Where are the affiliates?

With mobile casino now comprising as much as a third of a major operators’ gaming revenue, why have affiliates been so slow on the uptake and is this set to change?

As long as there have been online casinos there have been affiliates happily shepherding new players into operators’ arms. Over the years both the casino operators and affiliates profited handsomely from this lucrative and symbiotic relationship, but in a new mobile age the relationship is beginning to fall apart. Despite the mobile casino sector starting to take off, affiliates, on the whole, haven’t exactly been clamouring to embrace the rapidly expanding mobile casino market.

With lower perceived values of mobile players compared with desktop, tracking concerns and the fact that operators are acquiring swathes of players via Apple’s App Store and above the line advertising, its perhaps easy to see why affiliates might have cold feet. In addition, the operators are doing a pretty good job of enticing existing players over to mobile with direct marketing, including glossy TV and print adverts, PPC ads and SMS campaigns.

For now it seems affiliates aren’t such an important cog in a mobile casino’s well-oiled marketing machine. But surely this has to change?

An experimental market?

Despite challenges in the mobile casino space, the pertinent issue is whether affiliates and operators are missing out on lost business because of affiliates’ tardiness when it comes to embracing mobile. And why does this perceived reluctance or lack of action exist? Income Access’ Kendra Carrie suggests is could be a case of affiliates being wary of taking a gamble on what they see as an experimental market. “The online sector is a stable market, for the most part, which makes it diff cult to convince both operators and affiliates to allocate cost and resources to what is seen, at least from an affiliate perspective, as an experimental market,” she says.

And she says in order to create an effective mobile affiliate sector, it’s down to the operators to make the first step. “Both sides have the opportunity to take proactive measures but it’s becoming increasingly apparent that operators will need to take the lead. This will require showing affiliates that the tools and reporting exist to make mobile a worthwhile proposition. “Ideally, affiliates will be the drivers of this conversation in the long run, but operators may need to be the catalyst because if affiliates aren’t contributing to mobile acquisition, operators will be forced to look to other channels.”

She adds, however, that the time is right for both sides to begin working together. “Mobile has been the ‘next big thing’ for quite some time but it now appears on the verge of realising its potential. However, the fact that we’re having this conversation indicates that industry stakeholders are becoming more vocal about the concerns.”

In the black

So why the reluctance from affiliates to date? With tablet devices likely to be top of many people’s Christmas wish lists, 2014 looks set to be a stellar year for the mobile casino sector as players continue to ditch the keyboard and mouse for touchscreen devices. Indeed, Paddy Power’s mobile gaming net revenue rocketed by 253% in the first-half of 2013 compared with the same period last year.

The big European online casino operators report as much as a third of their gaming revenues are now coming via mobile browsers and apps. However, there have been very few mobile-focused casino affiliates enter the market looking to milk a potential cash cow that other affiliates have largely chosen to ignore. One reason is that the smaller affiliates don’t always have the time and resources for to devote to mobile sites. “Affiliates are for the most part, one-man bands,” says Edward Ihre, founder and CEO of Ihre Consulting.

“So a new strategy and implementation of it, while still keeping and improving their regular website traffic is hard to combine.” Also, both sides are still trying to get to grips with player behaviour, he notes. “I still think both operators and affiliates are finding out how the average mobile consumers behave as it hasn’t been totally figured out yet. The one thing that has been figured out is that you need to be even more specific, more ‘call to action’-focused or otherwise the attention of the potential converted player, will go elsewhere or find it too exhausting to convert.” BetVictor’s head of affiliates, Pauline Andrew, concedes that the rapid growth in mobile casino gaming has been a “steep learning curve” for both parties.

“Initial issues with mobile software and tracking has probably led to some affiliates being rather hesitant to jump in,” she says. “However, we are seeing this change, with most affiliates now having at least some form of mobile presence or a section of their site dedicated towards mobile casinos.” It’s about aiding affiliates in their mobile eff orts, she adds. “We try to make it as easy as possible for affiliates to promote our mobile offerings without necessarily needing a dedicated mobile site, including reactive landing pages, mobile specific offers and a smooth user experience once on the app all help to encourage those players over to mobile.”

Managing the journey

But could it be also down to affiliates simply not possessing enough mobile acquisition tools to handle the different customer journey on the mobile channels? Elen Garth, is head of performance marketing at Unibet, which serves up over 70 mobile casino games. She says many operators simply don’t have the tools to help affiliates into the mobile channels. “Interest in the mobile sector is huge, however the majority of the operators still have very limited marketing tools to allow their partners to develop and mature.

