The Rise Casinos Sweepstakes of ike daily fantasy sports and social casinos before it, the sweepstakes vertical has become the darling of the iGaming world, with a variety of brands looking to get involved with the latest trend that audiences are flocking to. Though they can’t provide paying users, sweepstakes casinos are exceptionally valuable because they help educate users on casino games by providing a similar experience to regular casino products with virtual funds. Firstly, it’s important to understand how sweepstakes differ from regular casino games. While the games may be very similar, the biggest difference is that sweepstakes casinos do not require users to spend their real money. Because of that, sweepstakes casinos are legal in most states throughout the U.S., while real money casinos are available in just seven states. While that may make sweepstakes sound like social casinos, there are important distinctions to be made between the two. While both are free-to-play platforms where the coins being played hold no monetary value, sweepstakes allow players to redeem their coins for unique rewards, like cash, vouchers, or even cryptocurrency. This distinctive feature sets sweepstakes apart, providing an engaging alternative to traditional real-money gambling and social casinos focused solely on entertainment. As users learn more about this new iGaming model and its offerings, brands are seeing incredible growth in this space. Catena Media stated in its January-June 2024 Interim Report that one third of its casino revenue can be attributed to social sweepstakes. Will Armitage, Co-founder at BestOdds, which provides content and tools for analyzing odds, provided us valuable insights from his affiliate perspective, looking at where it’s headed and providing some suggestions for brands in the space. A growing vertical What makes the sweepstakes model so unique is that it is relatively new, meaning there’s plenty of room for growth and innovation. This means brands could distinguish themselves by introducing innovative games and offering unique selling propositions (USPs) that haven’t been seen before. There’s even growth in terms of the offerings provided through a sweepstakes model, as operators are now offering different free-to-play options to entice users to play with their platform. For example, there are brands that will offer free-to-play sports betting through a virtual currency, that they can purchase more of to enter contents for real prizes. Though the market is still developing, and Europe has also seen some strong growth with sweepstakes, the largest market at the moment is considered the U.S. Armitage agreed, saying that within the country, it is the wealthier and most populous states that are seeing the most impressive metrics with regards to this burgeoning industry. There are no real surprise pockets of popularity amongst any of the mid-size or smaller states, while California appears at the top of the charts. GPWAtimes.org 18 What affiliates should know about this rapidly growing, yet controversial vertical By Erica Anderson
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