a cost, a bonus and a commission Three different payments can all be acquisition spend. Cash to an advertising platform, a fixed fee to a partner, and the realised cost of a bonus all buy the same thing and belong in the same comparison.
Hold Desk / Acquisition cost
Figure 05
A customer is bought before they are known, and the price is set by the acquisition line
Every operator spends money to be seen by someone who is not yet a customer, and the acquisition cost per new customer is that spend divided by the number of customers it produced. On its own the number says nothing. Against the monthly contribution of a customer it sets the whole economics of a business: how long someone has to stay for the money spent on them to come back.
Figure stub
- Sheet
- HD-58-06
- Subject
- Acquisition
- In the sample
- £55.00 per customer
- Marketing line
- £1,100,000
gross winWhat was kept: everything staked minus everything returned to players
the holdThe gross win divided by turnover, measured over a period and a whole book of play
net revenueWhat survives the bonus line, and the definition a reader should check first
Direct answerAcquisition cost per customer is the marketing and inducement spend in a period divided by the number of customers acquired in it. Gambling acquisition spend includes advertising, paid placements, affiliate commission and the expected cost of the welcome bonus, which is why the line is larger than an advertising budget alone.
A division, not a priceBonus is acquisition spendCounted when acquiredMeaningless alone
What goes into the line
- Advertising that is paid for. Paid search, display, social placements, sponsorship and streaming: anything bought to put a brand in front of someone who was not looking for it.
- Paid referral and partner commission. Where a partner is paid for a customer they introduced - whether by a fixed fee per customer or by a share of the revenue that customer produces afterwards - the payment is acquisition spend, and its shape differs. The payback page shows why the share-of-revenue form moves the risk.
- The expected cost of the welcome offer. A bonus is granted to acquire and retain, and only the part that is converted and withdrawn is a cash cost. The realistic share of it belongs on this line rather than on a separate one, which is the bonus page.
- Divided by customers acquired in the period. The denominator is a count of new customers, not of visits, registrations or deposits. Which of those was counted changes the figure in exactly the way the previous page described.
Worked example - the sample operator's acquisition cost (illustrative)
Marketing and inducement spend, month: 1,100,000.00
New customers acquired in the month: 20,000
Acquisition cost per customer: 1,100,000.00 / 20,000 = 55.00
For context, the same month's other per-customer figures:
gross win per active customer: 4,000,000.00 / 500,000 = 8.00
net revenue per active customer: 3,400,000.00 / 500,000 = 6.80
marketing per active customer: 1,100,000.00 / 500,000 = 2.20
Acquisition cost per NEW customer (55.00) and marketing spend per ACTIVE customer (2.20) are two
different figures with similar names. Both are real; only the first is the price of a customer.
Why the number is compared with a month
A price is only meaningful against what is bought. Here, what is bought is a stream of months: the contribution an average customer produces for as long as they remain a customer. Dividing the acquisition cost by that monthly contribution gives the number of months the customer has to stay to repay it, and that is the comparison an operator actually manages.
Pay per acquisition
A fixed sum per customer introduced. The cost is known at the moment of acquisition and the risk of a customer who leaves immediately sits with the operator.
Share of revenue
A percentage of what the customer goes on to produce. Nothing is paid for a customer who never plays, and the partner carries the risk instead.
Both, with a floor
A fixed sum topped up by a share, or a share with a guaranteed minimum. The two forms are usually mixed deliberately to move part of the retention risk away from the operator.
one
two
counted when acquired Acquisition spend has no revenue to match it yet. A customer acquired in December may contribute nothing until January, which is why an acquisition-led growth period can show a falling profit while the business is behaving as intended.
three
not a customer's own money The figure is the operator's cost, not a customer's loss. Nothing here says what any individual spent; it says what the business paid to be in front of them. The contribution side of the comparison is on the customer page.
The honest version of the claim. "It costs £55 to acquire a customer" means the acquisition line of one month divided by the number of customers acquired in it. Change the month, the definition of acquired, or whether the welcome bonus is included on the line, and the figure moves - so the number is only worth comparing with another that was built the same way, and only ever against the months of contribution it has to repay.