News
Growth of Illegal Casinos and Betting Sites
Plenty of reports have surfaced in recent times over the increase in the number of people taking to online gambling sites during lockdown across the world. Yet, what hasn’t been touched on just yet is the number of illegal platforms that have cropped up recently, too. Yet, Australia has just released details of the increase in the amount of illegal online betting sites springing to life during these tough times.
Despite Australia’s government going all out in a bid to block such sites from penetrating through to the country’s gamblers, it seems as though offshore sites are once again targeting such players in their masses. According to analytics from SEMrush, the number of searches for “online pokies” within Australia went through a swift leap in April to 40,500, which is massive in comparison to February’s result of 12,100.
Even more than that, an increase in the search for “online casino Australia real money” spiked by 540%, showing that the country still has quite the desire to gamble, despite strict gambling laws being in place there.
It was only a few months prior that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) ordered its internet service providers (ISPs) to block 52 illegal online casino sites. Those platforms remained blocked to Australia gamblers, but this hasn’t stopped numerous other offshore and illegal casinos and sportsbooks to appear during lockdown.
Australia Fighting a Losing Battle?
Some might suggest that the Australia government is fighting a losing battle when it comes to blocking access to offshore online gambling sites. There are so many in existence, that by the time they finish blocking them, plenty more will have opened their virtual doors. While it’s not specifically illegal to play online casino games in the country, it is illegal for websites to provide Australians with that sort of service.
This is different to nearby country New Zealand, where online casino gambling is licensed and regulated. That’s why it’s possible to find various lists of the best bookmakers in New Zealand, as these are fairly commonplace to residents. Yet, Australia is a bit more conservative when it comes to the accessibility of such. Could Australia learn from New Zealand’s setup? Well, possibly. But, it does seem like Australia has a bigger problem with people becoming addicted to gambling, in general.
That being said, research does suggest that the number of people in Australia participating in online gambling declined during the months of March and April this year. However, those who were accessing gambling sites did actually end up spending more money than normal at them. This doesn’t fare well for the industry in general where Australia is concerned, as the government estimated that last year, citizens lost around $400 million by participating in online gambling expeditions.
However, statistics did display that participation in gambling at offshore platforms prior to the pandemic had been on the decline. Unfortunately, that seems to have now become a little irrelevant with more Australians looking to satisfy their gaming needs while having nothing better to do with their time at home.
News
N1 SEO Traffic Cup: final results coming soon
N1 SEO Traffic Cup — the first tournament in the N1 Traffic Cups series is coming to an end, with April 30 as the final day of the promo. Over the 2 months, around 300 teams joined the promo, driving SEO traffic to N1 Partners’ casino and betting brands.
Participants competed not only on volume, but also on efficiency, strategic thinking, and scaling. The more brands a partner drove traffic to, the higher their coefficient for score calculation was. The final results depend entirely on each team’s own performance — that makes the tournament fair and engaging.
The winners will be announced by May 10. In this article, you’ll find out which brands delivered the strongest results in the N1 SEO Traffic Cup, along with key trends in working with this traffic source.
N1 SEO Traffic Cup: Wrap-Up
The N1 Partners expert team answered the hottest questions about the tournament wrap-up — insights that can be valuable for partners who keep running SEO traffic to N1 brands.
1. Which brands showed the best performance during the tournament?
Several brands clearly stood out:
- HollyWin
- Slot Mafia
- Lucky Hunter
- RollXO
- Slot Lounge
2. What do the tournament results say about the current state of SEO traffic in iGaming?
The key takeaway: SEO remains one of the core channels in iGaming. However, it’s evolving and adapting in response to Google updates. This is no longer about writing articles and getting traffic — it’s about systematic unit economics management.
An interesting point — the tournament mechanics focused not on volume, but on efficiency (FTD + coefficients). This clearly shows that iGaming SEO is shifting from mass traffic to controlled performance.
It’s also worth noting that the rule “There are no fixed winners — KPI execution matters more than leaderboard position” gave every participant a real shot at top prizes, while competitors’ results served as additional motivation for growth.
