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Affiliate Monitor UK OK
Gillespie on the call with analysts . “ And this is where we have seen actuals exceed our expectations .”
It is perhaps no coincidence that it is the “ familiar territory ” referenced by Søgaard and common to both acquisitions is the UK .
A POTTED HISTORY
The UK online gambling market is one of the stalwarts of the global sector – or at least was . The welldocumented regulatory issues , including the long-running debate and now seemingly final resolution of the soon-to-be-implemented affordability measures along with the chilling backdrop of substantial operator fines and regulatory settlements , have had their effect .
With bright , shiny new markets in the US very much to the fore , it is understandable that the UK has somewhat lost its allure in recent years , as much as a fertile landscape for affiliates as for the gambling operators themselves .
“ There ’ s certainly been a move away from the UK in the focus of some of the larger affiliate companies ,” says Richard Moffat , chief executive at OLBG . “ It makes sense that they need to shift budgets towards growing markets and where there are higher margins . To that extent it does seem like investment in UK assets has reduced , with some offloading their assets altogether in order to invest elsewhere .”
But this shifting of assets is about
“ It makes sense that some of the larger affiliates need to shift budgets towards growing markets and where there are higher margins ”
RICHARD MOFFAT , OLBG
more than just a refocusing of attention elsewhere . It also betrays an underlying and unsettling worry about the nature of the UK gambling market , at least as far as the affiliates are concerned .
“ Operators have their concerns about the UK affiliate space ,” says Stuart Simms , chief executive at FairPlay Sports Media which owns the Oddschecker site . “ They can still be seen as the Wild West , with operators concerned they are paying the wrong people , especially with regards to regulation .”
But Chris Russell , who owns and runs the OneTwenty affiliate group which includes sites such as GG . co . uk , FootballTips and Squawka among its brands , says his company thrived partly from taking a contrarian view of the UK
market at a time when the rest of the sector was eyeing up the US . “ People felt regulation was stifling the market ,” he says .
“ But we thought it was profitable and stuffed with operators that were looking to win market share . Look at the names of the companies involved in the UK – Flutter , Entain and Bet365 , for instance . Those are the longterm winners and they were still delivering strong returns from the UK market .
“ The conversations about headwinds weren ’ t impacting the top operators and we wanted to align ourselves with them .”
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Another factor in the UK market as much as elsewhere are the actions taken by Google with iGB Affiliate Monitor