Interviews

Best ways to generate profit on iGaming with Affiliate Marketing

Published

1 year ago

December 6, 2022

Reading Time: 6 minutes

There are many ways to get high income on iGaming products and actually earn a great deal of money. In the article we’re going to speak about making money specifically on affiliate marketing, our today’s expert is a Chief Commercial Officer at RichAds advertising network — Anastasiya Kazakova.

Our guest surely knows what she’s talking about — the RichAds network has recently been awarded as the best iGaming traffic source by SiGMA. We’ll discuss all the necessary starting points and cover everything from the definition of the industry to the real working tips that help to succeed in it.

Tell us more about affiliate marketing. What is it and how can it help to earn on iGaming?

Basically, affiliate marketing is a process of earning commission on selling specific goods or services. It’s profitable for online casinos as a way of additional monetization and for marketers as it’s quite an effortless way to increase their income.

It works the following way — there’s a CPA network or a direct publisher, for instance, who provide iGaming offers (online Betting and Gambling programs).

A marketer, also known as an affiliate, in his turn clarifies the conditions (payout, GEO, settings, and desired cost per lead or deposit) and goes to an ad network that provides traffic and promotes the offer.

He just needs to choose the best traffic type for the exact offer and set up a campaign. If you’re a newbie, the best way is to consult a manager or try some automated tools at first.

Can you share what are the best traffic channels for iGaming offers?

Sure, I’ll explain how each traffic channel works and why they’ll bring leads and deposits for iGaming offers. I’ve been working with Gambling and Betting vertical for about five years now and I see that the top traffic choices are push and pop ads as well as direct click format.

Let me start with push ads and the definition of them. To put it simply, a push ad looks like a personal notification from a website that appears on a user’s phone. It consists of a text, icon and banner (optional) and allows to cover those users who subscribed to such notifications.

There are many advantages of the format, the most crucial ones for iGaming are:

- Personal approach. As I’ve mentioned, it addresses a user directly and creates a sense of privacy, so this way you can convince him to try a specific casino by providing a bonus or bet on the upcoming game.
- Proven efficiency. Such a format has been showing nice results since its boom — 2018, and the CR of such campaigns is really high. Even if we take the last FIFA Championship in 2018, the outcome for marketers was amazing. This year the results for the World Cup are already skyrocketing which proves its continuous success.
Target audience segmentation. Due to the usage of creatives you can target different people and imply their interests with the help of different headlines and pictures. It allows testing several approaches at once, which is perfect for identifying your potential clients.

One more format is pop ads. This is basically an ad that opens in a new browser or window as soon as you click somewhere on the page you’re browsing.

They are impossible to miss, that’s why it’s a great way to attract Gambling and Betting audience, as they’re very impulsive. Moreover, the traffic amounts are really huge for the format, so you’ll always get enough clients on your landing page.

Last but not least is the direct click format. Those are the ads that drive users to your landing page if they make a small misprint. For example, they look for the “1xbet” website and type something like “1xbed” and get redirected to your site. Obviously, the main advantage is that users are already warm and interested in similar offers, which means they will be more loyal.

How to make eye-catching creatives for iGaming vertical? Any tips from you?

It depends on the time you can and want to spend on making creatives. If you don’t have time to spend on making them, just contact your manager. For instance, at RichAds you can get creatives for a specific offer and GEO for free.

Another way is to use spy tools and research what your competitors create. There are tools for different formats, pay attention which options they provide if you’ve chosen a particular traffic source.

If you’ve decided to make creatives yourself, I can advise several working approaches.

For Gambling stick to gamification elements, use spin wheels or some loot boxes. This way you’ll create a sense of winning and huge luck.
Make sure you use bonuses both for Gambling and Betting. Everyone loves gifts and prizes, why not take it to your advantage? You can specify exact sum and time limits, for instance.
Keep track of current events. This is the most amazing approach for Betting, if you stick to the hyping events. As for now it’s football, but don’t forget about other sports as well — tennis, cricket and basketball are popular all over the world.
Last but not least, use both men and women on your creatives. Don’t limit your target audience by gender, anything can convert — the key is testing, so both beautiful women and handsome men can work out.

If I’m a newbie in this industry, what’s the most effective way not to waste money?

Undoubtedly, I’d say that the Performance Mode algorithm is the hack that can help newbies. The thing is that it does all the work for you — just create a usual campaign, and the algorithm will update the best sources daily for you and check if they actually work. What’s more it’ll update blocklist daily as well.

