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Winning Bettors Through Context, Not Cookies
Dec 3, 2025
As the industry moves further away from third-party cookies, performance marketers in iGaming are facing a pivotal shift. For years, granular tracking shaped how operators acquired players, optimised spend and scaled across markets. Now that those signals are disappearing, the focus has moved from chasing identifiers to understanding behaviours, motivations and real-world triggers.
A couple of weeks ago, we shared a post about the psychology of sports fans and how fan behaviour influences marketing performance. There are clear parallels here, because bettors follow many of the same behavioural patterns. When you learn what drives a player, you unlock targeting opportunities that work even when cookies are no longer available.
In this post, we explore practical ways iGaming brands can thrive in a cookieless environment. By leaning into stronger signals, real-time moments and smarter creative strategies, operators can still achieve high-intent acquisition at scale. Below are the tactics that consistently deliver results in privacy-first markets.
Build Your Targeting on Reliable, Consent-Based Signals
The strongest campaigns today begin with signals that players willingly provide. These create a compliant, stable foundation you can build around.
Examples include:
On-site behaviour and session quality
Registration and verification insights
CRM, loyalty and segmentation frameworks
Interactions with sports or gaming content
Device, time-of-day and platform patterns
Real-world sports moments tied to player intent
These signals allow operators to build predictable acquisition engines without relying on third-party tracking.
Blend Contextual Insight With Real Behaviour Patterns
Cookie-based retargeting may be fading, but contextual and behavioural insights have grown stronger. The best-performing campaigns are those that match the environment with the likely mindset of the user.
For example:
Activating around match previews, betting discussions or predictions
Appearing alongside content that signals high intent, such as tipster analysis
Targeting environments where fans are emotionally invested
Using predictive modelling that identifies users leaning towards betting behaviour
This combination consistently drives deeper engagement and stronger intent.
Lean Into Real-Time Triggers Where Intent Peaks
One of the most dependable advantages in sports-led iGaming is the power of real-time signals. These are moments where bettors naturally enter decision-making mode.
Examples include:
In-play surges during goals, breaks or momentum shifts
The 30–90 minute window before a match
Half-time scrolling patterns
Odds movement or price-boost moments
Tournament milestones or country-specific interest spikes
These moments are performance drivers because they align with human behaviour, not tracking IDs.
Treat Creative Variation as a Performance Lever
Without cookie-level granularity, creative plays a bigger role in surfacing the right audiences. Testing, rotation and contextual relevance are now essential parts of performance marketing.
Best practices include:
Running multiple message angles at once
Testing value-led prompts against emotional or fan-driven prompts
Aligning creative with sports context and timing
Using different formats depending on the device or moment
Highlighting genuine differentiators instead of generic bonus messaging
When creative becomes part of your optimisation strategy, learning cycles accelerate.
Measure for Direction, Not Precision
Attribution has shifted. Operators no longer get the microscopic clarity that cookies once provided, but solid directional insight can still guide decision-making.
Useful measurement approaches include:
Time-based lift
Market-level deltas
Publisher-level patterns
Creative-level engagement
Downstream behaviour after registration
Server-to-server events in compliant setups
The operators who adapt their expectations, yet maintain discipline, make more confident optimisation decisions.
Make Compliance Part of Your Strategy, Not an Afterthought
Compliance shapes inventory, audiences, placements and campaign longevity. When it is integrated early, it becomes an advantage rather than a constraint.
Benefits include:
Faster approvals
Access to higher-quality placements
Smoother cross-market scaling
Clearer user trust, which impacts conversion rates
Stronger alignment with regulatory shifts
The brands who operate with compliance front of mind tend to run more sustainable performance programmes.
Even without cookies, iGaming brands can build effective, scalable and compliant acquisition strategies. The shift simply requires a different lens: one that values behavioural insight, contextual relevance and real-time moments over pure tracking. When operators embrace these principles, they often find that performance becomes more stable and more sustainable in the long term.
If you’d like support in adapting your acquisition strategy to a cookieless environment, we’re always open to a conversation!
The strongest brands are the ones planning ahead, not reacting later.
