My big predictions for 2025

Intelitics CEO Allan Stone talks sweepstakes, influencers and personalised player experiences

This is a fast-moving sector and over the next 12 months operators and suppliers will once again have to strap in for a roller-coaster ride. Ups and downs are guaranteed as they navigate the shifting sands of the global online gambling industry.

This makes predicting what the coming year has in store a tough task – player preferences can quickly change, regulations can suddenly update and innovations catch companies off guard. But I like a challenge, so here are big predictions for 2025 below.

The sweepstakes hype will become a reality

If 2024 was the hype year for sweepstakes, 2025 is the year they will become a reality despite the sector being under immense pressure. That said, most operators are staying the course with stakeholders at the state level duking it out over regulations and class action lawsuits.

This will bring changes in certain areas, but I think there will be a move away from heavy-handed measures and instead, the public markets will be left to figure things out – this will give good companies the room to grow and adapt.

We are already seeing established companies address problem areas by embracing best practices around areas such as player verification and responsible gambling which in turn is helping to legitimise their business and the wider sweepstakes vertical.

Operators will become more strategic with their marketing efforts (and spend)

Sportsbook operators finally read the room in 2024 and understood that consumers were getting tired of seeing the same national TV ads over and over, especially in states where sports betting isn’t legal.

This saw many brands pull back on national campaigns amid diminishing returns on blanketing the airwaves with generic ads to become more strategic. This is a trend I expect to see continue in 2025.

This will mean more localised advertising with hyper-vigilance in spending – every ad dollar will be carefully allocated to ensure it delivers results. Expect refined top-of-funnel tactics with companies moving away from noisy, generic campaigns in favour of targeted consumer-first strategies.

Don’t underestimate the power of Meta

Meta is the second-largest controller of digital ad inventory in the world and is arguably the best platform out there for targeting and segmenting specific audiences. But it’s important to play by their rules – if Meta bans you, you’re essentially removing yourself from the equation.

It’s next to impossible to come back from and we’ve seen this happen time and again with clients coming to use after a ban asking for a fix. The reality is, there isn’t one.

This is why it’s so important to take your time with Meta – taking a strategic approach and ensuring compliance with its rules means you don’t get burned when playing with what is one of the hottest marketing platforms in the world.

Personalised experiences will become mission-critical to operator success

The operators succeeding in sports betting right now understand that players want experiences tailored to them. This means ensuring they can quickly access the bets they want to place, whether that be for specific teams or players, and even the markets and bet types they prefer.

Personalisation is about adapting to how players bet, not the other way around. This helps operators and brands to build long-term engagement by tailoring the experience, which in turn keeps players coming back.

If operators can create something that feels personal and intuitive they don’t need to keep pushing heavy promotions or generic options.

Fanatics have proven how powerful this approach can be – they weren’t the first to market, but they filled gaps their competition left wide open and have achieved great success by doing so. Ultimately, operators need to remember to build for players and not for themselves.

Influencers will enter the marketing mix in a meaningful way

Influencers have proved to be an effective marketing tool but an influencer strategy without a strong way to measure attribution is useless, and two things you need to be extremely clear about with influencers is “can you actually send me players” and “how valuable are these players to me?”.

These are easy questions to ask but much harder to answer.

This is why you need to test, track and iterate. I’d suggest starting with a promotion and closely monitoring data. You should also ask yourself things like:

How many people saw the promotion?

How many clicked?

Of those clicks, how many created accounts?

Are those accounts funded?

Are these new users actively playing over time?

But remember, influencers aren’t just an acquisition tool. They are a way to amplify your message to an audience you might already engage with but need help reaching consistently. This is hard to track, but with the right technology and attribution systems, it can be done.