Solution

The tombola Player Panel is now over 14,000 members strong across their three core markets and plays a key part of the company’s research strategy. Through the community, tombola’s Research team has conducted a variety of studies to engage with players on a more personal level, averaging one study every two weeks. 

Removing friction from the player experience

One of the key ways community insights effect change at tombola is through tactical changes within the gaming app. Working with Product teams the Insights team is able to spot friction points within the player journey and shine a light on this feedback for direct action. 

For example, a common and preferred payment integration was slow and could be difficult to use which caused players to switch to other methods. The team highlighted the issue to Product teams who ensured resources were used to improve the experience and speed up processing times. This update had an impact on player action, leading to a 14% increase in total deposits and a 39% increase in reactivation.

Pilot testing to de-risk changes

The team often reaches out to the community when they want to understand how players would react to possible offering or service changes. This allows the organization to make changes understanding the impact and impression it would leave on players before launch to ensure a successful roll out. 

Ask the Expert series

Utilizing Alida’s Member Hub feature, tombola connects business leaders directly with the players in their panel. The “Ask the Expert” series is a live interactive Q&A where the tombola C-suite has a chance to answer questions and hear what is top of mind from their audience. Through these discussions they’ve learned what is top of mind for players: game strategy, pre-buy, max stakes, promo times and deposit limits. 

Marketing campaign and promotion testing and development

tombola supports the Marketing team by gathering feedback on advertising messaging, highlighting the wording that appeals most to players. The Research team also gathers player feedback on promotions in the bingo market. They’ve learned which promotions, stakes, and prize types players preferred and why they felt that way.

App beta testing

Player panel members have tested beta versions of tombola’s apps via Google Play and TestFlight (iOS) to gauge and their reactions and provide recommendations.

Results

The insight community strategy has made tombola more efficient in several ways. They can deliver insights much faster, so teams can focus development resources on product features and offers players want most.

Based on their success, the company has expanded to launch new communities in Spain and Italy. tombola has saved £500k using the panel over other traditional research techniques and has gathered significant unmoderated player feedback and brand engagement with over 3,300 comments and 42,000 post views in the Member Hub.