The retention conversation dominates iGaming boardrooms, but a harder question sits underneath it for white-label operators building strategies on borrowed infrastructure.
Viktor Cherkas, CEO of Kanggiten iGaming platform, argues that the platform an operator sits on determines the real ceiling of their retention capabilities.
Kanggiten powers more than 50 active brands across Europe, LatAm, CIS, Africa, and Asia, giving Cherkas a broad operational view of where retention succeeds and where it stalls.
Research from Bain and Company has shown that a 5% increase in retention can boost profits by as much as 25 to 95%, a statistic the iGaming industry frequently cites.
However, Cherkas points out that quoting the statistic and actually achieving the result are two very different things for operators on restrictive platforms.
“Many white-label operators are limited by the flexibility of the platform they’re using, which means they can only optimize within predefined boundaries,” Cherkas said.
Industry benchmarks place best-in-class Day-30 retention between 30 and 40%, while the average across the sector sits at 15 to 25%, with Kanggiten reporting figures reaching up to 39%.
Cherkas attributes that performance to a combination of flexible CRM tools, deep player segmentation, real-time event tracking, gamification, and rapid experimentation infrastructure built into the platform itself.
He is clear that technology alone does not create retention, and that operator execution, traffic quality, onboarding, and team capability all carry significant weight in the final outcome.
On the subject of bonus fatigue, Cherkas agrees that generic promotions erode engagement, and that both the CRM team and the platform share responsibility when campaigns stop converting.
“If every player receives the same reload offer, free spins, and reactivation email, engagement naturally drops over time,” he noted, calling for continuous creative testing and flexible promotional mechanics.
A 2025 global report from Paysafe found that 34% of bettors rank fast payouts as their top priority when selecting a platform, placing it ahead of brand trust, odds, and promotions.
Cherkas sees payment speed not as a convenience feature but as a direct retention lever, estimating that at least 30% of potential VIP players actively seek platforms with fast and reliable withdrawal processing.
He also draws a sharp distinction between static calendar-based retention and behavior-triggered intervention, arguing that real-time segmentation allows operators to react before churn occurs rather than after it has already happened.
On gamification, Cherkas is measured, describing it as a component of a broader loyalty program rather than a standalone retention driver with meaningful long-term impact on player LTV.
“The operators that get value from gamification are those that integrate it with CRM, loyalty progression, rewards, and player segmentation,” he explained, warning that disconnected gamification becomes little more than a decorative back-office feature.
For operators currently evaluating white-label platforms with retention as their primary concern, Cherkas recommends stress-testing three specific areas: how quickly ideas can be tested, how deep the CRM and segmentation tools go, and how much control the operator retains over payments and player journeys.
Across Kanggiten’s portfolio of more than 50 brands, Cherkas identifies execution speed as the single most underestimated factor in white-label retention performance.
“In retention, the operators who learn faster typically win faster,” he concluded, pointing to a culture of continuous experimentation as the real differentiator between platforms that sustain growth and those that plateau.
