TRAFFIC
provide us with, the less likely we are to
spot shaved data. Hence, we recommend
highly those operators that provide affiliates
with the most data.
Payment options
As seasoned affiliates ourselves, we like
to change our payment options and details
easily. Most software we have used over
the years allows this, whereas some
operators close off the ability to edit
payment information easily, which we
presume is a useful security feature
(just in case anyone hacks into our
affiliate accounts and inserts their own
bank/e-wallet details).
From an operator’s perspective,
we like affiliate software that allows us to
automate and track payments. Affiliate
software that automates the payment
process is very useful and cost-effective,
plus it saves labour. Most of the affiliate
software today offers tracking and
automating payments and these things
should be a consideration, particularly
for larger operators.
Player data
From an operator’s perspective we like
to see affiliate software that displays as
much player data as possible. Working with
our white-label software providers, this
allows us to spot affiliate/player fraud.
Valuable information on the CRM
program activity, and player
responsiveness to the CRM program,
is an annoyingly scarce feature that we
hope will be developed soon.
From an affiliate’s perspective, you
want to see as much data about the players
you deliver as possible, not just the basic
data about number of impressions, clicks,
registrations, first-time depositing players
and commission. We recommend that
you promote operators that openly
display as much player data as possible
(while regarding data protection laws),
because their transparency is usually
an indicator of trust and respect. The more
player data you have, the better you can
optimise your own marketing promotions
— on a keyword level, for example, or
optimising different areas of your site based
on player values. Player data should be
presented on an individual player level by
high-quality and honest operators, because
this is probably the easiest way of spotting
being shaved by rogue operators.
Price
From an affiliate’s perspective, price is no
issue, because all operators provide their
affiliate software free to their affiliates.
We have yet to see an operator charge its
affiliates to use its software, although we
have seen a few crazy casino operators try
to charge affiliates sign-up fees to join their
programme.
From an operator’s perspective, the price
you pay does make a difference – but you
should be aware that the platform you use
may form only a very small proportion
of your total affiliate programme’s costs,
particularly for larger operators. For new
operators, please bear in mind the difference
in cost between unmetered and metered
usage. Some metered affiliate software
is based on usage, be it the number of
affiliates or net gaming revenue put through
the system, and, although it appears cost-
effective when you first start using it, can
become seriously expensive later when
you have many affiliates and decent player
volumes running through the system.
Reliability
From an affiliate’s perspective I would
not worry about your operator’s clients’
affiliate systems going down, because this
very rarely happens. On average, about
once a year the API feed goes down for an
operator and needs to be fixed to ensure
data gets fed properly from the casino to
the affiliate software platform. Do be wary
of affiliate software systems that go down
at suspicious times – such as around the
time of really big sporting events for sports
bookmakers, or at the end of the calendar/
financial year/month for bingo/casino/
poker sites. Because this is when operators
make the most money from affiliates,
it makes sense for them to cut off their
affiliate data for a short period of time
while they duly get on a shaving/de-tagging
mission in their prime earning slot.
From an operator’s perspective I
understand that pretty much all of the
affiliate software platforms in the market
are highly reliable. Ultimately, they
simply re-present the data fed from an
operator’s database in an easy-to-read
format for affiliates.
Reputation
The reputation of affiliate software in
the current climate is a debatable and
contentious issue. Some of the most
reputable affiliate software brands have
been negatively tagged recently in affiliate
forums. It would be treacherous ground for
me to mention brand names, so I suggest
you Google it.
We advise affiliates to be wary of
operators employing proprietary affiliate
software. We believe this is generally
employed more to keep de-tagging and
shaving an in-house secret. Although, in
defence of gaming operators that employ
in-house proprietary software, this is
sometimes for security, because the big
affiliate software companies come under
heavy attack from hackers owing to the
volume of player data collated in their
system from multiple casino operators.
There may also be long-term cost savings,
compared with outsourcing, from
operators developing their own in-house
affiliate software.
iGB Affiliate Issue 66 DEC 2017/JAN 2018
15