◾Data integration
Possible types of integrations
Smartico can be integrated with your product in 3 possible ways:
By sending server-to-server events to Smartico REST API about end-user actions and updates in the end-user profile.
By providing access to a replica of your DB with a set of views that will represent the need for synchronization data, The Smartico system will connect to your DB and track changes in the views.
By providing access to your event streaming platform, e.g. Kafka or RabbitMQ. With documentation related to the needed events and data.
In all types of integrations, your data is encrypted during transfer, and PII-sensitive properties like email, phone numbers, etc, are encrypted and stored in the isolated DB.
Which type of integration is better?
REST API is good when you have resources in your R&D team and want to have full control of the data flow
Integration on replica DB is the fastest and easiest way, as it doesn't require any resources from your R&D., except defining SQL views to access data.
Kafka is good when it's already incorporated in your organization.
Events and user profile properties
Depending on your product type, you will need different sets of events and user profile properties to be sent to the Smartico system.
Based on our experience, we have defined events and user profile properties that are most common for the business verticals like Casino, Sports, Lotter, and Trading - you will find them in the integration documents below.
The properties in the documents result from our attempt to unify all the integrations we faced so far. While they cover the majority of possible Marketing and Gamification needs, there is always a need to define custom data entities for your product. Custom events and user profile properties can be added by your request either during initial integration or later when you face new use cases.
Important
The data source should provide deduplication of the events in case of REST API/Kafka type of integration and table records in case of Replica-based integration.
This means that all "transactional" data should be represented only once and be immutable. All user profile updates should be provided only if there are changes at least in one property of the user profile.
All types of events/records should have an "update date" that represents the actual date of the business event.
Not following this approach may lead to inconsistent performance of the system and wrong execution of the campaigns, missions, tournaments, and automation rules.
Replica DB
To support SQL replica-based integration with Smartico, the integrated platform should provide a replication database with "views" listed below. Smartico will use those views to track the changes in the data and send them to the Smartico CRM system as events. There are two main types of "views" that should be provided.
Users view
Users view should list all users in the integrated product and should have indexed column dt_update The column should be updated with the current date/time in the UTC timezone whenever any of the user profile fields are changed. Smartico will query this view to get user profiles that have been updated since the last query.
Note: In most systems, the data about the user is distributed among multiple tables, where every table has its own dt_update field.
Building a view that presents the join of all such tables and has an efficient index on dt_update could be quite problematic; in such case, you can expose to us all such tables, and each table will be tracked independently.
Users view fields
The following fields are required and should be exposed from the user's view.
Column name | Data type | Description |
---|---|---|
dt_update | timestamp | Column should be updated with current date/time in UTC timezone whenever any of the user profile fields are changed. Indexed, not nullable |
ext_brand_id | string or int | ID of the brand in integrated product |
user_ext_id | string or int | Unique identified of the user |
core_account_status | string | Status of account in the external system. If the account is not ACTIVE, Smartico system will not execute any marketing activities for such an account. The default value for a newly created account is Active.Possible values: ACTIVE, BLOCKED, SUSPENDED, BANNED, SELF_EXCLUDED, DEACTIVATED, PENDING, LOCKED, APPROVED Use the condition inside of the segment used in marketing campaigns to directly exclude accounts that are not active in order to not target them |
core_registration_date | timestamp | The date/time when user is registeredThe passed value should be a timestamp in UTC with milliseconds precision. The date value should be in the past. One of the most important properties, not only you can segment based on the registration date, for example if you want to run a campaign only for ''veteran'' players who registered more than 2 years ago, but we also use the registration date as the condition to trigger to the ''profile ready'' |
core_user_language | string | Language of the user in ISO 639-1 format (EN,BG,IT)Possible values: EN, SV, DE, FR, FI, NB, IT, ES, BG, KO... Can be used in content variations for communications, based on the language of the player you'll be able to send different communication assets |
core_wallet_currency | string | Currency of the user wallet. Note that once set this value cannot be changed for user. Has multiple uses, can be used in tag to replace the value {{state.core_wallet_currency}} when sending communications about deposit and withdrawals as well as bonus prizes in mini-games for example |
The following columns are optional, but we found them useful for marketing purposes in most of the integrated systems.
