Just games or something more? iGaming super app potential
Despite being a relatively young industry, iGaming has already established itself as resilient to change and highly successful. Projects in this field are global businesses with revenues comparable to those of major e-commerce platforms. The entertainment sector remains relevant, as evidenced by its year-over-year growth. Against this backdrop of success, new ideas are emerging: What if gaming and other services are combined? Can an iGaming site become a super-app?
A super-app is not just an application with a set of functions but an ecosystem where users can solve various tasks without switching between platforms. The key factor in creating such products is the high frequency of use of the core service (which is relevant for gaming) plus a robust payment infrastructure that will serve as the foundation for adding new services.
Players are social, and the experience of many sites has already proven the value of community development. But can this trend go even further?
Today, we release a reflective article based solely on our experience and available data.
Can iGaming Business Become a Super-App?
In theory, it’s definitely possible, but in practice, the idea faces a number of challenges, despite some movement in this direction from individual brands.
The frequency of use in iGaming, while different from services like taxis or food delivery (as it’s not a daily necessity for most users), is still quite high. Active players may visit the platform several times a day, while less engaged users might do so 2-4 times a week with clear peak periods. This creates ample opportunities for promoting new related services.
What services could these be? One might say the window for imagination is open, but not entirely. The gaming industry has its nuances to consider: for example, regulatory barriers that strictly limit the operator’s activities. Small entertainment features are usually OK, but launching a full-fledged fintech service or streaming platform based on a casino could be problematic in certain countries. Authorities aim to control gaming operators and keep their activities strictly in line with expectations; otherwise, popularity could grow so rapidly that it becomes difficult to manage the consequences.
Additionally, the economics of an “all-in-one” business require significant investments in infrastructure and development. For example, the Chinese super-app WeCha was built during more than 10 years, and its counterparts Grab and Gojek (also from Asia) attracted billions in venture capital. Most iGaming operators work with different budgets (though also substantial) and focus on optimizing their core business: content, retention, and player acquisition costs. Not all opportunities for expanding functionality even reach implementation, let alone additional aspects.
From the perspective of payment infrastructure, operators actually have an advantage: many truly successful companies pay special attention to this and refine their payment flows to near perfection (or as close as possible). Thanks to high-quality payment pathways, they can not only ensure high user conversion but also build trust in their brand. This is already the first building block for creating something bigger. By the way, Monoup helps businesses achieve precisely this: improving payment structure, building a working payment system, and maximizing its efficiency.
Gaming + Social + Entertainment: Can It Work?
If we consider the potential of an iGaming super-app, what could be relevant? One direction for the development of iGaming platforms is the addition of a social layer, transforming the gaming experience from an individual activity into a shared one. Such implementations already exist in the market and, frankly, are not new.
The company Livespins has long offered the Bet Behind feature, where viewers place bets along with the streamer in real time. This changes the approach from simply watching the streamer’s actions to participating in the same game round. It creates a sense of shared experience despite the physical separation of players.
The well-known SOFTSWISS launched Player Chat with room divisions in 2025. Nicknames, avatars, emojis, stickers, and an integrated message translation system are available. Moderation tools, polls, quizzes, and the ability to send marketing offers in the chat are also implemented. Active participants even receive badges. Essentially, it’s an attempt to turn the platform from a place for betting into a place for communication around betting. Player socialization reaches a new level, and they no longer need to look for chats or forums to discuss their gaming experience. It’s a known fact that players spend time not only on betting but also on watching matches, streams, and discussing events. If an operator captures all this time, they gain a significant advantage in retention. This is no longer just a hypothetical scenario but a real practice.
Watching videos, discussing the results of sports events, or game outcomes can become the key to community development and increased loyalty.
Lessons from the Asian Market
The most successful super-apps have emerged in densely populated Asian countries, where, in addition to a large number of clients, there is also significant competition. To retain users, applications had to transform and offer more functions, addressing needs that could be adjacent to their core activities.
The flagship Chinese project WeChat started in 2011 as a messenger and now has 1.3 billion monthly active users, 80% of whom use the platform not just for communication. WeChat Pay, shopping, mini-programs (a range of third-party applications within the ecosystem), taxis, food delivery, airline tickets, banking services, investments, insurance, and government services from paying fines to making doctor’s appointments and obtaining documents — all this has turned it into an indispensable life tool. Users literally spend weeks without leaving the app. Although monopolistic advantages played a role in its success (there’s no Facebook or Google in China), the key was starting with a daily necessity service and adding a payment layer as the foundation for everything else.
Grab (Singapore) launched in 2012 as a taxi service and later added GrabFood, GrabMart, GrabPay, insurance, microloans for small businesses, and hotel bookings. Now, Grab is the largest financial infrastructure in Southeast Asia.
Gojek from Indonesia started in 2010 as a motorcycle taxi — a solution to Jakarta’s traffic problems. Later, they added GoPay, GoFood, GoSend, healthcare, and more than 20 other services. The same formula was used: high frequency of use, payments, and a population with limited access to banking. Gojek became a bank for those without access to traditional financial services.
The common pattern for the success of super-apps is usually the same: they started with one high-quality, essential service, then added related services, expanding horizontally.
In the case of iGaming, if an operator thinks platform-wise rather than point-wise, is ready to invest in the long-term development of the ecosystem, and can navigate regulatory restrictions, transformation is potentially possible. The goal is to create not just a casino or bookmaker but a digital lifestyle hub for a specific audience.
Undoubtedly, the question here is not about technical feasibility but about the business plan and goal of building something more. Operators mainly expand into B2B, offering platforms, anti-fraud services, and payment systems to their competitors (monetizing what they’ve built for themselves), but they rarely look at the B2C audience and opportunities to work with it. Most try to cover the market with their technical solutions to control competitive products and use market insights for their own promotion. The super-app approach is quite different and requires a shift in mindset — with the user, the player, at the center. Will we see a successful implementation of this strategy in the modern iGaming industry? The question remains open, but it will certainly be interesting to watch.
On the path to becoming a super-app, as we’ve written before, the most crucial aspect is your payment infrastructure. To build or improve payment flows on your website, contact us via email or Telegram.
