Online casino performance indicators: GGR, NGR and other crucial metrics

Gross gaming revenue (GGR) is the total figure wagered by players, minus the amount paid out to players over a given period. Meanwhile, the net gaming revenue meaning is slightly different. The net gaming revenue (NGR) is the GGR figure minus bonuses, taxes, payment system fees, and affiliate payments. Both metrics are among the most widely used in the industry. GGR reflects gaming revenue, while NGR represents actual profit before operating expenses. The difference between GGR and NGR shows operators how much of their gross revenue remains after direct mandatory deductions.

Companies implement key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the health of their businesses.

KPIs help to assess the effectiveness of online casino management, but they require careful evaluation and must be tailored to your specific business model.

What are KPIs, and how do you use them?

A KPI is a quantifiable measure that companies use to track performance over a given period. KPIs are used in business analytics to keep track of how well the business is progressing.

Understanding the GGR meaning in casino business is essential. If your company made $120,000 in GGR last quarter, and you want to see a 3% improvement, your target KPI for next quarter is $123,600. If you’ve racked up $61,800 in gaming revenue halfway through the quarter, you’re right on target.

So, assume the sum total of all player wagers on an online casino website in the year 2025 was $37 million, and the sum total of all player winnings was $23 million. In that case, the casino’s GGR was $14 million.

This is where you can really see the advantage of aggregators. When entering a contract with a game provider independently, you’ll sign over a portion of your monthly GGR to the provider.

Players like to know they have options at their disposal, so inevitably, you’ll need content from multiple providers. However, even if the revenue share is as low as 5%, the costs can quickly balloon when signing contract after contract.

If you end up owing half your revenue to your game providers before you’ve even started to account for the other costs associated with running a business, you’re in deep trouble. With an aggregator, however, you sign a single contract — and pay a single fee — for access to thousands of games from dozens of providers.

There could be a number of different causes for a decline in GGR, and it won’t always be clear which one of them is affecting your casino’s performance. Two good starting points are bringing in more players and encouraging the ones you already have to spend more.

Employing promotions such as tournaments, jackpots, free spins, and bonuses can encourage new players to sign up and players with existing accounts to make new deposits and play — but be careful; it’s absolutely necessary to have clear and comprehensive terms and conditions to prevent bonus abuse.

NGR formula: how to calculate net gaming revenue

NGR gives a quick, neat sum-up of an online casino’s performance. The figure is more in-depth than GGR, taking a wider range of costs into account.

Here’s the formula: NGR = A - B - C - D

Where:

A = total amount wagered

B = total amount paid out

C = total of all bonuses paid out to players

D = total of all taxes paid on gaming revenue

To continue from our example ($14 million in GGR), imagine the online casino handing out $2 million in bonuses and paying $1.4 million in gaming tax. This pins the NGR at $10.6 million.

What is subtracted from GGR when calculating NGR

NGR is GGR minus bonuses, provider fees, interest, licensing fees and taxes. NGR offers a complete picture of what's happening with a business.

GGR vs. NGR

While GGR purely measures a casino’s winnings, NGR accounts for more of its expenses. GGR, or its UK equivalent gross gaming yield (GGY), is often used as a basis for taxation and for payments to platform providers and game developers. GGR and NGR are both very commonly used KPIs — and not just at the level of an individual business. GGR is used at a national, regional, and worldwide level, as well as on a product-by-product basis.

For example, regulatory bodies like the United Kingdom Gambling Commission track the industry's growth by compiling the GGR from all licensed casinos operating in the UK. The European Gaming and Betting Association tracks the size of the gambling industry within the 27-nation bloc. Data analysis firms will also measure the gross gaming revenue for specific products, such as live dealer games or sports betting.

Ultimately, NGR will be only a small fraction — such as 2% — of turnover, or the total amount that players wagered during a certain time period. The differences between GGR and NGR can be seen here:

Average revenue per user (ARPU)

Average revenue per user (ARPU) indicates how much revenue is generated by a single player in a given time period. To calculate the ARPU formula, take the casino’s total revenue for a given time period — usually a month or a year — and divide it by the number of active players during the same time period. This will show an average of how much revenue each player generates. The calculation takes into account all active players.

Customer lifetime value

Customer lifetime value (CLV), also known as lifetime value (LTV), is the total revenue a player generates while on the platform. To calculate CLV, multiply monthly ARPU by the average player lifetime.

Cross-referencing customer lifetime value by player segments can show which demographics are most likely to provide the most value to your casino. Analyzing historical CLV can help predict future CLV, enabling you to plan retention strategies.

For a full evaluation of your marketing strategy, CLV can be compared with CPA. Stack up the cost of acquiring a new player and the value a player brings; you can’t be spending more on getting players than they’re spending on slots or sports betting.

If it seems that CLV is slipping, you should look at both how much players are spending and how long they’re staying on your platform.

It’s critical to track and analyze player behavior data to develop your growth strategies and develop new solutions. Online casino KPIs, like the ones detailed above, give online casino operators the different lenses they need to see a clear picture of how their business is doing.

