INSIGHT
2016: APP TIME
FOR AFFILIATES?
With 85% of mobile time now spent in-app, 2016 may be the year for affiliates to develop one.
Alan Petrilli of Income Access discusses the process and challenges with three leading affiliates
who have already taken the leap - PokerNews, Bettingexpert and Easyodds – and also shares key
findings from the company’s recent survey on affiliates’ move to mobile.
ARE YOU READING this article in print
or on a mobile device? The latter possibility
is increasingly likely, given that eMarketer
estimates that 50.3% of the UK population
regularly use a tablet, while the country’s
smartphone penetration is expected to
reach 90% this year, according to Kantar
ComTech.
Whichever device they use, far more
of consumers’ time is spent in apps than
surfing the mobile web. As such, apps
offer numerous benefits to forwardlooking affiliates, though they also pose
development and marketing challenges.
Mobile websites and developing
apps
Affiliates’ mobile traffic is increasing.
In 2014, only a fifth of affiliates (22.2%)
surveyed by Income Access were receiving
more than 40% of their traffic from players
on mobile devices. Last year, the situation
had changed significantly: half of affiliates
(47.2%) were receiving more than this
threshold of mobile traffic.
“Mobile is the future for not only
iGaming, but for just about every industry,”
says Matthew Parvis, Chief Creative
Officer at poker affiliate PokerNews.
“People spend more and more time on their
phones each and every year.” PokerNews
responded to the mobile revolution early,
with the affiliate relaunching PokerNews.
com as a mobile-friendly site in 2013.
Not all affiliates were this prescient.
However, Google’s Mobilegeddon
algorithm update in April 2015 made
website mobile-friendliness a necessity
rather than a luxury. Unsurprisingly, today
the majority of affiliates – 83.3% of those
surveyed – have a mobile site.
Is a mobile site enough? In fact,
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iGB Affiliate Issue 55 FEB/MAR 2016
smartphone and tablet users spend
relatively little time browsing the mobile
web. According to Nielsen, apps makeup the lion’s share of consumers’ mobile
usage: 85% of their time is in-app, with
mobile browsing and sites accounting
for the remainder. Nonetheless, affiliates
have been relatively slow to join the app
revolution. Over three-quarters of affiliates
polled (77.8%) had neither an app nor any
plans to develop one.
When developing an app, affiliates
certainly face technical challenges. “Most
affiliates are used to creating websites,
but building native apps is quite different
to this, as a good app product is real
software,” says Marc Pederson, Director
of Business Development at bettingexpert.
com, a sports-betting affiliate. “There
is a need for much better development
practices, error handling and QA.”
Given the technological complexity, app
development takes time. Pederson estimates
animation can reach £35,000.
Once developed, an app needs to
be hosted in an app store. “By far the
biggest problem in developing apps in
the iGaming space is navigating the rules
and regulations that both the iOS and
Android marketplaces have in regards to
gambling products,” says Matthew Parvis
of PokerNews, which launched its first
apps in 2012.
Despite the challenges involved in
bringing an app to market, these are more
than balanced by the advantages. An app
can significantly improve consumers’
engagement with an affiliate’s content.
“We utilize our apps as brand extensions
and ways to continue to connect with our
audience,” says Parvis.
Anna Woodward, Commercial Manager
at sports-betting affiliate Easyodds.com,
agrees. “Our apps allow the user to have
a fully engaged user experience,” she
says. Woodward emphasizes that push
“Affiliates have been relatively slow to join the app
revolution. Over three-quarters of those polled (77.8%)
had neither an app nor any plans to develop one.”
that the first versions of the iOS and
Android apps for bettingexpert.com took
around five months to develop followed
by four months of testing and bug-fixing
before they were launched in 2014.
Understandably, this process also
involves significant financial investment.
According to app developers Abbacus
Technologies, a moderately complex app
with a database, API and social media
integration can cost £3,500 to £7,000.
Meanwhile, development costs for more
complex apps with 3D graphics and
notifications are a key means of “targeting
an engaged audience in real time across
multiple devices”.
Player acquisition
If engagement is a core benefit, apps also
serve to drive traffic to the brands affiliates
promote. “The Easyodds native app enables
us to strengthen our relationship with
iGaming brands throughout the sector,” says
Woodward, describing affiliates’ apps as “a
new platform to push partners’ offers”.
Consumers who have installed an