By Ulises Gil, journalist at G&M News.
The company positions itself as the number one CRM marketing platform for iGaming and sports betting. What specifically sets it apart from other solutions in an increasingly competitive market?
What truly differentiates Optimove is the depth of data and context we operate with, and how that translates into real-time action. Our platform processes over 8.4 billion rows of customer data and more than 2 billion real-time events every day, giving operators a continuously updated, 360-degree view of each player. This is what allows us to move beyond static segmentation and actually respond to player behavior as it happens, not hours or days later. That data foundation is also what positions Optimove as a global leader in retention marketing for iGaming. Today, 52% of the operators in the EGR Power 50 -including 70% of the Top 10- are Optimove clients. This level of adoption among the industry’s top operators reflects not just scale, but deep specialization. Optimove has been focused on retention in iGaming for over a decade, with AI models specifically designed to predict behavior, anticipate churn, and continuously optimize engagement. In Brazil, this global expertise is combined with strong local execution. Today, we support 4 of the top 5 operators in the country and hold more than 54% market share, reflecting both the maturity of the market and the demand for advanced retention capabilities.
The concept of ‘Positionless Marketing’ is central to Optimove’s current proposition. What does it consist of, and how does it change day-to-day operations for marketing teams at operators?
Positionless Marketing is a concept we created to solve a very real problem in modern marketing: teams are expected to act in real time, but their operating model doesn’t allow them to. In most organizations, execution still depends on multiple teams; data sits with analysts, campaign setup relies on engineering, and content creation depends on separate workflows. As a result, even simple ideas can take days or weeks to go live. In this sense, Positionless Marketing changes that model. Through our platform, marketers have direct access to data, decisioning, and execution capabilities in a single AI-powered environment. A marketer can identify an opportunity, build an audience, define the message, and launch a campaign without relying on multiple handoffs or technical dependencies. The impact on day-to-day operations is immediate: marketing becomes faster, more adaptive, and more precise. Instead of managing processes, teams focus on outcomes and continuous optimization. Rather than running a fixed set of campaigns, operators can respond dynamically to each player’s behavior, making decisions continuously instead of in batches. According to Forrester, this approach has been proven to improve campaign efficiency by 88%.
Latin America is a priority for Optimove, with Brazil receiving special attention. What are the main challenges operators face in the region around player retention and engagement?
One of the biggest challenges operators face in Latin America is not a lack of data; it’s knowing how to actually use it. Many teams are dealing with fragmented systems and a huge volume of information, but without a clear way to turn that into timely and relevant player engagement. At the same time, the competitive gap is becoming more visible: larger operators are already working with more advanced data and retention strategies, while smaller and mid-sized operators are still trying to catch up. What we do at Optimove is bring all of that data into a single marketing environment and continuously enrich it, so operators have a real-time, contextual understanding of each player, including behavior, engagement signals, and projected value. From there, AI turns that understanding into action: identifying intent, predicting churn risk, and determining the next best move for each player. You see this very clearly in Brazil. Player behavior is strongly mobile-first, with shorter and more frequent sessions, and high sensitivity to real-time interactions. On top of that, payment complexity and strong cultural moments -like major sporting events- require operators to be very precise in how and when they engage. In a market where loyalty is still being built, the operators that can act on data in real time are the ones that will stand out.
Artificial intelligence is a core pillar of the product, from segmentation to campaign orchestration. How is the use of AI evolving within the platform?
AI has been embedded into Optimove‘s platform since 2012, and today it sits at the center of how we orchestrate customer engagement across channels. For the past two years, Gartner has recognized Optimove as a Visionary in its Magic Quadrant for Multichannel Marketing Hubs, specifically for our AI-driven decisioning and real-time orchestration capabilities. What has changed most in recent years is how that AI is being applied. In the past, AI was mostly used for isolated tasks like segmentation or predictive modeling. Today, it is embedded across the entire marketing process, continuously evaluating data and determining what to do next for each player. This shift is really about moving from rule-based execution to real-time decisioning. More recently, we’ve been evolving toward what we call agent-based marketing. Different AI agents are responsible for different decisions, selecting the right campaign, optimizing offers, determining the best timing, choosing the most relevant content. These agents share context and work together, so each decision improves the next. Every interaction feeds back into the platform, improving future decisions without adding complexity for the marketing team.
Where is Optimove’s roadmap headed in the coming months, and what can operators already using the platform expect?
Our roadmap is focused on one main direction: moving from campaign-based marketing to continuous, decision-driven engagement, where every interaction is evaluated and optimized in real time based on the latest player behavior and context. A big part of that is the evolution of AI Decisioning Studio, where marketers can manage a team of AI agents responsible for different decisions across the customer lifecycle. Instead of manually configuring campaigns, teams define strategy and objectives, and AI takes care of execution and optimization. We’re also continuing to expand our real-time capabilities. As more behavioral signals are captured, decisions are no longer made once a day or once per campaign; they adapt instantly as player context changes. On the content side, with generative AI, creating content is no longer the constraint. The challenge now is scaling relevance and quality, which is why we’re investing in capabilities that allow marketers to generate, validate, and optimize content across channels while keeping it consistent, compliant, and personalized for each player. For operators already working with Optimove, this means less manual work, faster execution, and more precise outcomes. For the industry, it represents a shift toward marketing that is always on, always learning, and always adapting to the player.