The Indian sportsbook market is competitive by design. New entrants face established players, tight acquisition windows, and an audience that does not stay without a reason. This company launched in 2017 with strong creative formats and a clear product vision. The foundation was solid. The infrastructure around it was not.
Conversions were low. Churn was high. And the DSP they had been using was making both problems worse, in some cases delivering traffic that was not real at all. Epom came in with one objective: fix the campaign structure before anything else.
When the Traffic Is There but the Strategy Isn't
The first audit revealed a straightforward diagnosis. The company was reaching users. It was just reaching all of them the same way, with no distinction between someone who had already shown intent and someone who had never heard of the product.
Three problems were clear from the start:
- No audience segmentation or retargeting structure. Every impression was treated the same, regardless of where the user was in the funnel.
- High churn with no acquisition to replace it. The campaign was not bringing in new users fast enough to offset those leaving.
- Fraudulent traffic from the previous DSP. It was a damaging campaign in terms of credibility and drained the budget on non-human activity.
“The bidding strategy had no feedback loop. There was no mechanism to reward high-converting traffic or to cut spending on non-converting traffic. Once we added that layer, everything else followed.”
Why the Previous DSP Was Making Things Worse
Switching DSPs carries risk. For a young company still proving its model, the wrong move could set the business back further. The decision to switch had to be justified by more than dissatisfaction.
What made the case clear was the exposure to fraud. The previous provider was not just underperforming. It was actively introducing fraudulent traffic into campaigns, thereby corrupting conversion data and making optimization nearly impossible. A bad signal is worse than no signal.
The team laid out what they needed before committing to a new platform:
Why Epom WL DSP:
- Build a three-layer retargeting structure around user intent
- Apply dynamic bidding rules that adjust automatically by conversion signal
- Segment audiences by behavior without rebuilding campaigns from scratch
- Integrate third-party fraud protection at the API level
- Support the iGaming vertical with compliant traffic sources
Epom met each requirement. The implementation began immediately after the first detailed call.
Three Campaigns, One Direction
The solution was built around one core insight: not all users deserve the same bid. The campaign structure was redesigned from scratch around three tiers, each targeting a different stage of the user journey.
The three-layer campaign structure worked as follows:
| Layer | Audience | Bidding Logic |
|---|---|---|
| Campaign A: Broad Reach | All traffic | Dynamic bid rules. Bids decrease when CR is low, increase when CR is high. Maximum multiplier 2x to prevent overspend. |
| Campaign B: High-Intent Retargeting | Pixel-tracked users who showed interest but did not register | 30% higher bid vs Campaign A average. Complex setup targeting. Recovers high-intent users before they disengage. |
| Campaign C: New User Acquisition | New users with no prior interaction | Highest available bids. Exposure time multiplier: if no conversion, bids are lower automatically. Reduces eCPC while maintaining reach. |
| Fraud Protection Layer | All campaigns | Third-party checker integrated via API. Activated on every campaign launch. Filters fraudulent traffic before it enters the funnel. |
The dynamic bidding rules running across all three campaigns were the engine behind the CR improvement. The system responded to real conversion signals rather than fixed parameters. When a traffic source performed, bids increased. When it did not, bids dropped automatically.
“The value was already in the traffic we had. It just wasn't organized. Once we split audiences by intent and let bids adjust automatically, performance stabilized.”
Locking Out Fraudulent Traffic
Retargeting and bidding rules could fix the conversion problem. They could not fix the fraud problem. That required a separate layer.
The company established a partnership with a third-party traffic verification provider. Epom integrated that provider's software directly into the DSP API. Every campaign launch now automatically triggers the security service, scanning traffic before it reaches the bidding layer.
“Fraud protection at the API level is the right approach for iGaming clients. It means the verification runs before any budget is spent, not after. The client does not pay for traffic that should never have entered the auction.”
The result is not easily expressed in a single number, but its effect on every other metric is direct. Clean traffic produces reliable conversion data. Reliable data enables real optimization. The fraud layer made every other improvement possible.
Results in Numbers
The full campaign cycle was completed within six weeks. Every metric the company had been tracking moved in the right direction.
| Metric | Before Epom | With Epom | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conversion Rate | Baseline | 34% higher | +34% |
| Churn Rate | High. New users are not replacing those leaving. | 28% lower | -24% |
| eCPC | Unoptimized. Budgets are leaking across poor sources. | 21% lower | -21% |
| Ad Spend | Over-allocated to low-intent audiences. | 16% lower | -16% |
| Traffic Quality | Fraudulent traffic present from previous DSP. | Third-party protection active on all campaigns. | Secured |
The 34% increase in CR was the headline result. The 28% reduction in churn was the one that changed the business trajectory. Retention had been the silent drain on the model. Once the retargeting structure was in place and new user acquisition was running efficiently, the dynamic reversed.
The 16% reduction in ad spend was a direct consequence of removing fraudulent traffic and cutting bidding on low-intent audiences. Less budget went further.
“The numbers moved cleanly in every direction we needed. That is not something we expected from a platform switch. We expected disruption. We got improvement instead.”
The company continues to operate on Epom WL DSP. The fraud protection integration remains active. The three-campaign structure has been refined further based on ongoing conversion data.
