News

Betting on New Customers: Are Returning Users Damaging Sportsbooks’ CAC Strategies?

Published

2 years ago

October 30, 2023

The Rise of Female Bettors: What Does This Mean for Marketing Campaigns?

By: Richard Metcalf

In the fast-paced, highly competitive world of sports betting, operators have to ensure they’re maximising Return-On-Investment (ROI) in their digital marketing campaigns. The challenge is to target new customers and not waste budget on returning users that they’ve already engaged.

Campaign spend within sports betting should be laser-focused on driving customer acquisition and making every click count, but with existing users inadvertently driving up Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC), this is becoming a huge challenge. Predictions from Statista suggest that the online gambling market will consist of over 233.7 million users by 2027. This makes it imperative to protect against existing customers from draining budget and free up budget for new customers

If a sportsbook doesn’t have visibility into the traffic it’s generating through its ads, it could be losing millions to users who are already engaged and using its site. Returning users need to be managed to ensure sportsbooks can make the most of their budgets and gain new converting customers.

Returning Users and ROI

What percentage of your digital marketing budget is engaging returning users through your ad as an entry point? The chances are this number is very high. We recently saw a company where 97% of their spending on branded keywords was linked to clicks from existing customers which drained their budget and meant they saw close to no new conversions.

Repeat clickers and returning customers, who navigate to your site using ads, rather than organic search results, are driving up the cost of genuine new clicks from first-time depositors. Although these are enthusiastic and engaged customers, they are clicking on your ads excessively and driving up your CAC and Cost Per Acquisition (CPA). This ultimately dilutes your campaign’s effectiveness and wastes spend on engagement that will never convert.

The Secret to Success with Custom Validation Rules and Shadow Campaigns

To drive the performance of sports betting advertising efforts, companies can set custom validation rules that limit the number of times a user clicks on a paid ads campaign. Once that threshold of clicks is met, the users are stopped from seeing that campaign for a set period of time, helping to eliminate the high CPC rates sportsbooks experience.

This effectively means that once the threshold is reached the user is precluded from seeing ads and will only see the brand’s organic listing on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Alternatively, by implementing shadow campaigns, an operator can create a duplicate of the existing brand keyword campaign in Google ads just for these returning users who are precluded from the original brand keyword campaign. So, rather than being shown the organic listing these users will see a paid search ad on the SERP but at a lower cost to the advertiser.

Shadow campaigns are a powerful tool that allow advertisers to take appropriate actions to protect their brand, optimise their marketing efforts, and ensure compliance with marketing strategies. By using custom verification rules and shadow campaigns, budgets are saved for genuine users who are more likely to convert resulting in maximised ROI.

Transforming and Optimising Campaigns

No sportsbook wants returning users burning their marketing budgets. In a market that is growing ever more competitive, it is vital that advertising traffic is controlled for businesses to capture more ROI across campaigns. By implementing shadow campaigns, sportsbooks will uncover a new level of visibility to minimise CAC and maximise new customer engagement.

It’s time to unlock unparalleled success, optimise your PPC campaigns to their fullest potential and transform your Google Advertising strategy.

Richard Metcalf is the Global VP, Sports Betting & Online Gaming, at TrafficGuard, an international platform provider for detecting, mitigating and reporting on digital ad fraud. With over twenty years of experience in Sales and Business Development in the digital industry, Richard strives to achieve the highest level of results for the team. He has represented brands as their public face, managed entire sales cycle processes and delivered solutions to stakeholders to ensure business growth and develop the teams around him.

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News

CatAffs brands soar following ZingBrain AI integration

Published

9 hours ago

May 13, 2025

George Miller

CatAffs brands soar following ZingBrain AI integration

Partners programme CatAffs has seen its brands dramatically increase revenue and other KPIs following the successful integration of ZingBrain AI.

ZingBrain AI is the artificial intelligence engine for iGaming, which delivers personalised recommendations to create a fully bespoke experience for users.

Since CatAffs integrated the ZingBrain AI platform it has seen impressive results across the board.

