iGaming glossary

Straight definitions of the terms used in online betting and casino operations: GGR, NGR, white label, PAM, revshare, KYC, PIX, and more.

40 terms

Metrics

ARPU (Average Revenue Per User): ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) is the average revenue generated per player over a period, calculated by dividing total NGR by the number of players counted in the base, and the most consequential decision in that calculation is whether the base is the full registered player count or only the players active in the period — the gap between the two can completely mask the operation's real health.
Churn (Customer Churn Rate): Churn (Customer Churn Rate) is the percentage of players who stop being active in an operation within a given period, calculated by dividing the number of players lost by the total active players at the start of the period, and in iGaming — where there is no explicit cancellation the way there is with a subscription — that loss is defined by an inactivity window with no deposit or session.
Conversion Rate: Conversion rate is the percentage of users who move from one stage to the next inside a betting operator's acquisition funnel — from visitor to registration, from registration to first deposit (FTD), and from FTD to recurring player — used to pinpoint exactly where the operation is losing the most players.
GGR (Gross Gaming Revenue): GGR (Gross Gaming Revenue) is the amount a betting operation keeps before any deductions, calculated as the total amount wagered by players minus the total paid out in prizes. It is the metric that shows the true scale of a betting operation before deducting bonuses, commissions, payment fees, and the platform's revenue share.
LTV (Lifetime Value): LTV (Lifetime Value) is the net revenue a player generates for an operation over the entire time they remain active, calculated by multiplying average monthly ARPU by the player's average lifetime in months, and it is the metric that sets the ceiling on how much an operator can profitably spend to acquire each new player.
NGR (Net Gaming Revenue): NGR (Net Gaming Revenue) is what remains of a betting operation's revenue after deducting the costs tied to generating it, calculated by subtracting from GGR the bonuses granted to players, affiliate commissions, payment fees, and the platform's revenue share.
Retention (Player Retention Rate): Retention (Player Retention Rate) is the percentage of players from the same signup cohort who remain active at defined time milestones after registration, such as D1, D7, and D30, and it is the metric that directly measures whether an operation keeps players coming back after the first contact, rather than only measuring how many were lost.
ROI (Return on Investment): ROI (Return on Investment) is the percentage return earned on an amount invested in player acquisition, calculated as the return minus the investment divided by the investment, and the decision that most distorts this number in iGaming is whether the return counted is the GGR generated by the players or the NGR — the gap between the two can nearly triple the apparent ROI of a campaign or an affiliate.

Finance

Chargeback: A chargeback is a formal dispute of a payment transaction filed by the cardholder or account holder with the financial institution that processed it, which can result in the funds being reversed to the payer — a mechanism common with credit cards and structurally different with PIX, where there is no automatic dispute-driven reversal.
Payment gateway: A payment gateway is the system that technically processes a transaction between the player and the financial system, generating the charge, communicating with the acquirer or PSP, and confirming receipt — the intermediary layer every betting operator needs to accept PIX, cards, and other payment methods.
PIX (Brazil's Instant Payment System): PIX is Brazil's instant payment system, created and operated by the Central Bank of Brazil (Banco Central do Brasil), enabling transfers and payments to settle in seconds, 24 hours a day including weekends and holidays, and it is today the dominant deposit and withdrawal method for online betting operators in Brazil because it is free for the player and faster than card or bank slip payments.
Revenue share: Revenue share is the pricing model in which the iGaming platform provider receives a percentage of the operator's gaming revenue instead of a fixed monthly fee, so the amount paid is proportional to how the operation performs.

Regulation

AML (Anti-Money Laundering): AML (Anti-Money Laundering) is the set of controls a betting operator uses to monitor transactions, flag suspicious patterns, and report atypical operations to Brazil's financial intelligence unit, COAF, under Law No. 9,613/1998, Article 25 of Law No. 14,790/2023, and SPA/MF Ordinance No. 1,143/2024 — the regulatory counterpart that acts after KYC has already confirmed a player's identity.
Betting License (Brazil): A betting license in Brazil is the federal authorization issued by the SPA/Ministry of Finance under Law No. 14,790/2023, granted for a 5-year term on payment of a R$30 million license fee (R$ is the Brazilian real), covering up to 3 commercial brands per authorization act, plus corporate, technical, and financial requirements the company must prove and sustain for the life of the operation.
KYC (Know Your Customer): KYC (Know Your Customer) is the set of procedures a betting operator uses to verify a player's identity before releasing deposits, bets, and withdrawals, confirming national ID, legal age, and authenticity through facial biometrics — a requirement under Brazil's Law No. 14,790/2023 and the SPA/Ministry of Finance ordinances that govern the regulated market.
Law No. 14,790/2023 (Brazil): Law No. 14,790/2023 is the statute that regulated fixed-odds betting in Brazil, creating the federal licensing regime run by the Secretariat of Prizes and Betting (SPA) of the Ministry of Finance and setting out the obligations on taxation, player identification, anti-money-laundering, and responsible gaming that every operation must meet.
Responsible Gaming: Responsible gaming is the set of tools and practices a betting operator offers so players can stay in control of their own betting behavior, including deposit, loss, and time limits, session alerts, and self-exclusion for a fixed or open-ended period — either with a single operator or centrally through the SPA's own platform — requirements detailed by SPA/MF Ordinance No. 1,231/2024, as amended by SPA/MF Ordinance No. 2,579/2025, under Law No. 14,790/2023.
SPA (Brazil's Betting Authority): The SPA (Secretaria de Prêmios e Apostas) is the Brazilian Ministry of Finance body responsible for authorizing, regulating, monitoring, supervising, and sanctioning fixed-odds betting operators, applying Law No. 14,790/2023 and issuing the ordinances that spell out the technical, financial, and conduct requirements the sector must meet.

