Affiliate Industry

Getting Sticky with It: Why Affiliate Traffic Should be About Quality Not Quantity

Published

2 months ago

July 24, 2024

Getting Sticky with It: Why Affiliate Traffic Should be About Quality Not Quantity

Reading Time: 3 minutes

In a highly competitive “bonus blitzing” affiliate market, the only real winner is the bonus hunter. These affiliates may be sending traffic through to their partners in volume, but many of their users are just looking to play through a good deal, never to return.

At Slots Temple, we believe the “stack ‘em high, watch ‘em fly” approach to aggressive bonus-driven traffic no longer flies. We wanted to focus on improving the quality of the traffic and that meant doing things differently.

We began life as a site that offered free demo games and slots tournaments, and this helped to build a highly engaged base of players that genuinely loved playing slots. But we wanted to take this to the next level.

When we were awarded a UKGC gambling license in 2022, it meant we could offer cash prizes for our free tournaments. And then the next logical step was real-money tournaments in the UK with juiced-up prize pools, and ultimately real-money slots.

To create better quality traffic, you need to engage with your customers to better understand them and foster loyalty. It helps if you have a unique value proposition to increase the stickiness of your brand and engage audiences more effectively.

Our real money tournaments are a real UVP and are proving wildly popular with our users. The stakes we offer are low. You can play a slots tournament for as little as 1p, and the free-play model remains a large part of what we do – exclusively so outside the UK.

Ultimately, we want to be a safe place for players, which is why offering low stakes games is important. It’s about fostering a player base that trusts us and feels comfortable playing with us.

Yes, we’re blurring the lines between affiliate and operator, but our players know we’re not just chasing profits at the expense of everything else. Ultimately, our players see us primarily as a destination for fun play and prizes, and it’s important that we maintain that balance. If they thought we were simply out to rinse them, we’d lose their trust, and they wouldn’t come back.

Instead, it’s about offering more choice and increasing that stickiness. It also helps us better understand what games our players like to play so that we can offer more personalized recommendations.

And this is how real-money slots tournaments can really increase the quality of traffic. If a player has been playing a certain slot in a real-money tournament, for example, and wants to play at a partner site, we can guarantee that we are referring a player who is already highly engaged with the game and is ready to transition to higher stakes.

Of course, within the framework of real-money tournaments, it’s important to continue diversifying offerings by devising new formats. We have turbo tournaments, risk tournaments — a multitude of formats and price points so everyone can play the way they want to.

Our real-money tournaments are further enhanced by what was always a highly gamified platform. So, we have leaderboards, Xpoints, rewards chests, and challenges.

Continuous challenges, incentives and rewards keep users engaged over the long term. These elements can appeal to users’ competitive nature and desire for achievement, as they play for bragging rights. This enhances social elements and encourages them to engage frequently with the product

Adding fun and playful elements enhances the user experience beyond the tournaments themselves. Regular rewards and recognition prevent burnout and keep users motivated. And engaged and motivated players are more likely to become passionate about the brand.

Creating a player base that produces true value to your affiliate partners requires a number of the right ingredients, plus a lot of care and attention. But the affiliate landscape is changing, and affiliates need to get creative to get sticky.

Author: Fraser Linkleter, CEO at Slots Temple

Up Next

Charity Commission Closes Case Against GambleAware

Don't Miss

Sportradar Launches Industry-First Social Media Video Ads Featuring Live Sports and Betting data

Click to comment

Affiliate Industry

Casino Guru shortlisted in 2 categories for EGR Operator Awards

Published

2 days ago

September 5, 2024

Adrienn Sarkany

Reading Time: 2 minutes

EGR has revealed the shortlists for the EGR Operator Awards nominating Casino Guru in two categories, “Affiliate of the Year” and “Casino Affiliate.”

Being shortlisted for these prestigious awards highlights Casino Guru’s unwavering effort to build one of the world’s most comprehensive and complete database of casino websites.

The honor of competing against some of the industry’s biggest companies demonstrates Casino Guru’s unfaltering commitment to upholding the best standards as an affiliate company, which focuses on data-driven, fact-checked, and human reviews, as part of a growing database, running in the thousands.

Another integral part of the Casino Guru operations is the website’s commitment to Responsible Gambling and raising safer gambling practices in the industry through the company’s dedicated Gamtegrity platform. Gamtegrity is a multi-faceted effort that naturally underpins Casino Guru’s efforts in providing players and professionals with a better understanding of the pitfalls commonly associated with gambling.

Casino Guru Head of Content Maros Gasparik said: “We are committed to raising the standards in terms of our own website and the value we bring to our visitors, but also in terms of the online gambling industry as a whole – making it better and safer for players. I believe the two nominations reflect these values, and we are always happy to see our efforts being acknowledged by reputable organizations such as EGR.”

The value proposition that Casino Guru builds does not stop with simply reviewing a casino. The process involves a comprehensive behind-the-scenes work where dedicated data teams revisit and review casinos in the library to ensure that the website brings the most up-to-date information that players will ever need to find out about a brand, accounting for local regulation, safer gambling practices, terms and conditions.