Money-related KPIs

These KPIs will help you take a cold, hard look at your balance sheet. GGR and NGR are just the beginning of a long list of KPIs that online casinos use to measure their performance.

Bets-to-deposits

When looking at the total amount players deposit into the platform, how much do they actually bet? Deposits alone don’t do much for your balance sheet; players should be putting their money on the line.

NGR-to-deposits

NGR-to-deposits represents the percentage of player deposits that turns into revenue for the casino. Ultimately, only a small percentage of turnover becomes NGR, so players need to bet as much as possible. This allows you to gauge how much of their deposits players are wagering.

Analyzing NGR-to-deposits and bets-to-deposits can tell you how much incentive you’re giving players to follow through and make their wagers once they’ve set up their account. In a way, it’s similar to an e-commerce website trying to figure out why shoppers are putting items in their cart and then abandoning them before checkout.

People-related KPIs

From marketing and advertising, to how long player loyalty lasts, these KPIs are used to examine how users interact with your platform.

Conversions

Conversion rate compares the number of users who could have performed a target action with the number that actually completed it.

For example, you can compare the number of people who received an email with a call to action (CTA) in it with the number who clicked on it. Doing so across many email campaigns would reveal how effective your email messaging strategies are, allowing you to stick to what works and abandon what doesn’t.

Breaking down the customer journey can help you find the weak links in the chain. Starting with the moment that players first become aware of your brand — for example, by seeing an advertisement on an affiliate site — you should map their progress towards becoming a loyal, long-term VIP player.

Conversion: visitors to signups

Of all the potential new players who view your site, how many sign up and create an account? Looking at the conversion rate for this stage of the customer journey can indicate whether you need to improve your bonus offers or other promotions to entice visitors to sign up.

Conversion: signups to deposits

Of all the players who sign up and create an account, how many follow through and make a deposit? If there’s a disconnect between sign-ups and deposits, for example, it could be time for a better sign-up bonus.

If players register but don't make a deposit, you need to investigate the underlying causes: perhaps there aren't enough payment methods, the registration form isn't comprehensive, or the welcome bonus isn't appealing enough.

Retention and churn rate

Once users are converted into depositing players, how long do they stay? Retention is normally measured over a specific time period. You might track the average 3-, 6-, and 12-month retention rates to get an idea of how long players tend to stay on your platform before leaving.

Every market is different. Players around the world have their own game preferences, budgets, and respond differently to promotion campaigns.

Analyzing churn rate can not only help design or improve retention strategies, but also indicate potential bonus abuse — players who churn immediately after they’ve satisfied rollover requirements may be bonus hunters; if too many of your signups behave in this way, you may need to rethink your bonus strategy.

There’s no single fix for a drop-off in retention, but it does indicate that something is wrong. A high churn rate can indicate player dissatisfaction, increased competition, insufficient game offerings, or other deficiencies.

Online casinos normally keep detailed statistics on players’ interactions with the site and can closely analyze each player’s behavior, including deposit amounts and frequency. You can use this analysis to reduce the churn rate.

Successful casinos find ways to turn casual, one-off visitors into loyal, long-term players. One of the most common — and most effective — methods is VIP programs, where players earn perks, rewards, and improved personal customer service as they demonstrate their loyalty with sizable, consistent deposits. In this model, the casino becomes more valuable to the player over time, and vice versa.

There are other ways to combat churn and improve retention. Adding new game releases to the site’s portfolio — and promoting them by placing them front and center on the casino’s main page — can increase player interest. Casinos can also offer other promotions, such as tournaments, and increase player contact through SMS marketing.

Monthly active users (MAU) and daily active users (DAU)

These two KPIs are fairly straightforward, tracking how many players are active in your casino in a given day or month.

Average session length per user

This is the average time players spend on your platform per session.

Obviously, the longer, the better. Declining average session length could indicate that you need to refresh your gaming catalog with new titles or products. Average session length could also be cross-referenced with game preferences to indicate which game types promote longer playing sessions.

Other factors

These KPIs are important, but they provide a partial picture of the business only. In the annual reports of most iGaming brands, you'll see "revenue" at the top of the P&L report, "gaming taxes" and "other sales expenses" below, and gross profit at the bottom. To accurately assess the success of an online casino, you need to consider operating costs, asset depreciation, salaries, and other factors. You can read more about online casino financial statements in the article on the topic.

How can Slotegrator help?

Starting an online casino is a daunting challenge with the potential for great rewards — if the business is properly managed. A huge part of effective management is making well-informed decisions based on careful analysis of accurate information.

With over a decade of experience launching successful online casino and sportsbook projects, Slotegrator knows the iGaming business inside and out. Our Turnkey solution offers several modules for effective management of an online casino, among them an AI BI module that not only allows you to collect and analyze data from the platform, but also enables anonymous, confidential comparison of your statistics with the relevant projects of competitors in a chosen region.

Reach out to our sales staff for a free consultation and find out what our platform software can do for you.