How to work with gambling traffic in 2023 — what do solo, teams, and affiliate networks says

This year has been one of the most difficult for many arbitrageurs, affiliates, and direct advertisers, but life goes on and many teams and brands continue to actively support the Ukrainian economy by driving gambling affiliate traffic. Moreover, this vertical is of interest to more and more webmasters who attract new players. As the number of mobile devices in the world increases and the Internet becomes available even in the most remote corners of the planet, the demand for online casinos among players is growing. This is confirmed by the data from the report compiled by the British Gambling Commission. According to statistics, about 20 percent of the world’s population has gambled for money at least once.

Are there any significant changes today?

In 2022, the iGaming industry in many European geos was subjected to stricter regulation by government institutions. Many operators are already moving some of their products or plan to do so in 2023 to less popular locations, counting on a smaller but more solvent audience. Examples of such new gambling geos include countries in Africa, Latin America, the Philippines, and Indonesia. Moreover, some US states are actively discussing the issuance of licenses to new operators, which gives hope to many affiliates.

You can find out more about the networks, offers and tools offered by the affiliates in the «Aff networks»section.

Sources of gambling traffic

According to many advertisers, in 2023, most traffic will come from Facebook and Google, but SEO is preferred because the audience is looking for new products and is more interested in them.

In addition, many teams have started to use the so-called schematic traffic. However, there is a nuance here: in most countries, this method is illegal and there are already negative cases when such schemers are brought to justice. If you do not know how to work with it from a legal point of view, you should not use such a source, but more on this below.

Also, such old formats as push notifications, native, and pops remain relevant.

And all of this is mostly delivered on mobile applications (webwiev and PWA).

What do top experts say about gambling affiliate in 2023?

Given the dynamic development of the iGaming industry and, as a result, approaches to it from the affiliate market, cpadok.media decided that it would be better to ask experts what to expect, what to pay attention to, and how to adapt to the realities of gambling in 2023.

How is 2022 going for the global and Ukrainian gambling markets? Have there been any significant changes and have new promising geos emerged?

Artem, СОО Traffic Squad

«Although the Ukrainian market is not one of our main markets, we know from our partners that it has suffered a lot since the start of the full-scale invasion, as the focus has changed a lot. For a long time, people did not care about gambling products at all, and the payback for these products decreased.

The world was also not very calm, many geos began to withdraw payment methods, which hit the products hard, because they were losing players who brought them profit, which resulted in a decrease in budgets for affiliate marketing and the search for new markets, both for products and for us. Many tests bring losses in the moment and tickle the nerves a bit, but in the end, they allow us to continue working and earning.»

Parimatch Affiliates Team

«The main and high-profile change in 2022 is, of course, Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which affected absolutely all businesses, not just the gambling market.

Our company has long been focused on burgeoning markets and we generally practice a diversification approach, so leaving the aggressor country was not fatal for us in terms of traffic. We always develop promising regions rather than going all-in on one geo.

There are 3 obvious changes in the betting market that are worth mentioning:

• The growth of the sports/esports betting market in the US, from state to state. Recently, there has also been significant growth in the mobile sector from quarter to quarter.
• The Twitch fiasco, which resulted in many casino streamers being banned from the platform, as well as the launch of kick.com, a project that has good growth prospects.
• Continued growth of the esports betting market. The recent event in Brazil also contributed to the growth of the market segment in Latin America.

Geos that show growth possibilities

This is undoubtedly the United States. Speaking about our geos, we plan to continue to grow rapidly in Canada with our product.

In general, as far as industry trends are concerned, the most promising markets are Brazil, Peru, Chile and Colombia (LatAm). Today, emerging markets are probably experiencing their best times: Latin America is showing unprecedented activity. The Brazilian market stands out the most, despite all the difficulties with legalization. The Chilean market, a relatively fresh and rich geo, has proved to be very promising, and there are no concerns about it due to the relentless government regulation. In addition, we should not forget about India. Although this market is currently experiencing some difficulties with payment solutions, it is still impressive in size and has the potential for further growth.

And yes, the Australian market turned out to be very unusual in terms of affiliate marketing.

