News

N1 Sports Digest: Summer Calendar & Traffic Tips

Published

3 weeks ago

June 19, 2026

Summer 2026 is set to be one of the hottest periods for sports traffic, with every major sporting headline creating fresh scaling opportunities for affiliates.

N1 Partners is launching the first edition of the N1 Sports Digest series, featuring an up-to-date sports calendar along with practical traffic-driving insights from industry experts to help partners make the most of the hot season. Use this calendar to plan your campaigns and maximize your earnings with N1 Sport Promo running from June 10 to July 20.

Summer 2026 sports calendar

June

Dates	Sport	Event
June 11 – July 19	Football	FIFA World Cup 2026
June 3 – June 22	Esports	BLAST.tv Austin Major (CS2)
June 19 – June 21	Golf	Travelers Championship
June 20 – June 21	Formula 1	Austrian Grand Prix
June 25	Basketball	NBA Draft 2026
June 27 – June 28	Formula 1	British Grand Prix

July

Dates	Sport	Event
June 29 – July 12	Tennis	Wimbledon
July 4	Mixed Martial Arts	UFC Freedom 250
July 5	Cricket	Major League Cricket
July 6	Formula 1	British Grand Prix
July 10 – August 24	Esports	Esports World Cup
July 13	Formula 1	Belgian Grand Prix
July 15	Baseball	MLB All-Star Game
July 17 – July 20	Golf	The Open Championship
July 19	Football	FIFA World Cup 2026 Final
July 26	IndyCar	Grand Prix of Monterey
July 27	Formula 1	Hungarian Grand Prix

August

Dates	Sport	Event
August 1	Football	EFL Championship Season Kickoff
August 2	NASCAR	Iowa Corn 350
August 8 – August 9	Formula 1	Dutch Grand Prix
August 14	Football	Bundesliga Season Kickoff
August 15 – August 16	Football	Premier League Season Kickoff
August 24 – September 13	Tennis	US Open
August 28 – August 30	Formula 1	Italian Grand Prix
August (TBA)	Football	La Liga Season Kickoff
August (TBA)	Football	Serie A Season Kickoff
August (TBA)	Esports	VALORANT Champions 2026
August (TBA)	Esports	Road to The International
August (TBA)	American Football	NFL Preseason Games
August (TBA)	Golf	BMW Championship

Expert insights on sport traffic

N1 Partners team gathered key tips from industry experts. They’ll share what affiliates should focus on and how to maximise profitability throughout the summer 2026 sports season.

Daria Smirnova, Affiliate Team Lead, N1 Partners

Season trends and peculiarities:

The biggest highlight of summer 2026 will be the expanded FIFA World Cup format. With more participating nations, new audiences and GEOs that have historically been less engaged with football-related content will enter the spotlight. This creates additional opportunities for testing and scaling.
Special attention should be paid to localisation. Thanks to the expanded geography of the World Cup, audiences will become less universal, making language adaptation, localised creatives, and region-specific triggers even more important for campaign performance.
It is essential to prepare multiple creative concepts for different sports and audience segments rather than building an entire strategy exclusively around football.
Despite the massive interest surrounding the World Cup, affiliates should not limit themselves to football. Audience attention throughout the summer will also be focused on tennis, including Wimbledon, as well as major esports tournaments in Counter-Strike, Dota 2, VALORANT, and other disciplines.
Esports may become a particularly attractive direction due to its younger audience and relatively lower CPMs across a number of GEOs.
The season will be packed with major events, meaning competition for user attention will intensify. As a result, creatives and offers are likely to burn out faster than during regular periods.

How to maximise profit:

Leverage not only football-related news hooks but the entire summer sports calendar.
Continuously test new GEOs and audience segments that may show increased interest driven by major international sporting events.
Focus on retaining users between matches and tournament stages. During quieter periods, virtual sports, fast-paced simulations, and similar engagement mechanics often perform exceptionally well.
Take advantage of additional seasonal opportunities. For example, N1 Sport Promo covers the biggest sporting events of the summer and offers increased payouts for sports traffic, including Prediction Markets traffic.