Furthermore, no tracker is required to use the function. So anyone can launch profitable campaigns with it, basically no efforts or prior knowledge are required.

Not to be unfounded, our clients have been testing it for a couple of months already and it works like a clock. If we turn to statistics, it shows that the amount of conversions can increase by 253% while CPA decreases by 79%.

As far as we know there are countries that are a must to test for iGaming. Which ones would you recommend?

I’d advise to start with Asian and African countries, such traffic is not very expensive, and the demand for online casinos is huge. For such regions Gambling and Betting can be considered as an income source, not only entertainment, try to play on it.

What concerns current top GEOs at RichAds for iGaming, they are Brazil, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, and South Africa. If you want to target European countries, try Poland, Germany and Switzerland.

Of course, you can test Tier 1 countries as well, but it requires certain experience to become successful. Though, profits can be bigger as well.

Here I also want to point out that the hottest GEOs change from month to month and it’s important to keep track of it.

You can always consult managers for the best countries for exact verticals and offers. Don’t hesitate to ask for whitelists (list of best traffic sources) for your GEO and traffic channel, this is also free!

Ok, let’s imagine we’ve chosen a GEO and made creatives. How to actually make your campaign work?

The first answer that comes to my mind is optimization. No one wants to waste money and time, that’s why it’s vital to keep track of the campaign results. You need to check the cost of your conversions and source efficiency quite often to achieve a good conversion rate.

In order to speed up the process I’d advise to set up Automated rules. This is the quickest way to cut off traffic sources that are too expensive or don’t bring any results. You just need to write a simple rule in your settings, for example, if the cost of a conversion is twice as big as the desired one, the source will be blocked. Same with the amount of money spent, if a source spent twice as much money and didn’t bring any leads, it’ll be turned off. This is a great way to avoid overspending and is done automatically!

One more way to succeed is to test a Target CPA algorithm. This is also quite simple, you just choose all the necessary settings, write your desired price per conversion, and the algorithm does all the rest for you. It adds the most converting sources to your campaign while blocking not working ones. Though you need to set up a tracker, it’s crucial for the algorithm to work.

If we speak about overall settings, I’d highly recommend to focus on the following ones:

Choose only premium group of sources. Those are tested sources that show highest results and guarantee to bring conversions.
Set frequency cap. This is the advice for push ads, frequency cap is the amount of ads a user sees per day. Usually we recommend to set one per user a day, but for some event betting offers you can increase the amount to 2-3 a day.
Test New Subscribers only. Again, a tip for push ads is to have two campaigns at the same time — one for the usual subscribers base, the other one for new ones. Those are users who subscribed to push notifications 7 days ago or less and haven’t seen much of them, so they’re more loyal. If you target two user bases at once, the amount of traffic will be huge and diverse, so the amount of leads will also increase.
Use at least 5-10 creatives. This also applies to pop ads, try different landing pages at once! This way you’ll be able to test multiple approaches and segment your target audience.

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Interviews

The Full Spectrum Strategy: How Betting on Both Popular and Lesser-Known Sports Pays Off

Published

10 hours ago

April 26, 2024

George Miller

The Full Spectrum Strategy: How Betting on Both Popular and Lesser-Known Sports Pays Off

Reading Time: 4 minutes

In an insightful interview with Alexander Kamenetskyi, Head of SOFTSWISS Sportsbook, we delve into the complex balance between promoting mainstream sports events and exploring niche markets in the betting world. This strategy enhances profitability and ensures a steady engagement across diverse betting markets, crucial for maintaining a dynamic and resilient business model in the competitive world of sports betting.

How should operators balance promoting popular sports events versus niche ones?

The effective strategy in betting is to diversify wagers across a broad range of sports events and markets. This approach helps minimise fluctuations in outcomes, enhancing both the profitability and predictability of your betting business.

Based on this, we recommend that operators promote all sports comprehensively to maintain steady activity and turnover. This ensures that players remain engaged with alternative options, even during periods lacking major events.

It’s crucial not only to focus on popular events like top football matches or major NBA tournaments but also to spotlight less mainstream sports such as water polo, badminton, and Formula 1. For instance, Australian football is notably underappreciated despite offering unique scheduling advantages that can be leveraged during off-peak times to attract bets.

How can you choose sports that have the best chance of attracting your audience?

To effectively capture your audience’s attention, it’s crucial to identify alternative events during periods when popular events like the Champions League are not happening. Our strategy involves actively promoting these alternatives to familiarise players with new tournaments and sports.

