T RAF F I C
G ET T ING TO
G RIP S WI TH
R E G U LATED
ENVIRONM ENTS
The EU’s tightening of data protection laws is just the latest piece of governance
for operators and affiliates to get their heads round. But while any new regulation
poses a challenge, there are things businesses can do to limit their impact,
says Julia Logan
THE NUMBER OF REGULATIONS that igaming-related
businesses have to deal with has been rising in recent
years. There are country-specific regulations governing
what gambling brands and affiliates are allowed to do,
and then there are general regulations like GDPR that
affect everybody, igaming included.
Country-specific regulations run the whole
gamut from making life more difficult (see the
recent UK regulation requiring igaming sites to
avoid child-friendly content, something that’s left
operators wondering how to verify the age of their
site visitors before showing them any content) to
making life impossible (like, well, banning online
gambling altogether)..
COVER YOUR BASES
The key to dealing with country-specific regulations
is keeping an eye on current developments and being
prepared. Typically, discussions take place before
something becomes regulated between those forces
pushing for a regulation and those opposing such
a measure. These voices are normally heard before
any legal action takes place, so if you’re watching the
current developments in a country you’re targeting,
any regulation should not come as a surprise.
The kind of decisions an affiliate usually has
to deal with if there are rumours of an upcoming
regulation involve whether to scale back activities
in the affected country. Is it really worth shelling
out on advertising or marketing, for example. A big
mistake is to wait till the very last moment without
doing anything, or not devote sufficient time to
consider your scenarios depending on the outcome
of the regulation. A lot also depends on the current
business model of an affiliate. For example, if your
main source of traffic in a certain country is PPC and
you know the regulation would ban or seriously limit
PPC (ie only allow operators to run paid ads), then
your options are either to withdraw from that country
altogether or consider other sources of traffic.
“If an operator is no longer
rewarding a certain kind of traffic
from its affiliates, then there is
no incentive for the affiliates to
drive this traffic to said operator”
Also, depending on the size of their operation,
affiliates may be more or less risk-averse when it
comes to complying with regulations – but that’s
where the affiliate programmes step in. If an
operator is no longer rewarding a certain kind of
traffic from its affiliates, then there is no incentive for
the affiliates to drive this traffic to said operator.
RISK PROFILES
There may well be some rogue operators choosing
to work without complying with the regulations,
JULIA LOGA N has been involved in SEO and online marketing since 2000, working on both her own
affiliate sites and client projects in different markets including igaming and binary options. She has published a
series of case studies on gambling SERPs on her blog at irishwonder.syndk8.co.uk. Julia is an SEO consultant
at irishwonder.com. Her specialties include on-site/technical SEO and SEO security audits, link profile audits,
online reputation management, negative SEO investigations and private network consulting
iGB Affiliate Issue 69 JUN/JUL 2018
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