How this iGaming affiliate retains its players longer than most casinos

Founded in 2014, Gambling Deals launched as the first affiliate in the iGaming space to offer cash back to its players. Three years later, the site successfully partnered with a number of leading online casinos, sports betting and bingo companies.

Its secret? Outsourcing retention. The result? The average lifetime of the Gambling Deals player is 12-18 months, which is up to nine months longer than the average player lifetime at casinos. Stefano Gorgoni, COO of Gambling Deals, tells us how the site is able to retain its players longer than most.

What’s the general concept behind Gambling Deals?  

We started Gambling Deals after identifying an opportunity to add a layer on top of the typical affiliate offering - cash back.

The concept is simple, Gambling Deals partners with leading casino, sports betting and bingo companies offering its players up to 20% cash back on losing bets every month, for life. We pay cash back up to £300 per partner, per calendar month and as soon as a new month starts, we reset players’ earnings to zero and they start again.

It sounds simple but offering our players on-going cash back is a lucrative additional incentive. Now, instead of the player getting a one-time reward such as a sign-up bonus or free spins, they are rewarded for their loyalty through the cash back.

As such, we are driving better quality players to our partners that have a genuine interest in them, not just the upfront bonuses.

So, where does Gambling Deals operate?

We started life in the UK, however, now 50% of the team is based in Malta and 50% in the UK. We love the island and its forward thinking attitude to the space. Basing ourselves here allows us to keep up to track with the trends… and have fun whilst we’re at it!

In terms of the site, we cater to players in the UK and the Nordics predominantly. However, we do see English-speaking players come from further afar, such as Canada and New Zealand.

You’ve just launched your VIP programme. What additional benefits does this offer to your players and partners?

Currently we cap the cash back our players can earn to £300 per partner. And, winnings elsewhere across our site can limit the amount of cash back they are able to earn.  

However, we strongly believe in loyalty programmes. So, if they’re a regular player and deposit more than £500 per casino, we upgrade them to our new VIP Programme. VIP Pro enables players to receive unlimited cash back that is completely protected and at no risk of being wiped out through winnings elsewhere.

For players, the benefits are obvious. For partners, we are driving higher value, better quality players. We also speak directly to each of the players we upgrade, so we have already built a one-to-one relationship with them.

Why put all of these additional processes in place?

Affiliates have a bad rep for driving bad quality players to casinos. We know this and have put processes in place to prevent it. Our cash back offering is just one of these processes.  

In addition to this, we take time to get to know our players - we collect their name, address, phone number and then complete identity verification checks on each player to ensure they are who they say they are. All this means we have direct and regular comms with players: with our VIP Programme, this is one-to-one access and with our wider base, we send targeted newsletters. Usually affiliates don’t have this ability.

These combined processes mean we’re helping drive better quality players to our partners and they keep coming back for more, playing again and again.

Exactly how much is Gambling Deals able to extend the life of its players?

Research shows casino players last an average of three months at each casino. Players at Gambling Deals last an average of 12-18 months per partner. That’s 3x increase on industry standard.

In fact, we have a number of players that have been with Gambling Deals for a couple of years now, depositing an average of £2000-£3,000 per month!

This all sounds rosy, but tell us, what challenges have you faced along the way?

Our model is more sophisticated and complex than most affiliates, which means that it is more time intensive to manage. We spend longer completing tasks: from paying players to communicating and building relationships with them. However, we believe it’s just like going to the gym - the harder you work and the more time you put into it, the better the results will be.

So, what’s next for Gambling Deals?

Growth, growth and more growth.

We’ve spent three years building the platform to become what it is today with thousands of users. We’ll continue growing as we go along to ensure we hold our spot as a five star affiliate in this space.

If you’re interested in finding out more about Gambling Deals, please visit www.gamblingdeals.com or email us via the contact form, here.