Affiliate marketing for gambling business — the best promotion strategy

Online casinos and sportsbooks require large amounts of consistent traffic to build a loyal base of players. That’s where affiliate marketing comes in. Keep reading to learn how online casino affiliate marketing works and why it’s an essential part of an online casino’s marketing strategy — as well as how Slotegrator’s Partnergrator solution can help operators make the most of their affiliate partnerships.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a commonly used and highly effective performance-based marketing strategy. It has long been the keystone of online casino and sportsbook marketing.

So, how exactly does it work?

Long story short, individuals (affiliates) who create and publish web content, promote their partner’s businesses on their websites. They earn a commission from this partnership for referring customers to those businesses.

In the gambling industry, an affiliate program is a marketing strategy that allows affiliates to earn commissions by promoting gambling providers. Affiliates are responsible for attracting potential players to the providers' websites using various marketing strategies, such as advertising on social networks or blogs.

When a player clicks on an affiliate's unique link and makes a deposit or bet, the affiliate receives a commission based on a pre-agreed payment plan.

Who are affiliates? Types of affiliates

Gambling affiliates typically have connections to the iGaming industry, such as being passionate casino enthusiasts, running gambling-related blogs, or even owning gambling businesses. In this case, possessing relevant knowledge and expertise is crucial in capturing players' attention and earning their trust.

There are several types of online gambling affiliates:

Streamers — Some players stream videos of themselves playing popular games, such as slots. Players who follow streamers on YouTube or Twitch develop a relationship with them through the gaming sessions they broadcast.

Bloggers — Many affiliates are bloggers who write about online gambling. They cover topics such as which casinos offer the best bonuses, new game releases, and other related subjects. Additionally, they provide reviews of casinos, assessing their overall quality and trustworthiness.

Casino portals and review sites — Online casino portals serve as gateways to the world of online gambling and are often preferred as affiliate partners. Gamblers rely on these portals to access the latest news, reviews, and information about various types of bonuses. Additionally, these portals may offer forums for addressing concerns and can act as intermediaries in resolving conflicts between players and casinos. The versatility of casino portals is highly valued by players, making them valuable as affiliate partners.

Influencers — Online casino enthusiasts often have diverse interests, not limited to gambling-specific content, so collaborating with influencers from various domains can be an effective strategy to reach new potential players. Influencers from different backgrounds such as musicians, professional athletes, car enthusiasts, and other individuals with followers that overlap with the iGaming audience can become valuable affiliate partners when managed effectively.

However, be careful partnering with multiple affiliates who target the same audience. If their target demographics overlap, it can result in competition for traffic, which may impede your efforts rather than enhance them.

What partnership models are there?

There are a few different ways that online gambling platforms compensate their affiliate partners.

Pay per click (PPC)

In the PPC model, the affiliate program rewards a member every time a user clicks on a link. Rewards for affiliates in this model can be on the lower side, as not all clicks lead to more meaningful actions on the part of the site visitor, such as filling in a contact form or making a deposit.

Cost per view (CPV)

CPV rewards are even lower than PPC rewards, as affiliates are paid when a user sees an ad, whether or not they actually click on it.

Pay per sale (PPS)

With the PPS model, affiliates are rewarded if the user who is brought to the website via the affiliate link actually purchases the advertised product or service. PPS rewards are some of the highest in the affiliate world.

Sub-Affiliate Programs

Affiliates can also recruit sub-affiliates, earning a commission on the revenue generated by the players referred by their recruits. This multi-tiered approach can create a network of affiliates working to promote your platform.

Revenue share (Revshare)

With the revshare model, affiliates receive a portion of a player’s lifetime losses. On the one hand, revshare aligns the interests of operators and affiliates. Since affiliates earn a percentage of player losses, they are motivated to refer high-quality, long-term players who will generate more revenue for the operator.

Typically, affiliates receive a percentage of revenue ranging from 20% to 45%. Seasoned affiliates usually receive higher percentages, while new affiliates start with a lower percentage and aim to increase it over time as they establish their track record.

Although they can be cost-effective in the long term, they introduce variable costs that fluctuate month to month, making financial planning challenging. Plus, attracting and retaining affiliates often requires competitive commission rates, although this can reduce operator profits. Managing Revenue Share agreements can result in administrative overhead, including tracking player activity, commission calculations, and addressing affiliate inquiries or disputes.

Cost per action (CPA)

In the CPA model, businesses pay affiliates each time a user performs a specific action on a web resource. These actions include completing a contact form, subscribing to an email newsletter, creating an account, or depositing. In the online gambling industry, CPA is often used as an abbreviation for cost per acquisition, meaning that affiliates are paid when a player signs up and makes a deposit.

Hybrid

The hybrid model is a blend of the revshare and CPA models. By combining CPA and Revenue Share components, operators can diversify their affiliate partnerships, stimulate growth, and mitigate risks. Affiliates receive a one-time fee when the player first signs up, in addition to an ongoing commission throughout the player’s lifetime. The specific payment scheme may vary from program to program.

However, implementing the hybrid model also brings increased complexity and administrative challenges. To succeed with this model, operators must maintain a strong focus on quality control, affiliate negotiations, and effective management of affiliate relationships.

The revshare, CPA, and hybrid models are the three most commonly used in the online gambling sector.

Why is affiliate marketing important for promoting an iGaming company?

Casino affiliate marketing proved to be one of the most effective strategies in gambling.

Firstly, it provides a constant stream of targeted traffic to gambling platforms, which is vital for attracting new players and retaining loyal ones. This is especially relevant in markets where there are restrictions on gambling advertising in traditional media such as television and radio — affiliate marketing is difficult to regulate or restrict.

