TRAFFIC REPORT
Trafficology has partnered with data expert Casino City Press, to provide insight into website and traffic trends across affiliate industries – predominantly in gaming but including others. In this edition, we review affiliate programmes per vertical for September 2024 in North America excluding Mexico. The below is a breakdown of the top 20 sites, including both desktop and mobile, sorted by: overall ranking, casino ranking, sports betting ranking, bingo ranking, lottery ranking and poker ranking
AN INCENTIVE TO CHANGE
YOU CAME INTO THE ROLE OF CEO AT GAME LOUNGE BACK IN FEBRUARY. YOU’RE CLOSE TO A YEAR IN NOW. HOW HAVE YOU BEEN FINDING THE EXPERIENCE?
I’m still in the first year of discovery and onboarding into an industry I have no experience of prior. That’s a strength, because it feels very much like the industry could do with a bit of modernisation, shall we say. It hasn’t really changed in a number of years. There’s plenty of things I can bring from my previous experience to iGaming.
WHAT EXPERIENCES THROUGHOUT YOUR CAREER HAVE BEEN MOST BENEFICIAL NOW THAT YOU ARE IN THE CEO ROLE WITH GAME LOUNGE?
I’ve had a long career. I started my job as a teenager, before the internet and before you had computers in offices. So I’ve seen a lot of change! But, it’s always about the people. It doesn’t matter how digital you are. It all comes down to managers, getting the
Game Lounge CEO Richard Dennys spoke to us on his experiences entering the iGaming affiliate market, the importance of nurturing workplace culture and the challenges affecting the sector “I firmly believe I don’t impose a culture. I can curate it, stimulate it, but I can’t control it”
best people around you and letting them do their job. There are lots of examples, it doesn’t matter whether it’s iGaming or not, where people have been given a role, budget or some kind of mandate, and have then been micromanaged away from success. I’ve worked for media businesses all the way through until now. Previous to this, I was CEO of an affiliate network. I’ve been working in affiliates pretty much the last 10 years.
AND NOW YOU’RE MOVING INTO THE IGAMING AFFILIATE SECTOR?
Exactly. That’s been interesting. You know, it seems to be that the more profitable an industry is, the slower it moves. There’s no incentive to change. There’s no incentive to transform. You see this in many industries where it matures, then it will slow down. Then, you’ll get a raft of new entrants coming in and they chip away at that model and force change. You saw that in banking, for example. Those big banks have been forced to change. If it wasn’t for new entrants, they would still be writing cheques!
WHEN IT COMES TO RUNNING AN AFFILIATE TEAM IN THE IGAMING INDUSTRY, HOW IMPORTANT IS THE DEVELOPMENT OF CULTURE AND WHAT CULTURE DO YOU STRIVE FOR AT GAME LOUNGE?
What culture do you impose on any company you run? I firmly believe I don’t impose a culture. I can curate it, stimulate it, but I can’t control it. The culture we try and nurture is one of collective responsibility, collective distribution and distributed
“The worst thing in the world, and I’ve had this in my career, is where you’re working hard, but you don’t know why”
leadership, so everybody oversees their bit, and everybody understands where they’re trying to get to. Because the worst thing in the world, and I’ve had this in my career, is where you’re working hard, but you don’t know why. We always try and make sure people understand what every hour of their day is contributing towards, whether that’s profit, enjoyment or satisfaction. We’re very top-line heavy on scoring. We have ENPS (employee net promoter score) and there’s a huge amount of sway on that, asking ‘would you recommend this as a company somebody else would want to work for?’
That is a core metric for our culture, and we take a lot of interest in all the research and findings. It’s gone up from just over single digits to the mid-forties over the last six months, because we’ve been working hard on – not necessarily giving staff what they want – but finding meaning in their day-to-day jobs.
WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ARE THE MOST COMMON MISSTEPS THAT AFFILIATES ARE MAKING IN THE IGAMING INDUSTRY AND HOW DO YOU FEEL THEY CAN BE MITIGATED?
I’m not going to name any names, but there are some close competitors that have gone for growth at all costs and have paid a lot of money for another market, affiliate, piece of technology or vendor. It’s a big leap of faith for them and they’ve managed it in the wrong way. Then it fails, and you’re left with a legacy you have to fix. That’s really difficult to manage... This is the risk you run in an industry where we’re all slaves to Google. We’re all waiting to see what the updates are. It’s a high-stakes game and you’ve got to be careful and know exactly what you’re doing when you’re trying to build a company through M&A. Then, of course, AI has come in over the last couple of years and some people have thought, okay, we’re going to automate our content generation. Clearly, that’s exactly what Google doesn’t want because it doesn’t feel it is helpful or thoughtful content. When you work for a media business, you know human-generated content is always going to outweigh machine-generated content and people have fallen at that. There are affiliates that have pumped out millions of articles only to find the general positioning of their sites has collapsed. It’s a race of the smartest. I think people have gone too early on some of these without realising the impact.
SIMILARLY, REGULATION IS CHANGING ALL THE TIME. HOW DO YOU KEEP ON TOP OF IT? ESPECIALLY WHEN CHANGES CAN OVERLAP IN PLACES LIKE EUROPE?
