SMS/ Email Marketing Gambling content - Deliverability, Open rates CTR and CONVERSION - let talk numbers

Hey all hope is well!

As the title mentions I'd like to start a discussion about email and SMS marketing in the casino space.

Let's talk numbers and share knoweldge! Any insights on conversion rates, what gets the best open rates in your opinion? Email deliverability is another huge issue - any tricks up your sleeve? Landing page or direct to casino and why? Is the standard 10 list landing page boring and old or am I trying to recreate the wheel? What about content - how do we keep it interesting without being spammy and annoying

Let's discuss - we all want to improve conversion!

Great topic, this is something I've been deep in for a while now.

From my experience, SMS absolutely crushes email in the casino vertical when it comes to open rates - we're talking 90%+ vs 15-25% for email on a good day. But email still wins on ROI long-term because of the cost difference and the ability to send richer content with offers, game previews, etc.

For deliverability, the biggest game changers for me were:

• Proper domain warming (don't skip this, 4-6 weeks minimum)
• Separate sending domains for promo vs transactional
• Authentication setup is non-negotiable now (SPF, DKIM, DMARC all properly configured)
• Watch your sender reputation like a hawk, tools like GlockApps help a lot
• Segment aggressively and remove inactive subscribers, list hygiene matters more than list size

On the landing page debate - I've tested both extensively. Direct-to-casino works better for warm traffic that already knows the brand, but for cold or semi-cold lists a pre-lander with social proof and a clear value prop (welcome bonus highlighted) consistently outperforms by 30-40% in my tests. The "top 10 casinos" format is definitely getting tired, but variations with comparison tables, real player testimonials, or interactive bonus calculators still convert well.

For content, the trick I've found is mixing it up - don't just blast offers. Maybe a 70/30 split of value content (game guides, strategy tips, new game announcements) to direct promo. Subject lines matter more than people think - curiosity and personalization beat hype every time. Avoid the classic spam triggers (excessive caps, $$$, "FREE", etc.).

Timing also plays a huge role - Thursday and Friday evenings have been my best windows, plus right before major sporting events if you're doing sportsbook offers.

What geos are you targeting? That changes the strategy quite a bit.

Nice to see detailed insights backing up what I have been seeing in the space.

Definetly SMS open rates are much better but it can be difficult not to come off as scam content (considering most people don't trust SMS) in terms of ROI for sure emails will always be cheaper but it's always about getting a good SMS provider which can deliver without ridiculous rates.

Re email deliverability 100% I always say it's an art form - but definetly good guide above - all rules to be followed and sometimes struggle to get reputation of the IP up to standard

Very interesting insight on the landing page - I want to start experimenting with more interactive approach - more social proofing and less generic content - the top 10 lists pain me.

Content and Timing we've seen the same thing for sure - people are bored of the same content need to be creative - the message above encompasses a lot important insight.

In terms of geo we mainly target DACH germany Austria Switzerland but also have precense in NL and CA. Anything in particular you can comment on the geos? Or any other geos you see particular performance on?

We see DE as difficult to convert - Germans don't respond well to some cold Comms but the value is great

Interesting thread

We’ve recently been testing/scaling email traffic in iGaming too and honestly seeing the same thing - infrastructure and source quality change everything

One thing I’m really curious about:
how do you usually evaluate if a source/database is actually worth scaling early on?

Open rate alone feels misleading sometimes, especially in gambling

Hey man, for casino email and sms marketing, open rates and deliverability are key. Focus on great content that's not spammy, test different subject lines, and maybe ditch the standard landing page for something fresh, but always track those numbers for the best results

Desirable1004 said:

Hey man, for casino email and sms marketing, open rates and deliverability are key. Focus on great content that's not spammy, test different subject lines, and maybe ditch the standard landing page for something fresh, but always track those numbers for the best results

Click to expand...

Yeah, agreed
We’re seeing the same thing right now - small changes in subject lines/content can completely change results in gambling

Curious by the way, what geos are you mostly working with?
We’ve been testing mainly UK/FR/IT/ES recently and performance differs a lot between countries

ArtemBB said:

Yeah, agreed
We’re seeing the same thing right now - small changes in subject lines/content can completely change results in gambling

Curious by the way, what geos are you mostly working with?
We’ve been testing mainly UK/FR/IT/ES recently and performance differs a lot between countries

Click to expand...

100% open rates can be very misleading with email marketing - click through rates are what bring in the money but also deliverability is a massive one. How many of your emails are actually landing in their inbox? Always an issue if not done right

In terms of geo on top of what you mentioned there's CA , DACH also that we target in both email and sms

sms_chief_of_messaging said:

100% open rates can be very misleading with email marketing - click through rates are what bring in the money but also deliverability is a massive one. How many of your emails are actually landing in their inbox? Always an issue if not done right

In terms of geo on top of what you mentioned there's CA , DACH also that we target in both email and sms

Click to expand...

Yeah, deliverability has honestly been one of the biggest challenges so far.

Right now most emails land between Inbox and Promotions, depends a lot on the source/domain quality and geo. We’re still actively testing different infrastructures and external databases to find something scalable long-term.

Interesting that you’re also running CA + DACH. Are you mostly focused on retention traffic or cold databases too?

sms_chief_of_messaging said:

100% open rates can be very misleading with email marketing - click through rates are what bring in the money but also deliverability is a massive one. How many of your emails are actually landing in their inbox? Always an issue if not done right

In terms of geo on top of what you mentioned there's CA , DACH also that we target in both email and sms

Click to expand...

Retention traffic for Tier 1 GEOs works best. Cold databases in gambling are getting harder to scale without burning through domains fast

One thing that made a noticeable difference: splitting traffic by mobile carrier within the same GEO. For CA and DE, some carriers are way stricter than others. A message that lands fine on Rogers might get blocked on Bell with the same content

Monitoring delivery reports per carrier and adjusting routes accordingly is what separates "works" from "scales reliably" in gambling

ArtemBB said:

Interesting thread

We’ve recently been testing/scaling email traffic in iGaming too and honestly seeing the same thing - infrastructure and source quality change everything

One thing I’m really curious about:
how do you usually evaluate if a source/database is actually worth scaling early on?

Open rate alone feels misleading sometimes, especially in gambling

Click to expand...

Can you please tell me what ESP you use for Email? Or are you using your own SMTP?

AlexH578 said:

Can you please tell me what ESP you use for Email? Or are you using your own SMTP?

Click to expand...

Right now mostly external ESPs + custom setups depending on geo/source quality.

We tested own SMTP infrastructure too, but honestly deliverability management becomes a full-time job once volumes start scaling hard

Are you mainly running your own SMTP stack or using ESPs as well?

All marketing strategies fall short compared to the effort of figuring out how to retain real users. Instead, we should hire more staff to develop long-term clients through chatting, modify the sales pitch, train the personnel, and implement targeted inducement plans.