Column name | Data type | Description | Use case |
---|---|---|---|
core_username | string | Username or nickname | Can be used in the greetings as tag like "Hello {{state.core_username}}" Also used in the leaderboards in the gamification |
user_birthdate | timestamp | Birth date of userThe passed value should be a timestamp in UTC with milliseconds precision. The date value should be in the past. | Can be used to build birthday campaign for example: If birth date is 'less or equal than 2 days' > send a reminder email saying that if they log in on their birthday they will receive a bonus if birth date is 'today' > trigger a campaign on the log in to give a birthday bonus to the player with a personalized popup |
user_country | string | 2 symbols, user registration country, e.g. UA | If the operator is targeting multiple countries it can be used to segment players based on their countries and build country specific campaigns |
user_email | string | In case Smartico Data Guard is setup, the mail is encrypted and cannot be accessed from Smartico CRM. In case mail is submitted via API, it should be encrypted on Integrated system | Used in communication over Email |
user_first_name | string | free text | Can be used as a dynamic tag in communications in order to refer to the user with their first name {{state.user_first_name}} |
user_last_name | string | free text | can be used as a dynamic tag in communications in order to refer to the user with their first name {{state.user_first_name}} |
user_phone | string | In case phone is submitted via API, it should be encrypted on Integrated system | Used in communication over SMS |
core_affiliate_id | numeric | Affiliate ID from affiliate system (in case it's numeric value) | Users register using a specific Affiliate ID/link containing ID and this ID is used to separate players from affiliation and organic registration, example value 4322 |
core_affiliate_str | string | Affiliate ID from affiliate system | Similar to the "ID" value, but in case your affiliate identified is not numeric, but string, like "john24" |
core_is_email_disabled_by_platform | boolean | User is opted out from mail communication on the Product side | If you have communication preferences on the website where the player can unsubscribe to marketing communications, you can automatically exclude from marketing campaign all players who opted out in order to not even attempt sending a communication |
core_is_sms_disabled_by_platform | boolean | User is opted out from sms communication on the Product side | If you have communication preferences on the website where the player can unsubscribe to marketing communications, you can automatically exclude from marketing campaign all players who opted out in order to not even attempt sending a communication |
core_user_gender | string | Possible values: MALE, FEMALE, F, M, UNKNOWN | Segment based on the gender or can be added in content variation setting to personalize pronouns in communication assets based on the player's gender |
core_kyc_status | string | Status of the user in KYC process | Run a campaign on players who didn't complete their KYC process giving them a bonus when they verify their documents |
Transactional views
Transactional views that represent deposits, casino/sports bets, etc., are "transactional", which means that every record in the view should be immutable and should have an indexed "dt_finalized" column.
Smartico will use this "dt_finalized" column to find new records and send them to the Smartico CRM system.
Please note that every transaction should be and don't change once the transaction is made visible in the view. If this is not preserved same transaction will be reported multiple times to the Smartico CRM system.
In a lot of the systems transaction tables also have always incrementing unique IDs, if it is such, it can be also used by integration instead of the dt_finalized field.
All views (users and transactional) should also have two columns that uniquely identify users in the system - ext_brand_id and user_ext_id. Both columns could be the type of string or integer. Example of user identification: ext_brand_id = "SuperCasino", user_ext_id = "john77" or ext_brand_id = 5 and user_ext_id = 123
Deposits view
The view should represent final deposits, there shouldn't be attempts, failed, or canceled deposits.
Rows in the view should be immutable
Required fields
Column name | Data type | Description |
---|---|---|
dt_finalized | timestamp | Column should be updated with current date/time in UTC timezone whenever the transaction is finilized (not goin to change in future). Once transaction is visible in the view it should not be changed(!). |
ext_brand_id | string or int | ID of the brand in integrated product |
user_ext_id | string or int | Unique identified of the user |
transaction_id | string | Transaction ID - unique transaction ID of the operation. Can be skipped, If the table has unique ID as listed above |
transaction_date | timestamp | The date of deposit. The passed value should be a timestamp in UTC with milliseconds precision. |
deposit_amount | numeric | Deposit amount in the player currency |
Optional fields
Column name | Data type | Description |
---|---|---|
bonus_balance | numeric | Bonus money balance in the user currency right after deposit was done |
real_balance | numeric | Real money balance in the user currency right after deposit was done |
total_balance | numeric | Total money balance in the user currency right after deposit was done (real + bonus) |
deposit_code | string | If user used some deposit or vaucher code for the bonus |
deposit_method | string | Name of used deposit method, e.g. PaySafe |
Bets & wins view
The view should represent the final bets together with corresponding wins, and rows in the view should be immutable.
Read about "The challenge of connecting Bet & Win casino transactions" below
It's important that the bet and win of one round are represented in one row. This is a challenge for most operations because, in most cases, bets and wins are separate transactions, and win fact comes with a delay.