We have two dedicated teams: one that selects potential events and advises operators on what to highlight, while the other crafts promotional campaigns to ensure these events resonate with your audience.

The primary factors we consider when selecting events are Total Bets and the number of bets placed on a specific event or tournament. Popularity is our second criterion, which we measure by comparing the turnover to the number of participating players.

For instance, if there are no football championships over a weekend due to Euro qualifying matches, we might suggest promoting NBA evening games or volleyball tournaments to fill the gap left by high-profile football events.

However, it’s also beneficial to occasionally promote sports other than football, even when popular football matches are available. This strategy helps diversify the betting habits of the audience, which is vital for maintaining a stable and engaging product.

How far in advance do you need to start working on a promotional campaign?

We typically share promotional materials with operators two weeks prior to the event. This timeframe usually provides ample opportunity for operators to finalise the text and graphics. If we opt to use bonuses as the main promotional tool, we generate the rules, bonuses, and banners automatically. It’s then up to the operator to create and either self-publish the content or do so with our assistance.

What promotional channels would you recommend focusing on?

Operators have a variety of tools at their disposal, from email and SMS campaigns to managing their own channels on Telegram and other messaging platforms where they can share updates, offer bonuses, and more. Many even offer additional bonuses for subscribers of these communities, which proves effective in building a targeted and loyal audience interested in your project’s bonuses.

Another effective strategy involves placing promotional banners on various sections of the operator’s website, such as the homepage, event pages, and user dashboards. Additionally, collaborating with influencers like streamers can significantly boost traffic.

It’s also crucial not to overlook the power of email newsletters. When crafting content for these, it’s important to consider user behaviour and device preferences. For instance, with over 90% of our current revenue coming from mobile devices, it’s safe to assume most emails will be opened on a smartphone. Thus, optimising for mobile viewing is key. Our tests show that simple, structured, and transparent offers tend to perform best – you only have a few seconds to capture the player’s attention and persuade them to click through.

Do promotions without financial incentives like bonuses still work?

Let’s be clear: bonuses and promotions are fundamental to attracting players, especially those who rely on luck to multiply their capital. Seen as lucky breaks, bonuses allow participation without direct cost. Properly integrated into the marketing strategy, these incentives not only maintain player interest but significantly enhance financial performance.

For example, if an operator earns 15% from express bets, they can afford to redistribute 5% of that as bonuses, slightly reducing their margin to 10%, but potentially increasing user engagement and solving other operational issues.

Furthermore, promotions enable operators to direct betting activity efficiently. While major events naturally draw attention, incorporating bonuses for lesser-known events like the World Curling Championship can broaden a player’s interest and betting activities, introducing them to new sports and betting markets. This strategy not only diversifies the player’s experience but also stabilises the operator’s financials by spreading funds across various sports, thereby reducing the impact of financial peaks and troughs during major events.

Some operators focus primarily on significant events, leading to considerable financial volatility. For example, many faced challenges during the European Football Championship qualification matches when favourites won, negatively impacting financial outcomes. Operators that engage their audience across a spectrum of events tend to experience more stable performance.

Ultimately, using high-profile events to attract new players while promoting a diverse range of smaller events can create a more robust and diversified betting environment. This approach mitigates risks and cultivates a more engaged and knowledgeable betting community.

How likely is it that a person who came to a particular event will continue engaging with you afterwards? What influence can an operator have during this time?

Welcome packages with various bonuses are highly effective in this scenario. The primary goal is to familiarise new players with the range of bonuses and sports offered. Ideally, the entrance bonus program should provide about 20-30% to engage the player effectively.

Besides the welcome package, we can implement trigger-based rules during major events. For instance, a new player might come for the World Cup, and we could offer a promotion like: “Win three World Cup bets and receive a free bet for Wimbledon.”

Once engaged, they might notice a dominant player like Djokovic and place a bet on tennis, triggering another promotion. For example, we could offer a 50% bonus for making an express bet with specific odds on three tennis events. This showcases our diverse bonus system and introduces new sports gradually.

Furthermore, promoting sports tends to be easier than casinos because there are more events and thus more opportunities to engage players through channels like email newsletters, with less risk of being flagged for spam.

We advise our operators to customise bonuses for specific player demographics – like promoting Brazilian tennis players to Brazilian users or Nigerian athletes to Nigerian users. This targeted approach is significantly more effective than generic offers and resonates even with experienced casino players.

