Casino Operator Performance Metrics TOP-10

The right metrics turn disparate data from payments, gaming, marketing and compliance into a common management language. Below are the ten KPIs without which P&L, risk and growth cannot be managed. For each metric: what measures, formula, benchmarks and what to do to improve.

1) GGR/NGR (gross and net gaming income)

What they measure: income "before" and "after" operating write-offs.

Formulas:

GGR = Handle − Player Payouts = Handle × (1 − RTP)
NGR = GGR − bonuses − royalties to providers − payments − taxes on the game (gaming tax) − jackpot deductions
Benchmarks: NGR/GGR (take-rate) in online casinos is often 45-70% depending on the market.
How to improve: clean Bonus Cost, optimize royalties/mix content, reduce Payment Cost and FX, add local methods.

2) EBITDA margin (based on NGR)

What measures: operational efficiency after marketing and OPEX.

Formula: EBITDA/NGR.

Benchmarks: online 25-45% at mature scale; IR (offline) is lower due to CAPEX/fixed costs.

How to improve: promo discipline, support/financial automation, infrastructure SLO (minimum downtime = less missed GGR).

3) Retention D7/D30/D90

What measures: return, LTV base.

Formula: Proportion of Cohort D0 users returning to pay/bid D7/D30/D90.

Benchmarks: for paying Retention D30 ≥ 25-35% - a good level in the casino; below are the value/UX issues.

How to improve: Missions and seasons instead of one-off bonuses, instant payouts, personal limits and "healthy pauses" (RGs) - this increases trust and returns.

4) LTV / CAC

What measures: marketing payback.

Formulas:

LTV ≈ ARPPU × margin after bonuses/payments × life expectancy (months)
LTV/CAC ≥ 2 × - minimally healthy, ≥3× - good.
How to improve: more repeated deposits (quick conclusions, Approval Rate), accurate targeting of bonuses (iLTV, not "all in a row"), rejection of ineffective channels.

5) Bonus Cost % of GGR

What measures: Margin "eater" # 1.

Formula: (fact. cost of bonuses/GGR) × 100% (taking into account breakage and provider/tax rules).

Benchmarks: 10-18% GGR by market;> 20% anxiety.

How to improve: non-stocking promotions, cap bets/volatility on bonus funds, list of excluded games, two-stage bonuses with "unlock" for targeted actions.

6) Approval Rate (Deposits/Withdrawals) и Time-to-Payout

What they measure: friction in payments is the main driver of Handle and trust.

Formulas:

Approval Rate (deposits) = approved/attempted
Time-to-Payout = p95 time from withdrawal request to enrollment
Benchmarks: deposits ≥ 85-90% according to local methods; output p95 <2-4 h (VIP - minutes).
How to improve: PSP cascades, local methods, antichargeback rules, KYC pre-authorization, limit checking automation.

7) PF-coverage (Readily-Fair/transparency mechanic)

What measures: the share of games/events with verifiable integrity artifacts (commit revil, signed odds tables, merkly distributions).

Formula: Games/events with PF/all active × 100%.

Why it matters: raises CR, reduces complaints/disputes, opens "strict" advertising channels.

Benchmarks: moving to 100% in the slot/tournament lineup.

How to improve: standardize PF artifacts and bring an "honesty panel" to UI.

8) RG-compliance score

What measures: the share of sessions in the "healthy" mode and compliance with the limits.

Components:% of players with active limits, share of sessions with pause/cool-off, complaints/1000 sessions, response time to RG requests.

Why it matters: access to "white" channels, reducing regulatory risk and chargeback/refund.

How to improve: onboarding with setting limits, on-device recommendations to "pause," quick processing of requests.

9) Fraud-Blocked Rate / Abuse Rate

What they measure: margin leaks due to multi-accounts, bonus hunt, payment schemes.

Formulas:

Fraud-Blocked = blocked fraudulent attempts/all attempts
Abuse Rate = canceled/withdrawn bonuses by rules/all activated
Landmarks: dynamics are important: the growth of locks when false positives fall.
How to improve: graph analytics, device/payment binding, velocity limits, honeypot offers for catching abusers.

10) Ops-SLO: Critical Services Uptime and Error Budget

What they measure: technical stability of income.

Formulas:

Uptime (matchmaker availability hours, payments, content providers)
Error budget = 1 − SLO
Benchmarks: Payments and Gaming Sessions - SLO 99. 9%+; provider delay -
How to improve: asset-asset by region, retray/idempotency, chaos tests, alerts by business metrics (GGR/min) and not just by CPU.

Additional metrics that are often underestimated

GGR/Active and ARPPU are the "speed" of monetization.

Provider Share% GGR - cost of content (and reason for negotiation).

Payment Cost% Handle - hidden sales tax.

Chargeback/Refund Rate - indicator of confidence and quality of support.

VIP share of GGR/Time-to-Payout VIP - health of the "right tail."

Mini dashboard (how to combine it on one screen)

1. Earnings: Handle, GGR, NGR, NGR/GGR%

2. Маржа: EBITDA, EBITDA/NGR%, Bonus Cost%, Provider Share%, Payment Cost%.

3. Рост: D7/D30 Retention, LTV/CAC, ARPPU, Payer Conversion.

4. Платежи: Approval Rate (dep/withd), Time-to-Payout p95, Chargeback Rate.

5. Trust: PF-coverage, RG-score, Complaints/1k sessions.

6. Risk/technique: Fraud-Blocked, Error budget, Uptime payments/providers.

Frequent traps and how to avoid them

Consider "all LTV" as a promo effect. Count iLTV and keep holdout control.

Chase GMV/Handle without retching. Without Retention and Approval Rate, turnover growth turns into cost growth.

Hide bonus rules and PF. Opacity increases complaints, chargeback and CAC.

Do not separate game/payments/marketing with data. We need role segregation, otherwise leaks and compliance risk are growing.

Quick improvement levers (in order of return)

1. Payments: add local methods and cascades PSP → + Approval Rate, − Payment Cost.

2. Bonuses: remove stacking, enter sars and "unlock missions" → − Bonus Cost% when saving Retention.

3. Content mix: volatility balance and jackpots with transparent mechanics are → more stable than cash flow.

4. Payments: SLAs and p95 targets (especially VIPs) → an increase in trust and repeated deposits.

5. PF&RG in UI: "honesty panel" and default limits → fewer complaints, more "white" channels.

6. Ops-SLO: alert for GGR/min drops, not only for servers → faster than TTR and less lost revenue.

The efficiency of the casino operator is based on ten "pillars": NGR and EBITDA, Retention and LTV/CAC, bonus mode, payments, honesty and responsibility, anti-fraud and technical stability. Measure them with the same logic, set thresholds, associate with bonus and payment policies - and each point of improvement will begin to linearly turn into profit, and not into noise on the dashboard.