CAC (Customer Acquisition Cost)

CAC is the headline efficiency metric for operator marketing. Inflows of acquisition spend (media, affiliate commissions, partnerships, creative production, sometimes free bet costs) divided by the count of newly acquired paying players gives a per-player cost that the operator then compares against expected lifetime value. The LTV/CAC ratio is what investors and management actually monitor; CAC in isolation is meaningless without LTV alongside. CAC dynamics in iGaming differ sharply between launch and mature markets. New market entrants typically run very high CAC to land share quickly, often accepting losses on early cohorts. Mature operators compete on payback period, with the expectation that acquired players reach breakeven within 6 to 18 months depending on vertical and market. CAC inflation in the US during the post-PASPA sports betting expansion was the dominant operator economics story for several years, and the subsequent CAC discipline became the parallel story as profitability targets took priority over share-grab.