However, it’s crucial for operators to view their offerings holistically; they don’t just have a casino or sports section, but a comprehensive project where every part should function seamlessly together, including promotions and the product’s internal functionality.

Interviews

Tom Galanis: giving a First Look at the Top of the Slots

Published

1 day ago

April 25, 2024

George Miller

Tom Galanis: giving a First Look at the Top of the Slots

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Gone are the days when we would spend a Thursday evening waiting for Top of the Pops to come on our televisions so that we could see who would be performing that week. The music show may no longer be running, but First Look Games has taken inspiration from the long-running staple and added a slot spin, to create Top of the Slots.

To give us more insight, First Look Games Founder Tom Galanis walks us through the ideation process behind Top of the Slots and how this is helping to give an accurate representation of the top-performing slot titles each month.

You launched Top of the Slots by First Look Games a couple of weeks ago. For those that may have missed the launch, what does this involve?

Tom Galanis: Top of the Slots is a showcase for the top 10 games launched by game studios via the First Look Games platform over the previous 90 days. It’s a never-before-seen take on game popularity and one our game studio partners, and affiliate users are already loving!

What was the thought process behind launching Top of the Slots?

Tom Galanis: First Look Games captures unique data for our game studio partners and Top of the Slots is designed to illustrate the most successful games, benchmarked by this unique data insight, to the industry.

What do game providers have to do to make it into the top ten releases for the month? What metrics do you use to evaluate success?

Tom Galanis: In order to make it in to the top 10, game studios need to release titles via our platform that successfully resonate with the 850+ affiliates that utilise First Look Games, making full use of the suite of tools we offer on and outside of the platform to engage affiliate marketers in the promotion of their game. The rankings are based on the First Look Games Index for all games launched to the market in the preceding 90 days, which combines:

a) Downloads – which is the aggregated total of download sessions amongst affiliates on the platform. Affiliates download assets including logos, game sheets, video files, screenshots, banners and game artwork;
b) Hits – this is the aggregated total number of game reviews for the game, created by affiliates using the First Look Games platform;
c) Reach – this is the aggregated unique visitor count of the websites containing the Hits;
d) Demo Game Sessions – this is the number of free to play demo game sessions that have taken place from iFrames placed on Hits.
e) Sentiment Score – this is the average sentiment score from Hits

The games that rank well in this index are obviously commercially successful in their own right but are also being reviewed by affiliates because of the engagement of the game studio with the First Look Games platform, and consequently, with affiliates.

Our most active game studios are not just releasing great games with frequency but are also ensuring their game and studio news is distributed across the First Look Games platform and social channels and that a full and diverse range of marketing assets and game information is being provided through the platform prior to a game’s release. This best equips affiliates to understand the features of a game so that they can successfully convey this to their player audience, which, collectively amongst FLG affiliates, is very significant, totalling more than 20 million slots players worldwide.

Tell us a bit more about the First Look Games sentiment analysis – how is this helping to remove the biases from the ranking process? What data do you use to inform this analysis?

Tom Galanis: Once our technology has identified a new game review, First Look Games uses Natural Language Processing to ‘read’ the review and assess what the affiliate makes of the game. We share a short snapshot of this with the game studio and assign a score to the review based on how positive the affiliate has been in their review of the game. The more positive the language used in the review, the higher the score.

Sentiment scores are then aggregated across all reviews of the game to give a score for the game, and across all games to give the studio a score to benchmark against peers. Using AI, we are able to objectify the subjective to provide true 360 analysis on how affiliates are promoting a game.

What can we expect to see from First Look Games for the remainder of this year?

Tom Galanis: We have a perpetual roadmap of both new studio launches and technical advancements of the platform for affiliates and game studios to look forward to!

Interviews

Exclusive Q&A w/ Steven Paton, Commercial Director at Wise Gaming

Published

3 days ago

April 23, 2024

George Miller

Exclusive Q&A w/ Steven Paton, Commercial Director at Wise Gaming

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Could you describe the range of products and services that Wise Gaming offers? What makes them unique or appealing to potential clients?

Wise Gaming is the fastest-growing, Complete platform offering both White-Label & Turnkey Solutions. The Wise Gaming solutions are built from our team’s extensive experience: 15 years B2C and 10 years B2B. We know the importance of a truly modular approach, allowing our partner the ability to obtain our entire solution or individual components to enhance what they already have.

In what regions or markets does Wise Gaming primarily operate? Are there any plans for expansion into new territories?