3. What key trends did you observe among top participants?
Several major trends stood out:
- Multi-brand strategy = a must-have
Top performers don’t rely on a single offer — they build strategies around a portfolio of brands. This proves that SEO is moving closer to media buying. - Aggregators, comparison pages, and multi-intent pages are effective
Among the top-performing approaches: offerwall pages, cross-brand strategies, and parasite SEO.
Stay tuned for updates on the N1 SEO Traffic Cup from N1 Partners to find out who landed in the prize tiers and what rewards the top teams received — final results will be announced separately by May 10.
And this isn’t the end — a new tournament from the N1 Traffic Cups series will start very soon. Follow the announcements not to miss your chance and jump back into the competition, sharpen your skills, as well as compete for even bigger prizes.
N1 Partners is:
- 14+ casino and sportsbook brands with high Reg2Dep
- 10+ Tier-1 GEOs
- CPA up to €700 and RevShare up to 55% + NNCO for top partners
Be number one with N1!
News
Inside GEO Slovenia As the Next Emerging Goldmine
Slovenia is definitely one of the most promising GEOs for the iGaming niche.
That is why the N1 Partners team has collected insights that will help to work more accurately with the audience, increase ROI and build effective advertising campaigns for the GEO.
Let’s look at the big picture to understand the potential of the region better. Slovenia is a small country in Central Europe with a population of about 2.1 million people and its capital in Ljubljana. The official language is Slovenian, the currency is euro, and the time zone is CET (UTC+1).
With the background of a high living standard and a stable economy, the market creates favorable conditions for online gambling: the iGaming sector is already showing steady growth, and its volume was estimated at about $497 million by 2025.
Reasons to test Slovenia
Slovenia is a promising region, but it often turns out to be underestimated in the iGaming niche.
Top 3 reasons to drive traffic to Slovenia right now:
- Low competition.
Slovenia is the country with a low share of online gambling in the market. For partners, this is a signal: with proper localisation and strategy, you can enter a less competitive environment and make a long-term profit. - Solvent players.
The GDP per capita in Slovenia is about $35.3 thousand, which confirms the high level of audience solvency and the potential for stable LTV. - High potential.
Slovenia is not an overheated online market: in European comparison, the share of online gambling in the overall revenue structure remains relatively low. This means that the market has not yet fully realised its digital potential and there’s a room for growth.
Players’ behaviour
Slovenian users are more likely to choose online platforms due to their convenience, wide choice of games and accessibility from mobile devices.
In this region, smartphones account for the majority of iGaming traffic — 86.45%, which requires the adaptation of all funnels to mobile devices.
Gender and age
- Men — 63%, average age 31-35 years
- Women — 37%, average age 26-30 years
According to N1 Partners, the iGaming market remains predominantly male, which is confirmed by external research: the main audience is men aged 25-44. At the same time, the proportion of women is gradually increasing, expanding the segment’s potential.
Top 10 slots Among N1 Partners Players in Slovenia
N1 Partners team notes that players prefer slots with recognizable series, bonus features and adventure themes — this directly affects retention and LTV.
- Legacy of Dead
- Book of Dead
- Heist Stakes
- Book of the Fallen
- Gates of Olympus Super Scatter
- Lucky Lady’s Charm Deluxe
- Magic Apple 2
- Rich Wilde and the Tome of Madness
- Gonzo’s Quest II: Return to El Dorado
- More Magic Apple
Conclusion
Slovenia is a GEO with strong and sustainable potential and a high share of mobile traffic, as well as a growing iGaming market, ideal for those working with gambling traffic.
N1 Partners analytics confirms that with the right localisation strategy and taking into account the characteristics of the audience, this market is able to bring stable profits and long-term growth within the framework of iGaming partner programs.
Wanna scale and increase your income? Work with N1 Partners!
N1 Partners is a multi-brand affiliate program and direct advertiser, bringing together 14+ casino and betting brands with high conversion (CR) and Reg2Dep across 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.
