Affiliate sites are everywhere on the web today, promoting products and services across various niches. Usually operating in the form of a blog, website or social media personal account, they create revenue by sending traffic to partnered sites.
Due to the extreme competition of casino operators, as well as the legislation and detail that players need to consider prior to spending their money on one, iGaming affiliates are quite essential. They generate traffic by comparing different operators, highlighting their features, vouching for their safety, and creating essential go-to guides for players.
What Are Affiliate Websites?
A good way to understand the notion of affiliate sites is to think of PR practices, like press releases and testimonials by users of a product. Advertising has been around for over 100 years, which is why the recipients of it are aware of the lies and misinformation that is often communicated through ads. On the other hand, independent newspapers and users of a product were considered most trusted sources of information about the offerings of a company, as they weren’t directly linked to them.
Affiliate sites take on that role, being the independent third parties that review companies and either recommend or do not recommend their services to their readers. If a user chooses to visit an online casino through an affiliate site, then the revenue generated by this player will be shared by the casino and the affiliate platform.
How Do Affiliate Sites Generate Traffic?
As online casinos involve a degree of know-how to play, users will often look for tips, advice and answers to their questions on the web. Affiliates that operate within the iGaming niche will try to guess those questions, providing answers through elaborate content, often in the form of blogs, images or videos.
Users that land on that content will likely find the answer to their questions, along with a bunch of platforms that cover their expectations. If the user uses the affiliate link to visit the casino and play, then the affiliate will receive a share of the profit generated by that player. So, in essence, affiliate websites generate traffic by offering useful content to gamblers. The type of content that is mostly added on affiliate websites includes:
- Casino Reviews that highlight all the major aspects of the casino in question.
- Game Reviews, which explain the mechanics and payout details of various casino games.
- Bonus Offers, which are exclusively offered to players signing up through the affiliate site.
- Guides on different betting modes, strategies and into the different elements of the games/casinos. Such guides could include the payment methods at a casino, like pay by mobile casino, or the licenses that are accepted on different countries.
- News Stories, which will inform the public on different gambling updates, new online casino releases, partnerships amongst platforms and more.
Types of Affiliate Deals
When it comes to the specifics, each casino and affiliate program can create their own revenue streams, with the most common ones being:
- RevShare – this type of deal will involve a split share between the casino and the iGaming affiliate, usually of 40% for the affiliate and 60% of the casino. The above means that the affiliate will receive a 40% share of the losses of the player. Such deals almost never involve negative carryover.
- Flat Fee – another popular deal includes the cost per acquisition model. Here, the affiliate website will receive the agreed fee for each player who conducts a minimum deposit at the casino.
The above two are the most common models that affiliate websites get involved with to generate money through their traffic.
How Much Money Do Affiliate Sites Actually Make?
Since this is dependent on the traffic that a website has, there is no clear-cut answer. Nevertheless, when you consider that a flat fee of $500 is often the average deal amongst affiliates and US casinos, then you realize that the money-making potential for websites that have over 100,000 visitors per month is huge.
On the other hand, the RevShare deal model is a scheme that keeps on giving. Let’s say that a player you send over at an operator spends $50 the first month and lost, you will receive about $22 with a 40/60% deal. But that amount can increase and keep rolling in if the player continues to play on the site in the following months.
With high rollers especially, if an affiliate website refers a player that spends over $5,000 per month at the casino, they could be making $2,000 per month from a single player. And the affiliate does not, also, have to worry about paying out big jackpots or huge wins, as negative carryover is non-existence in the business.
Bottom Line
Affiliate marketing is a really profitable enterprise, especially within the iGaming niche. With the complexity of regulation changes and number of online casinos being launched every day, players will resort more and more to affiliate sites for guidance.
Nevertheless, is not easy to build trust and generate huge traffic in any niche, but it is especially hard in the iGaming industry, due to the stakes involved. If you are considering turning your website into an iGaming affiliate business, weight the pros and cons and whether you have the resources to compete with the current industry giants. If you manage it, then you will be in for a treat.
