James Higgs, Platform Manager at Greco, discusses one of the most persistent challenges facing iGaming operators today: bonus abuse. What appears to be routine promotional activity can quietly inflate acquisition costs, distort marketing data, and erode campaign profitability as abuse tactics grow more sophisticated.
Greco is a gameplay risk intelligence company specializing in bonus abuse prevention. Supporting over 40 operators across five continents, the platform helps detect organized abuse patterns before they impact performance.
In this CasinoRank interview, James explains how behavioral intelligence and real-time value modeling help operators protect promotional budgets while maintaining a fair and seamless player experience.
Why is bonus abuse such a persistent challenge in the iGaming industry, and how has it evolved over the past decade?
James Higgs: Bonus abuse remains persistent because incentives are central to player acquisition and retention strategies. Over the past decade, abuse has evolved from isolated, manual exploitation into highly organized and data-driven activity.
Today, operators face coordinated groups using automation, VPNs, device farms, and optimized betting strategies across multiple brands. As promotional strategies become more sophisticated within an increasingly SaaS-driven iGaming ecosystem, abuse methods adapt just as quickly, making reactive controls increasingly ineffective.
How does TheGreco’s platform proactively detect patterns of bonus abuse before they impact operations?
James Higgs: The Greco focuses on behavioral intelligence rather than isolated data points. The platform analyzes gameplay behavior, bonus usage, wagering patterns, and calculates the True Value of players and bonuses in real time.
As the wider iGaming ecosystem becomes more infrastructure-driven, infrastructure scalability is helping operators expand across multiple brands and markets, which means that risk management layers must evolve in parallel.
When wagering requirements, promotional mechanics, and bonus conversion behavior are analyzed together, abuse signals surface sooner. This allows operators to intervene before bonuses are fully exploited, protecting campaigns without disrupting operations.
From your experience, what are the most common types of bonus abuse that operators encounter, and why are they difficult to prevent?
James Higgs: The most common abuse types vary quite a lot by market, operator or even by promotion.
Bonus abusers tend to adapt their strategies to extract the best value they can from each bonus, this variability in the strategies used is what makes them so difficult to prevent.
How does tackling bonus abuse improve operational marketing efficiency and reduce costs for iGaming operators?
James Higgs: Effective bonus abuse prevention ensures that promotional spend reaches genuine players rather than professional abusers. This reduces bonus leakage, improves campaign ROI, and produces more accurate performance data.
With cleaner insights, marketing teams can optimise campaigns based on its True Value, ultimately lowering costs and increasing long-term profitability.
What role do teams play behind the platform, from research to data analysis, in maintaining effective bonus abuse prevention?
James Higgs: Behind TheGreco’s technology is a dedicated team of researchers, data analysts, and iGaming specialists who continuously monitor emerging abuse patterns.
Their expertise feeds directly into detection models and platform improvements, ensuring the system adapts to new tactics, market behaviors, and evolving regulatory standards.
This combination of technology and human intelligence is key to staying ahead of professional abuse networks often targeted in fraud investigations.
How does The Greco balance strict detection with ensuring legitimate players still enjoy promotions and a positive experience?
James Higgs: Maintaining fair play while protecting promotions is essential. TheGreco prioritizes precision over aggressive blocking by focusing on behavioral consistency rather than assumptions.
Configurable risk thresholds and low false-positive rates allow operators to act confidently against abuse while ensuring legitimate players continue to enjoy promotions and a seamless user experience.
Looking ahead, how do you see bonus abuse strategies evolving, especially as operators offer more complex and creative promotions globally?
James Higgs: As promotions become more personalized and multi-layered, abuse strategies will become increasingly difficult to detect manually.
The current method of seeing large anomalies on a single campaign or on single games will become less effective and operators will need to be able to determine the True Value of their players as well as dedicated detection methods for each individual abuse process to be able to continue to offer competitive bonuses.
With a background in digital media and a keen eye for emerging technologies, Ronaldo bridges the gap between players and platforms through clear, insightful reporting to the iGaming industry.