This has included:

A 17 percent increase in GGR per player, significantly increasing revenue
A 16 percent increase in turnover per player, driven by an increase in activity
An 11 percent increase in bets per player, boosting engagement
A 30 percent increase in deposits and sessions, improving retention
A one hour per session increase, meaning players are sticking around for longer

Oleg Smolerov, CPO at ZingBrain AI, said: “We couldn’t be happier to see CatAffs already enjoying improved performance via our platform. This kind of success shows how AI isn’t just a buzzword, but rather something that can significantly improve business performance. We’ll continue to work closely with the CatAffs team to help their brands reach even greater heights.”

Oleksii, Head of Technical Product at CatAffs, added: “ZingBrain AI has very quickly become a key part of our growth strategy here at CatAffs, and the improvements in player engagement and revenue have already gone well beyond our expectations. But what we appreciate most is just how willing the ZingBrain AI team has been to adapt and innovate based on our needs. This is just the start of a great partnership.”

ZingBrain AI is redefining personalisation for iGaming operators, giving users the personal experience they’ve become used to when using YouTube, Spotify or Netflix. The insights are drawn from more than 15 billion transactions and 3.5 million users.

To find out more, please visit: https://www.zingbrain.ai/.

Awards

iGB Affiliate Awards: 2025 shortlist revealed

Published

12 hours ago

May 13, 2025

George Miller

iGB Affiliate Awards: 2025 shortlist revealed

Betandeal has achieved the most shortlisted entries heading into this year’s iGB Affiliate Awards in London, making the cut in five categories.

The Madrid-headquartered affiliate agency is closely followed by the listed sector’s star performer of the last 12 months, Gambling.com Group.

GDC has put itself in the running across four categories, for best affiliate in casino, sports and bingo (via its WhichBingo brand) as well as Affiliate Employer of the Year.

Newcomer WagerWire also garnered four shortlist nods from the judges in sports, Safer Gambling Initiative of the Year, Employer of the Year and Best Affiliate Campaign.

While more than half of the casino and sports shortlists consist of familiar names that made the cut last time around, including GDC, Better Collective, Gentoo Media, OLBG, Mr. Gamble and Casino Guru, the picture for the Awards’ most popular and highest-growth categories is more mixed.

For Best Affiliate Programme, only three of the 12 shortlisters featured last year – bet365 Partners, last year’s surprise winner Novi Affiliates and Betsson Group Affiliates. While in Best Affiliate Network, for which judgable submissions grew by nearly 80% YoY, only CasinoAffliatePrograms.com and BetAffiliation are back to do battle again this year.

Both of these categories also include submissions from two businesses in the thick of the year’s most significant regulated market opening, Superbet’s Brazil Affiliate Program and Super Afiliados.

The new Best Affiliate Management Platform shortlist sees established names such as MyAffiliates, Affilka and PartnerMatrix pitched against a raft of fast-growing challengers and disruptors such as ReferOn and Aff.Tech.

The winners of this year’s iGB Affiliate Awards will be revealed at a Cool Britannia-themed night at East London’s Troxy Theatre on 3 July, following the second day of iGB L!VE.

The shortlist for the judged categories at the 2025 iGB Affiliate Awards is as follows:

AFFILIATE CATEGORIES

Best Casino Affiliate: Betandeal, Casino Guru, FTD Digital, Gambling.com Group, Gentoo Media, Mr. Gamble, OLBG.com, Traffic Lab

Best Sports Betting Affiliate: Betandeal, Better Collective, FairPlay Sports Media, Flashscore Network by Livesport, Gambling.com Group, Gentoo Media, Hub Affiliations, OLBG.com, WagerWire

Best Bingo Affiliate: BingoPort, FTD Digital, Little Star Media, WhichBingo

Best Poker Affiliate: GipsyTeam, PokerListings, Worldpokerdeals

Best Streaming Affiliate: 3C Gaming, Basher Agency, Betandeal, Kingbet Media

Affiliate Campaign of the Year: OLBG’s Sponsorship of Harry Derham Racing, PAME STOIXIMA x Kingbet Media, Smart Social for TaDa Gaming Influencer Activation, WagerWire for Anyone Can Be An Influencer

Affiliate Employer of the Year: Gambling.com Group, Hub Affiliations, iGamingAffiliates.io, TAG Media , WagerWire

Safer Gambling Initiative of the Year: Casino Guru, Casino.nl, CasinoNieuws.nl, Gamblers Connect, Gentoo Media for AskGamblers, WagerWire