Thats the same in the States, and in Argentina you’ve got city regulation. The way to keep on top? We have a team of people and that’s all they look at. The thing about regulation is it can only be good, because it’s there for a reason. It’s there to protect players. Betting is a tricky industry and it can do harm, so regulation makes sense. On the other hand, you can over-regulate. This is a personal opinion based on data we’ve seen in Germany; they’ve put in the most heavily regulated restrictions in the world other than being illegal, and so we see a lot of people in Germany just shift borders. They head over to other countries. You can over-regulate, and it just pushes people into grey areas.
ARE THERE ANY MARKETS WITH UPCOMING REGULATIONS THAT ARE EXPECTED TO IMPACT IGAMING AFFILIATES? HOW SHOULD IGAMING AFFILIATES ADAPT TO THOSE?
Finland and Norway have said regulation is going to happen in the next year or two. Again, it’s a good thing. You just need to make sure you’re preparing yourself for it. You must ensure you are building relationships with the operators that will be regulated and licensed.
We went through this in a couple of markets. We’ve been through this in Sweden, which is our number-one market. They went through the same process. You take a hit for a couple of years, then as long as you’re doing the right thing, you can climb back up in a much more structured way.
NORWAY AND FINLAND ARE INTRODUCING A LICENSING SYSTEM FAIRLY SOON. HOW DO YOU THINK THOSE TWO MARKETS ARE GOING TO BE COMPARED TO SWEDEN?
If we talk about different models, there’s a German model, a
Swedish model... a Dutch model. We don’t know exactly how it’s going to pan out – Finland is still in the discussion stage, and they’ve effectively said no affiliation. They don’t think affiliation is a good idea. Obviously, there are representations now that might change.
In the Netherlands, they’ve introduced a few things. There are deposit limits and much higher taxes. High tax, of course, is just a revenue generator for the exchequer of whichever country, and whether that tempers demand or whether it shifts it into another region, that’s another conversation. But we don’t see much of a difference from our point of view in terms of tax hikes. As an affiliate, because people are still looking around and want reviews, advice, help and guidance from affiliates, in terms of deposit limits, that hurts operators because they get a limit and then they’re gone. But, the player will still play. They’ll come to an affiliate to look for another operator – that actually helps affiliates.
RETURNING TO TECH, BEYOND AI, WHAT ARE SOME TECHNOLOGICAL TRENDS THAT HAVE BEEN IMPACTING ONLINE GAMING AFFILIATES RECENTLY?
When you say affiliate, iGaming affiliate is different to retail affiliate. Within retail, it’s more guided by things like GDPR, data privacy, losing cookies and being first-party data only. That washed through in 2017 to 2020. That didn’t seem to make it into iGaming. That revolution doesn’t seem to have happened here. I’m still seeing third-party cookies everywhere. The platforms being used are very old and manual... There is a whole revolution of API and instant real-time data sharing that just hasn’t made it to iGaming yet. I would say that’s the big frontier. I’ve talked about this in other interviews, where opening data
“It seems to be that the more profitable an industry is, the slower it moves. There’s no incentive to change. There’s no incentive to transform”
across various relationships is key to trust. Trust is the way we move forward together. Because, without it, you’re just saying ‘you’re not paying me the revenues and therefore we’re going charge you high fixed fees’ and and vice versa. This loss of trust in our industry or in any market hurts innovation.
WHAT DO YOU THINK THE BIGGEST CHANGES OR CHALLENGES FOR IGAMING AFFILIATES WILL BE HEADING INTO 2025?
Well, the thing we’re all aligned to is the fact that Google traffic is free. If you try and buy it, it’s extremely expensive. So that doesn’t seem to be changing any time soon. There’s an antitrust case with Google; they’re going to push against Google being allowed to do AI-driven privacy; they’re going to stop allowing a lot of content to be searched into Google. Therefore, AI content could be curtailed, which I think is a bit of a shame. But it does mean we’re all going to still be in this race to the top of the search engine results, which is good for some and not good for others. Eventually, that will all change.
The next generation of players don’t even use Google. They’re on Snapchat or peer-to-peer social networks. That’s how they learn – from each other. We’ll all be sitting there, arguing about declining Google. In the meantime, players will be perfectly happy on streaming platforms and the like; that’s where the next generation of players are living.
WHAT ARE YOUR PERSONAL GOALS AS CEO FOR 2025?
I’ve been hired by the owners of the company to continue growing it, adding value for shareholders. This year, we’re going to be looking at maybe even more than 30% growth in bottom line, which is exciting.
Innovation is the second area. That’s the horizon we have to keep looking at. We have to stay agile. It’s easy to get big and slow. What I’m trying to do right now is almost separate the company between what is doing well in the longer term and then the other, more innovative ideas.
The third area is goals on team development, people. We are hugely focused on that. We’re about to launch a new all-company leadership programme. Everybody at managerial level will go into deep leadership training because the idea, again, is distributing leadership from myself and the C-level into the people on the front line, to give them the confidence to make decisions in a way that makes sense for the company... We need to be moving as a collective organism.
