Five Important Features to Look Out for when Choosing A Sports Betting Affiliate Program

Affiliate program is one of the known ways a blogger and other content providers make money. Yet many of them get frustrated from various affiliate programs they've joined in the past because they hardly make any significant amount of money. 

There are features you must pay attention to, and analyse carefully before you choose to join an affiliate marketing program with a sports betting operator. This is what we want to discuss here. 

What are Sports Betting Affiliate Programs?

So what actually is a betting affiliate program? Basically, it is where a content creator partners up with a sports betting operator. Their content then drives traffic to the operator’s website. The content creator and the betting operator then share the revenue generated by that traffic. This might be worked out as a percentage of however much every referral loses in bets, or sometimes a simple rate paid for every deposit a referred player makes.

You may have seen some of these affiliates in action. Links and banner advertising are used on the content creator’s pages to drive the traffic to the operator’s website. The content can take a wide variety of forms these days. Sports news blogs are very common as affiliates. Social media channels are also used too. You might see a Facebook page offering football betting tips for example, or perhaps a horse racing YouTube channel, where links to certain operators are placed.

If you’re looking for the best betting affiliate sites then we can help. We can help you spot the most attractive affiliate deals that can best match what you want to achieve. We’ll outline the details about how we do this later on, but first let’s answer the question of why betting operators need affiliates.

Why do Sports Betting Operators Need Affiliates?

Sports Betting operators make use of affiliate programs because they need to keep their customer numbers replenished. Affiliate programs are a great way of bringing new customers into their website. It is important for a Sports betting brand to freshen up their market share as customers drift away from time to  time.

Customers may see more value in another operator, or find that a different bookie has better deals for their favourite sports. A customer may have their account limited by a bookie because they have been winning frequently. Punters drift away from bookies for a wide variety of reasons, which is why gambling operators need to keep an eye on boosting their customer numbers all the time, if they have to survive. 

A betting affiliate program is a great way of doing just that. Rather than the operator undertaking the biggest share of the promotional work, their affiliate partner provides the promotional content that brings new punters in. With the revenue shared, it’s a situation from which both sides of the partnership can benefit. But you must make sure that you identify the right partner – here are some tips on what to look out for to find the right affiliate operator for you.

Features to Look for when Choosing an Sports Betting Affiliate Program

So you want to enter into some affiliate relationships with betting operators, what’s the first step to take? If you’re serious about finding the best betting affiliate sites then there are a number of features that you need to look out for. We’ll examine these in more detail here.

1. Decent Revenue Share Arrangements

Of course, a really important part of finding the best sports betting affiliate programs is how the revenue is split between the partners. You do not want to feel that you are on the wrong end of an inequitable partnership deal that does not provide you with fair recompense for your efforts. After all, it will be your content that is driving more potential customers to the affiliate’s website.

Most affiliate programs will offer you some kind of revenue share arrangement based on the money that a customer loses at their site. The figures for this are usually between 25% and 45%, though they can vary. An alternative way of sharing the revenue is for you to be paid a flat rate for every player who you refer that makes a deposit at the affiliate’s site. This is called a Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) deal.

You need to check that your affiliate is prepared to share their revenue on what you feel is a fair basis. An operator should always be open and transparent about how they plan to share the revenue with you. You can often get a good idea for the transparency and honesty of an operator by checking their licensing arrangements. We’ll look at how you can check those next.

2. Licensing and Security

If you are trying to find the best betting affiliate sites then you also need to check the licence of an operator before you commit to any kind of commercial relationship with them. Holding the appropriate licence or licences cements the reputation of an operator as being above board, fair to their customers and honest in all of their dealings. To hold a licence, an operator is subject to stringent checks to ensure that all aspects of their services are up to scratch and legitimate. An operator with a proper licence is not likely to be engaged in behaviour that could be construed as dishonest.

If you live in the Nigeria, then the licence you should be checking for comes from the Nigeria’s National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC). 

The NLRC has awarded sports betting licences to Betwinner and Bet24hrs, amid efforts to expand the country’s regulated lottery and gaming industry.

 

However, obtaining NLRC licence is a sign that a Sports betting company or brand  is allowed to operate in Nigeria and that they are regularly audited for the fairness, security and legitimacy of their business. All operators offering gambling services to Nigerian residents should carry a licence from the NLRC. It is also one of the world’s most stringent gambling regulatory bodies. The best betting affiliate sites in Nigeria should all carry NLRC licence.

3. Match the Affiliate’s Branding to Your Content

Every sports betting operator out there has their own brand identity. You can see it in things like Paddy Power’s irreverent advertising campaigns. A brand identity is how an operator would like to be seen by its customers and potential new punters. When you are seeking out the best sports betting affiliate programs, it pays to consider brand identity very carefully. 

This means that the content on your website or social media channel should be chosen so that it matches the brand identity of the operator with whom you have affiliated. There is little point providing betting tips for Gaelic sports, for example, if your chosen operator only has a limited number of markets available. On the other hand, if they feature plenty of promotional offers relating to betting on soccer with accumulators, they would be a perfect fit for your football news blog.

4. Types of Betting and Brand Identity

If you’re looking to team up with an operator as part of a betting affiliate program then you also need to make sure that the content you are creating on your affiliate channels is appropriate. This means checking the brand identity of your affiliate partner. For example, Bet9ja is known for its irreverent marketing campaigns, so this might suit a football blog that takes a quirky look at the latest soccer news stories.

When you are trying to find the best sports betting affiliate programs then it is essential that you match your brand identity and the type of betting you talk about to that of your potential partner organisation. There is little point affiliating to a sports bookmaker that doesn’t offer any political markets like horse racing, if you run a politics news site. 

5. Customer Safety from Addiction

Another feature of the best betting affiliate sites is that they look after their customers. Reputable gambling operators put in place structures and features that can protect their players from harm as well as keeping their data and transactions safe. Gambling can be a risky activity, and people can fall prey to patterns of compulsive or addictive behaviour. If you are going to team up with an operator in a betting affiliate program then you need to feel reassured that they are going to be looking after their punters in this regard.

Before entering into a betting affiliate program with an operator you should check the help section of their website to see what protection they have in place for their punters. Punters should have the option to set limits for their account, in terms of the sums that they can bet. There should also be plenty of details provided about how to contact bodies like Gamblers Anonymous who can intervene and provide support if a customer has concerns about their betting patterns. If you are going to partner up with an online betting affiliate then you want to preserve your own ethical reputation as well as theirs.