Our focus has been on both the European & LatAm Continents. With enormous success in our B2C operations, we are relying on our extensive experience. We believe the balance between established & emerging markets brings both knowledge and the ability to learn and adapt, truly focusing on our partners needs without limitations.

2025 will be Wise Gaming’s year of expansion! 2024‘s goal is about building on our success in EU & LatAm whilst planning next years’ growth in both Africa & Asia.

What technologies does Wise Gaming employ to deliver its iGaming solutions? Can you highlight any proprietary technologies or platforms that differentiate your offerings?

From our 15 years of B2C success, we felt that we understood both the pleasure points and pain points that most operators face on a daily & weekly basis. Therefore, we build our Wise Gaming solutions with a customer-centric approach, How can we support our partners to support their customers. We diligently sourced the industry’s best-in-class providers for both our Sportsbook & Casino content, utilizing Enterprise software to provide the most robust offering in the iGaming industry.

Our dedicated in-house teams visualize, build and enhance our Proprietary systems for each of our Partner’s needs, making each of our partners brands Unique.

In what ways does Wise Gaming prioritise security and data protection within its technology infrastructure?

As previously mentioned, our customer-centric approach is vitally important to Wise Gaming and our Partners! Providing the correct technology and experience to our partners is key to having a successful KYC, AML, Due Diligence and Data Protection process. We opted for Amazon AWS solutioning to provide market-leading security, Encrypted databases & data storage, penetration resilience, DDoS attack elimination, dedicated Back-Office segmentation and User-based access, protecting player data while safeguarding our partners operations.

What are the current trends or challenges you’re seeing in the iGaming market? How is Wise Gaming adapting to these changes?

The speed in which technology advances is always a challenge for any provider. The key is to know your markets, the players, the accessibility of online entertainment such a sports betting & casinos and implement the technology that meets these variables. Everyone is talking about AI & Machine learning, and rightly so! With such advancements AI & Machine Learning models, it would be irresponsible not to utilize them. Whether it’s for Player customisation, Events based recommendation or supporting operational needs such as RG, KYC & AML, AI & machine Learning should be used to ENHANCE human interaction, not replace. At Wise Gaming, we have already implemented AI & Machine Learning models to provide the unique edge to our partners.

Also localized content is important. Every market is its own unique playground with their own specific cultural identities. Knowing these identities and becoming an expert in these will not only assist in the acquisition of players, it signifies a brand’s genuineness and authenticity to that market and allows greater player retention. At Wise Gaming we have already implemented A.I & Machine Learning models

How does Wise Gaming ensure compliance with regulations in various jurisdictions? How important is regulatory adherence in your sales approach?

I will answer these 2 questions together. The market is experiencing a shift in regulation, and compliance. MGA & CGA license domination has been challenged, with more and more markets opting for tighter safety measures and implementing their own self-regulated approach. This brings safety to players and trust.

Working alongside regulators will always help, and more importantly, we can learn from each other. Adhering to regulation is ultimately for a player’s safety and that is paramount for the industry’s longevity. Wise Gaming continuously enhances its platform to conform with regulations, making it safe and reliable for our partners.

What are the key factors potential clients considering when choosing an iGaming provider, and how does Wise Gaming address these factors in its offerings?

As previously mentioned, experience and knowledge are key attributes from both an operational and technical aspect. “You can’t plant apple trees and expect to get oranges!” Wise Gaming’s experience & knowledge puts us, and our partners, at the forefront of each market, allowing substantial growth and higher ROI.

Time to market should also be a priority. Whilst most Providers offer 2-4 months implementation time, Wise Gaming can deploy your platform within 2-4 weeks, giving us the competitive edge in a highly competitive space.

How does Wise Gaming incorporate feedback from clients into product development and improvement?

Experience and knowledge are simply 1’s learning over time. Our approach at Wise Gaming is that of a learning mentality, “you are never too old to learn!” iGaming is rich in experts – We trust our Partners, and they trust us, it’s the unification that builds long-term partnerships. We have 2 ears and 1 mouth, use them in that order!

What are the future goals and plans for Wise Gaming? Any upcoming innovations or developments you can share?

Our goal is to continue providing a reliable and robust platform, listening and delivering an innovative and unique solution for each of our Partners.

Innovative Developments – If we tell everyone, they won’t be innovative 😉 However, what I can say is that we are focused on “advanced”, real-time localised AI recommended content both Casino & Sportsbook.