It is not only about offering mobile tracking and having a responsive design – the problem is much deeper. It is about offering customer simple intuitive navigation and seamless experience between offer and operator, a principle that is proven to increase customer engagement, satisfaction and, ultimately, revenues,” she says.

But it’s not all bad news. “More and more affiliates realise that it is a must nowadays to have a responsive website, and we definitely see a positive trend here,” Garth adds. Indeed on a more practical level, operators urge affiliates to deploy clean and uncluttered, mobile-friendly web pages with prominent ‘calls to action’, easy-to-digest content and optimised banner ads. A lazily repackaged web site won’t cut the mustard.

A mobile-optimised sign-up process is also a must because potential customers can easily be deterred from filling in details with a device without a physical keyboard. If the player decides instead to sign up at a more convenient time on a desktop PC, then obviously there’s the danger of that affiliate losing out on that all-important CPA fee or revenue share.

But although design and layout issues are important, accurate player tracking remains the biggest issue for mobile. “Some affiliate programs don’t even have the capability of tracking mobile traffic,” Ihre explains. This clearly isn’t something that can be ignored even if solutions are beginning to emerge.

Tracking successs

The complication with tracking is compounded by OS fragmentation and different rules on different platforms. And at times it could simply be a case of a mobile user clicking on a casino tracking link and, for whatever reason, deciding to register on another a device, so they won’t be tracked.

Carrie emphasises the need for accurate and seamless tracking as players increasingly switch between desktop and mobile device, especially so when these players tend to be the higher spenders. “Affiliates want to know that their acquisition will be tracked accurately and want the same degree of data transparency they have come to expect,” she says.

“The standards set by desktop tracking can serve as a benchmark for mobile to reach towards, as it is what affiliates have come to expect. This is especially the case given that a player’s activity can cross over from one channel to another and affiliates and operators will want that level of transparency in their reporting.

“The seamless tracking of activity across channels, an initiative that has been standard functionality by Income Access for a number of years, is essential to creating a system based on trustworthy data.”

Garth says affiliates should strive for an accurate differentiation of the mobile users in order to succeed. “Are they customers who register via the web and switch to mobile after? Are they customers that combine web and mobile offering? Or choose the mobile channel only? What products do customers prefer when playing mobile? If affiliates knew the answer to these questions they would be able to choose the right strategy and be able to successfully compete in this rapidly changing environment.”

The app solution

Patryk Klimer, team manager of casino affiliation at Betsson Group says that affiliates are not yet convinced mobile is a powerful acquisition tool. “Affiliates know mobile is a great retention tool, but I believe they don’t see it yet as a new and additional way for acquiring players. So it’s to do with the current mindset of affiliates,” he says.

For Klimer the solution is for affiliates to look beyond the mobile web. “In order to exist nowadays in the mobile market, an affiliate needs to have its own app,” he says. And casino affiliates might be advised to take a leaf out of the book of the successful sports betting affiliates and their efforts with mobile player acquisition by launching mobile sites or dedicated apps.

With all the major bookmakers putting mobile betting at the heart of their high-profile marketing campaigns aimed at young male smartphone owners, sports betting has become the number one mobile product. For price-conscious bettors, super affiliate Oddschecker.com is set to launch an app that allows users to place bets with all the major bookmakers without ever having to leave its app.

A lot can be learned from mobile sports betting,” says Betfred’s Andrew. “The sports sector has truly embraced mobile betting and been the first to really understand the potential of having an audience available to you 24/7 on their phones, which provides you with a whole new way to engage your customer and to keep that customer engaged.

“Mobile sports betting affiliates have really grasped this, and more and more are coming out with their own bespoke apps. If it’s something that’s previously been on the web – from odds comparison to in-play markets – there will now be an app for your phone that offers the same thing.”

In the meantime, the industry would agree that there still much work to be done, especially when it comes to getting to grips with and fully understanding player’s behaviour and journey in this fast-moving market. Mobile casino affiliates probably aren’t going to experience a gold rush, but there’s still rewards to be had for those who grab the mobile casino opportunities with both hands.

The money is there, Ihre stresses. “If you also include tablets as mobile traffic, the sector is definitely big enough, and so is the potential because this sector will, in my opinion, account for the majority of game play going forward. It’s a mistake not to invest in mobile traffic as there’s no doubt it’s the future.”