by Sergiy Schelkov, Epom Sales Executive
The iGaming market’s size reached US$86bn in 2024 and is expected to increase to $120bn by 2029. However, with growth comes new challenges, and one of the biggest is the surging cost of acquisitions. Since 2019, it’s risen by 60 per cent.
iGaming companies have relied on affiliate marketing. Today, this era is showing clear signs of decline, mainly because this approach lacks control and transparency. If you rely on affiliate marketing as your primary customer source, you know almost nothing about these people.
The numbers back up this reasoning. For instance, in 2023, 29,6 per cent of iGaming businesses used affiliate marketing to attract customers, and in 2024, this number decreased to 22 per cent. At the same time, the share of paid advertising, such as PPC and display ads, increased from 7,4 per cent to 18 per cent.
So, we’re entering a new era, with new rules and ways to attract customers. How to thrive in it? And what is the alternative to affiliates? As a sales executive at Epom, I frequently discuss it with our current and potential clients, including online casinos. In this article, I’ll share some of the insights.
Why Affiliates Alone Aren’t Enough Anymore
For years, affiliates have driven traffic to online casinos, and the system seemed to work. However, there were always issues, and some of them have accumulated over time. Here are the most crucial.
Lack of Transparency
Lately, we’ve started hearing from European online casinos that they no longer want “hand-me-down traffic.” They are tired of limited visibility over traffic sources. Usually, online casinos have very little, if any, control over the targeting options their affiliates use to attract customers. Also, it’s not even clear if affiliates use the right messages in their ad campaigns.
As a result, casinos don’t always get quality traffic. What’s worse, they face increased risks, especially in regulated markets. Attracting traffic with affiliates’ help is like a black box: you don’t know the source of the traffic and aren’t sure it meets regulatory requirements. Increasingly, companies are questioning whether they should continue to take risks for uncertain outcomes.
Very Little Room for Campaign Optimisation
Today’s digital advertising ecosystem provides multiple opportunities to optimise your customer-attracting efforts. For instance, you can perform A/B testing and try different visuals or messages to see what works best.
However, online casinos most often have no control over the campaigns affiliates launch. The best they can hope for is getting high-level reports from affiliates, which doesn’t help reach relevant audiences efficiently.
Inability to Verify the Traffic Quality
Since casinos have limited access to the data, they can’t distinguish visitors with high spending potential from low-quality traffic sources like push traffic. It may lead to an increase in the customer churn rate over time, when it’s too late to improve the situation without losing profits.
In other words, marketers in iGaming companies often have to guess instead of relying on data.
Increased Fraud Risks and Low ROI
Affiliate fraud is quite common in the iGaming industry. Many affiliate programs reward traffic volume over quality, so partners may attempt to exploit the system. Here are the most common ways:
- Incentivised traffic. Users register on your website because one of your affiliates offered them a bonus. After receiving the reward, they never come back.
- False registrations by bots or low-quality visitors.
- Cookie stuffing. Affiliates can secretly drop tracking cookies on a user’s browser, so when a person visits your website, they get rewarded.
Due to increased risks, customer acquisition costs may rise significantly. The average customer acquisition cost (CAC) in the iGaming industry ranges from $280 to $1,400 per user. If you pay such money to attract a customer who never deposits or plays, you’ll see a decline in ROI.
The challenges that online casinos face today aren’t just operational, they are strategic. So, solving these problems with old methods is impossible. iGaming companies need a new approach, and we believe the key to it is a demand-side platform.
What Is a Demand-Side Platform — and How Can It Help Casinos?
A demand-side platform (DSP) is software that enables advertisers, including online casinos, to purchase ad placements in real time across various channels conveniently. DSPs offer a single point of entry to the programmatic advertising world, and complete control over ad campaigns, user data, optimisation, and scaling your efforts.
Let’s dive deeper into the features a demand-side platform can offer.
Direct Access to Users
No middleman is needed, a programmatic DSP connects advertisers with the traffic sources, such as publishers and ad networks. This step helps lower expenses and provides a comprehensive understanding of where traffic is coming from.
Advanced Targeting Features
With a demand-side platform, casinos can target precisely the type of customer they want to attract. Most DSPs allow geo-targeting by country, region, or city, so local campaigns tend to deliver better results. This means that DSP traffic usually brings more relevant users than other ad sources.
Additionally, casinos can target users based on their device type, browser, and the time of day. Moreover, you can aim your campaigns at users who have exhibited specific behaviour in the past, such as visiting iGaming websites or apps.
Full Control Over Campaigns
A demand-side platform enables casinos to set a budget cap for their ad spending. Also, advertisers can conduct A/B testing and track audience reactions. In case the campaign doesn’t show the expected results, you can optimise it. Another option, duplicate the success of the most effective ads.
Transparent Costs
With a demand-side platform, you know precisely how much a visitor or conversion costs you. You have all the information about impressions, clicks, conversions, and other metrics. Hence, you can optimise your ad spend budget.
Scalability
DSPs usually present more growth opportunities than affiliate programs. Typically, within the traditional affiliate approach, scaling operations requires onboarding additional partners. It takes time, and the results are often unpredictable.
With a demand-side platform, you can expand your operations fast and almost effortlessly. For instance, if you want to start attracting customers from a new location, you can launch a targeted campaign or even use advanced features like programmatic geofencing.
Thinking for the Long Game
The way iGaming companies attract traffic is due for a reset. With more regulations and increasing acquisition costs, casinos struggle to find high-quality customers. Affiliates can’t solve this problem, they are a part of it.
Demand-side platforms enable casinos to approach the traffic issue differently. After all, if you already own a brand and have a solid reputation, why rely on a third party?
The future of casino growth isn’t more traffic, it’s smarter tools, transparent data, and scalability potential. A demand-side platform may be the right fit for those seeking control over user data and ad campaigns. So if you think it’s time to take back control of your acquisition strategy, consider this option.
The post The Great Affiliate Reset: why casinos need smarter traffic appeared first on G3 Newswire.
by Sergiy Schelkov, Epom Sales Executive The iGaming market’s size reached US$86bn in 2024 and is expected to increase to $120bn by 2029. However, with growth comes new challenges, and one of the biggest is the surging cost of acquisitions. Since 2019, it’s risen by 60 per cent. iGaming companies have relied on affiliate marketing….
The post The Great Affiliate Reset: why casinos need smarter traffic appeared first on G3 Newswire.