: instead, virtual currencies are used, such as internal tokens or wrappers that simulate real money, be it rubles, dollars or cryptocurrency. At first glance, not every player may be interested in participating in the game "for free" wrappers – how can you experience the adrenaline rush of winning if it is not a real victory? However, in fact, a social casino can serve as a therapeutic tool for people suffering from gambling addiction, helping them gradually get rid of the habit.
In practice, a social casino mainly functions as a way to attract users to real gambling. In this text, we will analyze in detail how a social casino works, the reasons for its popularity, and also talk about the four most common ways of monetization in this area using various funnels.
Social casinos and methods of their promotion in the iGaming market
Social casinos are an imitation of a regular casino, but without mandatory donations and without the possibility for the player to withdraw "winnings". Social casinos are completely or partially free. The whole system is based on three simple components:
Supporters of social casinos emphasize that their version of the game does not cause dependence, as it does not allow you to withdraw winnings. As a result, the player does not get into the excitement, and seems to live without addiction. Is it that simple — we tell you below.
What does it look like from the inside?
We choose a random casino and go through the registration process to understand how everything works. After completing the registration, we do not need to top up our account; instead, the game currency is immediately provided.
The first bonus is quite large, 500,000 game rubles. The currency itself can be selected during registration:
The casino offers an additional 150,000 rubles for participation in tournaments. The terms of the contest are shown in the screenshot: daily visit to the social casino. Every time you enter the game, you are awarded "wrappers" for this. This serves as the first hook that pulls players into the game funnel.
The second hook is the welcome bonuses and free spins offered by real casinos, whose banners fit seamlessly into the design of the site. To receive these privileges, you must enter a special promo code available at the social casino. Using these codes, you can probably view statistics similar to what is collected when using promos on UBT with TikTok. Hooks are present not only on the main page, but also in various sections, including the games themselves. The range of offers varies significantly depending on the specific product, however, as a rule, classic slots prevail.
The winnings are small and often almost equal to the losses, which indicates a rather high, at first glance, RTP. During the game, we come across banners with promotions of real casinos again and enjoy spectacular animations that excitingly accompany the gameplay.
We draw conclusions :
One of the ways to monetize such casinos is to advertise real casinos
The second way is to transfer traffic through social networks. casino
At the same time, social casinos especially emphasize that they have nothing to do with real gambling establishments and even prescribe the rules of conscious play in small print:
If we draw an analogy, social casinos are very similar to non-alcoholic beer: the same look, the same taste, quite a bit of "active substance". You can also advertise. Or not at all?
What else do you need to know about social casinos: the source of traffic or simple media and internal advertising?
the main functions of social casinos:
1. Social casinos — traffic sources for real casinos
2. "Social networks" advertise real casino providers well and attract a fresh audience — players who often try casinos for the first time through "social networks" because it is so safe and harmless:
Monetization options for social casinos
In the process of writing this article, we have identified three main options for monetization of the platform — there may be many more if you try to connect social casinos with the world of web3, but we will linger on the main ones: they all overlap in one way or another.
Monetization of a social casino through advertising someone else's product
This is the easiest option: there is a social casino and a regular audience that likes to play for free. Business owners collaborate with online casino providers and earn a fixed rate for placing banners or, much more likely, for CPA.
New users are kept on the product with the help of various mechanics and gamification. For example, in the **** from **** presented at the beginning of the article, you can farm cryptocurrency: for now these are internal coins, "NECA coins", but in the future they promise to add the function of exchanging NECA coins for TON.
Monetization of a social casino through its own product
It is clear that you can advertise your own product. If you present the system schematically, it will look like this — there are two options again: the obvious first and the absolutely insane second.
Everything is clear with the first aspects: there is a final gambling product of its own production and a social casino. As in the first case, the owner redirects traffic from the social network to the main platform, creating a kind of funnel where you can try out the demo version of the casino and then smoothly enter the world of real gambling.
There are other interesting points, for example, a legal way to advertise classic casinos in regions where gambling advertising is prohibited. Returning to the analogy: it's like an advertisement for non-alcoholic beer for those who abstain from alcohol. A striking example is the social casino ***, which launched an advertising campaign in a taxi in the territory of the Russian Federation, demonstrating that this is quite real.
By choosing the second option, the casino owner makes the content partially paid, raising his product to a new level. Further, as in any game from the app store, players have the option to play for free or make donations to receive certain "bonuses" or winnings in the form of "gifts". This format does not seem to fall under the classic definition of betting or gambling. One of the options is to purchase in-game tokens, which can be brought to the stock exchange in the future. Of course, all these options can be combined, which adds a new level of possibilities.
Social casino as part of the ecosystem of a real product
Here we come to the finale — the most powerful option for monetization and product development in general. It combines the capabilities of the first two and adds the mechanics familiar to us from the "tap mini app".
The implementation is limited only by imagination, budget and analytical data: will the new feature be able to integrate into the ecosystem? The answer to this question will become clear with the development of current products on the market. At the same time, a social casino clearly has a chance to prove itself better than traditional projects. Sergey, the owner of ***, criticized the referral systems of such projects — in his opinion, if a few months ago 80% of the audience was attracted by users for the sake of bonuses, today this figure has fallen to only 20%.
If a social casino can become part of the casino ecosystem and offer an attractive referral program with real advantages for inviting new players, then traditional projects will simply have no chance.
Сonclusion
Each stage of interaction with "safe" social casinos serves to warm up users before getting to know the real product: it can be either a product of other companies or its own, built into a holistic ecosystem that includes a community, internal currency and constant access to a variety of entertainment content.