Best iGaming Affiliate Marketing Networks 2023
Advertising your iGaming product is an intimidating challenge sometimes. However, affiliate marketing is here for you to help with growing the audience and acquiring new traffic. But before you start utilising it, it is essential to come up with an attractive affiliate program and find affiliates who appreciate its prospects.
To ensure that you get to spend time and effort on other areas of your business instead of figuring out the advertising tools on your own and looking for credible and effective affiliates, affiliate networks exist.
Read on to discover the top affiliate marketing networks in iGaming.
What is an Affiliate Network?
An affiliate network is a solution for connecting operators with affiliates by using one shared platform, a digital marketplace, and helps both sides to save a lot of time. The main goal is to assist brands in promoting themselves via affiliate marketers.
The network exempts you from handling all financial transactions. Operators are given access to reporting and analysis tools to monitor the affiliates’ performance. Affiliates can browse various programs, niches, countries, etc. And both can get acquainted with the requirements and features of one another.
Operators only have to submit the newly developed affiliate program to the affiliate network of choice, provide promotional materials if necessary, and transfer money for affiliate fees.
Affiliate network vs. Direct affiliates
At some point, if your brand offers an affiliate program it will have to decide: run the program themselves, resort to affiliate network services, or both.
The main difference is that an affiliate marketing network carries most of the heavy lifting on its shoulders. No pressure to recruit affiliates or study the intricacies of affiliate marketing. After you register on the network, you’ll see companies you’ve never heard of, along with already established brands. Entrust your business to an affiliate network and spend newly acquired spare time on developing other levels of your business. Although, unlike dealing with individual affiliates for rewards, affiliate networks require additional commission fees for the services provided on top of that.
Pros and cons of joining an affiliate network
All the methods of affiliate marketing have their pros and cons. Let’s take a look:
Pros:
- Turnkey solution with guaranteed traffic. The simplicity of affiliate networks is its main advantage. You do not need to worry about the amount of traffic since affiliate networks take over this matter entirely.
- A wide range of affiliates. Affiliate networks are basically aggregators for affiliates and operators, which explains a huge variety of affiliates represented there.
- Affiliate managers. Professional specialists handle all the contacts between operators and affiliates and help with any issues related to exploitation of the affiliate network.
- Additional tools for traffic analysis. You will have extra instruments to analyse the performance of your affiliates.
Cons:
- Challenges with building your own reputation. It’s much harder to build a reputation for yourself since you have to work through intermediaries. People won’t know you personally and won’t trust you as much as they could.
- Little immersion into the industry. Dealing directly with affiliates will let you immerse deeper into the industry and get a sharper perception of how affiliate marketing works. You will be able to think ahead and build a clearer long-term strategy for evolving.
- Price. Running the affiliate program yourself is more cost-effective than using affiliate network services. Affiliate networks, being an intermediary of sorts between affiliates and operators will likely charge an additional fee as part of their remuneration.
- Traffic relevancy. Quite often affiliate networks do not control the quality of their traffic, so not all traffic will be relevant to your business.
- No personal approach. Your brand will be one of many the affiliate network works with and that makes a personal approach nearly impossible. You will have to build rapport through key conversion indicators and diligent payments.
The good news is that you do not have to choose only one option. The recommended solution would be to combine the best of both worlds and find the perfect balance that works for you.
How to choose an affiliate network
To substantially simplify the selection of an affiliate network, make it less confusing and more comprehensible, we worked out some important criteria you should consider. Let’s take a look:
Reputation and reviews
Pay attention to the reviews of the affiliate networks you are considering. Maybe you will see respected brands praising the network. But, generally, it is best to look at reviews on independent websites and affiliate media forums rather than on the network’s official website.
Are they mostly positive or negative? What exactly do people like and don’t like about the network? Does it seem like the affiliate partner network you are considering has a good and trustworthy reputation? Get answers to these questions first.
Contact the people you know from the industry. There is always a chance that they have already dealt with the chosen affiliate network and will therefore be able to give you their feedback. In addition, there are dedicated chats and channels where operators share their experiences of working with affiliates. Sometimes these channels are private, but if you know someone who can invite you there, it’s a great option.
And do be aware that not all affiliate networks are suitable for the iGaming industry. Try to clarify in advance which industry an affiliate network specialises in, if any.
Terms and conditions
Thoroughly examine the terms offered by the affiliate network you are considering. Transparency of processes, traffic rates, number of affiliates, availability of affiliate managers, possibility to access additional data, how detailed that data is, etc. Ensure that they meet your needs and standards.
