Sometimes, speedrunning our way into an experience without a purpose feels like wasted time. Not everything is worth the relaxation that it entails. It’s even more apparent when you see that having to deal with the process is not as interesting as the reward that you’d like.
When the stakes are low or non-existent, and the loop itself is not gratifying in any way, there are two main things that generally drive us: competitiveness or boredom. How many times have you felt like going as hard as you can just because you had nothing else to do?
There are cases when competition can be overbearing. It’s not something that everyone of us has within them, but it’s something that can turn up with the right activators. Some of us, especially those with a rather mercenary mentality, need to see a prize at the end of the sequence.
With all these meditations in mind, it’s time to speak about our premise: leaderboards provide the setting for boosted competitiveness in iGaming. Since it’s a field that doesn’t really deal with this kind of signifier, some explanations are due.
In this article, we will talk about leaderboards, their applications in online gambling, and why they can make us be even more involved than usual!
When and how can you find leaderboards?
In our society, leaderboards are almost everywhere. You have the sports tables that turn leagues into season-long events that build toward the status of champion. You have KPIs that showcase performance within a work setting. Even video games have the same situation in their midst.
But how about online gambling? Isn’t the idea of sports betting just about navigating the odds, making correct picks, and getting a financial reward for it? Aren’t slots just a way of passing the time, enjoying the anticipation, and maybe winning a prize that makes you happy?
Well, at their core, these gambling activities are exactly what the questions suggest they are. However, the industry does not sleep, nor does it want to work in the same way until the shtick gets old, obsolete, and, finally, unprofitable.
We raise you casino tournaments, which pit you against other players in measuring your luck! In some cases, it’s not 100% luck, but the core idea remains to compete.
The interesting part? There are leaderboards that not only make things more visible, but they are also the signifiers of movement and drive that we’ve presented in the introduction of this article.
Explaining casino tournaments
Tournaments, generally, are more of a thing that you see in the casino gaming side of things rather than sports betting.
The reason is that sportsbook-related prestige generally comes from a track record accumulated over a longer time. Consistent winnings via correct processes (or luck) are the actual metric that creates the competitiveness among sharp bettors.
On the other side, that of casino games, you see all kinds of tourneys. The most famous ones are, most definitely, poker tournaments. We see and follow them in the pro circuits, especially given that poker requires a combination of luck, mathematical, and social skills.
But it’s not all about waiting games and so on. We’re also seeing the emergence of slot tournaments, which are as simple as they get, but they also use the leaderboards that make up our premise.
The fascinating part is that some require money to play in them, while others do not. Moreover, the core mechanic is to spin and, based on the rules of that competition, obtain points that drive you to the top of a ranking. The winners are those who place high enough to get a proportional amount of the prize pool.
Beyond that, there is a crease in this model that is very fascinating to us: free slots tournaments, which are set-ups that rely very much on psychological features like competitiveness.
Is there value in competing in free-to-play competitions as well?
Yes, there is. On a practical side, these tournaments can generate real money winnings via the prizes that sponsors, for example, can guarantee. Their value may not be as much, but the experience of going for it, knowing there’s a possible reward, is appealing, doubly so if participation is completely free of cost!
Another keystone of this model is, naturally, the drive that makes us go ahead. Any setting that makes us feel that dopamine rush because of a successful spin, but also thanks to how much it can propel us in a ranking, is a double-whammy with tremendous upside.
In the following sections, we will get into two major psychological triggers that fuse the practical reasons of competing with those that have to do with our innate drive to compete. The leaderboard, as you’ll see, is the connective tissue that gives meaning to these factors!
Social proof and the idea of succeeding
Social proof is one of the most fascinating concepts that you can run into for numerous reasons, and they have to do with what can drive competitiveness.
In many ways, we live our lives looking for validation, and those who succeed are a way of confirming the viability of our hope. Not necessarily that we are going to reach that point, since most of us know that our dreams are impossible in practical terms.
Rather, it’s also about the idea of living vicariously through someone, especially if we see that person succeeding at something we love. It can be weird, given the parasocial relationships that have become so prevalent, but it can also be motivating if that spirit can turn into something else that defines our lives.
Social proof is, in a way, something that works as a more commodified method of trying to achieve something we want. When we see that someone is doing something and they like it, it means that we can also like it, especially if those people extract value from it.
When you see the leaderboard, laden with the victors of that competition, and then hear about how fun it is to play in that setting, you get the sense that there’s no reason not to try it. Yes, the main motivation may be to obtain similar results, but being part of such a process is already socially proven.
Once again, the leaderboard signifies this principle in a very transparent way. Having your name on a ranking that represents winning a prize and competing with success is a great opportunity to motivate.
The prize makes a big difference
As we’ve alluded to earlier, there’s a very significant likelihood that ambiguous or abstract motivations simply don’t work.
It’s normal to expect online gambling to be the conduit through which you’re trying to win something by way of chance. We’d also argue that it’s far from a healthy mindset, especially if you’re just trying to have fun above all.
This is where any type of gambling-related competition can create a driving factor. Simply put, a leaderboard is also an analogy between your placement and a prize. You’re looking to rank high enough because, depending on your spot, a bigger slice can come your way.
That’s the smart thing about proportional prize distribution. When you shoot for the 1st place, the mission to do so can become hard really fast, especially if the difference feels insurmountable.
However, when you know that you can receive something worthwhile even if you don’t win, the prize becomes the motivation to go forward. Competitiveness becomes a way of being pragmatic about your chances, and the leaderboard is a signifier of that!
Conclusion
That’s how the story of it goes, and the conclusion is that leaderboards have an effect that fits very well with the stimuli that can make gambling a bit more engaging. The default state of this activity can be fun by itself, but adding another layer can really improve it.
To finalize the entire discussion, we’d like to remind you that competitiveness can always turn overbearing, if not toxic. Don’t let this get to your head, especially given that you should gamble responsibly!
