FEATURE iGBA: You’ ve had a lot of top-tier operators sign up since launch, Genting being the latest. What do you attribute the rush to? IS: We got LeoVegas on board very quickly. That kind of gave us a bit of impetus, so we went to London Affiliate Conference and got the name out there and since then it’ s just been a constant stream of people wanting to have a look at the product.
We’ re fortunate in that we’ re probably the only tool that does what it does. There are other tools, which are for marketing from what I understand and kind of skirt round the compliance issues when it comes to creative. I don’ t think anyone was really doing this‘ search a website, find something specific and report back’ thing.
iGBA: What are operators’ needs when it comes to tracking and monitoring affiliate sites? IS: There are still quite a few different interpretations of what’ s required, but over the next three to six months we’ ll be in a position where most people know what they’ re doing and know what they’ re looking for. At the moment the ideas vary but there are things that are obvious, for example old marketing material. As we talk, Genting is launching a new bonus and they want to capture all the sites that are still representing their old one.
Non-compliant anchor text is another. That’ s become quite a crucial part of compliance issues because it directly links that link to the operator. We look for anything claiming to be‘ risk free’,‘ low risk’, that sort of thing, and anything that purports to be something that it isn’ t. The Gambling Commission’ s also very hot on anything that induces the player with time-sensitive calls to action, so‘ play now’ for example.
iGBA: Do you have to work quite closely with the operators on identifying their needs? IS: The biggest issue for us at the moment is that the issue of compliance is landing on the laps of affiliate managers, and they’ ve got two problems. First, they have to get to grips with what compliance is, and second they have to try and fit it into their schedules. They need to understand how to interpret the data and what to do with it.
There can be an element of hand-holding, and when that happens it’ s a slower process and the quantity of data can be a bit overwhelming.
So we try to start those clients off with something relatively straightforward. We sign them up to a fairly basic package and then work with them on standard reports and try to work out what they make of it. From there, we can reduce it, increase it or change the amount of information they get. A lot of companies are getting wind of the fact that they do need someone specific.
“ The good affiliates need to call out the guys that are shouting about the injustices of it all; empathising and giving these guys sympathy is the last thing they should be doing”
When we’ re dealing with larger companies we tend to get compliance officers. That’ s a different kettle of fish as they already understand what they need to do, but we still work with them to tailor it.
It’ s peaks and troughs. Right now it’ s heading up a mountain because everyone’ s learning and there are lots of non-compliant affiliates out there. But at some point it’ s going to reach a peak and start to come down the other side because there will be fewer affiliates to work with.
iGBA: Do you see a role for Rightlander beyond the igaming space? IS: We have had some discussions with investors who could potentially be interested in investing in taking it to another vertical, but whether that would be us that did it, I’ m not sure.
At the moment within igaming it’ s driving itself, largely because the GC has said that gambling companies need to demonstrate that they are actively involved in affiliate compliance, which is one the best things anyone could have said for a compliance platform like ours. To be honest, we’ ve probably got a few clients paying us money every month just so they can be seen to be paying money each month. I’ m not going to complain about that!
There are some people who come along and have a look and decide not to take us on. There was a big one the other day; we did a trial for them but they decided not to sign up because they said there was too much data.
iGB Affiliate Issue 69 JUN / JUL 2018
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