In an industry so nascent, it is perhaps surprising that the online casino market in New Jersey is so competitive. Yet, considering the slow pace that legislation for online casino has moved at, it is not a huge shock that the comparative geriatric market of New Jersey, though only a decade old, is so congested.
But such competition only fosters an environment for innovation and differentiation. As newcomers tend to land on New Jersey as a hub for US expansion and launches, there are hundreds of ways of attracting players to a platform.
For PlayStar – founded in 2021 and launched in 2022 – New Jersey was the ideal state to launch in, given its “trailblazing” qualities in the US.
The platform aims to provide a localized and personalized experience to players and is using these strategies to compete with some of the biggest names the industry has to offer. Through creating an experience tailored to each player, the casino platform tells its customers that “PlayStar is your casino”.
SBC Americas sat down with Jon Bowden, Chief Marketing Officer at PlayStar, to get a glimpse into the company and how it is aiming for success in the Garden State.
SBC: Could you outline some of the past experience of your executive team and founders and detail how this experience has helped shape PlayStar?
Jon Bowden: One of the things that really attracted me to the position was the team I’d be joining and the vast amount of industry experience they possess between them. For my part, I’ve been fortunate to work with some amazing brands and people at the likes of Rank and Entain, and some previous colleagues that I thought very highly of were already with the business. As well as this, I’ve had the amazing opportunity to build a team of experts who have previously delivered in highly competitive markets.
The senior team has decades of experience in some of the biggest brands in the market such as Kindred, William Hill and bet365 so, between us, we have a very good overview of what casino customers are looking for and how we can market to them effectively. When you also throw in a strategy that focuses on a personalized real-time casino experience, we have plenty of fresh and exciting perspectives about how PlayStar should operate that I think will really help us stand out in the market.
SBC: Why was New Jersey chosen as the first state to launch the PlayStar casino in?
JB: With regulated online gambling still being relatively new across the US, New Jersey has definitely been one of the true trailblazers when it comes to establishing laws and issuing licenses that are ultimately for the betterment of the industry. Given this strong existing framework, we felt pretty confident we’d be able to execute the kind of pre-launch marketing strategy that we wanted when entering the state.
Of course, a major part of this was working with a number of New Jersey businesses to really localise our offering and provide our customers with offline deals that they could redeem throughout the state. This was always going to be a major differentiator for us – and our team’s extensive knowledge of the New Jersey market combined with the intensive research we put in before launching effectively enabled us to turn the Garden State into our very own ‘land-based’ casino!
SBC: How important is it for you to offer a highly personalized experience for players in the incredibly competitive online casino market in New Jersey, and how does PlayStar build its relationship with customers?
JB: Offering a highly personalised experience to customers was absolutely paramount to what we were trying to achieve in New Jersey. In terms of the casino games we offer, we’re similar to many of the other online brands in the state, but we stand out in terms of everything that goes on around the gameplay.
We strive to offer a unique experience based on player preferences delivered through the face of our brand, the PlayStar concierge. He is the guide through the PlayStar experience from the very first moment you download our app, delivering to players what content, promotions, exclusive gamification and unique loyalty schemes are available to them from when they first sign up.
SBC: What was your strategy for onboarding new users following your launch last year?
JB: I think given the very creative way we approached our launch in New Jersey, there was going to be a fair amount of organic interest generated as more and more would-be customers learned and bought into what we were doing. We also focused hugely on performance marketing and ensured we weren’t wedded to any one channel, so moved spends fast to ensure we’re optimizing our plans fast and in real-time.
However, where the PlayStar brand really came into its own was in the way that we could also offer tangible benefits in people’s day-to-day lives away from the casino. By giving them the opportunity to cash in their rewards for dinner at a local restaurant or tickets to a concert in the state, we were able to localise in a way that other operators simply hadn’t done and I think this definitely helped New Jersey warm to our brand and our onboarding efforts.
SBC: Despite PlayStar’s relative infancy, the industry’s mind is focusing on retention rather than acquisition; what techniques are you deploying to best keep hold of as many players as possible?
JB: While we obviously put a lot of time and resources into our acquisition drive in New Jersey, the long-term goal is of course to retain as many of these players as possible through our incredible levels of customer service. As I already outlined, we aim to offer unique and personal rewards so that every player feels like they’re getting the personal touch and not just a number, all delivered by our concierge character. We want them to feel like the star of the show from the moment they engage with our brand and we want to incentivise them to come back and play with us again and again.
In order to achieve this goal, we recognised we’d have to offer more than the industry-standard cashback and bonuses and really diversify our rewards to include things that can be enjoyed in person across New Jersey.
As a result, I think we offer one of the most compelling loyalty programs around. As well as this we aim to make the player experience super engaging by offering many gamification elements to onsite journeys and promotions. This ranges from collecting bonuses as you drive around our virtual map of New Jersey, to entering the PlayStar arena, to scoring a field goal to win prizes in our “Field Goal Shootout” promotion we push when the Super Bowl comes around. Unique promotions and content like this help us set ourselves apart from the pack, as well as helping us be the brand of preference.
SBC: As a New Jersey online casino, how are you leveraging local partnerships and deals to create authenticity and authority around the PlayStar brand in the field of household national brands?
JB: When it comes to generating trust and authenticity around your brand at state-level, I think every little partnership can make a world of difference. We have a loyalty scheme in Star Rewards where we offer rewards with over 2,000 local brands covering restaurants, gyms, cinemas and other entertainment venues – these are the things that really resonate with customers. We’re also going to be taking a suite at the MetLife stadium from 2024, home of the New York Giants, where we’ll proudly be able to entertain our VIPs and players at Giants games, as well as concerts throughout the year.
It’s these tactics that I feel set us apart from the usual bonus-led approach where we can offer real value and amazing experiences to players in their day to day life as well as a best in class online experience.
