The flow of information

A quick greeting and then information about traffic, targeted GEOs and other monthly stats. That's how relationships between affiliates and casino's affiliate managers usually start. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with that, we're all here for the business! But the question here is: do we give each other information that will actually help both parties grow over time, and do we give it willingly, or do we keep it to ourselves no matter what? Online gambling business is all about partnerships, there's almost no other way to grow. So, how good are we at it?

AFFILIATES TO CASINOS
As the image at the beginning of this article nicely illustrates, casinos are mostly interested in the affiliate's monthly traffic, targeted GEOs and, of course, monthly FTDs or at least deposits, before they are ready to dive into the actual deal with the affiliate. This all makes sense, everybody likes to know what they're getting into and what to expect, so they're not losing time. Monthly traffic and targeted GEOs give an estimation of how big an affiliate is and where they get most of their players. This info is no secret; after all, you can find it with the help of a dozen online tools. However, monthly FTDs or deposits are a bit more delicate. Some affiliates regard this as strictly confidential and others prefer to disclose only approximate numbers.
But there is another problem with FTD numbers and that is: it depends on the casino. I know what you're going to think; of course no one can give you exact numbers, this is all hypothetical, just name a range. It's not always that simple. We've had multiple instances where most casinos in a listing performed in an expected range of FTDs and then a newly added casino either shot through the roof or got a flat 0. I don't want to tell casinos that they can expect from 0 to 100 monthly FTDs, because that doesn't say anything. This is more often the reason to hesitate about these numbers in my opinion, than simply because an affiliate wouldn't want to share their accomplishments.

Once a casino starts obtaining players from an affiliate, it usually has more information about the players than the affiliate, except for organic keywords the players searched for. But casinos mostly don't look to rank for the same keywords as affiliates, so that's not a topic of interest.

CASINOS TO AFFILIATES

Unlike affiliate data for casinos, the data casinos get from players after they obtain them is much more relevant than the data casinos can give before starting a partnership with the affiliate. Of course, the casino's targeted GEOs, supported languages and legal restrictions are important, but that info is usually simple enough to find.

That's why casinos use different affiliate platforms where affiliates can see how their players perform and these platforms come in all shapes and sizes. From an affiliate's perspective, I can confirm that the number of subscriptions, deposits and FTDs is a definite must-have in these platforms and all platforms serve that data. When it comes to clicks, hits, entrances (and a few other names can be found across different platforms), that data is not so useful. The problem here is that different platforms define this metric differently, some count tracking link clicks, some count sessions, some all entrances; and so affiliates are stuck with data that can't possibly be cross-compared.

The main question when it comes to casino data for affiliates is: what information would be useful, apart from the above-mentioned metrics, that would help affiliates perform even better? The answer is very similar to the questions casino affiliate managers pose when first discussing a deal with the affiliate: player GEOs, used currencies and some general info about played games. While currencies are often included in statistics (although not always!), GEOs and game info is mostly not.

We took the liberty of checking over 100 different casinos and looked at what kind of information we can obtain from their affiliate software. Less than a third of casinos offer players GEO data, with the number getting closer to 45% for those offering sports betting as well.

It's important to note that we were looking at casinos that offer cryptocurrencies due to the fact that Gamblineers is a crypto affiliate. While GEO data may not be that important for fiat affiliates, crypto players tend to browse in English much more, regardless of where they come from, requiring crypto affiliates to target a much broader range of locations. Apart from that, cryptocurrencies aren't tied to specific locations (unlike fiat currencies), so by targeting Bitcoin for example, you are by default targeting everybody that speaks the language used on your website.

THE CRYPTO REQUIREMENTS

With the crypto market blooming and growing year after year, it's a good opportunity to start addressing the requirements that crypto affiliates have. After all, it's all in order to boost traffic to casinos offered on those affiliate websites and other sources!

Like with many other things, crypto-only casinos (where blockchain casinos take up the majority) are somewhat different when it comes to the casino-to-affiliate data too. They tend to develop their own games and software, so more often than not, the affiliate software is of their own design as well. What is surprising is that more than two-thirds of them don't have the separate affiliate software we're used to seeing with the majority of casinos, but instead only offer a couple of stats that are integrated in your player's account (which is your affiliate account as well). This usually means you only have access to the number of referred players, their wagered amounts, your commission and nothing more.

STAYING UP TO DATE WITH THE LATEST NEWS

The final thing we looked at was how many casinos regularly send updates about their newest promotions, new games, big wins and whatever else they feel like sharing. While almost all casinos offer some sort of subscription to receive news relevant for affiliates, only 38 % of them actually send something. The channel through which these updates are sent here doesn't matter; it can be an email newsletter, Skype, Telegram or some other app. We find this a huge waste of potential! Because while it's practically impossible for an affiliate to go through every single casino they work with on a monthly basis (or even weekly) to see what's worth sharing, not much effort is required for casinos to send an update now and then.