RICHARD DENNYS
B90 HOLDINGS: PUSHING FOR PROFITABILITY
We discussed B90’s interim results with Executive Chairman Ronny Breivik ...
YOUR INTERIM RESULTS CAME OUT ON 24 SEPTEMBER 2024. WHEN YOU SAW THOSE RESULTS, WHAT WAS YOUR INITIAL REACTION? WERE THEY IN LINE WITH WHAT YOU EXPECTED?
Absolutely in line. My initial reaction was positive. This proves the strategy we outlined was the right one, which was to change the business model, build a capable team and turn the company profitable. We went from a complex business model – B2C, small operator, difficult market – to something simpler. The key strategy was to use the competence the team has to drive profitability. The numbers we saw indicate that we are very much on the on the right path.
YOUR EBITDA WENT FROM A LOSS LAST YEAR TO A POSITIVE AND YOUR NET LOSS HAS REDUCED TO €0.3M ($0.3M) FROM €1.8M. PRIMARILY, HOW WERE YOU ABLE TO DO THAT?
The key factors are driving return on marketing spend, as you can see from the revenue line. It was key for us to take down the wage bill and administrative costs, which are about €1m saving on the full year. Combined, those are the key factors that allowed us to return profitable at the EBITDA level. It also allows us to be cash flow positive from the second half of the year.
YOU WERE ABLE TO REDUCE YOUR MARKETING AND SELLING EXPENDITURE QUITE SIGNIFICANTLY. IS IT THAT, BY HAVING YOUR ACQUIRED BRANDS LIKE ODDSEN.NU FOR AS LONG AS YOU HAVE, YOU’VE BEEN ABLE TO REDUCE THOSE EXPENSES?
I would say that’s a part. We changed the business model, going from B2C to B2B, which has allowed that as well. Obviously, we still need to pay marketing, both because we are a marketing company and we acquire marketing in different channels. But, at the same time, we have been able to cut costs, which were typical B2C costs.
Now we have a very clean model where we have partners, we send them an invoice at the end of the month and they settle it... The business model right now is as simple as it gets. It allows us to use our time in the most efficient way to actually drive profit.
SO, BY STREAMLINING WHAT YOU’RE DOING, YOU’RE ABLE TO PUT MORE RESOURCES AND MANPOWER INTO ONE THING AS OPPOSED TO A SPECTRUM?
Correct. It also allows us to focus on automation. We built a scalable platform. What is a scalable platform? Typically one that automates a lot of the nitty gritty marketing work we do. We manually find the funnel, use our competence to isolate the
key drivers for generating maximum revenue and take learnings from all across our universe. It can be pay-per-click marketing or programmatic marketing on a platform where we use multiple different sources based on the end user preference.
Then, we put it together in a way where we simply automate many of the processes. We have fully automated every single process when it comes to the generation of websites. Some websites are focused on high-quality content, written by humans for humans. But a lot of others, the selling side, will not need that high quality. It’s just about relaying the selling message and making as many people see it as possible. This is completely automated with the use of AI and technology.
WE’VE HAD CONVERSATIONS WITH OTHERS ABOUT BALANCE BETWEEN HUMANGENERATED CONTENT AND AI-GENERATED CONTENT. HOW DO YOU FEEL THAT’S GOING TO CHANGE AS AI DEVELOPS?
AI is great today and it’s going to be even greater tomorrow. A year ago, I was reluctant to use AI for business purposes because I didn’t see it being good enough. Now I think it is very good. But AI is not going to generate quality content. It’s going to generate content. The quality needs to come from humans... it’s not going to replace human content writers anytime soon.
YOU HAD YOUR KING OF EURO 2024 COMPETITION WITH ODDSEN.NU IN JUNE. HOW IMPORTANT IS A SUCCESSFUL EUROS CAMPAIGN?
The King of Euro campaign was a low-cost campaign that helped us drive interactions and interest. I’m very happy with that. I would say the Euros are, of course, very important for any gambling operation. It’s a massive event. The same goes with the World Cup and certain other event, too. But, at the end of the day, the calendar is full of events in sports, casino and other verticals. So, for us, it’s just another month with another focus.
We communicated to the market that H2 started really well. We are extremely happy with the results we see post-Euros, which are driven by completely different drivers than the event itself. Now, we’re in front of the six most important months of the calendar year when it comes to casino; Q4 and Q1. This is where we will mainly focus our attention.
WE LAST SPOKE IN THE APRIL EDITION OF TRAFFICOLOGY. OF ALL THE INITIATIVES YOU’VE PUT OUT SINCE THEN, WHICH DO YOU FEEL WERE THE MOST IMPACTFUL ON THIS HALF’S RESULTS?
This is down to the team and the multi-channel approach. It’s a competent team operating in multiple marketing channels and what we’re seeing is the result of that. On top of that, there are the corporate efforts done by myself, for instance, to keep the cost under control and make sure we are pushing from every single angle to become the company we want to be.
