Editors Letter
Editor’s letter
W
elcome to iGB’s new Affiliate Monitor, a quarterly
companion to our popular Market Monitor. With the main
agents of the recent consolidation drive having followed
the trail blazed by XLMedia to the public markets, visibility of metrics
such as NDCs and the percentage of revenue gained via rev share
deals has enabled a more detailed view of how the top end of the
market is performing.
Generating a larger share of revenues from rev share as opposed
to CPA clearly increases the ability of these businesses not only to
plan but to grow revenues in a long-term sustainable manner, and the
comparative analysis in Part 1 exposes clear differences between the
leading listed players.
This Q1 review also falls within what feels like a defining period in the
affiliate sector’s development, with stakeholders dipping their toes in the US market where the sports
betting expansion looms large across the wider igaming space. The quarter also saw the transition from
dot.com to dot.country regulation in Sweden, a highly material market for several of these businesses.
While understandably bullish in the face of a bumpy transition into a heavily restricted bonusing
environment, author Scott Longley is not convinced by the affiliates’ arguments that regulated markets
such as these are “less risky” and “better structured for growth”, seeing these as more credible coming
from the mouths of operators.
“It is hard to see why the bigger affiliates need to follow the regulated mantra of the operators other
than as a sop to potentially nervous investors in Sweden, where most of the entities are listed”, he says.
The big listed players are of course only one part of the story. In addition to other big names being
privately held – such as Oddschecker, the Racing Post and Cherry’s Fortune Lounge – substantial traffic
and revenues are still driven by the long tail of affiliates working below the listed level. For many of
these, the benefits of working in regulated markets are “somewhat oversold” (see Part 3).
We hope you enjoy this new report and find it useful. Should you have any suggestions or feedback
please don’t hesitate to email me at [email protected]
Stephen Carter
iGaming Business
iGaming Business • Affiliate Monitor • August 2019
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