Leading Gaming Website Stops DDoS Attacks & Boosts Conversions With DataDome

A major digital gaming organization saw its websites and apps frequently targeted by credential stuffing and DDoS attacks, resulting in slowdowns and denial of service. To replace reCAPTCHA, which produced too many false positives, they selected DataDome. By detecting and blocking bad bots without impacting genuine users, DataDome enabled them to offer a better user experience and improve their conversion rates.

The Challenge: Bots Threatening Data Security & Impacting Performance

“In the gaming world, there are a lot of potential attackers seeking information and ransom, or simply trying to bring down their targets,” said the Head of Product Delivery. “So, we are always very attentive to potential security issues.”

Two of the gaming company’s more vexing security challenges were both generated by bad bots. The company’s digital platforms were frequently targeted by bot-driven DDoS attacks, which resulted in slowdowns and sometimes denial of service. In addition, the user registration form was regularly subject to credential stuffing attacks, with bots seeking to obtain valid email addresses or usernames. This also puts genuine customers at risk of account takeovers and stolen data.

“The registration process is a key step for us, but we were struggling to filter the traffic properly,” said the Head of Product Delivery. “We had implemented a reCAPTCHA solution, but it was generating a lot of false positives—at one point, almost everyone was getting it. Nobody wants to solve a CAPTCHA when they’re just trying to complete their journey. Our conversions were dropping significantly, and we could see that people were falling off during the registration process.”

The Solution: Accurate Detection of Even the Most Advanced Bots

It was clear that the company needed more sophisticated defenses against attackers, so the tech team did a comprehensive vendor review. They evaluated many options and ran POCs with several companies before landing on DataDome.

As the Head of Product Delivery recalled, “DataDome checked all the boxes. It was a clear winner for us in terms of ease of integration, and we also got great service during the POC and the actual integration phase. Roles were clearly defined, transitions from the contractual aspect to technical integration and onboarding were smooth, and everyone showed great flexibility.”

The tech team also appreciated how easy it is to add custom rules themselves. Like most gaming companies, they have a wide range of third-party suppliers such as payment providers, and they extensively use the custom rules feature in the DataDome dashboard to allow list or otherwise manage partner access.

The Results: Better Performance, Protection, & Conversion Rates

DataDome efficiently protects digital assets against DDoS, credential stuffing, and account takeovers. Bot attacks are no longer a threat to the performance or service availability. But for them, the most important benefit of the implementation has been the disappearance of the reCAPTCHA issues and the resulting improvements in conversion rates.

“It’s the right traffic that’s being blocked. Real customers aren’t getting any kind of occlusion, and our conversions increased,” their Head of Product Delivery said. “The protection is also saving us a lot of time, as we no longer have to deal with the customer reports and complaints we used to receive almost daily about reCAPTCHA.”

In conclusion, he praises the excellent collaboration with the DataDome team.

“The overall experience has been really good. For example, for me, one of the most mature things in any engagement with a vendor is opening a Slack channel, which was the very first step the DataDome team took. It’s a simple thing, but it helps to get things moving faster. In the long run, post-integration support has also been great. Whenever we have questions, we get fast and complete responses, so we’re very happy with the relationship.”