The efficiency of affiliate marketing is frequently discussed in business news related to the gambling industry. The market participants want to know how to use this promotion tool to increase traffic.
Łukasz Kieza, a gambling and affiliate marketing expert, especially for Login Casino, has provided a deep insight into this vertical, described its main tendencies, and challenges.
Łukasz, in your opinion, what is the most effective affiliate marketing model for the gambling industry in 2021 and why?
It’s very hard to say which affiliate marketing model is the most effective. It depends on the strategic plans of the owners of gambling companies and how the competitors operate in the market. Then you should make the right choice, focusing on RevShare, Cost per Acquisition, flat-fee, or hybrid solutions. Many factors are influencing the final decision in this matter, such as the expected return on investment, brand reputation, or the specificity of the market in which you operate.
Speaking about the importance of specificity of the market, do you mean more a certain vertical (poker, betting, slots) or regions where a company operates? Could you choose a few markets and tell about the best strategies for them?
Both factors are important because, depending on the industry, we see a different specificity of a player (e.g. in terms of lifetime value, activity, stakes, etc.). As one of the examples, I can mention the Polish market, which is the closest to me, where licensed operators can only operate in the betting area.
From the affiliates’ point of view, it is a very small market, as no more than 10 entities are active in this area. However, the trap of too high affiliate costs, largely based on too high RevShare contracts, forced companies to make radical decisions regarding contracts with partners to rationalize exaggerated costs. Thus, an appropriate policy in this area without overestimated costs (regardless of the RevShare or CPA model, as flats are quite rare on this market) will allow you to easily take a leading position in affiliate rankings.
As a counterweight, there is a competitive Russian market with many operators, where it is relatively easy for an affiliate partner to obtain a high flat rate when negotiating the form of agreement with the operator. Comprehensive services offered by bookmakers and casino operators in this market make it very attractive for the affiliate industry. At the same time, it is not easy for new entities to jump to the top positions in the rankings.
The third quite specific market is Africa. It is developing very fast and with prospects. Nevertheless, at the moment the players quality is relatively low, which disqualifies, among others, settlement in the form of a high CPA (e.g. popular in Germany, where the players’ value is one of the highest in Europe), because it will simply be unprofitable for the operator and the return on investment such as paying for the player to the affiliate can be very long.
How not to waste budget while cooperating with gambling affiliate networks? Any tips for casino owners who are novices in this vertical?
Developing an appropriate and balanced strategy for generating traffic to the operator. It is necessary to invest in your own channels by paying particular attention to SEO and SEM (depending on the market and Google regulations in this area), programmatic, and own social media channels. Some operators allow an affiliate share of 80-90% among new users. Of course, the alternatives to attract traffic depend on the market in which you operate, but the industry claims that the optimal level of affiliate share is around 40%.
Applications are a long-standing trend in affiliate marketing, mainly due to their convenience. Are there any hints of new solutions, which will be more effective in terms of traffic generating?
This is not a surprise due to the fact that 80-90% of bookmakers’ traffic comes from the mobile channel. There is a noticeable trend in the emergence of more betting applications connected to Facebook or Telegram groups. The trend is rather irreversible due to the increasingly stronger transfer of traffic to mobile.
Developing the theme of this question: what trends, apart from mobile applications, in your opinion, will have a crucial impact on affiliate marketing in the near future?
Undoubtedly, there is no escape from the trend of free casino or sportsbook games that offer a flavor of real money gambling. A bit of real gameplay, various forms of tipsters or slots/casino games demo versions are a tactic that is increasingly used by affiliates. However, it is also worth paying attention to the growing trend of casino and bookmaker websites where the only accepted payment method is cryptocurrency. For affiliate networks, this is a challenge in terms of the need to attract a new type of player or learn a new form of payment, which still many users may refuse to do. It is, therefore, a bit of an educational role for an affiliate.
Speaking about social media channels, which one will be the hottest option for affiliate marketing this year?
In the case of bookmakers, a significant increase in the popularity of betting groups in the Telegram application has been noticeable for some time. Almost every leading betting affiliate has already transferred part of the traffic built around the community on betting forums and then on Facebook to this channel. Of course, we shouldn’t underestimate Facebook, which seems to have started looking a little more favorably on affiliate gambling content recently. If we talk about casino traffic, special attention should be paid to Twitch, especially when YouTube is increasingly restrictive to gambling content.
Let’s talk about regulations. It isn’t a secret that affiliate networks face many obstacles and restrictions, however, compliance is important. How to find a balance and deal with this?
Certainly, it is much easier for affiliate networks than for operators who can incur multi-million penalties for the slightest failures on some markets. The regulations are an obstacle, especially for entities operating in different countries, which requires adaptation of many areas in each field and is extremely time-consuming.
In which regions of the world are affiliate networks currently facing the greatest difficulties due to the legislative aspect? And which regions are the easiest to work in?
It’s easiest to say that the best market for an affiliate network is unregulated. However, there are fewer and fewer of these, as can be seen from the example of Europe, where more and more restrictions appear, including Great Britain, where the operator has to control every marketing information appearing on the affiliate partner’s website. Or in Germany, where there are quite strong restrictions on bonuses and promotional policy. It is not only about the content of the message, adding the appropriate T&Cs, but also what the regulator allows the operator. In the case of a very limited possibility of attracting a customer through a welcome or retention bonus, as is the case in the mentioned countries, it is more difficult to convince clients to register due to the less attractive advertising message for them.
Read more: Top CPA networks
