Two-way traffic from online to offline and back is a sign of the industry’s fluidity. Jake Pollard observes leaderships applying a growing emphasis on executing effective Omnichannel strategies at a period of peak compression on operating margins.

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The online gaming industry is full of buzzwords and ‘omnichannel’ has long been one of its favourites. That isn’t surprising. After all, what iGaming company would not want to provide powerful and broad synergies between the online and offline components of their operations?

The thought of customers seamlessly shifting their loyalty points from their local land-based casino or retail betting outlet to their digital wallets thanks to a simple in-app transfer has long been talked of as some kind of holy grail of customer and retention management.

The fact that many operators and providers had still not achieved that status may surprise some observers, but for many years that was the case. Indeed, not that long ago, online operators were still asking their players to switch between betting, casino or racing accounts. Such a practice may sound antiquated in 2026, but regulations and responsible gambling measures require this in many countries – an issue that unregulated operators do not have to deal with.

Furthermore, some operators didn’t allocate sufficient resources to carry out this type of project. Practical experience sometimes also revealed that the technical requirements involved in unifying these different portfolios and the functionalities of each vertical are not straightforward to resolve.

In France, for example, PMU launched its PMU Play app in April, offering players access to their sports betting, horse racing and poker accounts via a single login.

Rivals such as Unibet or Betclic also provide the single login feature, but for a group that has such a major retail footprint in France, the importance of being able to potentially sync its physical activities with parts of its digital operations as part of its drive to revive its fortunes after a few tough years can not be overstated.

The US vanguard

Some operators, especially the US casino giants, were faster to execute on omnichannel than their counterparts in Europe. This possibly was due to the prevalence of land-based resorts across the country and how embedded they were in the fabric of regional casino gaming in the US; so that when online sports betting became widely regulated from 2021 onwards they were able to coordinate and sync millions of offline loyalty programmes with their online operations.

This enabled Hard Rock, Caesars or MGM to quickly integrate the land-based and online components of their offerings, with their customers able to use up loyalty points from their physical casino accounts via their digital accounts and seamlessly fund either casino or sports betting accounts.

Importantly, online casino is still only regulated in seven states in the US (with Maine scheduled to launch this year), which meant being able to sync offline casino details with online sports betting accounts became a key feature of the user experience and customer retention, especially since many OSB players have multiple accounts.

Access all areas

Another important point of omnichannel is accessibility; not every market will have the regulatory environment or opportunity for operators to have physical and digital outlets – or the corporate opportunities to acquire/integrate an online-to-offline network (and vice-versa).

Such was the case with the recent Lottomatica-CIRSA merger, or, in the case of France, with Banijay’s acquisition of JOA Groupe in July. Lottomatica’s statement on the deal was clear: the transaction will not only open up its activities to CIRSA’s market leadership positions in Colombia, Mexico, Peru or Portugal, where CIRSA’s 450 casinos, 85,000 gaming machines and more than 2,000 sports betting retail outlets will combine with Lottomatica’s “omni-channel expertise to accelerate CIRSA’s online expansion across its core markets”.

Concerning Banijay Group, CEO François Riahi told analysts during the company’s second quarter results call that acquiring “JOA was an opportunity to create an omnichannel situation in France, which is one of our largest markets”.

Diverse entry points

Riahi noted that Banijay had already done this in Germany and Austria with Tipico, and the JOA deal “was an opportunity to create (an omnichannel setting) in France”.

Seasoned industry observers will also have seen the transaction as a way to strongly influence the debate on online casino regulation in France, but Riahi also made an obvious point when he said creating an omnichannel offering “through physical sports betting” was not possible in France because of FDJ’s retail monopoly.

“So JOA was the best opportunity (to build an omnichannel offering) and was very interested in joining our strategy of building a European leader. Our focus, of course, remains largely on online, but when online can be supported by retail, by physical (outlets), we believe it’s a good match,” he added.

A Banijay spokesperson told SBC-Gaming&Co that “implementing omnichannel customer journeys in this sector is more complex than in other sectors”, and incorporating stringent requirements regarding “compliance, player protection and data security” made the process of becoming a truly omnichannel operator even more challenging.

Therefore, the acquisition of JOA “marks a new step in Banijay Gaming’s strategy to build a diversified European gaming business, in line with changing consumer expectations,” added the spokesperson.

“Consumers today are looking for a more seamless experience across digital and physical channels, and this transaction will enable us to meet those expectations fully.” After Germany and Austria, Banijay is now active in “physical” and online gaming in France, a key market for the group.

Interestingly, other operators that combine major retail outlets with important online footprints, such as Entain or Flutter in the UK, do not communicate as much about their omnichannel projects. But then that could be to do with the fact that they have combined the two channels for much longer.  

Belgian operators such as Circus and Golden Palace have also been operating omnichannel offerings for some time and have highly valuable know-how in that field.

Still, from Allwyn to FDJ United, the wave of land-based lottery operators or casino groups, such as MGM Resorts making a play for European online share with LeoVegas, shows few signs of abating. In addition, lottery groups’ past reticence to deal with online operators has, generally speaking, disappeared.    

Banijay said acquiring JOA is part “of a specific trajectory. It strengthens the group’s presence in land-based casinos and complements its digital leadership with a leading physical network, supporting JOA’s next phase of development, both in France and internationally”. As mentioned, operators’ omnichannel projects will continue for the foreseeable, the key will be in how well they groups execute their strategies