The results show we are getting to that level – we have turned the company profitable. We’re a small company in a difficult
market; our company has taken a beating and the company has a bit of history. So what we had to do is come up with a plan that allowed us to convince the market we have a place in it. That’s what we did.
It’s a team effort in multiple channels and every single aspect of the business. That is why we’re where we are. That is what makes me happy. I’m really proud of the team.
YOU WERE ABLE TO SECURE A €200,000 MARKETING DEAL IN MAY. COULD YOU TELL US ABOUT THAT? BEYOND THE FINANCIAL GAIN, WHAT DO YOU HOPE TO ACHIEVE WITH THAT DEAL?
We have three different models in our business model when it comes to the revenue side. One is fixed fees. Another is cost per acquisition, which is typically a fixed fee. But it’s connected to a trigger, which is typically a first-time depositing customer, depositing over a number which can be X. The third one is revenue share. So, for us, it’s just a different way to the same goal. But, for certain partners, it can be better to use one or the other.
AS WE MOVE TOWARDS THE END OF THE YEAR, HOW DO YOU HOPE TO CLOSE 2024 OUT FOR B90?
Well, I hope to close it off with a really good cup of coffee on 1 January! It’s already marked in the calendar with a cup of coffee drawn very nicely on it. To get back to the point; the analyst that currently has a forecast in the market updated their note. We wholeheartedly believe in the forecast. The forecast reflects no change to target price or what they think we should be delivering this year. We have said in the updates to the market that we’re trading in-line, so nothing’s really changed. We just keep on taking one day at a time.
RONNY BREIVIK
EASY MIGRATION
ReferOn B2B Affiliate Team Manager David Harris speaks to his ReferOn colleagues about system migration, how to prepare and what to expect
Operators in iGaming utilise various tools and software to assist with day-to-day operations. Choosing the right software is crucial to maximise business potential. Often, operators can feel stuck with a platform as they’ve onboarded the team and trained the company to use it. Migrating to a new platform can therefore pose various challenges. The team at ReferOn spoke with its B2B Affiliate Team Manager David Harris to discuss.
LET’S DISCUSS MIGRATIONS AND WHY THEY CAN BE SCARY FOR SOME. HOW DO YOU MANAGE THESE AND REDUCE THE ‘FEAR FACTOR?’
Change can be daunting for a business as there are many factors business owners must consider that could potentially disrupt operations or impact the bottom line. The primary concern for migrations for many operators is successfully transferring their data to a new affiliate system without a hitch. The most important datasets are their players, affiliates, trackers and deals. This data is crucial and any disruptions could prove extremely costly.
WITH DATA BEING SO CRUCIAL, HOW DOES ONE PREPARE FOR SUCH AN EVENT AND HOW LONG DOES IT TYPICALLY TAKE?
Migrations might take a long time if the system doesn’t have the appropriate resources to facilitate the transfer of mass data and onboarding of new customers. Systems without adequate protocols and processes can suffer from confusion and poor communication. Some operators are also wary of migrating to
a new platform because they would have to dedicate significant time and resources to learning it and teaching all employees or perhaps had bad experiences. Time spent learning new platforms could be allocated to growing affiliate operations and calibrating ad campaigns. With significant downtime learning the new system, the operator may lose a key affiliate or network.
With these considerations in mind, affiliate management systems require a combination of services and features that make migrating as seamless as possible.
LET’S SAY I AM AN OPERATOR WHO IS MIGRATING TO REFERON. WE ARE READY, IN COMMUNICATION AND WAITING FOR THE GREEN LIGHT. WHAT HAPPENS ON DAY ONE?
‘Day One’ operations are key to understanding what happens next. It is all good to know what is planned, but what happens next? This is when we have to hand it back to you. Work never stops as an affiliate manager, so now it is back to the grind; chasing affiliates, setting deals and optimising campaigns. The ReferOn team will still be on hand, as it is common that not everything happens in a day.
It is worth noting that I am aware of many unfortunate instances of migrations in the market where communication or notes are not passed between teams or migration was handled poorly, creating a sour taste in the mouths of operators not wanting to migrate again. Consequences were seen in all areas, not limited to: Dropped campaigns, drops in performance and even lost data. ReferOn hopes to alleviate, or never see, these problems.
THE IMPORTANCE OF A GOOD AFFILIATE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Using the latest affiliate management technology can help operators meet their business goals, even if migrating can be daunting. However, the pros of migrating outweigh the cons if the system can help boost campaign engagement, boost performance metrics and increase your network.
A good affiliate management system will provide constant technical updates and QoL improvements so that users have the latest tech and best features. Advancements in data analytics and ad campaign management are crucial, but the system’s customer support should allow operators to thrive.
As these systems implement more advanced features, their UX/UI can suffer due to feature bloating and complicated menus. A clean and easy-to-navigate affiliate management system with organised dashboards will allow operators to access important information easily, and make actionable insights quickly, ultimately boosting business performance.