In general, we can say that the growing popularity of a particular geo is not a surprise for us, as we are constantly working on optimizing our product, retention, etc.

There are geos that are in high demand depending on the season, for example, India during the IPL or ICC.

As well as there are geos that stay afloat despite having been on the market for a long time with a stable high envelope, such as Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Bangladesh.»

Vadym Volochnyuk, Сo-owner Improve Team

«This year, light gambling has not undergone any significant changes. There are localized changes in the geo, but none of this can be called big changes.

If we talk about the Ukrainian market, it has certainly changed, and the reason for this is clear: the war. But closer to the new year, the market has already stabilized and recovered. This applies to both those who bring in traffic and those who service this traffic and make money on it.🙂

As for new geos, we work a lot with very non-mainstream countries, such as: Indonesia, Korea, Mongolia, Egypt, Kenya and others.»

Denys Holovan, Co-founder та CTO Wild Wild Leads & Wild Wild Apps

«I’m sure that the iGaming world will be developing for at least 3 more years before we can talk about stabilization. The excitement is not going anywhere, new people are coming into the world, and the number of mobile applications and advertisers is constantly scaling. According to analysts, the number of mobile apps will increase several times more by 2025. Therefore, I am sure that the iGaming market will scale in the same way, and perhaps even faster.

Speaking of promising geos, this is not something new, but rather a forgotten old one. What are we talking about? Every offer and every geo is seasonal, so you can always find a good offer and a good ge by using tests, or by looking back in time to get your historical data and follow it. So most of the new geolocations are old ones that we just renew with traffic due to the season or some event, as it was with the FIFA World Cup a few weeks ago.»

BogdanTop, author of the channel «Online advertising»

«Significant changes have taken place in absolutely all markets. In some markets, payments have become worse, in others, better, and new game providers and payment methods have emerged. The Ukrainian market feels very bad. Despite the large number of licenses, the gambling audience has shrunk due to the war, people have no money, electricity, or Internet to play slots. This is a market from which websites will move to other geographies. In 2022, fast-paced games such as Aviator became especially popular, and Latin American countries such as Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Mexico have also seen a sharp rise in popularity.»

Many arbitrage specialists and teams, having learned that some European countries have taken a course to tighten the strictness of iGaming legislation, and operators are diversifying risks by moving to other countries, are already beginning to actively study such «unusual» geos as Indonesia, South Korea, the Philippines, Bangladesh, and African countries and are increasingly pouring on Latin America. Should we expect that traffic competition in the EU may significantly decrease and even newcomers will be able to pour with high ROI from the very first days? For example, in the case of even greater gambling regulation in countries such as the Netherlands and Germany, can we consider these geos hopelessly lost for web-based gambling?

Artem, СОО Traffic Squad

«This year, we have also been pouring affiliate traffic almost all over the world and have depots from more than 50 countries in the tracker. Regarding Europe, we believe that there are no geos that are hopelessly lost, the iGaming market is constantly changing, products find new payment methods and continue to earn. We shouldn’t stigmatize a country as a lost cause, everything is very cyclical, and the conventional Australia, which everyone has already given up on, can bring 300% ROI in six months.»

Parimatch Affiliates Team

«In today’s iGaming landscape, there is a trend away from the traditional, established Tier-1 markets and into new regions in Latin America and Asia, not to mention Africa. Much of this is indeed motivated by regulation, which certainly includes but is not limited to Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.

This is not to say that these geos have lost their value, but certainly the past «success» is slipping away. Achieving high ROI has become more difficult. Those brands and operators that were deeply rooted in these markets, with greater brand awareness and active users, were forced to «double down» to some extent and apply for licenses under new, stricter obligations.

Germany remains a prime example with infamous new restrictions in areas such as KYC and maximum bet levels. These «titans» of the market are undoubtedly here to stay, but they are diversifying their goals.

The natural consequence of regulation such as these examples above is twofold: 1 The industry as a whole is expanding (entering new regions) and there is some excitement around the growth of demand in emerging markets («untapped» potential and market share). Hence, the excitement around these markets and 2. The growth of crypto operators that offer players more in terms of maintaining anonymity (using VPNs, etc.) and preventing their game levels from being limited.

