Email is one of the oldest marketing channels — and still one of the most effective. But most operators use it at half capacity. Here's what we see in practice, and how to fix it.
Email marketing remains one of the primary communication channels across most markets — it retains active players, reactivates dormant ones, and converts registrations that never turned into first deposits. Yet in practice, most operators repeat the same mistakes over and over.
We've collected the most common ones — and explained exactly how we deal with them.
Every email starts with visuals. How it looks, how closely it matches the brand, what the structure is. It sounds obvious — but this is exactly where most brands fall short.
Your player doesn't play only at your casino. After registering on your product, they receive emails from dozens of competitors. If they all look the same, your chances of being noticed approach zero.
Logo — Banner — Text — CTA — Footer. This is what 90% of emails in a player's inbox look like. They've stopped seeing them.
Unconventional layouts, visuals over walls of text, clean blocks with the right information — all of this is obvious in theory, but very few brands actually execute it at a quality level.
The promo bonus on site uses one set of visuals; the email for the same bonus uses completely different ones. The player doesn't connect the offer to the product — cognitive dissonance kills conversion.
Use the same creatives in the email as on the site for that promo. The player instinctively recognises the offer and clicks through with intent — not confusion.
Gmail leads email providers globally — but in most markets, Microsoft Outlook, Yahoo, and local mail clients exist alongside it, and they render HTML completely differently. An email that looks perfect in your Gmail preview may break for half your base.
Many email clients — including Hotmail and most corporate environments — block external images by default as a security measure. Most users never change this setting. If your email is built entirely from images, it arrives blank. Always write alt text, and always make sure the email is readable even without images loaded.
On iOS with dark mode enabled, the mail client inverts email colours. A dark background becomes light. A white logo on a dark background becomes invisible. This looks like a bug — but it's just poor template design. The fix: use a version of the logo with a dark outline, or implement dark mode-specific CSS in your email markup.
Most casino players play on mobile — and check email there too. An email built only for desktop will look either tiny or broken on a smartphone. Responsive email is not optional — it's baseline. Test every template on both iOS and Android before sending.
Depending on the market — Eastern Europe, LATAM, Asia — popular local mail clients exist with their own rendering logic. Study the share of each provider in your actual base and test templates on the top 3 providers for each specific market, not just the global "big three."
"You don't test on your own inbox — you test on the inboxes your players actually use. Those are different emails."
Many operators put careful thought into the email and completely forget what happens after the CTA is clicked. This is where conversion is often lost.
If a player clicks "Claim Bonus" and lands on the casino homepage, they'll need to figure out where to go next. Every additional step in the user flow loses a percentage of your audience. The link should take the player exactly where they can complete the target action immediately.
A product operates across several markets. The same game is provided by different suppliers in different countries, with different URLs. One link is set for all markets — and some users hit an error or land on the wrong page.
Localise links by country or provider. Use dynamic parameters or segmentation at send time so every user follows the correct URL for their market and their game supplier.
Everything that affects open rate happens in the inbox — before the user opens anything. Three elements: sender logo, subject line, and preheader. Most operators work only on the subject line, completely ignoring the other two.
Specifics outperform generics. "Your bonus expires in 24 hours" gets opened more than "Special offer for you." Test different formats: question, number, urgency, personalisation. One rule: always be concrete.
No logo means getting lost in the list. We go further: we use an animated logo that draws attention through motion in an otherwise static inbox. It works — and it's a small detail most brands skip entirely.
The short text visible after the subject line in the inbox. If left blank, the email client pulls the first line from your HTML — which usually looks like garbage. A good preheader reinforces the subject or adds the specificity it's missing.
After your preheader text, add invisible whitespace characters. This prevents the client from "filling in" the rest of the preheader line with random content from the email body. The user sees only what you want them to see.
Sender logo (recognition) + Subject line (hook) + Preheader (closes the deal) = maximum open rate. All three elements should work as a single unit, not exist independently of each other.
Mass sends without segmentation are the fastest way to damage your domain reputation and drive up unsubscribe rates. A player who last logged in six months ago and a player who deposits every week should receive completely different emails.
