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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.
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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.
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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.
BASILISK, the global esports organization built to champion science, announced the signing of legendary fighting game competitor Justin â€Jwong’ Wong as captain of its newly formed Fighting Game Community (FGC) Division. Wong will lead BASILISK’s entry into the FGC by recruiting players, developing community events, and creating FGC – science crossover content.
“Justin isn’t just a competitive genius – he is a cultural icon and humble leader within the FGC. We are incredibly proud to have him leading our FGC division and support the amazing work he already does for the community,” said BASILISK co-founder Christopher Bothur.
A nine-time Evolution Championship Series (Evo) Champion and Guinness World Record holder, Wong brings unparalleled FGC credibility and expertise to BASILISK. His reach extends across the entire FGC fandom of millions, and he was immortalized in Evo Moment #37 which has over 100 million views.
As Captain of BASILISK FGC, Wong will leverage BASILISK’s data analytics to scout and train the next generation of FGC pros.
“Math is super important to fighting games. I’m excited to join science’s esports team. I’m passionate about finding promising players with a positive mentality and shaping them into the next big thing. I want to see somebody else in the spotlight after me and help them reach their potential. If we can discover the next world champion, that would be fantastic,” said Wong upon joining BASILISK.
The signing comes on the heels of BASILISK’s new partnerships with The Planetary Society and Caltech’s Institute for Quantum Information and Matter (IQIM), announced in July. These collaborations create a powerful bridge between renowned scientific institutions and gamers, which Wong will amplify to his millions of followers and fans.
“Justin is a dream addition to our organization. He exemplifies the dedication and analytical capacity required to be an esports champion or great scientist,” added BASILISK co-founder Hans Kassier.
Wong becomes the second “GOAT” (Greatest of All Time) to join BASILISK, alongside Finnish StarCraft 2 legend Joona “Serral” Sotala, who just captured the SC2 Esports World Cup Championship in July 2025. The signing also creates opportunities for cross-over content with BASILISK’s diverse roster, including chess Grandmaster Vincent Keymer and award-winning science communicator Kyle Hill, who brings over 2.5 million followers and a vast network of science enthusiasts to the organization.
Pro Football Focus (PFF), the industry leader in football analytics, launched the first release of a new suite of betting products powered by PFF AI: the Player Prop Tool. Available now in the PFF app, the tool is designed to help sports bettors make smarter, sharper player prop picks – using the same proprietary data, player grades, matchup insights, and predictive modeling that NFL front offices rely on.
News Highlights
• Smarter Betting, Backed by Data: Go beyond trends or gut instinct with insights grounded in proprietary PFF player grades and predictive models.
• All-in-One Betting Hub: Stop bouncing between odds feeds, blogs and sportsbooks. Access player grades, matchup analysis and AI-powered betting insights with just a few taps – everything you need, in one place.
• Find Your Edge: Identify prime betting spots with PFF Edge, a proprietary metric that surfaces key mismatches and market inefficiencies.
• Odds That Work for You: Instantly compare lines across major sportsbooks and identify the best edge – in real time.
• League Trusted Data Source: The only tool built on the same PFF data, player grades, and matchup analysis trusted by all 32 NFL teams.
• Available Now: In the PFF app (iOS and Android) for PFF+ subscribers.
“This tool is designed to empower, not prescribe – we’re giving everyday bettors access to the same caliber of data and insights used inside NFL war rooms. We’ve democratized the most trusted data intelligence in football and built a product that empowers fans to think like the pros and bet with confidence,” said Raj Kapoor, PFF Principal Product Manager, Sports Betting.
Most prop betting tools offer fragmented stats and outdated odds. PFF’s Player Prop Tool unifies it all – insights, matchups, projections, and real-time lines – surfacing the most bettable props each week in a central hub. Users can explore hundreds of props at once, filtering by position, game, player matchup rating, or price, and jump straight to the sportsbook with a single tap.
PFF’s Player Prop Tool Includes:
• Projection and cover probability
• Matchup advantage based on PFF’s proprietary data
• Historical hit rates and recent trends
• PFF Key Insights: AI-generated breakdowns explaining the “why” behind every pick
• Real-time odds across major sportsbooks (DraftKings, FanDuel, BetMGM, Caesars, and Fanatics)
• Streamlined bet placement with direct sportsbook links.
NFL bettors wagered $35B last season – a 30% spike over the previous year. Yet most still rely on hunches, highlight reels, or fragmented odds feeds. With 64% of bettors favoring props over moneylines or spreads, the need for structured, smarter tools is exploding.
PFF is bridging this gap with its new suite of betting products, starting with the Player Prop Tool – bringing organized, trusted analysis to bettors fingertips, no matter their experience level. With this launch, PFF is turning decades of data and elite football expertise into a new standard for consumer betting.
Gamanza Engage is proud to announce a strategic partnership with Grupo Jer, one of the most prominent business groups in Colombia and a respected operator in multiple regulated iGaming markets across Latin America. This new collaboration marks a significant milestone in Gamanza Engage’s mission to become the leading provider of player engagement solutions in the region.
Grupo Jer operates from Colombia, a jurisdiction widely recognized for its maturity, regulatory standards, and strong player protection framework. The country was the first in Latin America to establish a fully regulated online gaming market, and its regulatory leadership continues to shape the region’s evolution. For Gamanza Engage, partnering with an enterprise that thrives in this environment is a clear endorsement of the company’s reliability, compliance standards, and product excellence.
As part of the deal, Grupo Jer will integrate Gamanza Engage’s full suite of engagement products, including loyalty, gamification, mini-games and tournaments. This unified platform will allow the operator to deliver deeply personalized and interactive player experiences across their brands, while simultaneously gaining the operational benefits of automation, segmentation, and real-time data.
Grupo Jer is part of a large-scale conglomerate with a diversified portfolio of operations and strong presence across Central and South America.
“At Grupo Jer, we’re always looking to innovate and deliver outstanding experiences to our customers. After reviewing several alternatives, we selected Gamanza Engage because of the flexibility of their suite, the quality of their gamification tools, and the alignment with our long-term vision for player engagement”
Laura Esparza, Commercial Director for Grupo Jer
This partnership further strengthens Gamanza Engage’s presence in Latin America and reinforces the company’s commitment to supporting regulated markets with cutting-edge technology and strategic collaboration.
For more information, visit www.gamanzaengage.com and www.grupojer.com
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