Affiliates offer transparency and measurability, allowing casinos to track performance metrics closely and get paid based on performance. For example, the affiliate might receive a percentage of a lifetime losses from players who convert, but nothing from those who don’t.

Affiliates operate through diverse marketing channels, reaching various audiences. They often have niche websites catering to specific interests, ensuring the traffic they direct is more likely to convert into active players. Publishers offer various options to engage customers, such as contextual advertising, social networking, newsletters, teasers, pop-ups, and mobile applications.

Affiliates help to increase brand awareness and improve brand identity. Even players who don't actually visit the casino site can still potentially encounter the brand through affiliate promotional materials. This is especially important in today's digital world, where brand recognition plays a pivotal role in determining a brand's Search Engine (SEO) ranking and reaching new customers.

In addition, affiliate marketing allows iGaming businesses to expand their market by working with a wide range of partners who have their own unique audiences. This lets you reach new market segments and attract players that might have remained inaccessible without this type of marketing.

How to find an effective affiliate partnership

Let’s go over what to look for in an affiliate program.

The first level is the quality of the content the affiliate creates. It’s important to make sure your partners not only have large volumes of traffic, but that the traffic itself is high-quality. If it’s a blog, are there well-written, insightful articles? Players trust blogs that dispense real wisdom. Does the blogger give good tips for how to play casino games or what matches to bet on (and how to bet)? If it’s a streamer, is the video in HD or 4K, and does the streamer have the kind of charisma that keeps people watching?

Quality content will lead to 1) a large audience, and 2) a knowledgeable audience — one that’s more likely to actually play themselves.

Next, look at the regulations the affiliate or affiliate program might be subject to. No matter how large their audience is, if they run afoul of the law and get blocked in their target market, their audience will disappear overnight — taking your stream of incoming players along with it.

These steps will help you to identify and establish effective affiliate partnerships that will drive player acquisitions and boost revenue.

Step 1: Define your objectives

Before seeking affiliate partners, it is crucial to establish clear objectives for your affiliate program. Consider your goals, such as increasing player registrations, boosting player deposits, or expanding into specific markets. These objectives will guide your affiliate selection process.

Step 2: Create an attractive affiliate program

An appealing affiliate program is key to attracting quality partners. Ensure that your program offers competitive commission rates, reliable tracking, and transparent reporting. Affiliates should see your program as a profitable and trustworthy opportunity.

Step 3: Identify your target audience

Understand your target audience and player demographics. This knowledge will help you find affiliates whose content and marketing strategies align with your player base. For example, if your audience consists of sports enthusiasts, look for affiliates in the sports betting or other adjacent niches.

Step 4: Research affiliate networks

As mentioned before, affiliate networks have a pool of experienced affiliates and can help match your business with suitable partners.

Step 5: Evaluate affiliate candidates

When considering potential affiliates, conduct thorough evaluations to ensure they are a good fit for your brand. Consider the following:

• Reputation: Check the affiliate's track record, industry reputation, and reviews from other iGaming operators they've worked with.
• Content quality: Review their website or content to ensure it aligns with your brand's image and values.
• Traffic and reach: Assess their website's traffic, social media presence, and audience engagement.
• Compliance: Ensure that affiliates comply with local and international gambling regulations to avoid legal issues.

Step 6: Negotiate terms and agreements

Once you've identified suitable affiliates, negotiate terms and agreements. Discuss commission rates, payment schedules, and any unique terms that benefit both parties. It's essential to have a clear and mutually beneficial contract in place.

Step 7: Provide marketing resources

Empower your affiliates with marketing resources such as banners, landing pages, and promotional materials. Make it easy for them to promote your brand effectively.

Step 8: Monitor and optimize

Continuous monitoring is vital to gauge affiliate performance. Use tracking tools and analytics to assess their impact on player acquisition and revenue. If an affiliate is underperforming, provide guidance and support or consider parting ways.

Step 9: Build strong relationships

Effective affiliate partnerships are built on trust and collaboration. Maintain open communication with your affiliates, address their concerns promptly, and recognize and reward top-performing partners.

Choosing the right affiliate marketing platform

In gambling affiliate marketing platform aims to help businesses to organize campaigns and track their performance. Processing such a massive data manually is almost impossible, especially in companies that manage more than one iGaming brand or work with several affiliates within one brand at the same time.

What is an affiliate network?

An affiliate network serves as a platform connecting affiliate marketers with businesses or advertisers. It acts as a central hub where affiliates can discover a variety of affiliate programs, access marketing materials, monitor their performance, and receive consolidated payments.

These networks facilitate payment distribution, assist in fraud prevention, and grant access to a larger pool of potential affiliates, management tools, tracking and reporting capabilities.

Affiliates often join networks of publishers who promote the same or related products. Within these affiliate networks, members are given access to a catalog of products, enabling them to choose which ones they want to showcase on their websites.

Additionally, sometimes a casino or game developer will launch their own exclusive network of affiliates. However, this is typically only feasible for large, well-established brands.

Affiliate marketing trends in 2024

comments SaaS partner management platform provider Alanbase.

In 2024, gambling companies will continue to partner with influencers and other internet celebrities. These partnerships will be increasingly effective methods of attracting new audiences, promoting products, and increasing brand awareness.

In addition, the development of partner relationship management software will be a major priority. It will help improve usability for affiliate partners and enable better communication between companies and affiliates.

Today, people are more attracted to high quality content. Luckily technologies develop and allow content creators to improve this quality not spending more time on this. With the use of AI text and visual content are generated quicker.

Micro-influencers are another trend of today’s marketing. Smaller blogs are more trustworthy because of their more individual attitude and the impression of personal recommendation.