DAVID HARRIS
CHANGING TIDES: STANDING OUT VS MARKET SURVIVAL
While affiliates fight to stay above water in a sea of competitors, affiliates at the top of the iceberg are feeling the heat
The affiliate market is one that is constantly changing and evolving, even if the industry as a whole has been argued not to change that much in this issue. It is a sector that offers open doors to anyone brave enough to give it a go, but immense challenges to anyone seeking success.
As such, standing out is key. This is true of all verticals in the market, be it operators, suppliers or affiliates, and knowing when to adjust strategy is critical for survival. This was the case for B90, who we spoke with earlier this issue, with Executive Chairman Ronny Breivik explaining in our April issue that, in order to survive in a market, “we have to re-invent the wheel and come up with a plan that allows us to go to where we want to be.” As its H1 results showed, this seems to have been successful so far – but what else goes into standing out?
For Riddick’s Partners, who we speak to later this issue, it is banking on connections and industry experience to push it into public consciousness. Of course, in the affiliate market, who you know is almost more important than what you know, which provides a good leg to stand on. Meanwhile, Casumo is hoping a rebrand, with the integration of a new visual identity and branding language, will play an important role in future success. As Brand and Communications Director Elmira Majerić says later this issue: “The rebranding process for Casumo was sparked by a crucial realisation - our brand had lost its distinct identity in the market.”
All the above tactics are viable routes to generating brand interest and cutting through the noise. When online gaming offers such lucrative financial opportunities, it is worth trying a range of methods to get a seat at the table. But is decline from several sizeable affiliates an indication that, now more than ever, there is space at the table to fight for? Or should the wider affiliate market be concerned?
CATENA, BETTER COLLECTIVE AND CHALLENGES AT THE TOP
In October, both Catena and Better Collective reported they would be restructuring in order to account for changing (reduced) financial results and expectations. This resulted in redundancies from both affiliates, with Better Collective Co-Founder and CEO Jesper Søgaard writing on LinkedIn that it had been “emotional days” for the affiliate on 30 October.
For Catena, the move was put in place to ‘streamline the company’s content production and content marketing teams.’ This has been the plan of CEO Manuel Stan from the start, who took on the role in March this year. In Huddle interview
with us in September, he explained: “Catena has thousands of websites of products at the moment. We’re a team of just over 200 people. We cannot properly manage thousands of sites. So one of the big exercises we’re doing right now is trying to clean and figuring out what we’re focusing on.”
Better Collective, meanwhile, cited shifts in the US market and Brazil – the latter due to its upcoming regulation – as reasons for its underperformance. These are not the only markets where regulation is causing strain for affiliates; as Game Lounge CEO Richard Dennys noted earlier this issue: “Finland is still in the regulation discussion stage, and they’ve effectively said no affiliation. They don’t think affiliation is a good idea.”
VERDICT
While we intend to explore the above issue further, a note to affiliates is this: Standing out in the market is important, but keeping an ear to the ground as regulation and the landscape of the affiliate vertical changes may be something worth prioritising. The situation is clear, if even Better Collective is feeling the heat.
EFFECTIVE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK IN 2025
Traffic Devils CBDO Danylo Diachenko explains what’s on the doorstep for traffic monetisation in 2025 and whether there are ‘three simple steps’ to increase revenue from driving
The affiliate market is an environment where the design often changes, but rarely the content, because it is difficult to develop something new in a market where the most profitable mechanics have long been known. Nevertheless, there are still enthusiasts among R&D and BizDev departments ready to bundle unique experiences into a formula applicable to high-quality scaling. Today, Traffic Devils shares the steps you need to take systematically to drive traffic efficiently.
STAGE ONE: PRIORITISE WHO TO GIVE TRAFFIC TO AND IN WHAT SEQUENCE
To manage something, you need to clearly understand what you want as a result. In the case of traffic, which partner should be prioritised first. Several factors influence the choice of such a partner:
• Analysing the partner itself, their size, capabilities and prospects for cooperation. Stability of product operation, market position.
• Clear signed agreements or contracts.
• Trustworthiness of the partner – even if the contract is not very long, its reliability may in the long run compensate for some of the excess profits from a hyper-liquid but unproven advertiser. Once we have prioritised our focus, we can move on to the next step.
STAGE TWO: OFFER PROCESSING
Here we focus on a few key variables: Geo, conversion statistics based on different sources, successful/unsuccessful landing pages and of course, ROI. During the primary driving, we need to establish which geo – landing page – offer approaches are optimal in terms of profitability. We track efficiency in real-time and often adjust not only the ‘instrumental’ component like sources and landing pages but also the products themselves. At the same time, we develop customised approaches for each offer.
It is common to see situations where driving statistics indicate that a particular product, or a whole holding of them, performs much better.
The key insight here is the fact that driving in on a particular offer is not a hardened bundle that is bound to spin during some period. Within effective traffic management, the offer is as much a variable as any other part of the funnel. Of course, we use more hardcore metrics than just media numbers for outcome recommendations. These include reg2dep percentages, EPCs and a certain ‘benchmark’ driving volume.
