Clash of Apps: Jackpot World vs Slotomania vs Lotsa Slots, and more!

Welcome to our content series: Clash of Apps, where we analyze some of the top mobile apps and games in the world to better understand: 

• What are the top apps and games across each industry vertical?
• How are the top apps and games driving installs and engagement?
• Which mobile marketing strategies should app advertisers test to drive success?

Let's get started! 🏁

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Within the vast and fast-growing industry of mobile games, Casino games represent a saturated and highly competitive segment—and slot machine games remain the most popular within this category [1].

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A global overview of Casino apps

• When looking at data from key markets, the US audience stands out as the main consumer of Casino apps. This comes as no surprise since the US attracts half of the global investment in Gaming apps, and Social Casino on iOS leads the scoreboard for the highest share of paying users [2].  
• Despite being headed by a government wary of all things gambling and casino-related, China remains one of the biggest markets for slot machine mobile games. In fact, Casino app downloads in China increased 19% between 2019 and 2021 [1]. The segment was already growing but gained traction mostly as a result of the COVID pandemic.
• In EMEA markets like Germany and the UK, Casino apps are finding it more challenging to further scale after the growth they saw during COVID lockdowns and restrictions—but in-app purchases continue to grow: within the Gaming industry, Social Casino accounted for 10% of paying users on iOS in the UK and a 4.9% share on Android in Germany [2].
• There’s a lot of room for the Casino vertical to grow in Latin America but marketers in the region are still figuring out the best way to monetize and scale these apps. In Brazil, the number of fans of Casino games continues to rise, with Casino gaming reaching a market value of $1 billion [3]. 
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Key players to watch this year

• Playtika: founded in Israel, the company offers a variety of casino games such as Caesars Slots: Casino game and House of Fun Slots Casino. Slotomania, Playtika’s most downloaded title in 2021, was released 10 years ago but continues to be one of the top games in the genre. ‍
• SpinX Games Ltd: Hong Kong-based and born in 2004, SpinX Games is the creator of some of the most popular titles in the Casino industry, including Lotsa Slots, Vegas Friends, and Jackpot World. In August 2021, the company was acquired by mobile games publisher Netmarble in a $2.9 billion deal. This came after SpinX secured $423 million in sales throughout 2020 [4]. ‍
• SciPlay: a former division of Scientific Games Interactive, SciPlay is home to Jackpot Party, Blazing 7s, MONOPOLY Slots, and more. Jackpot Party  features a variety of slot machines and allows users to make in-app purchases ranging from$4.99 for 20 million coins to$249.99 for four billion coins. 
• ‍Huuuge Games: with players across more than 190 countries, this Polish company saw a record-breaking year in 2020, with their revenue growing by 28% YoY [5]. Their title Huuuge Casino Slots Vegas 777 is a free-to-play multiplayer game launched in 2015 but still ranked at the top of the charts.

Marketing strategy overview

Whether it’s on social media or through their growth partners, Casino advertisers are relying on similar creative concepts and themes to encourage users to download and engage with their games: 

• ‍Walking users through the gameplay: showing users how their different slot machines work, and showcasing “big wins” for users to get the feel of how success looks like in the game.

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• Introducing social features: leagues and clans are some of the social features Casino games are leveraging the most. These keep users engaged by allowing them to compete or play alongside other players.

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• Leveraging incentives: we’re seeing some of the key Casino advertisers offering incentives like free spins or coins to encourage users to install and start playing. These gifts can be featured as part of any ad format, from dynamic ads and video ads to playable ads.

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1️⃣ Making it to the top 100

With over 49,000 Casino apps available in the US [6], it’s hard for new apps to climb to the top of the charts or even stand out from competitors—and while social media can help games scale, the truth is not all users are on social. 

Testing different growth channels is key to scaling your game, and growth marketing should be a must in your media mix if you’re looking to break into the top 100 casino games.  

👉 How can advertisers scale their mobile games? Invest in app marketing partners like mobile DSPs. A DSP like Jampp can help you tap into data from over +120B ad requests and +800M mobile users each day—and you’ll also access full visibility into your campaign performance.

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2️⃣ Driving incremental performance—no matter the operating system

When looking at the performance metrics from some of the top Casino apps, we can see that while downloads are predominantly coming from Google Play, the Average Revenue per User mostly comes from iOS devices.

Upon closer analysis, we see that Google Play users not only make less in-app purchases, but also have shorter sessions. So how can app marketers work on leading Android users to spend more time and money in the game?

👉 How can Casino advertisers keep users engaged? App Retargeting is the best solution to keep users returning to your game and increase their gameplay. And it goes way beyond activating your users, it can also encourage gamers to make more in-app purchases: when running App Retargeting, mobile games are seeing an ARPPU global uplift of over 121% [7].

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3️⃣ Growing in the post-IDFA era

The launch of iOS 14.5 and Apple’s ATT framework on April 26, 2021 had a huge impact on the mobile marketing industry. Tracking installs and conversions on iOS campaigns suddenly became a challenge for growth partners and advertisers alike. 

A year later, the industry has been testing different strategies and new attribution methods, like SKAN, to achieve success in the post-IDFA era. The best time to start testing these new alternatives is now: as SKAN adoption increases (higher than 80% at the moment) and IDFA availability decreases (currently below 40%), advertisers running IDFA-traffic only are facing limited reach and higher CPAs.

👉 How can Gaming advertisers get started with SKAN? We cover the basics in this post, from how to implement an ATT prompt to mapping out conversion values. 

At Jampp, we’ve been adapting our programmatic platform for the post-IDFA era since ATT was first announced. By testing and learning along with our customers, we’ve developed proprietary technology to unlock new learnings and performance metrics on iOS 14.5+. Drop us a line to learn more about why you should be running SKAN with us.

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4️⃣ Building ads that make an impact

All advertisers want to build the perfect creative for their audience, and mobile game ads are some of the most flashy and catchy in the industry. However, within such a saturated market, it can be hard to come up with creative concepts that reflect all the updates and features of a game. 

Ads for games in the Casino segment often focus on showing how the gameplay looks, what are some of the available slots, and how it feels to win big—so how can advertisers revamp these creative concepts to give them a fresh look?

👉What creative strategy should Casino advertisers test? Building themed ads for key events and dates, such as Halloween, Chinese New Year, St. Valentine’s Day, and more. At Jampp, we’ve seen Gaming apps significantly increase their event completion rate (ECR) when running limited-time creatives with themed elements.

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About Jampp

Jampp is a programmatic advertising platform used by the most ambitious companies to accelerate their mobile businesses. Jampp leverages machine learning to drive incremental growth for its customers, whether that means reaching new users or increasing post-install conversions. 

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Grow your Casino game with Jampp

Jampp can help you scale your mobile game the profitable way, even in the post-IDFA era. For more insights on how Jampp works for mobile games, visit our website or contact us to talk to one of our sales reps.

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References

[1] Statista, 2022.

[2] “The 2022 state of gaming app marketing,” AppsFlyer, 2022.

[3] “O Mercado de Apostas Esportivas,” Globo portal, 2022.

[4] Gambling News, 2021.

[5] PocketGamer.biz, 2021.

[6] Apptopia, 2022.

[7] AppsFlyer, 2020.

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