Segmentation isn't just "active vs inactive." It's a multi-layered system that accounts for behaviour, deposit history, game preferences, engagement with previous emails, and dozens of other parameters.
Divide your base by activity: new players (first 7 days), active, fading (no deposit in 14–30 days), dormant (30–90 days), churned (90+ days). Each segment has a different communication goal, a different offer, and a different frequency.
A name in the subject line has been the norm for years. Real personalisation is showing the game the player last played, or the tournament they're currently in. Emails built around individual player data get opened and clicked at dramatically higher rates.
Recency (when was the last deposit), Frequency (how often do they deposit), Monetary (how much). These three parameters precisely identify a player's value and inform the right offer. Don't send a big bonus to a low-monetary player — and don't low-ball a high-value one.
A player opened but didn't click? That's a retargeting signal — try a different offer or angle. A player who hasn't opened several emails in a row? Reduce frequency before they hit unsubscribe.
Manual sends are for promotions and campaigns. But the highest-converting emails in iGaming are triggered: they go out automatically in response to a specific player action — or inaction. They get opened more, clicked more, and they drive more deposits.
The first 3–7 emails after registration build the habit. Introduction to the product, explanation of mechanics, first offer — all of this should happen automatically, in the right sequence, at the right time.
A player started a deposit flow but didn't complete it? A triggered email within an hour — with a reminder and possibly a small incentive — recovers a meaningful portion of those sessions.
An email 24 hours and 3 hours before a bonus expires is one of the highest-converting triggers in iGaming. Urgency works. The key is not to use this mechanic so often that players become immune to it.
A sequence for dormant players with an escalating incentive: first a product reminder, then a light offer, then a more substantial one for those still unresponsive. Each step should feel natural, not desperate.
Tell the player about their progress in the loyalty program, their cashback level, or accumulated points. Concrete numbers ("you need 200 more points to reach the next tier") work as a powerful re-engagement trigger.
A player moved up a loyalty tier? Won a big amount? Received cashback? An automatic congratulations email strengthens the emotional connection with the product at a moment when the player is already in a positive state.
"A triggered email sent at the right moment performs 3–5x better than a mass send with the same offer."
Email marketing without A/B testing is working blind. What seems obviously right is often not confirmed by data. And conversely — small changes that look insignificant sometimes produce a 20–30% lift in conversion.
Subject line (affects open rate), CTA button (text, colour, size), send time, email length, number and position of offers. Test one variable at a time — otherwise you won't know what actually made the difference.
An A/B test on 200 users won't produce statistically significant results. You need at least 1,000 recipients per variant — and enough time to measure conversion, not just opens. Declaring a winner after 2 hours is not a test, it's a guess.
Open rate is just the entry point. Track click rate, conversion to deposit, and total revenue from the send. An email with a 40% open rate and 0% conversion is worse than one with a 20% open rate and a 5% conversion.
Sending emails isn't enough — you need to know how well they're working. These are the benchmarks we use when working with our partners on Tier 1 markets. Not the ceiling — the floor.
Critical for domain reputation. Falling below this signals base hygiene or configuration issues
Industry average is 15–20%. 25%+ is achieved through segmentation and inbox optimisation
Measured against delivered, not opens. Shows the real attractiveness of your offer
Above 0.5% is a warning sign — irrelevant content or send frequency that's too high
Delivery rate isn't just a metric — it's the health of your sending domain. A damaged domain reputation means emails start landing in spam regardless of content quality. Monitor metrics continuously, regularly clean your base of invalid addresses, and use double opt-in where possible.
Email marketing in iGaming isn't a set of templates you configure once and forget. It's a live channel that requires constant attention: new tests, updated segmentation, metric monitoring, adaptation to changes in email clients and providers.
Each of the blocks covered — design, layout, links, subject lines, segmentation, automation, testing — is its own area of expertise. And the gap between operators who approach this systematically and those who just "send a newsletter" shows up clearly in conversion numbers.
"Expertise and experience are what allow you to get the maximum out of any communication channel. You can never run too many A/B tests."
Retenza builds omnichannel communication systems end-to-end — from design and layout to segmentation and A/B testing. No setup fee.
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