Definition
Identity resolution is the process of recognising that different data points - a website cookie, an app device ID, an email address, a phone number, a logged-in account, activity on different devices - belong to the same person, and stitching them into one profile. It underpins the single customer view and the CDP, and it is what lets an operator understand a customer whose journey crosses devices and channels rather than seeing several disconnected fragments.
Deterministic resolution matches on shared, reliable identifiers (a logged-in account, a verified email); probabilistic resolution infers a match from patterns (device, IP, behaviour, timing) with a confidence score. Privacy changes have reduced the raw signals available, and probabilistic matching in particular raises data-protection questions because it links data about a person without their direct involvement.
In context
For iGaming operators, identity resolution is a prerequisite for the single customer view working properly: limits, self-exclusion and harm monitoring only cover the whole customer if the operator can reliably tell that the casino session, the sportsbook bet, the mobile app activity and the support contact are the same person. Because gambling accounts are verified (KYC), operators have strong deterministic identifiers to resolve on - the verified account is the anchor - which makes their identity resolution more reliable than in many other sectors.
The compliance and governance points are important. Deterministic resolution on a verified account and consented identifiers is well founded; probabilistic resolution that infers links from device and behavioural signals needs a lawful basis and careful justification, and using it to circumvent a user's privacy choices or to re-identify people who opted out is the wrong use.
Whatever the method, the resulting unified profile is subject to full data-protection obligations, and responsible-gambling suppression must apply to it - a self-exclusion is only effective if identity resolution ensures it cannot be defeated by the same person appearing as a 'new' fragment. For affiliates, identity resolution is operator-side, but it explains why a well-run operator can enforce account-wide protection and why weak resolution (siloed products, no cross-device stitching) is behind cases where a self-excluded player kept betting elsewhere.
For affiliate-facing content, the framing is that identity resolution stitches a person's fragmented data into one profile, that verified gambling accounts give operators strong deterministic anchors, that it is what makes account-wide limits and self-exclusion effective, and that probabilistic matching carries data-protection obligations and must not be used to undo privacy choices.
Worked example
An operator anchors identity resolution on the KYC-verified account, linking casino, sportsbook and app activity deterministically to one profile. A self-exclusion on that profile applies everywhere and cannot be defeated by the person creating a new fragment, because resolution recognises the underlying identity.
Probabilistic signals are used cautiously and never to re-identify opted-out users.
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Browse more iGaming terms in our glossary.
← Back to glossary