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Online gambling has been a single-player game by nature since the beginning. However, as the online gaming space evolves with more mature competition and an increasing focus on player retention; many sites are now exploring whether players will pay to gamble alone versus being able to be part of a community that shares common experiences through the site.
The Problem Social Features Are Trying to Solve
Retention can be costly. For example, acquiring a new depositor in a competitive environment will cost an operator anything from £150 to £400 per month depending upon the jurisdiction and the channel. In addition, if that depositor churning out after two months, then the economic model does not work. The operators have recognized this for many years and have developed strategies to retain their customers through programs such as loyalty and personalized marketing, as well as developing more complex re-engagement models.
The social feature represents another theoretical approach to retaining customers. The hypothesis regarding retention based on social features has been simply stated; i.e., “players who develop feelings of belonging to a community or group, who have friends within the community (platform), who can see other bettors’ wagers (or betting activities) and believe that others are seeing theirs, will reduce their likelihood of leaving.” Therefore, the switching cost is not solely associated with the product itself, but also the relationships formed by users. Similar reasoning may explain why individuals continued to use Facebook even when they were annoyed with the “feed” and why users tend to continue using certain types of platforms (e.g. social media type) longer than traditional applications.
What Social Betting Actually Looks Like in Practice
The definition is broad enough that it has been implemented in a variety of ways; from very superficial, to a true structure.
Some of the most common features that appeared across all types of operators throughout 2025 and 2026 were as follows:
- Bet replication (Copy Betting) / Bet Sharing – Users may be able to make their bets available for other users to “copy” with a single click. This was first used by Apps such as eToro who use this type of mechanism to create an Influencer model of betting.
- Leaderboards/ Public Performance Tracking – Ranked lists of user’s weekly or monthly profits, win percentages, etc. (or some other metric). It will help to create competitive environments and aspire to rank higher than your peers, without creating a need for the users to interact directly with one another.
- Group Challenges/Syndicate Play – A pool of money contributed by multiple users and the winnings are split among the contributors. This feature appears more frequently in Lottery-type products, but many Sportsbook and Casino-type products are starting to offer this type of format.
- Live Activity Feeds – As users place wagers or participate in live casino games, they are displayed on real-time feeds, allowing users to see who else is participating, and if desired, view details about those participants. While Live Activity feeds have been found to be effective in Crash Games and Live Casino, they add an element of excitement as you watch how others decide which wager to place next.
- Community Chat/Tipping – Chat functionality that allows users to discuss specific markets or the potential outcome(s), and/or allow users to express their opinion via emojis, tipping and/or prediction threads.
Early Data: What’s Working and What Isn’t
| Social Feature | Adoption Rate | Retention Impact | Key Risk |
| Bet sharing / copy betting | Moderate – high among U35s | Positive – creates habit loops | Responsible gambling exposure for copiers |
| Leaderboards | High – low friction to engage | Moderate positive | Can discourage casual players who don’t rank |
| Live activity feeds | High in crash / live casino | Strong positive | Privacy concerns; opt-out essential |
| Group / syndicate play | Low – high friction to organise | Strong when active | Complexity limits mass adoption |
| Community chat | Variable by platform | Neutral to positive |
Moderation cost; toxicity risk |
Bet Sharing and Live Activity Feeds show the highest level of signal at this point. They both provide an example of passively engaging the player: players that do not have active bets will continue to interact with your application through viewing other’s wagers. This provides longer sessions as well as continues the user to open the application.
Where the Experiment Goes Next
Social aspects of gaming are evolving; social elements were once considered an added value, they now represent integral components within gaming platforms being developed for the next generations of gamers.
This has led to a new question: Where do Community functions belong within Gaming Products? They belong, and they’re already in gaming products. The real issue at hand is identifying those community functionalities that result in true loyalty from their customers, versus the functionalities that produce “engagement” metrics that don’t ultimately equate to meaningful customer relationships.
In essence, the operators who successfully identify this differentiation will build a barrier that truly is difficult to duplicate by others, not a library of games or a promotional bonus structure that competitors can easily emulate but rather a community of gamers that their customers desire to participate in.