Talking the same language: How affiliate messages can be transferred between markets

When it comes to marketing guidelines in regulated markets, a lot of companies seem to be mainly reactive to regulatory changes and updates, although clearly these are now being treated with a level of priority that regulators would probably expect. Obviously in an ideal world, the issues that cause regulation wouldn’t have surfaced in the first place but that will never happen in any competitive, unregulated industry – gambling or otherwise. Consequently, in established markets there is still a lot of content out there that would cause the regulators concern.

One of the consequences of stiffer regulation is that it focuses operations on what some like to term as ’emerging’ markets, others as ‘grey’ markets. These present challenges in multiple ways and while established markets like the UK and Sweden may have provided easier pickings up to now, there comes a point when the value becomes questionable and any forward-thinking business will look for opportunities to spread the risk and grow.

As such, a number of our clients have started to talk about markets such as Spain, India, Latin America, the US and Africa; regions that have been on the radar for quite some time but which have not needed to become a priority. Although plenty of challenges exist in these markets, in regulatory terms these often present significantly less barriers to entry, but the savvy industry watcher would expect that to change: the cynic for tax reasons, the idealist for player protection.

As we have proved in the UK, clearing up 15 years of marketing content is not an overnight job and not helped by the fact that for a long period, no-one really considered the social impact of marketing messages. The simple concept of a ‘free bonus’ is about greed and that can’t be a good thing, whichever way you carve it up. However, from recent conversations with clients, I can see a trend regarding marketing to players in emerging markets where regulation either doesn’t exist or is unclear.

Ethical marketing

The underlying thought is that it will benefit everyone if affiliates in new territories get in the mindset of ‘ethical’ marketing early in the process so that when regulation does arrive, the operator and affiliate will either be ready for it or in a position to adapt to it quickly. Thus, even if it isn’t applicable to a certain territory, taking some of the basics from UK and Swedish regulation and applying it from the get-go will set up that framework. It doesn’t have to be enforced rigorously at an early stage, but the option is there.

What it will also do is give the operator a fairly clear picture of which affiliates are less likely to pose a problem down the line, which are prepared to communicate and build the relationship of trust that is going to be essential between marketing partners as the industry evolves further.

So, directives such as placing significant T&Cs alongside headline offers, applying rules around the messages concerning how gambling can affect your life, adding an 18+ logo to the homepage and placing links or references to regulators and/or gambling help groups is a great starting point.

Another thing that operators could do is ensure they structure offers, creative and content for affiliates so that it can be easily spotted by automated search tools which will significantly speed up the process of tracking down unwanted messages. For example, insisting that affiliates use a unique code for each bonus or promotional offer (i.e. “Matchbo2”). Some operators have used this concept for years and it has made finding and cleaning out expired bonus offers much, much easier than searching for generic “100% to $100” match bonuses which has been a commonly used hook down the years. Similarly, placing 18+ in the hover-over text of 18+images is a great help in an age where there isn’t yet a standard image requirement and many affiliates hide it away using grey-scale or tiny images.

Ian Sims is the founder of Rightlander, a state-of-the-art affiliate compliance platform that allows affiliates and operators to identify potentially non-compliant content in regulated jurisdictions. Prior to establishing Rightlander, Sims was an egaming affiliate for 13 years.