The iGaming industry has spent the better part of a decade chasing growth through acquisition. Bigger bonuses, higher CPAs, flashier onboarding funnels. But as 2026 approaches, a quiet reckoning is underway.
This week, Blokotech and K2 Digital, the digital arm of the Key2 Group, announced a strategic partnership that may signal a structural shift in how operators think about player value. At the centre of the collaboration is StickyPlay, a gamification suite positioned not as another promotional gimmick, but as a margin-protection engine.
If the last cycle was about growth at any cost, the next may be about survival through efficiency.
The “Efficiency Crisis” Facing Operators in 2026
Behind the announcement lies a simple but uncomfortable truth: customer acquisition costs are climbing, while Lifetime Value (LTV) is under pressure.
In saturated regulated markets across Europe and increasingly competitive grey markets elsewhere, operators report:
- Escalating CPAs driven by affiliate inflation and paid media competition
- Shorter player lifecycles
- Bonus abuse and arbitrage behaviour
- Diminishing incremental returns from traditional welcome offers
The economics are tightening. When CPAs rise faster than LTV, scale becomes expensive rather than profitable.
StickyPlay is being positioned as a corrective layer – an engagement framework designed to convert cost into entertainment, and entertainment into loyalty.
What StickyPlay Actually Changes
StickyPlay is not a casino platform or a content provider. It is a gamification overlay integrated into an operator’s ecosystem, introducing mechanics such as:
- Plinko-style risk/reward challenges
- LuckyWheel reward mechanics
- Score-based competitive modules like ScoreKing
- Social and leaderboard features
The concept is simple: instead of giving away static bonuses, operators introduce skill-light, entertainment-driven micro-experiences that reward participation, competition and consistency.
According to data shared around the launch, operators integrating StickyPlay report structural bonus savings between 8% and 10% of Gross Gaming Revenue. In a low-margin environment, that figure is not trivial.
But beyond the savings, the strategic value lies elsewhere.
From Transactional Players to Community Participants
For years, bonuses have been treated as necessary friction in the acquisition funnel. Offer €500, attach wagering requirements, hope for stickiness. The flaw is obvious: monetary incentives attract monetary behaviour.
StickyPlay shifts the incentive from cash to status and interaction.
Salvatore Messina, Co-Founder and CEO of Blokotech, framed the move as part of a broader philosophical shift in iGaming:
“Technology must create a healthier, more sustainable gaming environment. Millennials and Gen Z expect fast-paced, socially validated experiences. StickyPlay responds to that.”
This is not just generational rhetoric. Younger players, raised on mobile gaming and social platforms, respond to progression mechanics, badges, rankings and competitive feedback loops.
The industry is, in effect, borrowing from the playbook of free-to-play mobile gaming – an ecosystem that mastered retention long before iGaming caught up.
Why Blokotech Is the Logical Distribution Partner
Founded in 2022, Blokotech has positioned itself as a modular platform provider through its Bloko infrastructure – built to offer configurable tools across jurisdictions.
Distribution is where this partnership becomes strategic. K2 Digital created StickyPlay, but scaling a gamification layer requires integration flexibility and market reach.
Blokotech’s platform-first model allows StickyPlay to be embedded as a technology layer rather than a bolt-on experiment. For operators already using Bloko, adoption becomes operationally feasible rather than disruptive.
In practical terms, this lowers integration friction – often the silent killer of promising retention tools.
Solving the “Bonus Paradox”
Marco Gatti, General Manager of K2, described the industry’s dilemma succinctly: operators spend aggressively to acquire users who frequently churn within 48 hours.
This “bonus paradox” has defined the post-regulation era. Heavy upfront incentives attract players who optimise for value extraction rather than entertainment.
StickyPlay attempts to invert the equation:
- Reward engagement over deposits
- Encourage community participation
- Create recurring interaction loops
The goal is behavioural anchoring—making players return not for monetary extraction, but for progression, competition and recognition.
If successful, this approach could reduce dependency on headline-grabbing welcome offers and instead strengthen long-term monetisation curves.
The Bigger Strategic Implication
This partnership reflects a broader recalibration in iGaming.
Regulators are tightening promotional rules. Affiliate costs remain volatile. Compliance burdens continue to rise. In this environment, operators cannot simply “outspend” competition.
Retention technology is becoming as critical as content aggregation or payment infrastructure.
Gamification, once dismissed as cosmetic, is being repositioned as core infrastructure – part of a margin defence strategy rather than a marketing accessory.
The Blokotech–K2 Digital alliance suggests that 2026 may be less about explosive top-line growth and more about disciplined optimisation.
And in a market entering maturity, that might be the more sustainable path forward.
Why This Matters Now
For operators:
- Reducing bonus dependency protects EBITDA.
- Gamified ecosystems build community stickiness.
- Engagement-first strategies align with regulatory scrutiny on aggressive incentives.
For the industry:
- Retention technology is moving from optional to essential.
- The definition of competitive advantage is shifting from spend power to engagement intelligence.
Blokotech and K2 Digital are not merely launching a distribution agreement. They are betting that the next phase of iGaming will be won by operators who entertain smarter – not just pay more.
Whether StickyPlay becomes a category standard remains to be seen. But the direction of travel is clear: the era of acquisition-at-all-costs is ending.
And retention is no longer a department – it is strategy.