We believe that high ROI and top-line profits will be obtained by affiliates that still have experience in traffic shedding. It is quite a challenge to fly in and immediately raise big money, especially in markets with strict gambling/betting regulations.

We will tell you more about «unusual»/LatAm CEOs in the previous question.»

Vadym Volochnyuk, Сo-owner Improve Team

«We shouldn’t expect that competition in the EU market will decrease. We need to look at this situation differently, because if, for example, there are 10-12 online casinos in Germany instead of 20, it does not mean that we should expect less traffic. It only means that all traffic will be directed to these 10-12 casinos, and because their databases will be filled very quickly, the expected ROI will only fall every month. The main indicator of a great geo is a large number of products. The more products, the more opportunities. Therefore, regulation in the EU will lead to temporary difficulties in generating traffic to this geo. But any difficulties are overcome over time.🙂 So you should not worry about it too much.»

Denys Holovan. Co-founder, CTO Wild Wild Leads & Wild Wild Apps

«I believe that no geolocation will die, because iGaming regulation leads to the addition of new rules and licenses on the product side. No large company will leave a major market because of the tightening of legislation. Instead, the product will adapt from the license side, redesign the landing pages, and continue to work. These conditions are regulated not only by the law but also by advertisers, so we do not expect global changes.

Speaking separately about newcomers, it is important to note that the concepts of Tier-1, 2, 3 have always existed and will continue to exist in the world of arbitration. These are countries that have completely different prices in auctions and bring completely different results. Therefore, everyone should understand that the more expensive the auction is, the more expensive the result will be. Therefore, even if gambling is regulated in different countries, we clearly understand that there will still be competition. There will be no mystical story that you come in, fill up and take a million out of a thousand.

I wouldn’t advise newcomers to pour Tier-1, not because of regulation, but simply because of auctions and budgets that I am ready to allocate for the test.»

BogdanTop, author of the channel «Online advertising»

«Traffic in the EU has always been expensive, and even more so with the tightening of gambling regulation and the fact that most European ads do not pay off except for SEO, PPC, Mail, and streamers.

Therefore, it is natural that most websites will work with Latin America, Africa, and Asia.»

How can the gambling vertical be affected in 2023 if many operators enter new markets? What should arbitrage specialists and SEO optimizers pay attention to now?

Artem, СОО Traffic Squad

«I think the vertical will grow, because new markets such as Latam and Asia have millions of new players who will only get acquainted with iGaming products, but there will be difficulties, because markets are specific and what is interesting to Europeans may not be interesting to players from new geos.»

Parimatch Affiliates Team

«The transition of gambling operators to new markets will definitely have a positive impact on the vertical as a whole. New markets always mean new opportunities and approaches. In general, every year brings new trends and tendencies, which in turn leads to competition, and competition, as we know, pushes the market to develop and «create» something new and better. SEOs need to keep their finger on the pulse: follow the latest innovations on the platforms they work with directly. Maintaining close contact with the advertiser is also a MUST. This will allow an SEO specialist to be the first to know about new market entries = to update the information on the website and have time to collect fresh organic traffic.

It should be remembered that both arbitrageurs and SEOs can be trendsetters themselves, i.e., they can set these trends. We are (almost) all marketers here, so a professional in his field 100% understands the impact he can have on the industry.»

Vadym Volochnyuk, Сo-owner Improve Team

«Arbitrageurs should focus their attention on large products that enter new geos and follow them. Everyone should understand that if a large product opens a new geo, for example, Morocco, it means that the geo is ready and has payment systems that work stably. Accordingly, this “big” product will be followed by all the others over time, which means that the geo will have a large selection of products to generate traffic and make money.

I consider the whole of Asia to be very promising. Although all Asian geos have very strong regulation and legislation in these areas, there are some countries where gambling is allowed, and all of Asia will play under VPNs of these countries.»

Denys Holovan. Co-founder, CTO Wild Wild Leads & Wild Wild Apps

«If a product has already established itself in a market, then its transition to a new one will not lead to the closure of the old market. If there was work in a particular country, and the advertiser has a new one, it does not mean that the new one will be better than the old one.

