Affiliate Marketing has always been aggressively competitive. But what’s interesting is the scope of affiliate marketing in the iGaming industry. The iGaming industry is known for being overly regulated in terms of marketing. Most operators find it difficult to develop and succeed in their online gaming business such as online sports betting, casino/gambling, and various other online gaming platforms. This blog is for affiliates and gaming platform owners, where we will go through the potential and opportunities the iGaming industry can provide an affiliate marketer, iGaming affiliate models, and discuss some emerging iGaming affiliate marketing strategies.
How Does iGaming Affiliate Marketing Work?
Affiliate marketing brings together two parties, the actual marketer, who in this case is the owner of a gaming platform, and the affiliates, who advertise the gaming platform to his/her audience.
They are connected to each other by an affiliate network system where they reach an agreement based on their requirements and demands.
After the agreement, the publisher creates URLs, ads, and banners that directly lead to the product page.
These custom URLs and ads are shared with affiliates and based on the leads generated, affiliates are paid based on their performance.
Types of Affiliates in the iGaming Industry
There are two types of affiliates: private individual affiliates and corporate affiliates.
Corporate affiliates are firms with their own affiliate marketing team that are focused on achieving the best results for their gaming platform partners. Since they are marketing on a larger scale, their profits are 10x higher than an individual affiliate, which means they are getting better deals from affiliate networks.
Individual affiliates won’t be able to earn as much as corporate affiliates, but it’s not impossible to make a six-figure profit out of the business per month. Talking about profits, let’s see how much money an affiliate can make from iGaming Affiliate Marketing.
How Profitable is iGaming Affiliate Marketing?
According to Statista, the market size online gambling market is recorded at $59 billion in 2020 and is expected to increase to $92.9 billion by 2023.
Of course, the market is huge, and so are the opportunities to make the most of it. Most affiliate websites focus on a combination of gambling variants to increase their ROI such as online slots, poker, and casino games.
It will take considerable time and effort for an affiliate to build a reputation in the iGaming Affiliate industry. However, once an affiliate is recognized as a top-rated marketer, they can make six figured incomes per month with just a couple of affiliate partners. Imagine the profits if you have two or more affiliate partners.
On average, the highest-rated affiliate marketers make 50 grand a month.
Choosing The Right iGaming Affiliate Model
In order to choose the right affiliate model for the iGaming industry, there are certain factors to consider as an affiliate.
Expertise
As a beginner, the revenue share model will sound tempting to you as it gets the highest profits. However, it would take a considerable amount of time and effort for you to make some money.
So, to maintain high motivation, we recommend you to go for a CPL or CPA model.
This is a safe bet as in the beginning, you won’t know the quality of the leads that you are directing to your website and these models are beneficial for the short term.
Commitment
Your strategies for affiliate marketing in the iGaming industry completely depend on how committed you are to this industry.
As discussed above, CPA and CPL models will get quick money and are great options for beginners who are in it for the short term. But for those who are in it for a longer duration and are confident about their marketing skills can go for the more profitable Revenue Share model.
Active Leads
Publishers, Gaming platforms, and Sportbook owners want quality players to use their platforms.
Affiliates need to think about their leads’ activity. Sales can only re-occur if quality leads or players are playing and depositing actively on the platform.
iGaming Affiliate Marketing Strategies To Focus On
This section is for both affiliates and Gaming platforms. There are several strategies that one can come across for marketing in the iGaming industry. But the strategies that caught our attention were:
Influencer Marketing
Influencer marketing has proven to be an effective affiliate marketing strategy for affiliates in recent times. Influencers have a strong relationship based on trust with their audience which can lead to valuable users for iGaming platforms. Having them on board would be highly beneficial for affiliates as well as publishers as they improve the credibility and reach of your platform.
Live Streaming
Live streaming has started to revolutionize the affiliate industry with platforms such as Twitch and Youtube, which has become a handy tool for affiliates and publishers to attract new users, promote products and increase their reach in a different space.
Affiliates are considering exploiting these live streaming platforms by emphasizing safe gambling for casinos, online poker, and other gambling platforms as this community will grow exponentially over the years to come.
Developing Quality SEO Content
Engaging your audience with organic SEO content based on iGaming and gambling can prove very beneficial. Answering the questions your audience asks related to your platform or related queries will drive major organic traffic to your website. This strategy creates credibility and builds trust for affiliates as well as the products that need to be advertised.
The Trust-Factor
Apart from strategies, Affiliates and iGaming Operators should work on building a strong relationship with each other in order to pass relevant information such as promoting a new game, press releases, and in-platform updates to their audiences and players.
Affiliate marketing in online sports betting and gambling involves significant trust amongst the stakeholders.
From affiliates’ perspective, believing in the operator’s product can attract even more players from your audience. At the end of the day, it is the steady stream of traffic that comes to an affiliate’s website that defines the profitable relationship between an affiliate and the iGaming partner publisher.
Conclusion: iGaming Affiliate Marketing’s Future
The iGaming business has become more complex and has evolved into a multi-billion dollar industry. Currently, every stakeholder in this industry, be it online gaming/betting partnerships, reviewers, YouTubers, or marketers is benefiting from affiliate marketing. For marketers, affiliate marketing reduces their expenses for marketing and improves revenue. Who can say no to that?
We cannot deny the fact that affiliate marketing is a competitive business model. Some strategies work and others fail. But the important thing to remember is to work according to the vertical you serve with the hopes of attracting a wider audience and converting them to your valuable customers.
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