INDIVIDUAL CATEGORIES

Best Affiliate Manager:
Christoffer Grönlund – Winlandia Partners
George Gerakanakis – Campeon Gaming
Kasper Jensen – Entain
Krishi Jain – Bluefox Affiliates
Laura Darks – bet365
Lena Lapina – iWildPartners
Pablo Saborío – CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com
Rachael Ahern – BetMGM
Radoslaw Baranski – LeoVegas Group
Yuan Wang – Income Access, a Paysafe Company

PROGRAMME/NETWORK CATEGORIES

Best Affiliate Programme: 247Partners, 7StarsPartners, Alpha Affiliates, BetMGM US, bet365 Partners, Betsson Group Affiliates, Novi Affiliates, R2D Partners, Royal Partners, Superbet Brazil, V.Partners, WOWPartners

Best Affiliate Network: AdsEmpire, Alfaleads Network, BetAffiliation, CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com, Click Hunters Tech, LeadHouse Network, Play.Partners, revenuelab., Super Afiliados

Programme/Network Campaign of the Year: BetAffiliation, Betandeal, MelBet Partners & Affiliates, PIN-UP Partners

SERVICE PROVIDER CATEGORIES

Best Tech: BetAffiliation, Blask, Cipher Sports Technology Group for Dimers Platinum, Click Hunters Tech, Routy, Statsdrone

Best Affiliate Management Platform: Aff.Tech, Affiliate Access, Affilka by SOFTSWISS, MAP™, MyAffiliates, PartnerMatrix, RavenTrack, ReferOn

Best Digital Agency: Affiverse Agency, BetAffiliation, Betandeal, HIREQUARTERS, Natural Links, Revpanda, TAG Media, Tappx

OPEN TO ALL SECTOR COMPANIES

Rising Star: Already Media, Hub Affiliations, Immerion Partners, Media 24, PixGaming, Tribuna.com

Best Newcomer: Big Betty Partners, BigDeal Partners, iGamingAffiliates.io, KNG Partners, Rocks Partners, WinWin Partners

Innovator of the Year: BetAffiliation, Click Hunters Tech, Pepper Partners, Stars Partners, Statsdrone

News

RavenTrack signs Flows to accelerate affiliate product innovation

Published

1 day ago

May 12, 2025

George Miller

RavenTrack signs Flows to accelerate affiliate product innovation

Flows, the industry’s leading no-code product delivery platform, is pleased to announce RavenTrack as its latest customer.

RavenTrack will leverage Flows to streamline client onboarding and accelerate the rollout of new affiliate features and tools, setting a new industry benchmark for onboarding speed.

RavenTrack is raising the standard for technology in the industry. Purpose-built by iGaming experts, the platform combines accurate tracking, real-time reporting, smart campaign tools and seamless integrations. Its focus on performance, speed and transparency has earned the trust of leading operators, with clients including Betfred, Bet9ja, Novibet, Powerplay and MrQ.

Flows empowers iGaming operators and platforms to build new products, integrate systems, and launch new features at speed, without writing a single line of code. Trusted by leading brands, Flows drives operational efficiency, enhances player engagement, and accelerates go-to-market strategies across multiple markets.

With Flows, RavenTrack can now launch products and tools faster, automate key processes, and do it at speed. This will initially include quicker onboarding for new operators, easier configuration of custom tracking setups, and faster delivery of the tools the affiliate managers rely on.

Integrating Flows marks a key step in RavenTrack’s strategy to lead the next wave of affiliate innovation, raising the bar for speed, configurability, and service.

Dan de Souza, VP Commercial at Flows, said: “RavenTrack is helping shape the future of affiliate tech. Their platform is built with a clear understanding of what operators and affiliate managers actually need — speed, accuracy, and adaptability. We’re excited to welcome them as a customer and to see how they put Flows to work as they continue to push boundaries in the affiliate space.”

Adam Rowley, Managing Director at RavenTrack, said: “ Integrating Flows into our onboarding process will enable us to tailor workflows to individual client needs, facilitating rapid deployment and ensuring our clients can launch their programs swiftly and confidently. We look forward to working with Flows, as this move sets the stage for a more streamlined and efficient client experience.“