ABOUT ME
Scott Longley is managing director of And More Media . Scott has been a journalist since the early noughties covering personal finance , sport and gambling . He has worked for a number of publications including Investment Week , Bloomberg Money , Football First , eGaming Review and Gambling Compliance . He also helps produce the Earnings + More betting and gaming sector newsletter .
With many media sites dropping out of the rankings , those [ affiliates ] focused on long-term UK brand building seem to have gained RICHARD MOFFAT , OLBG
regard to the quality of content in its search results .
“ Google has encouraged the flight to quality ,” says Simms . “ We are getting regarded for the reputation of our content . Google rewards that , so the UK market rewards valuable insight .”
But Moffat contends that some of the larger affiliate organisations initially judged this move wrong . At the same time as focusing on other markets , he says it also appears that many of the larger affiliate operators have been investing in media partnerships in the UK .
Rather than building their own high quality UK brands , some have looked to piggyback off the authority of news sites , or as some would call it , “ use parasite SEO ,” he argues .
“ This strategy seemed to come tumbling down recently when Google took manual action against what was termed as site reputation abuse . With many of these media sites dropping out of the rankings , those focused on long-term UK brand building seem to have gained .”
Stepping out
The flight to quality , then , has some resonance in the UK . While Better Collective might have enjoyed some success with the ‘ pure ’ affiliate of AceOdds , the feeling is that as with the rest of the world , it and by extension some of the other acquisitive affiliates are moving away from buying that type of pure affiliate operation and instead are more looking at properties in the sports media space .
Russell certainly says that OneTwenty is looking at a similar strategy . “ I would love to buy one of the bigger sports media , non-affiliation assets in the UK because they have the audience ,” he says . “ Something like LADbible , though I fear that it isn ’ t for sale .”
Moffat argues that if there is further M & A involving the UK market , it will not be like the market has seen previously . “ In the growth stage of the larger affiliate sites , M & A was used to buy large margin assets and grow volume ,” he says . “ What we may see is investment in one or two bigger , well-established brands where a larger company wants to increase its UK exposure .
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