The iGaming and sports betting industry is a booming global market built on delivering fast-paced, high-stakes excitement to users. And by fast-paced, we’re talking lightning-fast experiences. Players expect pages to load in a flash. When not, they’re likely to bounce, costing your business potential bets and revenue.
In this guide, we’ll explain why Page Speed is critical for iGaming and sports betting sites and how to measure it using tools like PageSpeed Insights. We’ll also share some actionable tips and recommended SEO tools for optimizing your site’s speed.
Why PageSpeed Matters for iGaming and Sports Betting Websites
PageSpeed refers to how quickly your website loads and becomes usable for visitors.
Beyond user retention, search engines like Google have also made PageSpeed a ranking factor. Slow-loading pages frustrate users and jeopardize your visibility in search results—a risk no gaming and betting site can afford.
As for gaming sites, where user actions are time-sensitive, fast load times are important for the following reasons:
Real-Time Performance
With live betting requiring instant decisions, a one-second delay can cause users to miss quick bet opportunities. Faster load times, on the other hand, enable smooth page navigations, quicker deposits, and an uninterrupted betting experience, increasing users’ trust and engagement.
User Satisfaction and Retention
Most players expect fast and instant access, and any delay can drive them away. Research shows that 83% of users expect websites to load within three seconds and 40% of users abandon sites that take more than three seconds to load (source). For iGaming platforms where the thrill and speed are major selling points, optimizing website speed performance helps retain users and boosts loyalty.
SEO Impact
Search engines like Google prioritize fast-loading sites, especially on mobile devices where most iGaming traffic originates. A faster site will not only improve your Core Web Vitals but also enhance your search rankings, driving more organic traffic and increasing visibility.
Not familiar with Core Web Vitals? This guide gives you a quick overview of Core Web Vitals and its impact on your website performance.
Regulatory Compliance and Reputation
Regulators expect iGaming websites to deliver secure, reliable, and fast experiences. Failure to do this can raise red flags about your site’s credibility. However, a fast, seamless platform demonstrates your professionalism and commitment to responsible gaming requirements.
How to Measure PageSpeed Scores
Measuring your site’s performance is the first step toward optimization. Here are some PageSpeed tools for betting websites to get started, with easy instructions to interpret your results.
A. Google PageSpeed Insights
PageSpeed Insights (PSI) is a free performance tool that analyzes the content of a webpage and provides page speed scores for both mobile and desktop versions. It also identifies opportunities for optimization and makes specific recommendations for improvement.
How to Measure PageSpeed Scores Using Google PageSpeed Insights
- Visit PageSpeed Insights
- Enter your URL and click “Analyze”
- It provides detailed performance scores for both desktop and mobile along with Core Web Vitals metrics, such as First Contentful Paint (FCP), Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).
- For each recommendation, you can click the arrow to get more details.
What the Google PageSpeed Insights Scores Mean
PSI scores range from 0 to 100. The goal is to achieve 90 to 100 scores (the “green color”) across all Core Web Vitals, which means you have optimized PageSpeed performance.
- Red zone indicates poor PageSpeed performance (0-49).
- Yellow color indicates average PageSpeed performance (50-89).
- Green color indicates excellent PageSpeed performance (90-100).
Related: Learn How to Score a Perfect 100 on Google PageSpeed Insights
B. GTmetrix
GTmetrix is another popular tool for analyzing PageSpeed, especially with its visual and technical metrics breakdown.
How to Measure PageSpeed Scores Using GTmetrix
- Visit GTMetrix and create a free account.
- Enter your selected page URL.
- Choose a test site from the global options provided and click “Test Now” to run the test.
- It will provide a report that includes the GTmetrix Grade, Performance Score, and Structure Score. The report will also include a waterfall analysis, demonstrating how long it takes for each asset to load.
What the GTmetrix Scores Mean
GTmetrix provides grades from A (excellent) to F (poor). An “A” score with total load times under two seconds means excellent website performance.
C. Pingdom
Pingdom is another well-known website speed test tool that lets you monitor your website from anywhere in the world. It requires no login and is a great tool to use in combination with other tools on our list.
How to Measure PageSpeed Scores Using Pingdom
- Visit Pingdom and enter your site’s URL.
- Select a test location close to your target audience, and click on “Start Test”
- After a few seconds, it will generate a test report showing your performance grade, page size, load time, request, and a waterfall analysis.
- Pingdom will also give you actionable insights on improving your page performance.
What the Pingdom PageSpeed Scores Mean
Your site’s performance is graded from 0-100; a score between 0-50 is graded F, 50-70 is graded D, 70-80 is graded C, and so on. An “A” grade with a load time of under two seconds is optimal.
D. WebPageTest
WebPageTest is a free and open-source website performance test tool that lets you monitor and optimize your site’s performance. You also have the option to benchmark your website from different locations around the world and a wide range of devices.
How to Measure PageSpeed Scores Using WebPageTest
- Visit WebPageTest
- Enter the page’s URL and select a configuration (use the test location closest to your site’s server to get accurate results).
- If none of the default locations work for your test, select the ‘Advanced Configuration’ option to choose other test locations and configure the settings.
