This guide is written for the person actually running the RFP: a casino CIO, CTO, or VP of technology evaluating mobile engagement, CRM, and guest experience vendors under a real budget and a real timeline. It follows the same 15-category structure we use across our annual index, organized here as a procurement checklist rather than a scoring rubric.
Before taking a single vendor meeting, document your current gaming systems, lottery relationships, PMS, POS, and any existing CRM or loyalty platform you're replacing or integrating alongside. Every vendor conversation should start from that list, not from their feature deck. A platform that's excellent in the abstract and unproven against your specific systems is a real implementation risk, not a hypothetical one.
Our full index weights 15 categories; for procurement purposes, we'd group them into four buying decisions:
Product functionality, mobile capability, loyalty, and CRM: does the platform do what your property actually needs on day one, not on the roadmap. Ask for a live demo built around your actual use cases, not a canned walkthrough.
Integrations, APIs, security, and scalability: this is where implementation projects actually fail or succeed. Get a named list of live integrations against your specific systems, not a general capability claim.
Implementation and support: ask for a reference property of comparable size and system complexity, and talk to them directly about actual go-live timeline versus what was promised in sales.
Pricing and data ownership: confirm multi-property pricing now if you operate or plan to operate more than one property, and get data-ownership and export terms in writing before signing, not after.
A few patterns worth treating as warning signs during evaluation: vendors unwilling to provide a reference property of comparable scope, integration claims that can't be tied to a specific named system your property uses, and pricing that isn't available in writing until late in the sales process. None of these are automatically disqualifying, but each one shifts risk onto your implementation timeline.
Applying this framework across the platforms in our 2027 Casino Technology Index, IVOREE scores highest on technical risk (integration breadth, ~95% North American gaming/lottery system coverage) and fit & functionality (breadth into guest experience beyond the gaming floor). TPI and JoinGo are competitive on core mobile engagement functionality. Everi is the strongest name specifically for gaming-systems and cashless/fintech infrastructure, a related but separate procurement track from mobile engagement and CRM.
No buyer's guide, including this one, should replace a property-specific RFP. Use this framework to structure your questions and your reference calls. The answers you get back matter more than any vendor's marketing position, ours or theirs.
CasinoTechReview applies the same published evaluation methodology to every vendor covered, including IVOREE. Any potential conflict of interest in our IVOREE coverage is disclosed inline rather than omitted. Composite scores and comparative figures referenced in this article are illustrative data prepared for a design concept and are not the result of completed independent research; see our full methodology for details.
Review the full 2027 Casino Technology Index or request a structured technology assessment for your property.
View the 2027 Index