How Bilyoner Achieved a 94% Retention Rate with Omtera & Mixpanel

About Bilyoner

Bilyoner is a pioneer in Turkey's digital sports betting and gaming market. Established in 2003 and launching its operations in 2004, it holds the distinction of being the country's first legal online sports and chance games platform. 

The company's robust foundation is supported by a powerful partnership structure, with ownership split between Hitay Holding A.Ş., a major player in technology and investments, and Intralot, a leading international company in the gaming sector.

With a membership base of over 4.5 million users, Bilyoner operates across web and mobile platforms, providing a wide array of services. 

Beyond its core offerings of sports betting (iddaa) and national lottery tickets (Milli Piyango), it provides a range of other games and raffles. Its core mission is to provide the most entertaining, innovative, and reliable betting experience possible for its members, all while adhering to a strong commitment to social responsibility through initiatives like its partnership with the Turkey Handicapped Sports, Education and Assistance Foundation (TESYEV).

The Challenge

In the highly regulated Turkish gambling environment, Bilyoner faced unique obstacles that a standard analytics tool could not solve. 

Their primary challenges were centered on market constraints, operational inefficiencies, and the urgent need for a deeper understanding of user behavior to drive growth.

• Limited Competitive Levers: Unlike in many other markets, Turkish law prevents digital betting companies from competing on odds. This forced Bilyoner to pivot their entire competitive strategy, making a superior customer experience their only true differentiator.
• Slow, Inefficient Analytics: Bilyoner's previous reliance on Google Analytics was a major bottleneck. The platform was unable to provide real-time insights, often taking over seven hours to process data. This significant delay meant the team couldn't react quickly to critical issues, particularly during high-profile sports matches, where timely intervention is crucial.
• The Need for Deeper User Insights: The Bilyoner team struggled to get a clear, fast, and comprehensive view of the user journey. They needed an intuitive and powerful product analytics solution to not only understand how users were interacting with the app but also to quickly pinpoint and resolve technical issues that were causing users to leave. This was essential for improving the overall customer experience and reducing churn.

Omtera’s Solutions for Bilyoner

Bilyoner's goal was to transform its business with a data-first approach, and they knew they needed a strategic partner to get them there. 

They chose to collaborate with Omtera, a certified Mixpanel Partner, for their deep expertise and a proven track record of delivering impactful, data-driven solutions.

Omtera’s partnership with Bilyoner was defined by a series of concrete solutions designed to address their specific challenges:

• Customized Mixpanel Implementation: Omtera led a seamless implementation of Mixpanel, ensuring the platform was configured specifically to track the most relevant user behaviors and business metrics for Bilyoner’s unique needs.
• Targeted Team Training: The Omtera team provided hands-on training for Bilyoner’s product, marketing, engineering, and design teams, empowering them to use Mixpanel independently to make data-driven decisions.
• Flexible and Responsive Support: Omtera offered "on-the-field" availability, providing prompt support to address Bilyoner's technical and operational needs, which enabled quicker issue resolution.
• Market-Specific Strategic Insights: By understanding the local Turkish market conditions, Omtera provided Bilyoner with valuable strategic insights that helped them interpret their data and achieve their business objectives more effectively.
• Rapid Bug Identification with Alerts: Omtera helped Bilyoner configure Mixpanel's Alerts feature, enabling the team to instantly identify critical issues like app crashes during high-profile matches, leading to faster bug fixes and preventing churn.
• Optimizing Product Roadmap with Funnels: They guided Bilyoner in using Mixpanel Funnels to analyze user drop-off points, which directly helped them prioritize their product roadmap and dedicate resources to the most impactful improvements.
• Enhancing Marketing Strategy: Omtera assisted Bilyoner in integrating Mixpanel with their advertising platforms, allowing the marketing team to use first-party user data to optimize campaigns, target specific cohorts, and achieve a higher return on ad spend.

The Results

By partnering with Omtera to implement and optimize Mixpanel, Bilyoner unlocked significant business growth:

• 15% increase in daily active users
• 8% increase in active betting users
• 94% monthly retention rate
• 60% year-over-year improvement in Return on Advertising Spend
• 40% reduction in customer acquisition cost

The biggest breakthrough came from identifying a high-churn cohort of users who were abandoning their bets just before completion. 

With Mixpanel Funnels, Omtera and Bilyoner pinpointed a critical instability in the app. Prioritizing bug fixes based on this insight helped Bilyoner achieve a new benchmark: an impressive 94% monthly retention rate.