- Then click on “Start Test”.
- WebPageTest will provide a full performance report, showing the performance summary and recommendations, page performance metrics, and real-world usage metrics.
What the WebPageTest PageSpeed Scores Mean
The tool also provides grades for metrics like FCP and TTFB. You should aim for scores in the green range (above 90%) to ensure optimal performance globally.
6 Tips for Improving the PageSpeed for iGaming and Sports Betting Websites
Now that you know your PageSpeed scores, it’s time to act to increase them. Below are practical tips to optimize your website’s performance, especially for betting websites.
1. Compress and Optimize Images and Videos
High-quality visuals are integral to gaming and betting platforms but are often the primary culprits behind slow loading times.
In learning how to improve page loading time, start with choosing the right media formats. Use WebP or AVIF for images and MP4 or WebM for videos to maintain their quality while minimizing their file sizes.
You can also implement the lazy loading technique that further enhances performance by delaying the loading of off-screen visuals until they are needed. This approach improves the initial load time and reduces the data users need to download, especially for mobile users on slower networks.
Read this comprehensive guide on optimizing media files, including tips on applying lazy loading techniques.
2. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN)
A CDN is a network of servers spread across different locations worldwide. When a user loads your site, the CDN serves content from the server closest to them, reducing latency and boosting load times.
For gaming and betting sites, CDNs can lighten the load on the main server and create a more responsive experience by handling high traffic typical of these sites. Additionally, many CDNs offer extra perks like DDoS protection and improved security, which benefits your website.
3. Minimize CSS and JavaScript Files
Excessive JS and CSS files can create long render-blocking times, especially for feature-rich gaming sites. However, minifying, deferring, and combining these files speed up load times.
Minify JS and CSS files by removing unnecessary characters, such as spaces and comments, to reduce their size. Then, combine them where appropriate and defer non-critical scripts to run after the main content to enhance performance.
Moreover, to improve how search engines handle your JS-heavy pages, tools like Prerender.io can serve crawlers simplified, pre-rendered content. This reduces excessive JS processing during crawling while also speeding up page load time for your users.
Related: Google struggles to crawl and index JavaScript content. See Google’s JS indexing process and what it means to your SEO optimization efforts.
4. Optimize Server Response Time (SRT)
The next step on how to optimize PageSpeed requires addressing server response time.
Slow SRT is often caused by insufficient hosting resources, heavy traffic loads, or unoptimized backend processes.
To enhance SRT, consider upgrading to a high-performance hosting environment to handle demand, implementing server-level caching to reduce processing times, or optimizing your database queries for quicker response times.
5. Reduce Redirects
Redirects are necessary for guiding traffic and search engine bots, but too many can harm your SEO. Each time a user is redirected, it adds a small delay—and those milliseconds add up, especially when players are moving quickly between bets, scores, or games.
To reduce redirects, start by cleaning up your URL structure. If a page was moved or renamed, set up permanent (301) redirects once and avoid creating long redirect chains. Also, regularly audit your site for outdated or unnecessary redirects via Screaming Frog or Ahrefs.
Not a fan of Screaming Frog? Find 10 paid and free alternatives to Screaming Frog here.
6. Enable Browser Caching
Caching helps browsers store static assets (like images, CSS, and JavaScript files) on users’ devices for a set period, so they can be delivered more quickly during subsequent visits.
Develop a caching policy determining which resources can be cached, for how long, and by whom. This way, your site reduces repeated requests to the server, loads pages faster, and allows users to engage quickly with betting odds, live scores, and in-game features.
Prerender.io Helps Boost Your iGaming Site’s PageSpeed Scores
From optimizing image sizes to reducing redirects and minifying CSS and JS files, every adjustment enhances page speed and technical SEO for sports betting sites. However, ensuring consistent peak performance can be daunting due to these sites’ dynamic and content-heavy nature.
To achieve a sustainable high PageSpeed without doing much manual work, adopt Prerender.io, a technical SEO tool for sports betting sites.
Prerender.io is a powerful PageSpeed optimization tool and a leading JavaScript SEO software, designed to improve the overall SEO performance of complex, dynamic sites—like gaming and sports betting platforms. By delivering pre-rendered versions of your site to search engine bots, Prerender.io reduces the strain on servers and browsers, resulting in:
- 260% faster indexing
- Improved Page Speed Scores and Core Web Vitals
- Optimized crawl budget and crawl efficiency
- Enhanced user experiences and SEO performance
Take 888 Holdings (888casino and 888sports) for instance. This leading sports betting site used to trust Google in crawling and indexing their websites. However, with over 5,700 new and updated URLs per month showcasing their latest sports and games events, they faced a challenge: relying solely on Google wouldn’t guarantee these updates appearing on the first SERP quickly enough.
To ensure their latest offerings reached potential customers quickly, 888 Holdings adopted Prerender.io. This decision has been instrumental in maintaining their position as a world leader in online betting and gaming. Learn more about 888 Holdings’ success story with Prerender.io here.
When you’re ready to implement Prerender.io on your iGaming site, sign up here and get 1,000 free renders.
