Affiliate marketing is one of the best marketing strategies used by top companies to promote their products and/or services. It is a kind of performance-based marketing that promotes other businesses’ products. The casino industry is also very vast and needs rampant promotion to extend its network; this can be made possible by the various Casino Affiliate Programs. But what is affiliate marketing? Let’s find out in this section.
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a marketing strategy in which a business rewards affiliates for each customer brought in by the affiliates’ marketing efforts. The concept of affiliate marketing in the World Wide Web was propounded by William. J. Tobin, the founder of PC Flowers and Gifts. Seeing its sales skyrocketing after implementing this strategy, Tobin encouraged more affiliates to help him promote his business on the internet. Affiliate marketing includes other common internet marketing methods like SEO (search engine optimization), email marketing, content marketing, PPC (Pay per click), display advertising, so on and so forth. However, it is different from referral marketing, and people often confuse affiliate marketing tools with referral marketing tools, as both these marketing techniques involve third-party intervention to drive sales. But, while the former involves financial motivations, referral marketing involves the customers’ trust and confidence.
Affiliate Programs for Casinos
Online gambling is a quick way to try your luck while pursuing your passion. Online casinos are websites containing all forms of gambling, and not many people know about this. Still today, people are more comfortable visiting their niche areas in the land and mortar casinos. Therefore, this industry needs more promotion, which is made possible by casino affiliate programs. A casino affiliate program also has another advantage; it is backed by popular brands that help to gain the customers’ trust quite easily. Moreover, the fast mobile landing pages also provide higher payouts to a casino affiliate program.
Any interested person who knows all the nooks and corners of a particular online casino can become a casino affiliate. For example, bloggers, who are also casino players themselves, can become casino affiliates to share various important tips with their audiences. Owners of thematic sites that are related to iGaming can also act as casino affiliates. To work as a successful casino affiliate, one needs to have a thorough understanding of the website mechanics of casinos. Affiliates should also have a clear understanding of how the various website contents operate and then put them together into an appealing resource for the website visitors. An amateur affiliate should know the audience well, their tastes and preferences, etc. It becomes easier to find content for them that they will respond to the most.
Most online casinos offer affiliate programs to widen their potential reach. To become an affiliate, the first step is to visit the casino affiliate program page. You can find a link at the bottom of the casino’s website, “affiliate programs casino,” clicking on which will direct you to the casino affiliate program page. Affiliate links can be embedded in any form like pop-ups, banners, or text links. The best casino affiliate page generally has important information for the users that they need to know before partnering with the casino as an affiliate.
Signing up on the casino affiliate program page is free, but this is to be remembered once a user is registered as an affiliate casino, he needs to act promptly and make use of his potential, which means he should start to put his efforts into action and bring in more visitors to the casino’s website. Blogs are the most popular choice for amateur affiliates, and most of them begin their career as casino bloggers.
The best casino affiliate programs promote partner online casinos and monetize interactions with various advertisements. A casino affiliate can also act as an intermediary between the advertiser casinos and the casino affiliate programs to provide services to both parties.
How Do Casino Affiliates Work?
An online casino affiliate connects publishers with various affiliate programs related to online casino services. In turn, these affiliate programs promote online gambling, thereby attracting more traffic to the casino’s website in exchange for some monetary compensation. The affiliates get paid depending on the conditions of an offer. Referral links posted by the affiliates bring much more relevant traffic to the casinos than other traditional internet marketing modes. Users who use links posted by affiliates to join the casino community find it more comfortable to register to the online casinos.
Casino affiliates work as middlemen between the online casino brands and players. It helps in driving customers to a particular website, company, or brand. Casino affiliates work as independent marketers on behalf of the other companies and get paid every time a new customer visits the website or is guided by the products and/or services on offer. Each casino affiliate is given a unique URL link that remains embedded in the website. These links help to track where the web traffic is coming from. By using this link of the affiliates, the casinos can share their content with other affiliates, thereby extending their networks to more players.
How Are Casino Affiliates Paid?
There are three basic modes in which an online casino affiliate is paid for bringing web traffic for various casino brands:
1) Revenue Share – Revenue Share or RevShare as it is also called is a payment mode in which a casino affiliate is paid a percentage of the net revenue earned by the casino from a referred player. Revenue Share is a long-term model in which a casino affiliate may earn 5% to 50% as commission during his active period of the lead playing in the casino or using the sports betting services offered by the casino.
