Part 1: Affiliates and the pendulum-swing against igaming marketing
some quarters to the well-signalled
advice from the UK Gambling
Commission. As far back as January
2018, the Commission was warning
that it would be looking at putting
in place more robust measures
with regard to perceived failings in
affiliate marketing efforts. Formal
confirmation of this followed in
August with the rules coming into
effect on 31 October.
“I find it staggering that some
affiliates still say, ‘Tell us what to
do and we’ll do it,’” Clifton says.
“I have read complaints that the
regulatory landscape is too complex
and ambiguous for affiliates to
understand but it really could not
be clearer to anyone who has taken
even the smallest degree of trouble
to find out.”
But as MacDonald points out,
none of this is truly new. It’s just
that there is a better understanding
among consumers of what should
– and should not – be regarded as
permissible when it comes to online
marketing generally, and gambling
specifically.
“The fact that there have been
so many reports of affiliates being
dropped by operators or affiliates
producing seriously non-compliant
marketing materials suggests
that many affiliates are not well
prepared,” says Clifton.
“However, these more stringent
regimes are not new. The rules on
gambling advertising have been
around for a long time – the only
change now is that the public are
bringing non-compliance with
the rules to the attention of the
regulators.”
The wide blue-grey yonder
As with the operators, when it
comes to the increasingly binary
decision with regard to regulated or
unregulated markets, affiliates facing
exactly the same question have a
Gambling advertising
is likely to be an
area of particular
interest to the FTC,
whether produced
by operators or their
affiliates
Sarah MacDonald, Wiggin
choice to move their focus onto
lesser, and likely greyer, markets. It’s
a choice that, as Clifton says, will be
“obvious” for some.
“Those who are not prepared to
subject themselves to the necessary
degree of effective self-regulation
required to satisfy ever-more
stringent regulatory requirements
in European jurisdictions will no
doubt seize the opportunity to
capitalise on prospects afforded
by new frontiers,” he says. “Why
wouldn’t they?”
This question can only be
answered in monetary terms, says
MacDonald. “There will always be
affiliates that go in search of less
stringent markets,” she suggests.
“What they will need to decide is
where it is most lucrative to operate
– just because they will need to run
compliant campaigns in some of
the more tightly regulated markets
doesn’t mean that those markets
should be avoided.”
NewSA
Of course, some new markets
will come with even stricter rules
pertaining to affiliates. In New
Jersey, any affiliate that works on
the basis of a revenue share with
any of the sports-betting or online
gaming operators now up and
running within the state will find
that they need to be regulated.
It is why the market will likely be
heavily skewed towards simple cost-
per-acquisition (CPA) deals, as this
means that there is no need for the
affiliate to get regulated.
Such nuances might also mean
that a differing operator/affiliate
model emerges in all the various
state-by-state markets, says Clifton.
“I agree with those who forecast
adoption of the New Jersey
licensure model for affiliates, which
will present high regulatory hurdles,
particularly when revenue-share
arrangements are proposed,” he
says. “So to that extent, I believe a
different structure of relationship
between operator and affiliate is
bound to emerge.”
MacDonald points out that
in many ways, the regulatory
backdrop for gambling advertising
in the US is, at present, pretty
Under pressure: Regulation and the evolution of affiliate marketing
7