How to Fix Email Deliverability for Casinos & Sportsbooks

In this episode of The Squared Table, we look at email through a casino and sportsbook lens with Hank Hoffmeier. Most iGaming brands pour budget into affiliates, SEO, paid, and social while treating email as an afterthought – or inheriting a dusty list from years ago. Hank breaks down why email is still the one channel you truly own, how to keep messages out of spam, and what a sensible email setup looks like for both small and mid-size operators.

From basic authentication and verification, to smart segmentation and timing, to using AI as a “coworker” instead of a gimmick, this episode is all about turning email into a reliable revenue and retention lever for your 2026 campaigns.

• Why email still earns a place next to SEO, affiliates, and social in the iGaming channel mix – and what makes it uniquely “owned” compared to platforms that can ban or throttle you overnight.
• The biggest deliverability killers Hank sees in casinos and sportsbooks: stale lists, no verification, missing SPF/DKIM/DMARC, and messy sending domains – plus how to fix them without a huge team.
• Simple segmentation that any operator can start with: new players, active players, VIP/high-value, lapsing, and dormant – and how each group should be treated differently in the inbox.
• How to think about frequency so you don’t “ghost” players or spam them: using engagement data, basic cohort logic, and even asking players how often they want to hear from you.
• Where AI actually helps with email (and where it doesn’t): using it as a helper for analysis, subject lines, reporting, and cohort ideas, while still “trusting but verifying” every output.
• Who should own email internally at a mid-size operator, and what a first “minimum viable” setup looks like for the next 60 days (verification, auth, a welcome series, and a basic re-engagement flow).