FEATURE
If we look forwards, we have to be realistic and think that we’ re going to be in the UK, so the rest of 2018 is going to be igaming. I can’ t see that we’ re going to take it to market beyond that at the moment. That said, it was developed as a landing page monitor so it is ready for other markets, if other markets are ready for us.
iGBA: Do you think this compliance drive is going to dramatically change the market? Could we see a handful of consolidated entities dominating the igaming affiliates space? IS: Over the last few months I’ ve noticed affiliates have really woken up. Looking back in January and February the attitude among affiliates was‘ if I’ ve done something wrong someone will tell me’ but that’ s changing.
I’ ve got affiliates in larger affiliate networks coming to us and asking to see reports, which we now show them free of charge on their own sites. We’ re saying,“ This is what we’ re giving the operators, this is what they’ re asking us for and you’ re welcome to see where you don’ t match up.”
It’ s a very important because if affiliates don’ t cotton on to this, they’ re going to lose their relationships with the operators. We need that affiliate market here at Rightlander as much as the operators do!
“ The whole word‘ union’ itself creates an‘ us and them’ scenario and that’ s the last thing this industry needs now; it needs you and me, rather than us and them”
I think the larger networks face the biggest risk. They’ ve acquired so many sites and so many affiliates that the compliance issue on all those sites must be a complete nightmare for them. There are hundreds and hundreds of sites and thousands and thousands of pages to go through.
The industry will fine-tune itself and there will be dropouts and there will be fewer affiliates, don’ t get me wrong, but I think it’ s still going to be a relatively big market and competitive.
There are dangers and there will always be dangers, but the bottom line is the relationship between the operators and the affiliates needs to be much, much stronger than it is now.
iGBA: Do you think attempts by Tom Galanis and ThePogg to unite affiliates through trade bodies could help with this? IS: I think the sentiment’ s right but it needs to be run by someone whose job it is. They need to understand about relationships, and they need to be well remunerated for that and no one has been prepared to pay the money for that to happen.
There are also differences of opinion about what action should be taken. I’ m not onboard with the union idea. The whole word‘ union’ itself creates an‘ us and them’ scenario and that’ s the last thing this industry needs now; it needs you and me, rather than us and them.
However, I get where they’ re coming from. I get what they are trying to achieve and if run correctly there’ s definitely some mileage in it. If you can get affiliates to appreciate what operators are going through, and you can get operators to appreciate what affiliates have to go through, that can only be a good thing. iGBA: What do affiliates need to do to defend their own industry? IS: People that manage to adapt will come out the other side not only with stronger relationships and more trust with the operator, but they will actually find that a lot of their competitors aren’ t there anymore. They’ re going to be one of a smaller crowd of people getting the traffic and they’ ll probably benefit quite substantially from that. That’ s something I’ d like to see more affiliates wake up to.
They should be more aware of the fact that the people around them are also a risk to their businesses. Loose cannon affiliates will end programmes. 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. They need to be holding each other to account more, understanding what best practice looks like and be advocating for it.
iGBA: How have affiliates reacted to Rightlander? IS: When it started there was one forum post where someone thought the crawler was slowing down their website and tried to hold us to account for it, and we did some testing and it wasn’ t.
What I have noticed is that I’ ve started to get emails from affiliate networks, in particular the bigger boys like Blexr, and they are interested in what we are doing and what they can get from it.
iGBA: Are the glory days over for affiliates? IS: It’ s going to be harder to make money from being an affiliate in the future but I think it’ s just different, the way you do it now.
You want to get to a point where people actually want to hear what you have to say on things. So affiliates should be looking to build authority. Those who see it as a marketing exercise will struggle, that’ s my personal opinion. But I’ ve always thought marketing is not the way to do this industry, authority is the way to do it. If you have authority – you know live casino really well, for example – and someone wants to play live casino, you’ re in a strong position.
You also have the new breed of streamers who play on Twitch and YouTube. They have an important role to play as well, but that’ s going to be a problem area for compliance because how do you monitor what someone is saying in a live stream?
iGBA: What else should operators do? IS: A lot of operators are reducing their numbers. In fact a couple of operators delayed coming on board with us because they were making major cuts to their affiliate programmes from 900 to a more manageable 200 or 150, but I’ d caveat that by saying they don’ t see it as coming down to 150 and staying there. They see it as coming down to a starting point and working with the affiliates they trust the most and then looking at ramping up again. If that means revisiting old affiliates and talking to them, then fine, it’ s just basically moving the risk for now.
iGBA: Are you out of the affiliate businesses for good now? IS: Yes, I’ m out of that game now. For the next few years it’ s all going to be Rightlander if all goes to plan. I love a challenge, so it’ s all about building something that people recognise as being good. That’ s what I enjoy doing.
34 iGB Affiliate Issue 69 JUN / JUL 2018