In this article, James Hancock, Vice President of B2B Marketing at Soft2Bet, examines how sportsbooks can turn major tournament-driven acquisitions into long-term player relationships through tailored engagement, effective CRM strategies, and retention efforts focused on sustainable player value.
When a major tournament is on the horizon, our industry can get a little giddy, and understandably so. Sportsbooks have a chance to reach people who rarely bet, alongside football fans who follow the sport throughout the year.
Competition pushes up cCPA, and anyone budgeting for several months of player activity needs a plan for what happens once the final is over. Players need something they want to return to, and the cost of retaining them has to leave room for profit.
Keeping players engaged after the tournament
Attempts to retain players with another deposit bonus may bring them back for one more session. Yet if they find a sportsbook full of competitions they have little interest in, they have no compelling reason to stay. Another sportsbook could make a similar offer, leaving the operator spending more to retain a player they already paid a premium to acquire.
The first post-event message could invite football fans to choose the clubs and competitions they want to follow. Their answers tell us more about what might interest them after the tournament than a bet on their national side. A campaign could compare the same message sent within 48 hours of the final with one sent later to test the timing.
A player who followed Kylian Mbappé for France may want to keep up with him at Real Madrid. A La Liga preview could lead to the club’s fixtures and an option to receive reminders. Subsequent previews and messages can then follow the player’s chosen club through the season.
If domestic football is still weeks away, tennis, live betting or micro-betting may be relevant to players who have already shown an interest. For someone waiting for their preferred league to resume, a reminder closer to the opening fixture may be more useful than a succession of unrelated promotions.
For players who have already shown an interest in casino, a short introduction to crash games or live dealer tables can explain how those products work. A link to the relevant game page lets them explore further before deciding whether to play. Subsequent recommendations should reflect those choices and their marketing preferences.
Players may also want to return to a game they have already started. For example, Soft2Bet’s MEGA11 lets football fans build a virtual squad over time. In MEGA Builder, points earned through casino play go towards restoring sportsgrounds and unlocking virtual cities, with rewards along the way. After the tournament, participants can continue with their existing team or project.
Both sit within MEGA (Motivational Engineering Gaming Application), Soft2Bet’s standalone gamification solution. It can be added through an API without changing the platform provider, allowing rewards and challenges to be tailored to different player groups.
Over the following weeks, follow-up messages should reflect what players choose to do. Someone returning to a club’s fixtures may welcome further match updates, while another may prefer to continue with a game they have tried. Repeatedly ignored invitations are a reason to reconsider the contact, rather than simply increase the bonus.
Protecting player value over the next 90 days
Not every player who disappears after a tournament represents a failed acquisition. Someone who places only a handful of bets may still have generated enough contribution to cover the cost of acquiring them. Another player might return several times, but only because another deposit bonus encouraged them to.
A clearer assessment comes from comparing the original acquisition spend with the contribution from everyone who signed up during the tournament, including those who have since left. That means accounting for bonuses, taxes and the costs of serving and retaining players.
Configuring products, coordinating CRM activity, and managing rewards after launch all take staff time. These operating costs belong in the retention budget alongside the incentives players receive.
Acquisition and CRM teams need to judge their work using the same contribution figures. One might celebrate reaching its registration target, while another reports strong reactivation figures. Neither result tells the full story if the cost of acquiring those players and encouraging them to return leaves little profit.
Some players who receive extra rewards would have returned anyway. Comparing contribution after costs across similar groups, with and without those incentives, can help establish whether the spending adds value. Results that depend on repeated bonuses deserve particular scrutiny before the next offer is funded.
At 30 days after the final, teams could review which post-event journeys produced repeat activity and what they cost. A 60-day check could examine whether that activity continued after the first incentives ended, with the 90-day review comparing contribution across acquisition channels and product choices.
Those findings should guide lifetime value (LTV) forecasts and the next acquisition budget. A higher-CPA channel can still offer better value if its players generate stronger contribution after retention costs. For the players already acquired, the priority is to keep supporting the experiences they choose to return to, while changing or stopping incentives that cost more than they add.
Aligning acquisition spend with long-term retention requires the right operational engine. To learn how Soft2Bet empowers operators to build higher-LTV player lifecycles, get in touch at soft2bet.com.