STAGE THREE: TRAFFIC ‘DIVERSIFICATION’
When we notice traffic from certain approaches/ offers paying for itself for the advertiser in a short period (two – three weeks), we can redirect some of our efforts into split tests of new promising products. This is done not out of greed, but for strategic reasons. Having a ‘base’ in the form of approaches on offers we are already confident in, we can use the available delta of time to gain a foothold on the advertiser and make a more favourable impression on him, as well as to move more quickly to volume driving.
By mastering the driving on a few or all of an advertiser’s major offers, we stabilise the contract for ourselves and generate a more predictable profit, which opens up opportunities for bolder upscaling.
STAGE FOUR: ANALYSIS
The notional ‘fourth stage,’ which runs through all the work, will be analytics. Constant monitoring of the quality of traffic and streaming changes in the buying logic are the basis without which effective lead generation management is simply impossible.
Of course, analysis and optimisation do not consist only of synchronisation with the advertiser after the work has been done. The lion’s share of effective adjustments are our internal protocols for tracking the performance of advertising
campaigns. We track the effectiveness of driving every 10% of the cap generating between 20% (conditionally set-up funnels) and 70% (conditionally set-up approaches that have already reached a certain result).
We also use a large pool of internal tools, some of them in-house, mainly to track additional customised events in analytics and to improve the quality of driving. Basic tools may include customised dashboards, self-written bots and an internal task-tracking system specific to our department. We also use numerous ‘boxed’ solutions, slightly customised to suit our needs.
In summary, often the ‘revolution’ in buying may turn out to be not just an unprecedented methodology invented from scratch but systematic work, stream tracking of efficiency and adequately calculated connection of business goals and potential profit with actions on the media level.
DANYLO DIACHENKO
MAKING THE MOST OF SOCIAL GAMING
Reflecting on the one-year anniversary of Piggy Tap, Onlyplay and CEO Christina Muratkina looks back at the year so far and the importance of tapping into the social gaming market
Piggy Tap, a trademarked game by Onlyplay, is celebrating its first anniversary. Harnessing TapGame mechanics, Piggy Tap has now been on the market for a year. Christina Muratkina, Onlyplay CEO, tells us: “Piggy Tap showcases TapGame’s potential to elevate both player retention and profitability.” Piggy Tap has a presence on streaming platforms, in tournaments and social gaming communities. But, just how important is it to tap into the social gaming community? Trafficology asked a few questions to find out...
HOW IS SOCIAL GAMING DIFFERENT FROM TRADITIONAL GAMING, AND WHAT OPPORTUNITIES DOES IT PRESENT TO AFFILIATES?
Social casinos offer a wider range of gamification features and elements inspired by offline games, making them dynamic and exciting. With options such as tournaments, achievements and player development, social casinos keep excitement high. Unlike traditional casinos where the focus is on balance and winnings, social casinos emphasise player progression through stages and character development. Here, players are motivated to reach new levels and improve their in-game avatars, creating a unique, achievement-oriented experience.
For affiliates, social casinos represent an opportunity for player engagement and conversion. Affiliates are increasingly using social casinos as an entry point where players can enjoy a riskfree gaming experience. Once players are engaged, affiliates can introduce them to real money gaming opportunities, inviting them to continue their journey at a traditional casino for a chance to play for real bets. This strategy not only attracts new players but facilitates a natural transition from social to traditional gaming, expanding affiliates’ reach and potential revenue.
HOW HAS THE SOCIAL GAMING MARKET DEVELOPED OVER THE PAST YEAR?
Access to social casinos has become much more reachable. What used to be large-scale projects are now often turned into boutiques designed for specific audiences. Increasingly, individual streamers are launching their own social casinos, allowing them to retain and engage their subscribers more effectively. A lesser-known trend is that game providers are also developing their own social casinos, using these platforms as valuable tools to learn more about player behaviour and preferences.
For now, affiliates are still adapting to this tool, but it’s only a matter of time before it becomes a standard part of their
strategies. We are seeing promising signs of growth in this area, with affiliates creating complex push notification sequences and optimising player engagement in social casinos. The market evolution in this area is exciting, with affiliates finding creative ways to maximise player engagement and retention, paving the way for even greater potential in the social gaming space.
WHAT ARE SOME COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS AFFILIATES MAY HAVE ABOUT THE SOCIAL GAMING MARKET?
Social gaming lacks high-value players
While traditional gaming might draw high rollers, social games attract committed players who frequently make smaller purchases. Over time, this results in higher player engagement and substantial returns for affiliates through steady microtransactions.
Social gaming only appeals to a younger audience
Social games attract a wide demographic, including older players seeking interactive and casual gaming. Affiliates targeting diverse age groups can maximise engagement and tap into a larger user base.
Social gaming doesn’t convert to traditional gambling players
Many players are initially attracted to social gaming for its low barrier of entry and social aspects are likely to transition to real-money games if they are engaged and trust the operator. Affiliates can nurture these leads by introducing hybrid games that blend social and real-money elements.
These differences, growth trends and the dispelling of common misconceptions highlight why social gaming is an advantageous market for affiliates, with distinct opportunities for engagement, retention and long-term profitability.