Vlad Chernov, Deputy Head of Affiliates, N1 Partners

Season trends and peculiarities:

Summer 2026 is set to become one of the most event-packed sports seasons in recent years. Users will be drawn to FIFA World Cup matches, headline UFC events, and numerous other international competitions.
The major sporting events’ abundance creates an almost continuous stream of audience interest while simultaneously increasing competition for user attention.
In an environment of heavy information overload, it is especially important to monitor the news cycle closely, including roster changes, athlete injuries, match postponements, and other developments that may influence audience behaviour.
Major tournaments always carry the potential for unexpected outcomes and major upsets, where favourites are eliminated earlier than expected and underdogs achieve the best results in their history.

How to maximise profit:

Plan campaign launches in advance and prepare for peak periods of sports-driven demand.
Avoid focusing on a single tournament and instead capitalise on opportunities across the entire sports calendar.
Continuously test new traffic combinations and evaluate performance based on EPC rather than focusing solely on bid amounts.
Utilize additional monetization opportunities throughout the sports season. In particular, participation in N1 Sport Promo can increase overall profitability through enhanced payouts and special conditions for sports traffic.

Ksenia Gaikova, Team Lead BDM, Alfaleads Network

Season trends and peculiarities:

When working with major sporting events, it is important to remember that the highest traffic volumes typically occur during the opening stages of a tournament rather than during the final rounds. Users are most actively supporting their favourites when the number of participants is at its maximum.
For affiliates who primarily work with casino traffic and want to capitalise on the sports wave, choosing partners with strong retention mechanisms is especially important. This makes it possible not only to monetise sports-related interest in the moment but also to effectively cross-sell users into other products.
Conversion rates during sporting events can exceed standard benchmarks, but media buying economics differ significantly from casino traffic. As a result, bidding strategies require additional adjustments to account for the specifics of the sports vertical.
During major events, virtually every market participant is working with the same news hooks and narratives. Therefore, bonuses, promo codes, boosted odds, themed landing pages, and other promotional tools become critical competitive advantages.
The market continues to evolve rapidly while traffic source stability declines. Under these conditions, the strongest teams will be those capable of adapting quickly to emerging trends and adjusting their strategies in real time.

How to maximise profit:

Launch campaigns as early as possible rather than waiting for the decisive stages of tournaments.
Work with partners that offer strong player retention and high-performing retention funnels.
Adapt bidding models and acquisition strategies to the specifics of the sports vertical.
Fully integrate the advertiser’s marketing advantages into your funnels.
Closely monitor trends and test new approaches before competitors have the opportunity to scale them.

Roman Cpa Kill, Founder & CEO, THE GODS GROUP

Season trends and peculiarities:

Prediction Markets should not be viewed as a separate vertical. Instead, it represents another monetisation tool that naturally complements traditional sports traffic.
The key success factor is the ability to react quickly to trends, breaking news, and major sporting events.

How to maximise profit:

Identify new opportunities and market inefficiencies before competitors do.
Test hypotheses quickly and avoid delaying the launch of new traffic combinations.
Adapt creatives rapidly to align with current sports narratives and trending topics.
Scale successful campaigns immediately after validating results in order to maximise performance during periods of peak demand.

Considering the density of the sports calendar and the enormous potential of Tier 1 GEOs, summer 2026 is one of the most promising periods for scaling sports traffic.

For affiliates looking to secure higher payouts on sports and Prediction Markets traffic, N1 Sport Promo can serve as an additional monetization tool, where increased FTD volume directly impacts CPA rates.

The summer sports season has already started — join N1 Sport Promo!

Affiliate Success

ReferOn Wins “Best Affiliate Management Platform” at the iGB Affiliate Awards 2026

Published

2 days ago

July 9, 2026

George Miller

ReferOn has been named the Best Affiliate Management Platform at the prestigious iGB Affiliate Awards 2026, marking another major milestone in the company’s growth. Announced live at iGB LIVE, the recognition follows a year of relentless product innovation, customer growth, and a continued focus on simplifying affiliate operations.

Turning Complexity into Clarity

Managing high-volume affiliate programs requires processing millions of data points every day. ReferOn was built to eliminate that complexity through automation, real-time insights, and streamlined workflows.

