Overlook ethical marketing at your peril

Recent developments have seen sustainability in the igaming industry go from an afterthought to an important cornerstone of an operator’s overall strategy, with executives en masse appreciating the need to embrace the principles of responsible gambling, in particular.

Companies have certainly embodied this outlook, with sustainability strategies set on regulated markets, with the long-term vision to work exclusively in territories that hold robust frameworks.

Given the influx of newly, and tightly, regulated markets within the igaming sector, the importance of ethical marketing has been thrown into sharp focus. In the Netherlands, which has recently introduced its new regulatory framework, penalties on advertising violations result in non-eligibility to apply for a licence.

This becomes a major problem for operators when they have huge numbers of affiliate partners promoting their content. Although this area of marketing has long been a high engagement generator for operators, it is not uncommon for ads to contain non-compliant copy, misleading information or even to deploy devious redirects.

Often appearing at the top of search results, this content is highly visible and presents a significant risk to brands operating with affiliates in regulated territories and it is the operator that will face the consequences if the affiliate does stray from compliance.

Machine learning leads the way

It brings into question the role of a platform provider and how organisations can support operators in their need to oversee a thorough responsible marketing strategy, which includes affiliate marketing.

Fortunately, great strides in machine learning and AI means that advanced platforms can now optimise campaigns to a much greater degree and reduce the need for human judgement calls. Most importantly for this issue, these tools can monitor a huge number of sites and flag up any that may not be compliant in that market in an efficient manner.

Partnering with technology can be a solution for affiliate compliance monitoring. Through technology, compliance teams can identify affiliates bidding on client brand names, hijacking traffic and using their own tracking codes to intercept traffic. Sophisticated software follows pay-per-click links, analysing each redirect looking for tracking codes and identifying the target landing page.

From this, operators can determine which affiliates are using an operator brand to intercept traffic through their own tracking links or are even redirecting it to third parties. There are several game-changing technologies on the market that significantly eases the approach for operators active in regulated markets, providing them with confidence that irresponsible marketing is being picked up automatically and efficiently.

Safer Gambling Week

Avoiding fines is a big incentive itself, but with it comes the far greater benefit of implementing responsible gaming and ethical marketing – ensuring the players we rely upon remain safe while being entertained.

It is the entire industry’s responsibility to double down on our commitment to sustainability, not only in terms of safer gambling but also in ethical marketing, which can keep players safe and help navigate compliance in one fell swoop.

[box title=”About Liesbeth Oost” box_color=”#EC6408″ title_color=”#333333″]Liesbeth Oost is the sustainability manager at Aspire Global, the leading B2B-provider of iGaming solutions. She focuses on the sustainability strategy and areas most relevant to the business, at the heart of which is responsible gaming. Annual reporting is guided by ESG guidelines, SDG goals, and GRI standards. Liesbeth is a Dutch native speaker with a master’s degree in International Political Economy from the University of Groningen and is a certified investor relations professional. Her public sector background at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, together with her private sector experience in business operations, gives her an edge in successfully integrating social responsibility goals into business operations. [/box]