If we are talking about new markets that have been opening recently, where there was no industry before, then everything depends on tests. We clearly understand that any country has its own audience, and this audience can be either inclined to gaming or closed to it as much as possible.

We can summarize: you work on the old geo, do not close, and diversify with new tests. If the old one collapses, you conduct tests and only then can you start new ones. There is no magic recipe.»

BogdanTop, author of the channel «Online advertising»

«The transition to new markets will increase profits for websites that have been «squeezing» the same geos for years. First of all, it is important to pay attention to the specifics of particular geos, language, audience, and popular search queries.»

In your opinion, what are the prospects for crypto casinos in 2023, and what are the peculiarities of working with such offers?

Artem, СОО Traffic Squad

«We do not work with crypto casinos, so it is very difficult to give an expert opinion. Gambling is interesting because it is the simplest product that anyone can use, and crypto narrows the range of potential customers.»

Parimatch Affiliates Team

«Over the past ten years, we have been observing a positive trend in demand for crypto products: cryptocurrencies and online crypto casinos. It is already commonplace for the world, namely for developed countries. Gambling in developed countries is a story of «for fun» and enjoyment of the game rather than earnings. In turn, we will have a completely different attitude to the game, a different target audience of players and their solvency, which will bring top results for casino products. It should also be remembered that crypto operators can provide players with a competitive offer, namely anonymity.

As for the specifics of work. It may be a challenge to support old cryptocurrencies in the face of new ones, as we are already accustomed to the standard «set». This will have a direct impact on crypto offers themselves.»

Vadym Volochnyuk, Сo-owner Improve Team

«In fact, when building and opening a cryptocasino, you need to be prepared for the fact that such traffic will be low. That is, it will be difficult to gather a lot of players quickly. This is still a developing market. From my experience, I can say that we have few successful cases related to cryptocasinos so far. This is due to the fact that there are still few geos who are ready for this, and those who are ready do not yet have really cool products.»

Denys Holovan. Co-founder, CTO Wild Wild Leads & Wild Wild Apps

«A crypto casino assumes that a person uses a crypto wallet and can use it in the simplest possible deposit system. In terms of casino mechanics, it is much more difficult to do this than with a payment system that can be connected.

Therefore, wealthy countries will be the first to connect to cryptocurrency casinos. Poor countries do not use cryptocurrency wallets, as the audience does not need it.

It is very difficult to predict the development of crypto casinos, because no one could predict the development of cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, – its rapid growth and then a fall.

This direction will depend equally on both the iGaming and cryptocurrency markets. And when there are so many variables in the system, everything can only be clarified with the help of practical experience and its subsequent analysis. There is a potential for development, the crypto market is growing, but no one can predict the timeframe.»

BogdanTop, author of the channel «Online advertising»

«Cryptocurrency casinos cut off a large segment of the audience that does not have cryptocurrency. It is very difficult for such casinos to receive a large amount of traffic, unlike regular casinos that connect all possible and popular payment methods. In my experience, in 2022, some crypto casinos connected fiat and did better, so 2023 will definitely not be the year of crypto casinos.»

Can we expect successful iGaming projects to appear in meta-universes next year?

Artem, СОО Traffic Squad

«I’m not going to give an answer, because I have no expertise in this area. My personal opinion is that this is not a very promising area at the moment.»

Parimatch Affiliates Team

«The market is growing and will continue to develop, so the emergence of new projects is inevitable. But the success of these projects remains in question, as there are already very strong and competitive brands in the market.»

Vadym Volochnyuk, Сo-owner Improve Team

«I think that next year, not yet. Gambling and the mindset of people who play slots are not yet ready for major changes. And the meta-universe is still a thing that has not entered our lives in a stable way, and it will take time to integrate traditional slots into it. Nevertheless, no one forbids creating casino-like projects there. Some of them are already making significant progress on the market.»

Denys Holovan. Co-founder, CTO Wild Wild Leads & Wild Wild Apps

«In the meta-universe, a lot will depend on how far and fast the meta-universe itself will go and how easy it will be to integrate iGaming tasks. The current format is not suitable for gambling because it is too complicated. It should be simple enough for a person, because complexity will not allow webmasters to earn money, and it is primarily about them.