Affiliate Success
TAG Media and Gamblitude Launch affie.ai
The AI-Powered Affiliate Manager Assistant Set to transform Affiliate Management in iGaming
TAG Media and Gamblitude have launched affie.ai, a guided decision-making engine built for iGaming affiliate managers. It combines TAG Media’s 150+ years of collective affiliate management experience with Gamblitude’s operator-grade data and analytics platform.
affie.ai will make its debut at SBC Summit Malta (28–30 April), where affie.ai’s Elaine Gardiner, Alana Weldon and Wojtek Sznapka will be demonstrating the platform to operators interested in becoming one of the first five launch partners.
The Problem affie.ai solves
Affiliate management sits at the centre of operator acquisition strategy. It demands financial judgement, negotiation skill, data literacy and market knowledge. Yet there is no industry-standard training, no widely accepted playbook and no safety net when a commercial decision goes wrong.
The data is there. What’s missing is consistent, effective interpretation. With time, an experienced affiliate manager may know what a declining CPA trend means in a specific market or when a revenue share deal needs renegotiating. A less experienced one may not – and that gap costs operators money, talent retention and competitive ground.
Even for experienced affiliate managers, having the requisite time and patience with convoluted systems and tools to spot gaps and opportunities, even ad hoc, is progressively rare, further limiting their ability to achieve sustainable growth within their affiliate programme.
By encoding proven affiliate management expertise directly into their daily workflow, affie.ai gives affiliate managers the ability to make decisions grounded in real programme data and industry best practice, positioning them for true proactivity with their affiliate partners.
What is affie.ai?
affie.ai is a guided decision-making engine, not a dashboard and not a tracking platform. It is trained on real affiliate programme performance data and built on the strategic frameworks TAG Media has applied across 50+ programme launches over the past decade.
On the data side, Gamblitude, founded by former STS chief technology officer Wojtek Sznapka and former STS chief sportsbook officer Piotr Cerlak, provides the analytical backbone: a cloud-native data layer purpose-built for iGaming operators.
The result is that affie.ai provides affiliate managers with specific, data-informed recommendations on deal structures, partner performance, programme optimisation and commercial risk insights, removing the time spent and consistency required in pulling reports, second-guessing spreadsheets to build progressive performance.
For operators, affie.ai delivers measurable reductions in programme management overheads, faster onboarding of new affiliate managers, institutional knowledge that stays in the business regardless of team changes and the agility to make rapid commercial decisions to positively impact the bottom line. affie.ai gives affiliate managers the power of proactivity.
Human Relationships, Sharper Decisions
Affiliate management is a relationship business. Trust between manager and affiliate drives long-term value – no tool replaces that.
affie.ai removes the noise around those relationships. Instead of debating whether a deal is commercially sound, the affiliate manager already has the answer and can focus on the conversation. affie.ai provides human-led decisions with AI-led precision, built on real data, not assumptions.
Elaine Gardiner, Co-Founder of affie.ai says: “After 17 years managing affiliate programmes for operators including Cherry Casino, Ninja Casino and Rizk, I know what good decision-making looks like in this role and I know how rarely it’s supported by the right tools. affie.ai takes the strategic thinking our team applies every day and makes it available on demand and at pace: specific to your programme, specific to your data and ready when the affiliate manager needs it.”
No Strings Attached Six-Week Trial – Five Places
affie.ai is offering five operators an exclusive six-week trial. No fees. No lengthy onboarding. Operators connect their affiliate programme data and their affiliate team uses the platform to obtain new insights on their own numbers, enabling faster commercial decisions on deals to build growth. To book a meeting, email [email protected] or visit www.affie.ai to register your interest in using affie.ai to build affiliate programme growth.
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Awards2 weeks agoCasino Guru shortlisted in “Casino Affiliate of the Year” category in AffPapa iGaming Awards 2026
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News1 week agoFinal Call for the N1 SEO Traffic Cup 2 Weeks to Win
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News1 week agoN1 Insights: iGaming Trends You Can’t Ignore This May
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Affiliate Success1 week agoTAG Media and Gamblitude Launch affie.ai
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News1 week agoInside GEO Slovenia As the Next Emerging Goldmine
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News5 hours agoN1 SEO Traffic Cup: final results coming soon