Such a high percentage of commission in the Revenue Share mode of payment encourages affiliates to bring in top-quality customers to iGaming. However, the Revenue Share model also has its downsides; besides earning a huge percentage of revenue, the affiliates may also incur huge losses. Therefore, it is important for affiliates to evaluate the risks associated with the Revenue Share model before they choose the payment model as Revenue Share for the online affiliate program casino.
2) CPA – the Cost per acquisition model/Cost per action model or the CPA model is the second-best payment mode for affiliates after the Revenue Share model. This model is based on the number of users performing an action. In the case of an online casino, this mode of payment is used to pay affiliates when the players brought in by those affiliates either sign up on the casino’s website or make their first deposits.
Sometimes, casinos following the Cost per acquisition model have flexible payments for registrations or for downloads. But there are also some casinos where advertisers pay for new regular players. Therefore, if the lead player leaves after making the first deposit, these online casinos do not pay their affiliates, leading to a huge loss for the affiliates.
3) Hybrid – As the name suggests, the hybrid model is a mix of the CPA model and the Revenue Share model. Following this method, an online casino pays an affiliate a one-time payment for the deposits made by the player brought in by those affiliates. The affiliates also receive payments for each subsequent amount deposited by those players. Moreover, if the affiliate manages to bring more new quality players in, the percentage of commission fees may increase with this hybrid payment model.
Some online casinos use only one of these payment models to make payments to their affiliates, while others use a combination of these models to pay their affiliates. Sometimes the payment models depend on the different affiliate programs run by the casinos that may impose certain restrictions on the payment models, which again might be disadvantageous to the kind of marketing services that the affiliate provides. Therefore, all affiliates, before they get started with any casino affiliate programs, should carefully read the terms and conditions of the casinos. They should also consider things like negative balance carryover or bunding schemes. Most importantly, it is to be remembered that not all casino affiliate programs suit all affiliates.
How Do Casinos Promote Affiliates?
Creating and promoting a successful affiliate program in gambling requires considering some useful steps. Casinos should select an affiliate program that has the potential to stand out amongst other similar affiliate programs. Before creating an affiliate program, casinos should make sure whether they have the basic tools to manage the program at their best. For managing the affiliate, program casinos can either use an all-in-one-cloud-based solution or create their own in-house management platforms, whichever suits the operations of the casino.
The next step is to choose an effective payment method to pay the affiliates, which may be Cost per acquisition, Revenue Share, or the Hybrid model. The best way to encourage the affiliates to perform their operations more effectively is to reward the affiliate with various promo materials. Alternatively, some casinos list a series of recommendations for the affiliates to encourage them to create their own strategies for their brands.
These are some of the basics that online casinos should consider before selecting an online casino affiliate program for their brands. Moreover, it is to be remembered that the reputation of the casino brands and recognition among its players play a dominant role in the success of the casino business.
Casino Affiliate Programs of 2021
Some of the top casino affiliate programs of 2021 are listed below:
1) PlayAmo – PlayAmo is one of the quickly growing affiliate companies established in 2015 that partners with over 1000 casinos and have already driven millions of players to those casinos. There are no negative carryovers, and the payments are made on the 1st of each month.
2) 1xbet – it is an excellent casino and betting site, also known for its superb affiliate program. It partners with over 20,000 casinos from all over the world that can yet again make up to 25% referrals for other customers.
3) Betsson Casino Affiliates – Betsson is a very popular name in the casino industry that has been in the gambling business for over 50 years now. There are dozens of live casino games, table games, or classic shots, so players get a handful of gambling choices at Betsson. This affiliate program works on the Revenue Share model, but sub-affiliates also have the option to get paid. Moreover, there is no negative carryover, and the referral programs are based on lifetime deals, which means that affiliates will continue to receive income from any player who is referred to their brands, as long as they play( provided the player has his account linked to the affiliate ID).
Wrap Up
Thus, affiliate casino marketing can give a whole new perspective to the online gambling business. The performance-based approach of an online casino affiliate program protects the casinos from any significant risks whatsoever and brings them quality customers, thereby guaranteeing a positive ROI (return on investment). A wide range of web traffic increases the trust and recognition of online gambling brands. All these benefits come at minimal effort on the part of the online casinos, where they are only required to select the best casino affiliate program that can ensure quality affiliates. Monitoring the results using a reliable management team also is a part of the casino’s responsibilities, which will help in widening its network beyond a specific jurisdiction.
