Affiliate marketers have continued to play a vital role in getting customers to online gaming sites during the COVID-19 pandemic. Better Collective Tennessee Director Adam has spent over a decade navigating the affiliate market, and he took some time out to share some insights with lead reporter Becky Liggero Fontana.
Smalls has some expertise to call upon when it comes to the state of regulations for affiliates in the U.S. market. The Better Collective Director got his start in the industry with the online poker community site, pocket fives. While there continues to be debate over regulations, Smalls is all for the positive push in that direction. “I think it’s a good thing, I think the regulation of affiliates is something that should be happening. I’ve kind of evolved to this viewpoint.”
According to Small, the process of becoming an affiliate was relatively easier back in the boom of the early 2000s. “It’s interesting because the process was very easy to become an affiliate in New Jersey in the beginning,” he said. We didn’t do revenue sharing, we just had to fill out a few forms to become a CPA affiliate. It was an easy process I didn’t need to involve lawyers and I really didn’t spend any money.”
The lack of early regulations in the heyday led to affiliates getting a bad rep according to Small, who believes regulation could be the key to making the industry more sustainable. “I think now it’s hard to blame affiliates for pursuing revenue opportunities when those are put in front of them and the operators are telling them to go for it,” he said. “You have got to regulate this the same way that you have to regulate operators if you want the industry to be sustainable.”
Small described the role affiliates play in getting potential customers funnelled to operators. “For a lot of potential customers, the issue is that’ll see affiliate sites before they see operators, depending on what you are searching on. That’s why affiliates are there really, to be ones to take that traffic and direct it to operators and provide customers with that way.”
“We’ve got a lot of responsibility as we’re sitting there at that intersection of people’s decision making about how they are going to gamble, where they are going to gamble and I think it’s good that we are all talking about that now and taking it seriously,” he added.
Small thinks the conversations around regulation can have a positive effect on the long-term health of the online gaming industry in the U.S. “This isn’t just about having good practice on our sites but point out publicly and to regulators when other people don’t have good practices and try and change that behaviour,” he said. “Not just in a competitive manner but more to push people into the direction of good behaviour in this industry.”
In the full interview, Adam Small goes onto explain how the push for regulation can drive better partnerships between operators and affiliates. Be sure to subscribe to the CalvinAyre.com YouTube channel to see every interview we make as it goes up.
