Punters tend to be creatures of habit. From the sort of sports bets we like to place, to the online casinos we frequent and the slots we play. We even have carefully codified strategies for Live Casinos; many of us pick the same numbers for Roulette and follow the same approach for Blackjack, come rain or shine (never twist on 17, for example). Such habitual, possibly superstitious, behaviour is all part of the fun of betting.

It also makes us particularly susceptible to the marketing departments of online casinos and bookmakers! Strong “Habit Loops” make us much easier to read and, with ever more sophisticated AI tools pinpointing our exact movements, the industry now rolls out an entire catalogue of perks and sweeteners to retain our attention and keep us playing. Daily Rewards, Missions and Streaks are just part of their arsenal.

But, predictable or not, we can still make our repetitive behaviour work in our favour. Here’s a close-up look at the sort of offerings that can come your way.

Daily Rewards at UK Casinos

Daily Rewards are bonuses that you receive every single day. You only need to open the app to claim them. The main function of a Daily Reward is to encourage you to log in, even if you aren’t intending to gamble that day. Many sites also offer a secondary reward or boost if you collect your Daily Reward for a pre-allotted number of days in a row.

The William Hill Bonus Drop Boost feature is a perfect example. Another popular Daily Reward is the Betway Prize Wheel, which can be played by all registered players every day.

Other UK gambling online casino operators have their own takes:

• Betfred – Up to 200 Weekly Spins Accumulator. Opt-in required, £10 minimum stake Mon–Sun. Free Spins credited by Monday, valid for 7 days.
• Grosvenor – Eye of Horus 40 Spins (worth £0.50 each) via G+ Rewards.
• PokerStars Casino – Spin of the Day, offering players the chance to win free spins.
• Casumo – Daily Spinner, giving up to 20 spins on its reward wheel.
• PlayOJO – The OJO Wheel, with free spins prizes.

You can win Free Spins, Scratchcards or even Cash with a Daily Reward. They usually don’t return much in the way of big wins or significantly bolster your online balance, but they do encourage repetitive behaviour and plant the seed that you might be missing out if you don’t check in that day.

Indeed, once the Bonus Spins have been used, you will usually remain in the slot or game and automatically be prompted to continue playing, only this time with your own cash. In this sense, they are a highly effective marketing tool and play on the age-old human emotion of feeling a loss more than the joy of a small win. A tried-and-tested habit loop in action.

Casino Missions

Missions are a more structured enhancement and encourage you to follow a set plan. This could involve depositing a certain amount of money within a set timeframe to unlock a reward, completing a number of spins on a specific slot or wagering on a particular Live Casino table.

Missions can encourage you to try new games or ones that might not otherwise appeal to you, or that you simply might not have been aware of. They also can keep you playing your chosen game for longer than you otherwise would, in order to complete the set “Mission”.

As technology and AI advances, casinos and bookmakers can ramp up the “personalisation” of Missions to more effectively entice you into playing the selected games. For example, if you are a regular Blackjack player, any new Blackjack table launched could well be part of the marketing mission package aimed at you.

The idea of Missions is very much based in science, with studies showing that humans (and indeed animals for that matter…) speed up and work harder towards a goal as they near the completion of it. This habit loop is one that casinos and bookmakers are more than happy to repeat regularly.

Streaks

Streaks are similar to Daily Rewards and Missions, but up the ante for the punter by increasing the reward the longer the player continues to fulfil the required criteria. A “Streak” may cover seven days, or even a month, and usually states that any missed day resets the streak back to zero.

You are therefore highly incentivised to keep it going, particularly if the rewards increase in value the longer you maintain the streak.

So, What Exactly is a Habit Loop?

The term was originally coined by Charles Duhigg and refers to the process of habit-forming by breaking it down into three clear steps:

• Cue
• Routine
• Reward

The Cue is the prompt to change your behaviour without too much thinking or decision-making required. Usually in the form of a fat carrot being dangled in front of you! So, in casino terms, this can be the offer of Free Spins, a text notification to log into your account or a promotional email. These may elicit some memory of a previous cue and, over time, the pattern will become set.

The Routine is the action you take to act on the cue. Having received your prompt, you will then log in to your account, or spin the wheel, or whatever it is that you are cued to do.

The Reward is the Free Spin arriving in your account, or the Free Bet showing next to your balance (usually with a nice picture of a wrapped present, just to accentuate the idea of a “gift”).

The entire process of a Habit Loop is about giving you, the punter, a dopamine hit on a regular basis, thus embedding in you the feeling of reward. In practice, the “reward” may, or more likely, may not be earth-shattering or life-changing, but it nevertheless still satisfies at some level. The “Loop” then is complete and this procedure can continue for months.

Supermarkets employ much the same strategy with loyalty cards and price drops. The concept has become further popularised by the author James Clear in his book Atomic Habits.

Some Habit Loops reward you with the same outcome, whilst others offer more variability and promise something fresh every time. This can trigger slightly different parts of the brain and lead to an even greater release of dopamine, enhanced by the uncertainty.

Why Do Habit Loops Tend to Stick?

A circle is a hard thing to break once it has been formed and, when it comes to online casinos, this is doubly so. No punter ever wants to turn down a freebie or the chance of a risk-free win and this sentiment fuels the Habit Loop’s success.

All habits, good or bad, healthy or unhealthy, feed off repetition and even fear. Fear of missing out becomes a big driver for players and is at the heart of why the gambling industry employs such marketing tools.

Ultimately, you, the punter, are never forced to participate. You can watch the Daily Rewards, Missions and Streaks drift past, unmoved. You can also disable as many notifications as you can, making yourself less susceptible to these cues. Either way, they have proven to be successful strategies — and promise to remain so as long as human beings fancy having a punt or two.

Credit: Eoneren