INSIGHT
Asia
Entering the market sooner rather than
later is also a valuable consideration for the
Asian market, which may present future
revenue opportunities. Forward-thinking
affiliates are already promoting Asia-facing
brands. Indeed, 33% of surveyed affiliates
are currently active in the market.
However, regulation remains a
significant issue for Asian brands and the
affiliates promoting them. Although China
However, while Australia has a liberal
approach to offline gaming, iGaming is
more restricted. The Interactive Gambling
Act of 2001 prohibits online casino and
poker brands from targeting Australian
players though permits online sportsbetting. Unsurprisingly, strong appetite
for gaming and an increasingly digitized
population has seen the latter vertical
explode. The Australian Gambling
Research centre estimates that roughly
“Developing Spanish and, in anticipation of Brazilian
regulation, Portuguese-language sites now will place
affiliates one step ahead of the competition”
is Asia’s most populated country with 1.4
billion people and also boasts the region’s
largest economy ($20.9 trillion GDP), the
government’s policy towards online gaming
is highly restrictive.
Similarly, India, Asia’s other economic
powerhouse, offers affiliates the
opportunity to promote lottery and horse
racing brands, while the Philippines offers
greater prospects due to its regulated
environment and growth. The island
nation’s two regulators, the Philippine
Amusement & Gaming Corporation
(PAGCOR) and the Cagayan Special
Economic Zone, issue licenses to online
casinos, sportsbooks and bingo brands.
Moreover, PAGCOR recently reported
that the country’s gross gaming revenue
rose by 17% in 2015 to reach $2.8 billion.
Australia
Australia was rated as the third most
important non-European market for
affiliates according to the IA survey
conducted. For the 27% of surveyed
affiliates promoting Australian brands, site
development isn’t significantly different
from their approach to targeting UK
players, especially given the strong cultural
affinities between the two counties.
Although Australia’s population of
23.1 million is only around a third of the
UK’s, gaming is arguably more popular
Down Under than in the mother country.
Almost two thirds of Australians place bets
regularly, according to a 2015 academic
study. Meanwhile, the only state on earth
with more slot machines than Australia’s
New South Wales is Nevada.
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iGB Affiliate Issue 59 OCT/NOV 2016
half of the $815 million spent on domestic
sports-betting in the 2014-15 financial year
was wagered online.
Given the market’s health, major
UK sportsbooks like Ladbrokes and
William Hill have launched Australiafacing online brands alongside domestic
operator Tabcorp’s TAB.com.au. As in
the UK, the majority of these brands offer
affiliate programmes, allowing local and
international affiliates to monetize their
Australian traffic.
Latin America
One in four surveyed affiliates are currently
promoting a brand targeting Central
or South America. As in Asia and the
US, affiliates are often active in what is
currently a relatively limited market in
preparation for regulatory change in the
region’s major economies.
Since 2002, Panama has been providing
licenses to iGaming operators targeting
the Latin America region. In addition,
the nearby Caribbean island of Curacao’s
Gaming Control Board also licenses brands
targeting Central and South America.
Nonetheless, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia,
the region’s three most populated countries
with economies to match, currently have
only limited or restricted iGaming markets.
However, this situation looks set to change.
For the last 70 years, Brazil, Latin
America’s largest economy with a
population of 200.4 million, has banned
gaming with the exception of horse-racing
wagering, lottery and poker. The country’s
lower house and Senate are currently
considering legislation to reverse the
situation, including regulating iGaming.
The bill could be passed before the end of
the year, according to a recent Financial
Times report.
Brazil, with its 50 million-strong middle
class, isn’t the only new opportunity on the
horizon for iGaming affiliates. Mexico’s
House of Representatives last year passed
a bill to expand its limited iGaming market
to include online casino and poker, and all
that remains is Senate approval. Further
south, the national gaming regulator of
Columbia, home to 48.2 million people,
had published draft regulations for
legis