In an industry now dominated by a shareholder demand for a return on investment following years of acquisition, operators are constantly looking for ways to keep players on site. After all, operators have put plenty of resources into getting those players to sign up. To lose them after one session would be a waste.
It is no surprise that gamification and bonusing have become some of the most discussed methods of retention. But what if one of gambling’s most recognisable tools was the key to player retention and was under our noses all along?
Jackpots go back hundreds – or thousands – of years. One could go back to the first slot machine to find the provenance of jackpots, Charles Fey’s invention in 1895 in San Francisco. Or, if one considered lottery jackpots, all the way back to the Roman Emperor Augustus and even Ancient China – where jackpots could be won to raise funds for local infrastructure projects.
So for as long as history itself, jackpots have enticed players to engage with gambling products with the allure of winning a life changing sum of money.
So how have jackpots been adapted to the modern iGaming sector, and how can they be used as a powerful player engagement tool?
Who doesn’t want to win a huge prize?
Jackpots are incredibly powerful tools because they offer those who take part the chance to win an extraordinary sum of money in prizes. Not knowing when, or if, the jackpot will hit also adds an extra layer of mystery to the mix, setting off high levels of dopamine in players’ brains.
Adding jackpots into some of iGaming’s biggest and most celebrated titles, with all of the other engaging features they contain such as symbols, wilds, music, etc, creates a compelling mix that keeps players coming back for more.
It’s even backed up by research; in the UK Gambling Commission’s Gambling Survey for Great Britain published in October, it was reported that 82% of players gamble for the chance to win huge sums of money. The other top reasons also point towards the allure of jackpots – those reasons being because gambling is fun (72%), to make money (57%) and because it was exciting (56%).
A 2007 University of Cambridge study concluded that even if a player does not win a jackpot, but has a near miss, they still feel like they wish to continue playing due to a perception that a big win is on the way.
Player engagement impact
Placed into a modern iGaming context, where jackpots – whether fixed, tiered or progressive – can be added into most slot titles, players are finding newer and fresher ways to enjoy online casinos.
One of these new jackpot systems is Alea Jackpot.
Designed to be an engagement and retention engine built directly into Alea Play – the company’s aggregator – Alea Jackpot aims to give operators control to create and manage their own jackpots on any Alea Play content. The solution debuted last week at ICE 2026.
Alea Play features 17,000 games, giving operators the ability to add jackpots to a plethora of games within just a single integration.
Charlotte Lecomte, Founder and CPO at Alea, explained: “For operators, this means full flexibility, they can include or exclude specific games (for example, branded or premium titles) to focus jackpots on their most profitable content. The Alea Jackpot is all about giving operators more ways to engage players while maintaining full transparency and control.”
Alea Jackpot isn’t designed to be just an add on, nice to have feature within the Alea Play ecosystem. It is also designed to drive bottom line growth for operators looking to improve profitability and boost long-term player retention.
For Lecomte, it is a ‘natural evolution’ for Alea to expand its ecosystem and provide further value to its clients as the industry looks to utilise the strong acquisition strategies of recent years and turn those players into loyal and profitable customers.
“Our operators have been asking for more ways to drive player engagement without increasing provider costs or adding technical complexity,” Lecomte explained. “Since we already process millions of transactions daily through Alea Play, the secure infrastructure to support jackpots was already in place.
“The timing makes sense because the market has matured. Operators are now focused on retention and profitability rather than short-term acquisition campaigns. In mature regions like Europe, they need engagement tools that can prove ROI and run sustainably over time.”
Real impact
Jackpot systems such as Alea Jackpot are having a real impact on player engagement rates for operator partners, as detailed by industry reports.
Reports by some companies who have similar jackpot systems reveal that several key statistics such as active players, average session length, average bet amount and number of deposits all increase after implementing a jackpot campaign.
Alea Jackpot is there to serve the player with exciting content that offers the chance for them to win visible and growing prizes, creating a thrill that keeps them coming back on site. It serves multiple markets, multiple brands per operator and multiple currencies, allowing customisation and campaigns that can be rolled out globally.
Operators can implement jackpot campaigns across multiple brands and platforms and can get reports in just one click.
As Lecomte noted: “Imagine running one progressive jackpot that grows across all your brands: every spin, in every market, feeding the same prize. The result? Bigger jackpots, faster growth, and a shared sense of excitement that connects your brands and your players, while still staying true to each casino’s personality.
“Alea’s real-time multi-currency engine takes care of the rest, automatically converting contributions and payouts into your chosen reporting currency.”
So while iGaming continues to develop and evolve technologically, with multijurisdictional operators offering fiat and crypto betting, and regulatory frameworks trying to keep up with those technologies, sometimes it is the classic features that keep players coming back.
And though jackpot campaigns are more developed now than they were back when the first slot machines were designed – now powered by AI and online – they remain more popular than ever with a playerbase who long for engaging and fresh experiences.
