Controversial opinion: the hike in remote gaming duty (RGD) from 21% to 40% is actually a good thing. It’s forcing a long-overdue ‘great reset’. Operators, providers and affiliates are finally having to take a long, hard look at their operations to find efficiencies that were previously ignored during the era of wider margins.
While some have decided the UK market is no longer for them, those who have found these efficiencies are discovering the opportunities in this new era are greater than ever before. Player demand hasn’t cooled – in fact, the appetite for digital entertainment continues to scale.
However, with margins now surgically compressed, the ‘spray and pray’ approach to acquisition is dead. Operators can no longer afford to overpay for low-intent traffic. They need players who deliver the lifetime value (LTV) required to thrive in a high-tax ecosystem.
Affiliates remain a vital acquisition channel, but the ‘business as usual’ model is broken. To remain relevant, affiliates must overhaul their entire approach to player journey and lead quality. That overhaul starts with a difficult admission: the era of the ‘Top 10’ list is over.
The death of the average player
The industry has long designed products for an ‘average player’ who doesn’t actually exist. In a 40% RGD environment, acquiring traffic through a one-size-fits-all approach is no longer just lazy, it’s a commercial liability.
When an affiliate fails to meet specific consumer expectations, they fail their operator partners. Take the traditional ‘Top 10’ list. A site might occupy position one because it has paid for the privilege, offering a massive deposit match bonus.
However, if that bonus requires a £20 minimum deposit to trigger, but the player is a recreational user looking to spend £5, that recommendation is a fundamental failure of the UX. The player leaves, the click is wasted and the operator’s marketing budget is burned.
From ‘highest bidder’ to ‘highest compatibility’
Affiliates must stop asking, ‘Who will pay the most for this spot?’, and start asking, ‘Who is the best fit for this specific user?’.
Granular alignment beats raw traffic every time. For instance, when a player lands on our £5 deposit casinos page, we know they are looking for low-friction entry, plus they expect a welcome bonus that triggers at that specific price point.
By only listing brands that meet those exact criteria, and giving the top spots to those who offer a £5 deposit bonus, you remove the ‘bait and switch’ feel of traditional affiliation.
The LTV ripple effect
The result of this precision isn’t just higher click-through rates and FTDs. A high percentage of these players will go on to make multiple additional deposits. Because the initial ‘fit’ was honest and accurate, the player uses their first £5 to actually test the product rather than feeling cheated by a bonus they couldn’t claim.
When this high-intent alignment is met with smart CRM from the operator’s side, the path to long-term LTV, and therefore profitability in a high-tax market, becomes clear.
New pillars of search, recommendation and retention
The industry is moving beyond the static table. To survive, affiliates must transition from being ‘list-makers’ to ‘product-builders’, developing tools that empower players to navigate the market based on their own unique preferences.
Modern players don’t want a directory, they expect a discovery experience akin to Netflix or Spotify, where the platform understands their tastes and filters out the noise. This is the philosophy behind our shift toward algorithmic matching at Comparasino.
Precision over presence
If a player is specifically searching for ‘no-wagering bonuses’ and ‘instant withdrawals’, serving them a generic list of high-CPA brands is a disservice to the player and a waste of the operator’s marketing budget.
By utilising our proprietary Search Tool and Recommendation Engine, we serve that specific intent. This isn’t just about UX, it’s about the long-term sustainability of the affiliate business model.
In a post-tax UK market, operators are becoming ruthlessly selective. They are no longer interested in raw volume – they’re auditing the quality and intent of every lead. If an affiliate can’t prove they’re sending ‘high-match’ players, they’ll find themselves cut from the marketing mix.
The survival of the useful
The 40% RGD isn’t a death knell for the UK affiliate sector, but rather a long-overdue filter. It will undoubtedly separate the ‘traffic brokers’ from the ‘product pioneers’. For too long, the industry has relied on a model that prioritised commercial flat-fees over player preference.
In a low-tax, high-margin world, you could get away with that. In 2026, you can’t. The math simply doesn’t work for operators to acquire mismatched players who churn after a single deposit.
The future of UK affiliation belongs to those who provide genuine utility. By moving toward a model of deep personalisation, powered by search tools, recommendation engines and membership communities, it’s not about sending ‘clicks’, but delivering ‘fits’.
I believe the new era of the UK landscape is actually an opportunity to rebuild trust. When an affiliate acts as a sophisticated matchmaker rather than a billboard, everybody wins. The player gets a tailored experience, the operator gets the LTV they need to offset higher taxes, and the affiliate secures its place as an indispensable partner in the ecosystem.
The ‘Top 10’ list may be dying, but the era of the ‘intelligent affiliate’ has only just begun.
Martyn Hannah is the co-founder and CEO of Comparasino, an online casino comparison site for players in the UK. Martyn is a former EGR editor and has more than a decade of experience in the online casino sector.
The post The 40% pivot: why the RGD hike is an opportunity, not just a challenge first appeared on EGR Intel.
Comparasino co-founder and CEO Martyn Hannah argues the future of the UK market belongs to product pioneers who prioritise player utility over static, commercial-led listings
The post The 40% pivot: why the RGD hike is an opportunity, not just a challenge first appeared on EGR Intel.