Overcoming the Challenges of Being an Online Gambling Affiliate in 2024

The obstacles standing in the way of online gambling affiliates are many, but that has always been the case.  Nobody said it would be easy taking in as much as US$1 million a month. 

One such company looking to overcome these challenges is RevenueLab.

RevenueLab is a leading performance-based affiliate marketing network with over 1200 iGaming brands in the gambling vertical.
As the most trusted platform connecting advertisers and affiliates in the iGaming industry, RevenueLab enables marketers to monetize traffic from all around the world.  Each week, the company carefully evaluates developments, good and bad, in the world of gambling and how they may impact affiliate businesses.  RevenueLab provides useful resources, updated regularly, via its blog to keep affiliates abreast of evolving changes in the gaming industry.

Let's take a look at a few of these below. 

Regulatory Challenges

For every jurisdiction enhancing its regulatory stranglehold there always seems to be one that is loosening things up, just a bit at least.

We received some great news from Spain back in April as an example, and the Spanish gambling market is quite lucrative.

Spain’s Supreme Court partially upheld a Spanish Digital Gaming Association (Jdigital) appeal against Royal Decree 958/2020. To put it more simply, restrictions were lifted on celebrity endorsement deals for gambling companies.

Another result of the Supreme Court decision: Spanish gambling operators will now be permitted to market to players who have had an account for less than 30 days.  This period is widely considered the most critical when it comes to retaining customers.

A ban on gambling advertisements on video sharing platforms like YouTube has also been lifted.

By contrast we have Australia, once among the pioneers in the online gambling industry. 

It wasn't good enough that Australia blocked a few hundred so-called "unregulated" web casino and sports betting sites, now they've come out with a ban on credit cards to fund gambling accounts.  Oh, if there is any solace, consumers can still use their credit cards to play Keno and lottery games.  Yeah, those aren't addictive in the least (sarcasm).

Certain U.S. states are starting to crack down on types of bets offered.

One of the hot button topics currently is harassment of athletes, especially at the college level.  States like Ohio recently imposed prohibitions on wagers involving a college athlete's performance such as the over/under number of points he or she will score in a game.  These are known as player prop bets.

Iowa, Tennessee and Massachusetts are three states that also prohibit use of a credit card when funding an online gambling account.  Others, like Pennsylvania, are looking to follow suit.

SEO

When it comes to Search Engine Optimization, it's no longer just about having backlinks and key words, many so-called SEO "experts" have thrown in the towel in recent months as Google, in particular, has rolled out update after update.

With Google’s March’s core update promising to reduce “Unhelpful” content by 40%, the percentage of businesses negatively impacted was actually slightly higher.

Some of the top affiliate sites in multiple industries found themselves losing ranks for objectionable practices, more specifically through so-called "parasite SEO" and the promotion of coupon directories.

Forbes was widely cited among those websites cannibalizing search rankings through such tactics.  They apparently knew the consequences as Forbes completely wiped out all the coupons from its site, serving a 410 status code and removing the coupons link from its navigation.  Now it's just a blank page.

Then there are all those bonus codes and reviews of sports betting sites that top search rankings (and even Google News) using well established media sites like the New York Post and AL.com (Alabama's top news website).  Alabama does not even regulate online gambling.  Affiliates have widely been condemned for using this practice.

More recently we found affiliates getting themselves into hot water for promoting their ad partners as having a presence in a region they do not.  For example, Gambling911.com recently stumbled upon one online sportsbook claiming to be located in what Google Maps showed to be a sling manufacturing warehouse near Tampa, Florida.  That particular gambling site is not licensed to operate in the state.  More often than not, these types of practices are brought on by affiliates and not the operator itself.

Misuse of domain authority to boost the rankings of nearly irrelevant or affiliate-driven content also became a hot button topic.

There is an argument to be had as to whether smaller affiliates should latch onto larger, well-funded super affiliates.  But it is the latter that seem to be getting caught in the Net of late.

Use of AI to generate content is also gaining in popularity as the big search engines look to prevent AI-authored content from completely penetrating search results.

AI

You can't discuss any industry without mention of the role Artificial Intelligence will be playing.

Automation and data tools are helping some affiliates get ahead in the online landscape but Artificial Intelligence can also serve to hinder growth.

As noted above, use of AI for content developers is often frowned upon by search engines and could result in ranking penalties.

Hot Button Topics Featured at Upcoming i-Gaming Affiliate Conferences

iGB Live is set to take place in Amsterdam July 16-19.  One can scan the agenda to get a good feel of what gaming affiliates need to be on top of these days in addition to the topics discussed above.

• Driving Growth Through Media Partnerships & Convergence
• How to Engage Players
• Gamification vs Personalisation
• The Influencer's Role in Driving Gaming Affiliate Traffic
• How to Motivate and Retain the iGeneration
• Overall Compliance
• Player Protection Essentials