Optimove acquires Smartico

Optimove, a leading Customer-Led Marketing platform specializing in CRM marketing and customer retention, announced its acquisition of Smartico, a real-time gamification and CRM automation platform primarily serving the iGaming, sports betting, and online casino industries. The deal, reported around April 2026, represents a strategic move by Optimove to deepen its capabilities in real-time engagement, gamification mechanics, and loyalty-driven marketing automation. Smartico's technology enables operators to deploy missions, tournaments, free spins, bonuses, and other gamified experiences to drive player retention and lifetime value.

This acquisition strengthens Optimove's position in the highly competitive iGaming and regulated gambling verticals, where real-time personalization and gamification are critical differentiators for player retention. By integrating Smartico's gamification engine with Optimove's AI-driven customer segmentation and orchestration capabilities, the combined platform offers a more comprehensive retention stack that rivals point solutions from competitors such as Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Braze, and niche iGaming CRM providers. The deal reflects a broader industry trend of CRM and marketing automation platforms expanding into gamification and loyalty mechanics to increase stickiness and demonstrate measurable ROI. It also signals continued consolidation in the MarTech and AdTech space, particularly among platforms targeting regulated industries where first-party data and direct customer relationships are paramount given ongoing signal loss from third-party cookie deprecation.