Examples of the best affiliate networks
If you have decided to register with an affiliate network, you will find the following selection very helpful. Our team has compiled some of the top affiliate networks for your online casino, sportsbook, or poker site, and what they have to offer:
CPA Bro
Founded: 2018
Commission types: CPA, RevShare
Payment frequency: monthly
Software: in-house tracking platform
For operators:
- Only relevant and quality traffic
- Full product analysis and testing
- Advanced analytics system
- Full support and accounting
- Multi-currency
- 24/7 support customer support
For affiliates:
- Fast and transparent tracking system
- Additional monetisation tools
- Personalised rates and individual approach
- Cross-platform scripting
Revenue Lab
Founded: 2010
Commission types: CPA, Hybrid, RevShare
Payment frequency: monthly
Software: in-house tracking platform
For operators:
- One interface with analytics and summary reports
- API integration
- Affiliate managers
- Different payment methods
For affiliates:
- RevShare conditions that do not change over time
- No unannounced change of rates by operator
- Personal managers
- Different payment methods
- Professional designers or ready-made landings
Advidi
Founded: 2012
Commission types: CPA, CPL, Revshare
Payment frequency: weekly to bi-weekly
Software: in-house tracking platform
For operators:
- Smart tracking tools
- High-quality traffic
- 5000+ active affiliates
- In-house media buying team
- Cloud-based infrastructure
- Mistrack prevention
- Offer rotator
For affiliates:
- Offer Market portfolio
- In-house marketing team
- Loyalty program
- Prompt payouts
- Different payment methods
Matching Visions
Founded: 2009
Commission types: CPA, RevShare
Payment frequency: monthly
Software: in-house tracking platform
For operators:
- Affiliate managers
- High-quality traffic
- Multitude of affiliates
- Multiple countries
For affiliates:
- Payouts before the 25th of every month
- Experienced team
- 100+ trusted brands
- Simple login
- Exclusive promotions
- Personal managers
Aviate Leads
Founded: 2020
Commission types: PPC
Payment frequency: twice a month
Software: in-house tracking platform
For operators:
- Marketing consulting
- High-quality traffic
- Affiliate managers
- Different payment methods
For affiliates:
- Different payment methods
- Personal managers
- Smart tools
LeadLegends
Founded: 2017
Commission types: CPL
Payment frequency: monthly
Software: in-house tracking platform
For operators:
- Dedicated designers
- 24/7 statistics
- Comfortable contract terms
- Anti-fraud software
- Different payment methods
For affiliates:
- Trusted merchants
- High payouts
- Prompt payouts
- Personal managers
- Real-time statistics
- Different payment methods
Affiliate media
In addition to affiliate networks, affiliate media resources will be a great help for you in finding partners. A good example of affiliate media are platforms that list verified affiliate programs, publish reviews and feedback, assign ratings and quality marks. Often such platforms have forums where both operators and affiliates share their experiences in the iGaming industry and give their advice.
Here is a list of affiliate media that will help your affiliate program gain exposure and your business find reliable partners:
GPWA
Founded in 2001, Gambling Portal Webmasters Association is one of the largest networks for iGaming affiliates worldwide. It promotes ethical behaviour, and countless affiliate platforms follow its trademark code of conduct and carry the approved seal. Affiliates and casino operators communicate with each other and discuss different aspects of the industry on the community forum that has over 650,000 posts.
Affiliate Guard Dog
Affiliate Guard Dog is a platform for any casino operator or affiliate to find a reliable and trustworthy partner. The platform constantly revisits affiliate program conditions and commissions, publicises any unscrupulous alterations in affiliate programs, and has established 3 statuses for programs: certified, rogue, and predatory. Operators can use the platform to advertise their affiliate programs, post news and promotions, and get immediate feedback.
GAFFG
The Gaming Affiliates Guide for Gambling Affiliate Programs is an iGaming portal for affiliates and operators that publishes iGaming business news and useful content. As a unique feature, it has a directory of affiliate coaches, so that the best webmasters could share their prolific experiences with other people. Do not miss their guides on SEO marketing.
AffPapa
Possibly the most comprehensive iGaming resource that aims to organise a one-on-one collaboration between affiliates and operators. You can find news, events, articles, and everything else that is relevant to iGaming. It features lists of the best affiliates and operators, for those who are seeking a reliable partner.
AskGamblers
This casino affiliate website was established in 2006. It helps users to get a safe and pleasant casino experience by providing them with useful, unbiased, and up-to-date information. AskGamblers works hard to give players a view into the iGaming industry and be the first choice that players turn to.
The AskGamblers forum welcomes every player with open arms to share their online casino experience and discuss iGaming news and topics. You can also listen to the AskGamblers Podcast, where industry experts and casino players give interviews and discuss different topics.
XLMedia PLC
XLMedia PLC is a global digital publishing group that uses unique tools and methodologies to attract high-quality traffic for its clients. It operates a large variety of websites in industries like gambling and sports betting, and uses modern technologies, along with advanced machine learning and content management systems.
Catena Media
Founded in 2012, Catena Media is an online lead generation company that operates in the iGaming and Financial Services spheres, with over 5 million monthly users. It uses marketing tools and creates substantive content to draw leads to customers. The platform tracks internet traffic and delivers business intelligence. The business model is scalable and applicable to many other industries.
Since 2016, Catena Media has been the proud owner of AskGamblers.
Raketech
The company is a winner of multiple industry awards. Founded in 2010, it gravitates towards developing comprehensive strategies and working hand by hand with its clients, all to achieve the best quality possible. Raketech strives to be a source of relevant and concise content in the industry it knows most about and to be the bridge between customers and services.
Casinomeister
Founded in 1998, Casinomeister is seen as one of the pioneers among casino resources. Its primary objective is to direct gamblers to reliable online gambling platforms. Casinomeister has created a community where everyone can discuss iGaming-related topics, along with off-topic subjects.
The portal publishes newsletters and casino reviews for online players and hosts information podcasts. It is the longest-standing, most major, and most active forum. It is also the first platform for assisting gamblers with casino issues.
POGG Webmasters
POGG Webmasters publishes thorough affiliate program reviews for webmasters to help them choose an affiliate program to promote. These reviews include breakdowns of T&Cs and coverage of issues that programs had previously. PW uses a monitoring system to follow any changes made to affiliate programs by casino operators.
The resource is not sponsored by anyone, so its objectivity is undeniable.
Summary
Now you know what affiliate networks are, which ones you can get started with, and how they can help your business grow. But, as always, you have to find out for yourself the option that works best for you.
If you feel that you are not yet ready to find affiliate partners for your partner program, affiliate networks are a good way to start with affiliate marketing.
For full disclosure, the examples of the best affiliate networks given in this article are solely our own and are based on our team’s experience in the iGaming industry.
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