CHRISTINA MURATKINA
THE PROBLEM WITH NO DEPOSITS...
Martyn Hannah, Managing Director of online casino comparison site
Comparasino, says no deposit bonuses cause headaches for operators and affiliates, but no wagering bonuses are the remedy
No-deposit bonuses. Players absolutely love them but operators – and online casino comparison sites, for that matter – hate them.
To give you an idea of just how popular they are – search volume for “no deposit free spins” is around 12,000 per month in the UK alone, while “no deposit bonus” is around 1,000 per month.
What makes these bonuses so popular among player communities? They allow players to enjoy a handful of free spins or to wager with a small amount of bonus cash without having to deposit first.
It’s seen by many as a freebie from the casino; a chance to win cash without having to spend any of their own money. The house always wins, but not with no-deposit bonuses.
But the reality is different. Most no-deposit bonuses come with a raft of terms and conditions including win limits and, of course, wagering requirements.
Ultimately, the player has to make a deposit and wager with their own money to complete the wagering requirement and unlock any winnings they might have accrued from the “free” bonus.
This is not what the player was expecting – the bonus was a “no deposit” offer, after all – and so leaves a bad taste in their mouth.
This is an industry where churn remains incredibly high and a poor experience, especially one with a welcome offer, is enough to see a player leave the brand and never come back.
A WASTED ACQUISITION OPPORTUNITY FOR ONLINE CASINOS?
Does this mean no deposit bonuses are a wasted acquisition opportunity? Yes and no.
The handful of online casinos that do offer no-deposit bonuses get to put their brand in front of thousands of potential players each month. A lot of these players will sign up and claim the
no-deposit bonus – why wouldn’t they? – and some might even deposit if they like the experience they receive.
But this is taking what I call a “poo and fan” approach to customer acquisition – throw enough of the former at the latter, and some of it will stick.
Brands that offer no-deposit bonuses are still using an element of their acquisition budgets to run these promotions and, while the initial volume of players that sign up and claim the offer can be high, very few actually hang around for any length of time.
The result? A pretty low ROI on acquisition spend.
POOR PLAYER QUALITY HURTS COMPARISON SITES
But this hurts the comparison site, too. The online casinos that offer no-deposit bonuses and free spins rely on their affiliate partners to engage players around these keywords and push them to their brands.
And, as owners of comparison sites know, the cost of competing in the SERPs – let alone the other marketing activity we undertake – is incredibly high.
To justify investment in this marketing activity, we need to be able to reach quality players who go on to deposit with the brand (a pre-requisite for us to earn commission) and then keep coming back for more. That’s why at Comparasino we are focusing our efforts on other bonus offers and in particular no wagering bonuses and casinos.
ARE WAGERING BONUSES THE WAY FORWARD?
Player demand for these offers is high – not quite as high as nodeposit bonuses, but the quality of player searching for this type of offer is so much better. The very nature of the bonus requires players to make a deposit (the trigger for us to start earning commission) and because they get to keep any winnings from the bonus, their initial experience with the brand is incredibly positive.
In some cases, it is so positive they go on to make additional deposits and continue to wager with the brand for weeks, even months on end. This makes no-wagering bonuses a win for all stakeholders – players are happy because they get to keep their welcome bonus winnings, operators are happy because they get a solid ROI on their acquisition spend and comparison sites are happy because players deposit and wager for longer.
Only a small number of online casinos are currently running no-wagering bonuses, so this presents a huge opportunity for savvy brands to stand out and engage quality players at scale.
MARTYN HANNAH
DIFFERENTIATION IS KEY
Casumo Brand and Communications Director Elmira Majerić spoke with Trafficology on its recent rebranding efforts and the components that go into rebranding successfully
CASUMO RECENTLY UNDERWENT A NEW REBRAND BASED ON A SET OF CORE VALUES. WHAT ARE THOSE CORE VALUES AND HOW DO YOU TRANSLATE THE CORE VALUES OF A COMPANY INTO A VISUAL MEDIUM?
Our internal core values – aspire, believe and care – guide how we operate as a team and create our environment. While not the focal point of the external rebrand, they naturally influence how Casumo is experienced by the outside world. The focus of our rebrand is to maintain the core of what Casumo has always stood for: Doing things differently, innovating within the gaming space and evolving the player experience. Our rebrand is not about abandoning the legacy, but rather integrating it more cohesively into our future.
At the heart of our rebrand is the introduction of UMO — a concept both new and deeply rooted in Casumo’s legacy. Our players each have their UMOs, much like personal avatars, and so do our characters, creating a world of UMOs that represents our playful and innovative spirit. Internally, we refer to ourselves as UMOs, constantly asking: “Is that UMO enough?” This helps us ensure everything we do reflects the promise we want to deliver to our players: An experience that’s creative, engaging and true to the essence of Casumo.
In short, while our core values guide our internal culture and mission, the rebrand is about reinforcing Casumo’s legacy of doing things differently — staying innovative, playful and focused on creating unique, engaging experiences for our players. This rebrand isn’t a one-time event, but a reflection of a company that is constantly evolving while staying true to its roots.