The team fastidiously examines each casino’s offer to ensure that it presents consumers with an easy and clear understanding of the value each brand stands to bring. This process is then repeated throughout the year to ensure that the allocated value under the Safety Index, Casino Guru’s advanced rating system, is always accurate.

Casino Guru has repeatedly upheld its core principles of equity, fairness, and transparency, helping players not just read reviews but also mediate issues with casinos. The Casino Guru’s Complaint Resolution Center has already achieved unprecedented success early in 2024, returning $4,905,200 up to July.

Affiliate Industry

Amusnet Announces Partnership with CasinoLandia

Published

6 days ago

September 2, 2024

Niji Narayan

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Amusnet has announced partnership with CasinoLandia, a leading affiliate platform dedicated to providing comprehensive insights into the online gaming industry. The collaboration will focus on delivering in-depth reviews of the casino provider’s extensive selection of top-notch casino titles. It will also feature exclusive interviews with Amusnet’s C-level management, providing unique insights into the company’s vision and business strategy.

“We are thrilled to partner with a platform that embodies the innovative spirit and commitment to quality that we value at Amusnet. Looking forward to gaining positive results about CasinoLandia’s in-depth reviews, especially for our standout Coin Gobbler game, and can’t wait to bring even more engaging content to elevate the player experience,” Lillya Chatalbasheva, Chief Marketing and Commercial Officer at Amusnet, said.

“We are pleased to announce our partnership with Amusnet, a recognized leader in slot game development. At CasinoLandia, we highly value the outstanding graphic quality and innovative designs of Amusnet’s slot games. Their commitment to excellence aligns perfectly with our mission to provide top-tier gaming experiences. We look forward to a successful collaboration that enhances our offerings and benefits our players,” Nikola Miroslavov, Chief Operating Officer at CasinoLandia, said.

CasinoLandia is recognised for being a guide to online gambling, brimming with articles, analysis and detailed iGaming reviews. Their team is dedicated to creating thorough reviews of significant online slots, covering the best online casinos, emerging casino sites, the latest bonus promotions, software developers, crypto casinos, sports betting options and much more. CasinoLandia provides expert insights into how the mechanics of online gambling work but also helps players identify the best gambling destinations tailored to their needs and preferences.

Affiliate Industry

QiH Group unveils full sports betting vertical ahead of Premier League kick off

Published

4 weeks ago

August 14, 2024

Wladimir P.

Reading Time: 2 minutes

UK-based top affiliate QiH Group has diversified into the online sports betting arena for the very first time ahead of the new Premier League season this Friday.

The new launch will cover four sports initially – horse racing, football, boxing and the NFL – across digital marketing channels Google, PPC, SEO, programmatic, Facebook, Snapchat and Twitter.

The launch will be led by the affiliate’s new-look Podium Bets brand, which showcases the best online sports betting operators alongside daily promotions, best odds guaranteed, and free-to-play games.

QiH capitalised on the intense interest during this summer’s Euro 2024 tournament to perform a successful soft launch of the sports betting division.

This culminated in the execution of 350 campaigns across paid channels, which delivered a prospect list of more than 25,000 sports customers and approximately 7,500 conversions.

Double trouble

The number of operator partners onboarded into QiH sports also more than doubled in the last two months, as the quality of the customer offering was improved and implemented.

QiH Group chief marketing officer David Murphy expects the new division to contribute 15% to revenue activity in FY ‘24/’25.

“The Euros were the launchpad of a long-held ambition for the company to expand into sports and it has been a fantastic success,” says Murphy.

“It is a strategic goal for QiH to deliver not just volume, but also quality, by targeting sports enthusiasts in quality channels while ensuring that our partners can jointly prosper in our vertical expansion.

“We are committed to providing sports fans with the same level of excellence and innovation that has defined our market-leading casino offerings.

“I am incredibly proud of our team’s efforts to expand into sports betting. This is just the beginning, and we have a lot more in store for end users and crucially, our operator partners,” Murphy concludes.

Sports-focused Podium Bets has gone straight into the QiH brand portfolio alongside premium casino offerings such as SlotsWise and StrikeWild.

Camilla Rodrigues, Affiliate Manager for Betrino, said: “Since partnering with Podium Bets at the beginning of this year, we’ve seen remarkable growth in our business. Their team has been exceptional in understanding our unique needs and crafting strategies that have yielded fantastic results. Thanks to their expertise, we’ve not only exceeded our initial expectations but have also been able to onboard more brands, further expanding our reach and success in this space.”

James Dominique, Affiliate Manager at Lottoland, said he’s been impressed with Podium Bets’ results in just a short amount of time: “We’ve recently launched with Podium Bets and have seen some fantastic results so far. Our account manager has been outstanding in onboarding our unique brand, which isn’t a typical sportsbook, and finding a way to make it profitable for us.”