This year also marked the introduction of Refie, ReferOn’s integrated UX layer. Instead of forcing affiliate managers to navigate complex backend data, Refie turns raw operational data into clear, actionable insights. From onboarding to daily performance tracking, it helps teams spend less time on administration and more time driving strategic growth.

Alex Bukin, CEO of ReferOn, commented: “Winning the iGB Affiliate Award is a remarkable achievement for our entire team. As affiliate programs grow, so does the complexity behind them. From day one, our ambition has been to remove that complexity, so operators can focus on growth instead of operational friction. This recognition reinforces our belief that great B2B technology should be simpler, more intuitive, easier to work with, and built around the people who use it”.

Having secured major industry awards over the past 18 months, — including ‘Affiliate System of the Year’ at AffPapa and ‘Best Affiliate Software’ at SiGMA — ReferOn looks ahead with a roadmap that remains focused on making affiliate management even more intelligent, transparent, and effortless. Our upcoming developments will continue to simplify complex workflows, expand AI-powered assistance, and provide operators with even greater visibility and control over their affiliate operations.

Affiliate Success

Kongebonus becomes first Norwegian affiliate to win Best Casino Affiliate at iGB Affiliate Awards 2026

Published

3 days ago

July 8, 2026

George Miller

Kongebonus has become the first Norwegian affiliate to win Best Casino Affiliate at the iGB Affiliate Awards 2026, a landmark recognition that names the independent Norwegian guide as the world’s leading casino affiliate for 2026.

The award was presented on 2 July during iGB L!VE London, where the iGB Affiliate Awards celebrated the affiliates, programmes, networks, suppliers and individuals helping to drive the iGaming sector forward.

iGB Affiliate described first-time contestant Kongebonus as a “Norwegian local hero”, noting that the platform claimed the award in a close race and ended Gambling.com Group’s two-year reign in the highly competitive category. Independent judges praised Kongebonus’ “super smart” approach, highlighting its combination of innovation, engaged player community, and strong editorial presence across Google News and the media.

The recognition reflects Kongebonus’ focus on detailed operator testing, transparent casino reviews, community-led content and player protection. The platform tests casinos with its own money before reviewing them, publishes its full methodology and continues to invest in responsible gambling resources, including practical guidance and support signposting for players.

David Nilsen, Editor-in-Chief at Kongebonus, said: “Winning Best Casino Affiliate at the iGB Affiliate Awards is a huge moment for Kongebonus and for everyone who has helped build the platform. To be recognised in a category alongside some of the biggest and most respected names in the affiliate industry is something we are incredibly proud of.

“I’ve spent more than ten years on the inside of this industry, and I’ve seen how big the gap can be between what a casino promises and what the player is actually left with. Closing that gap is the whole reason we test the way we do.

“What this award tells us is that being the most trusted guide matters more than being the biggest one, and that’s the only thing we’ve ever set out to build.”

News

Where to Drive Tier-1 Sport Traffic in July FIFA World Cup Final & More

Published

3 days ago

July 7, 2026

Master Editor

July is one of the strongest months for sports traffic, with the FIFA World Cup knockout stage, Wimbledon finals, Formula 1, UFC, esports, cricket, and rugby driving high-value Tier-1 audiences.

Moreover, with N1 Sport Promo by N1 Partners running until July 20, affiliates still have time to increase their CPA while scaling quality sports traffic during the busiest weeks of the season.

Key sports events in July

The N1 Partners team has made a list of the biggest sporting events this month to help affiliates plan campaigns and capture high-intent traffic.

Soccer

The FIFA World Cup enters its decisive stage, with every knockout match generating significant spikes in betting activity, search demand, and social engagement.

Until 07.07 | FIFA World Cup — Round of 16
09.07–12.07 | FIFA World Cup — Quarter-finals
14.07 | FIFA World Cup — Semi-final
15.07 | FIFA World Cup — Semi-final
18.07 | FIFA World Cup — Third-place Match
19.07 | FIFA World Cup — Final

Tennis

Wimbledon concludes with the biggest matches of the season before the tour moves to North America later in the month.