TELL ME A BIT ABOUT THE REBRANDING PROCESS. HOW DO YOU DECIDE ON THE FINAL PRODUCT AND WHAT FACTORS IMPACT THE DECISION?
The rebranding process for Casumo was sparked by a crucial realisation – our brand had lost its distinct identity in the market.
When we moved away from our Sumo character, we also lost some of the unique flair that once made Casumo stand out. As we looked at the broader landscape, we found ourselves blending in with competitors. Everything started to look and feel the same – the same colour schemes, shooting styles and narratives. It became clear that a rebrand wasn’t just a choice; it was a necessity. Casumo had always been about doing things differently and, to continue reflecting that, we needed a fresh approach to cut through the noise.
When I joined, the rebrand was already in motion, with the colour scheme and some key design elements in place. My focus was on ensuring we built a deeper, more meaningful connection with players – not just for now, but for the long term. The rebrand had to do more than just look different; it needed to tell a cohesive, integrated story about Casumo’s legacy.
As we developed the concept of UMO and the UMOs, the conversation shifted to how we could capture that playful, innovative feeling through our characters. The UMOs aren’t just visual elements – they are representations of Casumo’s core identity. We wanted them to embody traits that players could connect with, something recognisable, but in a light-hearted and playful way. Ultimately, the rebrand pushed us to amplify the playful essence of Casumo, while staying true to our roots as a brand that does casino differently. Through this process, we ensured that every element, from the colours to the characters, reinforced the experience Casumo has always been known for.
WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO PARTNER WITH SNASK FOR YOUR REBRAND?
The decision was a natural fit. It became clear early on that Snask truly understood what we were aiming to achieve. They didn’t just come in as a design agency; they captured what we wanted to express and translated our vision into something tangible and impactful.
Their ability to take our ideas and turn them into individual brand elements with precision and creativity
made them the ideal partner. They simply ‘understood the assignment.’
DID YOU FACE ANY UNEXPECTED CHALLENGES DURING THE REBRANDING PROCESS?
One of the unexpected challenges was finding a way to work with a similar colour palette to the industry as a whole while presenting it in a way that felt distinctively Casumo. We wanted to make sure our visual identity stood out, even though many brands in the industry share similar colour schemes.
Beyond that, one of the bigger internal challenges was getting the team to embrace the new direction – especially when so many people had a strong connection to the old brand. For a company that had done things a certain way for so long, shifting to a new identity required more than just external communication – it was about helping everyone inside the company feel the same connection to the new brand as they had to the old one.
At first, there were understandable questions and some hesitation. People needed time to understand why the rebranding was necessary. But, what surprised us was how quickly the team started to embrace UMOs. Initially, we thought it would take longer for the new concept to resonate internally, but it happened much faster than expected. Before long, the team were organically using phrases like “that’s not UMO enough,” or “that’s very UMO of you.” It’s part of the company culture, and seeing people naturally adopt the new brand language was a huge win.
WHAT DO YOU HOPE STANDS OUT ABOUT YOUR NEW BRAND COMPARED TO OTHERS IN THE MARKET?
What we hope stands out is the boldness and distinctiveness of our visual identity... In an industry where everything can often feel repetitive – where the same games, platforms and audiences are being targeted - differentiation is key. This is why the rebrand was so crucial for us. In such a saturated space, you need something that cuts through the noise.
Our goal is to not only be visually appealing but to stand out in a feed where everything else blends. While we’re still refining and
evolving the execution, we’re already seeing a noticeable impact and feedback confirms we’re on the right path. It’s about building concepts that resonate, grabbing attention and presenting Casumo as a brand that does things differently.
GOING INTO THE NEW YEAR, HOW DO YOU FEEL YOUR REBRAND WILL AID YOU IN ACHIEVING YOUR 2025 GOALS?
I believe our rebrand will play a pivotal role in helping us achieve our 2025 goals. We’re currently developing a new advertising concept set to launch next year, which will build on the efforts we’ve made this year. Our focus is on standing out from the crowd – not by solely competing on bonuses or promotions, but by telling our story in a way that’s playful, engaging and compliant, yet different from what’s out there.
By pushing the boundaries of our visual identity and taking a more creative, fun approach to our storytelling, we aim to capture attention in a highly competitive market. We’ve seen competitors take a safe, familiar approach, but we’re pushing the boundaries to differentiate Casumo with fresh, dynamic concepts. This strategy will allow us to build stronger connections with our audience and maintain momentum as we move toward our ambitious goals for 2025.
Trafficology is brought to you every month by the Gambling Insider team at Players Publishing.
For all editorial enquiries please contact us at trafficology@gamblinginsider.com For advertising enquiries please contact commercial director Deepak Malkani at sales@gamblinginsider.com
We would like to thank the following contributors to this issue: Casino City Press, Richard Dennys, Ronny Breivik, David Harris, Danylo Diachenko, Christina Muratkina, Martyn Hannah and Elmira Majerić
There are sharks flooding the streets. And now there is one swimming in your pool – Sharknado, 2013.
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ELMIRA MAJERIĆ