Product

Bonus: A bonus, in online betting, is the promotional credit an operator offers — welcome, reload, or no-deposit — that sits in a separate bonus balance from the player's real balance and only converts into withdrawable cash once the player clears the wagering requirement (rollover) set by the offer.
Cashback: Cashback is the return of a percentage of a player's net losses over a set period, usually credited as balance or as a bonus with or without rollover, and used as a retention mechanic because it softens the feeling of total loss even when the player had no wins in the period.
Crash Games: Crash Games are online casino games built around a multiplier that climbs continuously from 1x and can break (crash) at any instant, requiring the player to cash out before the break to collect the prize; the category includes titles such as Aviator, Spaceman, and JetX and has become one of the most popular formats in Brazil's online betting market.
Freebet: A freebet is a free wager granted to a player for use on a specific sports market in which, unlike a balance bonus, only the profit earned is released for withdrawal — the value of the stake itself is never returned to the player, even if the bet wins.
House Edge: House Edge is the mathematical margin built into a casino game in the operator's favor, calculated as 100% minus RTP — a game with a 96% RTP carries a 4% house edge, the share of every wager the house expects to keep on average across a large volume of rounds.
Live Casino: Live casino is the game format in which baccarat, blackjack, roulette, and other table-game classics are run by a real dealer, streamed by video from a physical studio, with the result captured through image recognition (OCR/GameID) and reflected in real time in the player's interface.
Odds: Odds are the numerical price that expresses how much a player wins per unit staked on an outcome, published in decimal, fractional, or American format, and built to embed the operator's profit margin — called the overround or vig — above the true probability of each outcome happening.
Progressive Jackpot: Progressive Jackpot is an accumulating prize that grows from a percentage of every wager placed on a game or a network of games, starting from an initial floor (the seed) until it pays out to a player (the drop), and it can be local, confined to a single operation, or networked, shared across multiple platforms.
RNG (Random Number Generator): RNG (Random Number Generator) is the algorithm that produces the outcomes of a digital casino game randomly and unpredictably, so each round is statistically independent from the last; to operate in regulated markets, an RNG must be certified by an independent testing lab that audits both its randomness and the game's declared RTP.
Rollover: Rollover is the requirement to wager an amount equal to a multiple of the bonus received before being able to withdraw any winnings tied to it — a R$ 100 bonus with a 10x rollover requires R$ 1,000 in valid bets before the withdrawal is released.
RTP (Return to Player): RTP (Return to Player) is the percentage of the amount wagered that a casino game returns to players in prizes over millions of rounds — a 96% RTP means that, in aggregate, R$ 96 of every R$ 100 wagered comes back as winnings, and the remaining 4% forms the house edge.
Slots: Slots are casino games built on spinning reels with symbols, paylines, and bonus features, where RTP and volatility together shape both the player experience and the house's margin, and which account for the largest share of casino GGR in almost every regulated market.
Sportsbook: A sportsbook is the sports-betting module of an iGaming platform, responsible for publishing odds, accepting wagers on real sporting events, and settling results — built from a live data feed, an odds engine, risk management (trading), and, in most modern products, a cash-out option before the event ends.

Acquisition

Affiliate Program: An affiliate program is the structure through which a betting operator pays external partners — content sites, influencers, communities — for referring players who register and deposit through a unique tracking link or code, with commission paid as CPA, revenue share, or a hybrid model depending on each referred player's performance.
CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost): CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost) is the average amount a betting operator spends on marketing and affiliate commissions to convert a visitor into an active player, calculated by dividing total acquisition spend by the number of new players won in a period — the core metric for judging whether the cost of bringing in players is sustainable against the value they generate.
CPA (Cost per Acquisition): CPA (Cost per Acquisition) is an affiliate payment model in which the platform pays a fixed amount for each referred player who meets contractually defined qualification criteria — typically a minimum deposit and a minimum rollover — instead of passing on a recurring percentage of the revenue that player generates.

Platform

Game aggregator: A game aggregator is the technical intermediary that brings together the catalogs of dozens of casino providers into a single integration, letting the operator access every game through one API instead of negotiating and integrating each provider separately.
iGaming: iGaming is the sector of gambling and betting conducted online — casino, sportsbook, poker and bingo — run through a technology platform that manages the player account, payments and game content in real time, distinct from physical gambling by depending entirely on regulated digital infrastructure.
PAM (Player Account Management): PAM (Player Account Management) is the core system of a betting platform that manages the player account lifecycle — registration, login, balance, KYC, and responsible-gaming limits — serving as the single source of data across casino, sportsbook, payments, and backoffice.
Seamless Wallet: Seamless Wallet is the integration model in which the player's balance stays centralized on the platform, and every bet placed with any game provider debits and credits that single balance in real time — without requiring the player to move money into a provider-specific wallet first.
Turnkey: Turnkey is an entry model into iGaming in which the operator receives a ready-to-run betting platform from a provider but takes on its own responsibilities — such as the license and direct contracts with some suppliers — in exchange for more control over the product than in white label.
White label: White label is the business model in which a provider develops the entire infrastructure of a betting and online casino platform — games, payments, compliance, and backoffice — and the operator launches it under its own brand, without building the technology in house.

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