How Was the Process with Bilyoner?

The collaboration between Omtera and Bilyoner was defined by a shared commitment to data-driven decision-making. Omtera acted as an extension of the Bilyoner team, offering flexible and prompt support that quickly resolved technical and operational needs. The process involved:

• Collaborative Teamwork: Product managers, engineers, and designers used Mixpanel daily to make collaborative decisions on new features and product improvements.
• Executive Insight: Omtera helped Bilyoner's management, including the CEO and CTO, use Mixpanel Boards to monitor key business metrics, enabling them to make strategic decisions with confidence.
• On-the-ground Expertise: Omtera's deep understanding of the Turkish market and its specific challenges allowed them to provide Bilyoner with invaluable, context-aware insights.

The success of this partnership is best told by the people who experienced it firsthand. Here's what members of the Bilyoner team had to say about working with Omtera and using Mixpanel:

‍"The Omtera team’s availability on the field has provided us with great flexibility. Their prompt approach to address our technical or operational needs have enabled us to resolve issues in a much quicker fashion. Since they are aware of the market conditions we operate in, they have a great understanding of the challenges we face and provide us with valuable insights to achieve our objectives. Having Omtera as the support unit in the Turkish market has enhanced our experience of utilizing Mixpanel to its fullest potential and to our utmost benefit." - Cem Domanic, Business Development Manager, Bilyoner

‍"With Mixpanel, we get a full understanding of how people use our app. Previous solutions were too slow; we need instant insights as our users are betting during sports matches. Mixpanel instantly alerts us to user problems and enables us to create a more seamless experience." - Umut Can Güngör, Product Manager, Bilyoner

‍"Mixpanel helps us better understand our users and identify how we can improve our product to gain an edge over the competition." - Cem Domanic, Business Development Manager, Bilyoner

Omtera’s Role

Omtera was far more than just a service provider; they were a fundamental strategic partner in Bilyoner's digital transformation journey. 

Their role was to bridge the gap between Bilyoner's ambitious goals and the powerful capabilities of the Mixpanel platform.

• Translating Data into Strategy: Omtera's core function was to ensure Bilyoner was not just collecting data, but using it effectively to achieve its objectives. They acted as a strategic guide, helping Bilyoner's diverse teams—from product to marketing and executive leadership—interpret complex analytics and turn them into actionable business decisions. This was crucial for navigating a competitive market where a superior customer experience was the only path to success.
• Localized Expertise and On-the-Ground Support: As a support unit in the Turkish market, Omtera provided invaluable, context-aware insights. Their deep understanding of local market conditions and regulations allowed them to offer tailored solutions that addressed Bilyoner's unique challenges. This "on-the-field" availability provided Bilyoner with a level of flexibility and responsiveness that would have been impossible to achieve otherwise, enabling them to resolve issues in a much quicker fashion.
• Maximizing Platform Value: Omtera’s expertise was instrumental in helping Bilyoner leverage Mixpanel to its fullest potential. They guided the Bilyoner team on how to use advanced features like Mixpanel Funnels to identify churn causes, and how to set up Mixpanel Alerts for instant problem notifications. By integrating Mixpanel with Bilyoner’s marketing platforms, Omtera helped the team gain a holistic view of the user journey from ad click to in-app activity, directly contributing to a higher ROI and a more effective marketing strategy.
• Empowering the Bilyoner Team: Ultimately, Omtera's role was to empower the Bilyoner team. By providing comprehensive training and continuous support, they enabled Bilyoner's employees at all levels—from daily users to senior management—to confidently use data to build a better product, accelerate innovation, and make smarter, faster strategic decisions. Omtera's prompt, expert, and flexible approach was a key factor in Bilyoner’s success, helping them gain a decisive edge over the competition.

Analysis

Bilyoner’s story is a powerful testament to how strategic partnerships can turn operational challenges into a competitive advantage. For companies in highly regulated industries or those needing to compete on customer experience alone, Bilyoner’s success is a blueprint for operationalizing data at scale.

For fast-growing companies seeking to transform their business by moving from slow, outdated analytics to real-time, actionable insights, Omtera offers more than just tools—we provide the strategic guidance and on-the-ground expertise to deliver transformative results. That’s where Omtera’s partnership with Bilyoner delivered its greatest value.

If you’re struggling with slow data, juggling your product roadmap, and trying to turn customer experience into your primary competitive edge with Mixpanel; it’s time for us to meet as well- contact Omtera now.