Until 12.07 | Wimbledon
12.07 | Wimbledon Finals
26.07–02.08 | ATP Washington
26.07–02.08 | WTA Washington

Formula 1

Formula 1 will get high interest from sport lovers throughout July with three Grand Prix weekends.

19.07 | Belgian Grand Prix
26.07 | Hungarian Grand Prix

MMA

UFC maintains strong engagement in Tier-1 markets, especially around numbered fight nights where title implications and high-profile fighters drive consistent betting interest.

13.07 | UFC 329 McGregor vs. Holloway 2

Esports

The biggest esports competitions will go on attracting highly engaged audiences across Tier-1 markets.

06.07–18.07 | Esports World Cup 2026 (Dota 2)
21.07–02.08 | BLAST Bounty Season 2 (CS2)

Cricket

Cricket is still one of the strongest niches that generates huge traffic amonts across several Tier-1 GEOs.

07.07 | England vs India — Test Series
13.07 | England vs India — ODI
16.07 | England vs India — ODI
22.07 | Southern Brave vs Welsh Fire — The Hundred
23.07 | London Spirit vs Manchester Super Giants — The Hundred
27.07 | Southern Brave vs MI London — The Hundred

Rugby League

Rugby League continues to generate steady betting interest in key English-speaking markets.

17.07 | NZ Warriors vs Broncos
30.07 | North Queensland Cowboys vs Roosters

How to maximize results from event-driven traffic

The summer month offers affiliates working with N1 Bet, RollXO, and Lucky Hunter through N1 Partners a strong environment to attract new players, increase FTD volumes, and scale existing campaigns across Tier-1 GEOs, supported by consistently high audience demand. With N1 Sport Promo running until July 20, affiliates still have time to maximize higher CPA rates while sports engagement remains at its seasonal peak.

Top promos for N1 Partners projects in July

This July, partners can take advantage of exclusive seasonal campaigns for players across N1 Partners’ leading brands, designed to drive stronger performance and help them get more from every visitor they refer.

Road to Riches Lottery (RollXO, N1 Bet)
Period: 01.07–25.08
Prize pool: €500,000

Road to Riches is the biggest lottery campaign in the project’s history, featuring a €500,000 total prize pool, 8 weekly stages, and 700 winners. With weekly prize drops and increasing stage prize pools, the promotion is designed to boost player engagement, retention, and repeat deposits—helping affiliates maximize traffic value throughout the campaign.

Lucky Lottery (Retrobet, Spirit Casino, Jet4Bet, Slot Lounge)

Period: 22.07–27.07

Prize pool: €50,000

Lucky Loot Lottery (Slotlords, Slotsmines)
Period: 10.07–16.07
Prize pool: €10,000 (Slotlords), €7,000 (Slotsmines)

Around the World Lottery (Slot Mafia, Slot Hunter, LuckyHunter)

Period: 13.07–23.07

Prize pool: €8,000

Wanna learn more? Contact your manager right now!

Winning Tips for July Sports Traffic

Treat the World Cup as a sequence of conversion peaks rather than a single final, as each knockout round has its own performance window under the promo.
Shift budgets dynamically between sports instead of overfocusing on one event: Wimbledon, F1, UFC, and esports often perform better once football CPMs peak.
Build creatives that reflect tournament progression (for instance, “Quarter-finals pressure” and “Road to the final”), not static team messaging.
Combine Sports Betting and Prediction Markets on N1 Bet to capture different user motivations during the same event cycle.
Reallocate traffic during promo weeks, as in the N1 Sport Promo timing can impact revenue almost as much as volume.

Join N1 Partners

N1 Partners is a multi-brand affiliate program and direct advertiser, bringing together 14+ casino and betting brands with high LTV and Reg2Dep rates in Tier-1 GEOs.

N1 Partners offers competitive terms for top partners, including CPA up to €700 and RevShare up to 55%, ensuring stable and scalable performance.

Trusted by 14,000+ partners, N1 Partners stands out for its transparency, flexibility, and focus on long-term partnerships, supported by a strong product portfolio and advanced retention systems.

Haven’t joined N1 Partners yet? Contact the manager, get involved and make the most of the 2026 sports season.