Our suggestion is to make a join of bets and wins and delay data by a few minutes.
This approach gives high confidence in getting win resolutions and minimally delays data routing to the smartico system. From our experience, delaying data by 1 minute is giving 99.5% of the proper bet coverage.
If it's not possible to connect bet & win in one row from performance considerations, Smartico can handle bets and wins from separate tables and join them using some common ID (transaction ID or round ID)
Required fields
Column name | Data type | Description |
---|---|---|
dt (or id) | timestamp or int | Column should be updated with current date/time in UTC timezone whenever the transaction became visible through the view. Once transaction is visible in the view it should not be changed(!). Or instead of date, there should be incremental ID |
ext_brand_id | string or int | ID of the brand in integrated product |
user_ext_id | string or int | Unique identified of the user |
bet_id | string | Unique transaction ID of the operation. Can be skipped, If the table has unique ID as listed above |
bet_date | timestamp | The date of bet. The passed value should be a timestamp in UTC with milliseconds precision. |
bet_amount | numeric | Total bet amount (real + bonus). In the user currency |
win_amount | numeric | Total win amount (real + bonus). In the user currency |
game_name | string | Name of the game. E.g. "Golden Slot 2" |
game_id | string | The unique ID of the game |
Optional fields
Column name | Data type | Description |
---|---|---|
bet_amount_real | numeric | Real money part of bet. In user currency |
bet_amount_bonus | numeric | Bonus money part of bet. In user currency |
win_amount_real | numeric | Real money part of win. In user currency |
win_amount_bonus | numeric | Bonus money part of win. In user currency |
game_category | string | E.g. "Slots" |
game_category_id | string | The unique ID of the game's category |
game_provider | string | E.g. "Pragmatic" |
game_provider_id | string | The unique ID of the game's provider |
Other views
Smartico has built-in support for other types of transactions, such as failed bets, issued bonuses, requested withdrawals, etc, as well as for other verticals like Sports betting, FinTech, Retail, etc.
For example, for the "Sport" domain we are indicating 4 types of transactions:
Sport bet placement (bet open)
Sport selections placement
Sport bet settlement
Sport selections settlement
The DB structure that represents these types of transactions may vary on different providers. What we have found as the most common concept is presented in the diagrams below
REST API
You can find attached a document giving a general idea of API-based integration.
Note: this document is only given as an example and shouldn't be used as a final guide for integration; please contact your Success Manager for the exact document listing all events and properties specific to your product.
The challenge of connecting Bet & Win casino transactions
It's a common issue in all the platforms to relate a particular win to the original bet because these two types of transactions are represented separately in most platforms.
Why can it be beneficial for the Smartico operation?
Smartico can act in both modes - when bet & win are coming independently and bet and win are connected and coming as one event/transaction.
The benefit when they are connected is that the CRM team can build Retention and Loyalty mechanics based on both - bet & win amounts in the hands, e.g.
Mission - make a winning bet with a bet of 10 EUR
Mission - make 5 bets with a winning ratio above 10
Tournament - users are ranked by the winning ratio
etc.
The issue with connecting bet & win is based on 3 common facts:
not every game provider is reporting "lost" in case the user didn't win anything
there is no strict time in which game providers should report the "win" fact
in some cases, there could be multiple wins related to one bet
In Smartico, we took the approach of waiting for the win fact for 1 minute and, based on all the reported "win" facts, building a sum of the winning amount and creating a final "bet-win" event that contains both - bet information and win information.
For example:
User Bet 1 EUR at 12:34:55
At 12:34:57, we got a "win" fact of 0.5 EUR
At 12:35:33, we got the last "win" fact of 1.2 EUR
At 12:35:57, Smartic will create a "bet-win" transaction with a bet amount of 1 EUR and a win amount of 1.7 EUR
This approach gives high confidence in getting win resolutions and minimally delays data routing to the smartico system. From our experience, delaying data by 1 minute is giving 99.5% of the proper bet coverage.
If the CRM team want's to get higher confidence, the delay can be increased from 1 minute to any desired value
FAQ
What databases are supported for the data integration
We support MySql, PostgreSQL, MSSQL, Oracle, Clickhouse, Snowflake, BigQuery.
What security measures are applied on the connectivity level between Smartico and the Operator data source
We support secured and non-secured connections and all existing mechanics of authorizations with RDMS or streaming solutions. We also provide fixed IPs that should be whitelisted to access your data sources. It is important to note that we are not supporting integrations via VPNs.
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