EGR Intel: Waking up a behemoth

Stian Enger Pettersen of EveryMatrix outlines the BonusEngine relaunch and explains its many virtues.

EGR Intel (EGR): In 2020, EveryMatrix relaunched BonusEngine. If you were to pick one topic that best highlights its capacities, what would it be?

Stian Enger Pettersen (SEP): If I have to pick only one, then it’s BonusEngine’s flexibility. Regardless of what sort of campaign an operator creates, it is based on a large common configuration base. As an example, whether you create a cross-product tournament or a wager challenge with multiple tiers and rewards, the vast majority of settings are generic. The same selection of triggers is available, the same eligibility filters, and so on. This is also true for configurations across campaigns. Any number of campaigns can be connected to depend on each other or exclude each other in various ways. While we continuously roll out new features, bonus types, and integrate with third-party promotional features from content providers, we stay true to this flexibility.

What’s more, operators have different needs in terms of what markets and demographics they target, and they also need to adhere to regulations in different jurisdictions. The architecture of BonusEngine allows operators to choose exactly how a bonus behaves in terms of play order and wagering contribution of real and bonus money, and how real money is locked while the bonus is still active. There is no one-size-fits-all in this regard, so again flexibility is crucial.

EGR: Bonus abuse is a hot topic in the industry. What are some of the best ways to mitigate it?

SEP: Having the tools and knowledge to identify characteristics and abusive patterns of bonus abusers at the earliest possible stage, and then acting to exclude a player from receiving bonuses, is crucial. In terms of your bonus offering, there is a lot that can be done to add value to genuine players without attracting abusers. Engaging players through gamification and offering a variety of rewards beyond bonus cash is a good approach. For a bonus abuser strictly looking for monetary value, non-cash bonuses and gamification features are just additional hoops to jump through to get to the cash, and the entertainment and excitement aspect of it is lost.

Tournaments are an excellent way to bring value to players without attracting abusers. Bet-driven challenges offered to the players is another. I’m not arguing challenges cannot be abused as it really depends on the challenge but, generally speaking, bet-and-get is less appealing to an abuser than get-and-bet. Gamification might no longer be the buzzword it was a few years back, but I’m confident it will long endure in our industry, allowing plenty of space for creativity.

EGR: Speaking of the future, how do you see the BonusEngine product evolving?

SEP: To name some highlights, in the first half of the year we are adding new bonus types and triggers, as well as a campaign template library which will serve as a source for inspiration for our operators. We are also working on ready-to-use widgets that can easily be placed anywhere in the front-end to display tournaments, challenges and more. I’m particularly excited about a big delivery in the second half of 2021, namely our revamped Frequent Player Points (FPP).

EveryMatrix has had an FPP feature for 10 years, but now we will build it from scratch within BonusEngine, which means more flexibility and the ability to offer FPPs across verticals with ease.

In parallel, it is business as usual. We integrated 24 new content providers into CasinoEngine in 2020, and about the same number in both 2018 and 2019. Many of which have free spins and other cool promo tools. We integrate these features into BonusEngine continuously to keep up with CasinoEngine’s ever-growing library of content.

Stian Enger Pettersen has been CEO of the EveryMatrix casino unit since June 2020 and brings aboard over 16 years of igaming experience. After graduating from Washington State University, he successfully managed several B2C operations before joining EveryMatrix in 2015. In the past six years, his technical expertise and deep business understanding propelled CasinoEngine forward while building BonusEngine, the company’s cross-product bonus system.

The original version of this interview has been published in EGR INTEL #201 under the title Waking up a behemoth at page 34.