The essence of modern traffic arbitrage through mobile applications is that it is very simple for the user: he only needs to click three times on his smartphone, and we earn money.

In the meta-universe, the audience needs certain equipment that would bring them there, first of all. And, secondly, the casino needs to be adapted. Yes, this area will develop, but it will peak not next year but in a few years, when the infrastructure will be adapted into a permanent system that is comfortable for everyone, and the meta-universe will become familiar to users, including our target audience.»

BogdanTop, author of the channel «Online advertising»

«No, unfortunately, technologies are ahead of our awareness of these technologies, and I am not sure that there will be at least one successful case of using the metaverse in the gambling affiliate industry in 2023.»

What sources should be emphasized next year? And can fraudulent and streaming traffic be considered legal? After all, there are more and more news about arrests and sentences for website owners, streamers, and even actors promoting gambling offers.

Artem, СОО Traffic Squad

«We still rely on Facebook traffic because it is the largest source that allows us to work with partners around the world.

It all depends on what you call fraudulent traffic, if people are engaged in money luring, then of course it leads to such consequences as sentences. Schemes are very thin ice and you should not cross the line to avoid questions from law enforcement agencies.»

Parimatch Affiliates Team

«We would single out 3 sources. The first one is SEO (search engine optimization). SEO is always a good option, especially for those who take a conservative approach to investing. Often, SEO provides the best quality, but the quantitative indicators are not very high. And this brings us to the second source – Google PPC. Here, the situation is the opposite: it allows you to connect with a fairly large number of audiences, but requires large investments. When using this source, operators should make every effort to conclude win-win deals with affiliates. The third source is mailing lists. However, the difficulty of this approach is that success depends on the quality of the user base used by the affiliate. However, if this condition is met (a high-quality email database), the results can exceed all expectations.

Also, don’t forget about in-app, ASO/ASA trafficking.

Schemes are illegal, yes. However, there are cases when a company agrees to promote its brand through this traffic source. For example, streaming, where there is no direct narrative about cheating and 100% earnings, but a manual/how to guide the game. The situation may vary depending on the product and the streaming direction.»

Vadym Volochnyuk, Сo-owner Improve Team

«It is worth moving towards organic traffic. ASO/SEO are the favorites. People have to search, find, and play the products they want to play.»

Denys Holovan. Co-founder, CTO Wild Wild Leads & Wild Wild Apps

«From the iGaming point of view, I cannot single out one specific traffic source, because they all have their own target audience, and a funnel is built for the source: TikTok, Facebook, UAC, SEO, ASO, whatever. The target audience is everywhere, but you need to know how to work with it.

If we are talking about traffic quality, it is certainly easier to get it from UAC, SEO, ASO than from Facebook. But on the other hand, Facebook traffic in the right wrapper using a competent retention system, including an adequate push funnel and analytics, is of high quality, which will not be worse than UAC.

The story with fraudulent traffic is quite different. When we created the company, we chose the absence of scam and lies as one of the fundamental principles. But at the same time, we have some traffic, and the question arises – why?

There are funnels in fraudulent traffic, as well as in any marketing, and this funnel can be built based on lies with promises to make money, or it can be built differently – based on the offer of a game, rational tools of behavior in a casino in terms of financial literacy, which are not offers of schemes to “beat” the casino, because it is impossible. The issue of legality depends on the company’s approach to marketing funnels.»

BogdanTop, author of the channel «Online advertising»

«It is worth moving away from the popular Facebook, UAC, PPC, TT and pay attention to less popular but working sources Push, ASO, in-App.

No, schemes and streaming are illegal, and showing your face and advertising an unlicensed casino can easily land you in jail in any country.»

Bottom line

In 2023, we shouldn’t expect any drastic changes in the work with gambling affiliate products, and an important role in this will be played by the increase in volumes and the shift in emphasis to little-explored geos. Most leads and deposits will be generated by Tier-1 and Tier-2 countries. Cryptocurrency casinos are unlikely to attract many players, and the meta-universe is not yet expected to offer products worthy of webmasters’ attention. Next year, ASO, SEO, ASA, and faster Facebook and PPC will be the favorites of advertisers in this vertical, but the formats offered by ad networks should not be neglected.