Is iGaming Affiliate Marketing Dying? Honest Analysis & Curious to Hear Your Tho

[igamingmentor]

Hey everyone,

I’ve been working in the iGaming industry for several years now — mostly in affiliate management, business development, and partnerships. Lately, I keep hearing the same statement over and over again:

“iGaming affiliate marketing is dying.”

Some people say it quietly. Some say it loudly. But many seem to feel that something fundamental has changed.

A while ago, I came across a Reddit thread where people talked openly about:

- salaries stagnating,

- companies quietly shifting operations from Malta to Cyprus/Bulgaria/Gib,

- tougher regulations,

- operators investing more in in-house marketing rather than affiliates,

- and overall “no more golden years.”

This pushed me to take a deeper look at what’s actually happening in 2024–2026.

From what I’m seeing:

- the industry isn’t dying, but maturing,

- data and regulation replaced the “easy CPA days”,

- operators became less dependent on affiliates,

- competition exploded,

- margins got thinner,

- compliance & traffic quality matter more than volume,

- AI + automation is reshaping the workflows.

I recently wrote a long-form analysis on this topic — not promoting anything, just structuring thoughts and trends I’ve seen across operators, affiliates, and studios.

I'm genuinely curious:

1. Do you think iGaming affiliate marketing is actually dying — or just evolving into something more mature and data-driven?

2. Are affiliates still needed in the current landscape?

3. Will crypto casinos keep the model alive longer?

5. Is the decline mostly happening in regulated markets?

6. Is this just normal industry maturation that feels like decline from the inside?

Would love to hear real experiences from people working with iGaming, crypto casinos, affiliate networks, or performance marketing in general.

[LUCKMCFLY]

I say yes, because I never saw anyone else winning because of it. In the photo, it was shown that a casino that had this program lowered their rewards and nobody liked it. It was a very well-known casino whose name I won't mention out of respect, but I thought it was very bad and disloyal of them.

[stompix]

- operators investing more in in-house marketing rather than affiliates,

Every single business type will go through these stages at one point, it's simply too inefficient and too costly to rely on affiliates.
It's a concept that looks good on paper but has flaws big businesses don't like, and the most important is unpredictability in sales, and then recurring costs with already loyal customers, ok, you brought this guy here, but why should we keep paying you a lifetime revenue on this?

Affiliates are great for starting a business, as you don't spend money without getting money, so a company on a tight budget would go for that rather than their own marketing, but as it grows, it shifts towards an internal program.
Also, with some names getting bigger and bigger and grabbing more market share, even non-customers already know about them so if they wanted to gamble, they would pick one of those without anyone pushing them towards one.


 

[Fortify]

It sounds like you're way closer to the action than 99.99% of the other people here would be and are probably best placed to advise on this particular niche of the industry. Ultimately it makes sense that casinos would want to keep as much marketing in house as possible because they get to skim the commission that would otherwise be paid out as profit. Affiliates in the past went into all sorts of corners of the internet or ran more effective as campaigns on the main networks. Affiliates may also have used some rather dirty tactics in the past that casinos could claim is nothing to do with them, yet they won both ways - rejecting the payouts and still keeping new users who might be oblivious.

[igamingmentor]

In the photo, it was shown that a casino that had this program lowered their rewards and nobody liked it. It was a very well-known casino whose name I won't mention out of respect, but I thought it was very bad and disloyal of them.

When a casino cuts rewards or changes terms after traffic has already been delivered, the affiliate model stops being a business and becomes a risk game. Affiliates front-load the work and wait for ROI, if the rules aren’t stable, there’s no real incentive to keep investing.

[igamingmentor]

- operators investing more in in-house marketing rather than affiliates,

Every single business type will go through these stages at one point, it's simply too inefficient and too costly to rely on affiliates.
 

Affiliates make sense during early growth: low risk, flexible CAC, no upfront spend. Once a brand reaches scale, unpredictability and lifetime RS start looking inefficient from a finance perspective. Big brands internalize, small brands still need partners, and the middle gets squeezed.

[igamingmentor]

Affiliates in the past went into all sorts of corners of the internet or ran more effective as campaigns on the main networks. Affiliates may also have used some rather dirty tactics in the past that casinos could claim is nothing to do with them, yet they won both ways - rejecting the payouts and still keeping new users who might be oblivious.

Affiliates were often used as a buffer for aggressive tactics, while operators kept control over attribution and payouts. When regulation tightened, that asymmetry became harder to justify.

Bringing marketing in-house gives operators control and predictability

[sunsilk]

IMO, as long as it is going to contribute to the marketing and exposure of the casino. It's still a big help for them if it's with affiliates.

They don't have to pay upfront and what they need to have first are results. So, it's a plus and win for them to still consider affiliate marketing.

Because if their affiliates don't drive sales, they don't have to pay for their efforts and that's why it's still needed and we still see them have it part of their marketing.

[igamingmentor]

IMO, as long as it is going to contribute to the marketing and exposure of the casino. It's still a big help for them if it's with affiliates.

They don't have to pay upfront and what they need to have first are results. So, it's a plus and win for them to still consider affiliate marketing.

Because if their affiliates don't drive sales, they don't have to pay for their efforts and that's why it's still needed and we still see them have it part of their marketing.

I agree, affiliate marketing still makes sense for casinos, especially as a low-risk acquisition channel where payment is tied to results.

That’s why I don’t think it’s “dying” in a literal sense. It still plays a role and will continue to do so. The discussion for me is more about which phase the model is in. Early on, affiliates were a core growth engine. As companies mature, they keep affiliates, but rely on them differently (with tighter terms, stricter quality requirements, and less tolerance for inefficiency).

That shift is what many people feel, even if the model itself isn’t disappearing yet.

[Cryptomultiplier]

IMO, as long as it is going to contribute to the marketing and exposure of the casino. It's still a big help for them if it's with affiliates.

They don't have to pay upfront and what they need to have first are results. So, it's a plus and win for them to still consider affiliate marketing.

Because if their affiliates don't drive sales, they don't have to pay for their efforts and that's why it's still needed and we still see them have it part of their marketing.

I agree, affiliate marketing still makes sense for casinos, especially as a low-risk acquisition channel where payment is tied to results.

That’s why I don’t think it’s “dying” in a literal sense. It still plays a role and will continue to do so. The discussion for me is more about which phase the model is in. Early on, affiliates were a core growth engine. As companies mature, they keep affiliates, but rely on them differently (with tighter terms, stricter quality requirements, and less tolerance for inefficiency).

That shift is what many people feel, even if the model itself isn’t disappearing yet.

I believe strongly that the igaming industry is demanding more professionalism at this current stage in its development and evolution because the affiliates that have today succeeded are media companies that have come to prioritize building their brands more, focus more on data analytics and monitor compliance.
Thus, those who cannot and wouldn't make the transition as the evolution is taking place will fall out of business soonest.

[sunsilk]

IMO, as long as it is going to contribute to the marketing and exposure of the casino. It's still a big help for them if it's with affiliates.

They don't have to pay upfront and what they need to have first are results. So, it's a plus and win for them to still consider affiliate marketing.

Because if their affiliates don't drive sales, they don't have to pay for their efforts and that's why it's still needed and we still see them have it part of their marketing.

I agree, affiliate marketing still makes sense for casinos, especially as a low-risk acquisition channel where payment is tied to results.

That’s why I don’t think it’s “dying” in a literal sense. It still plays a role and will continue to do so. The discussion for me is more about which phase the model is in. Early on, affiliates were a core growth engine. As companies mature, they keep affiliates, but rely on them differently (with tighter terms, stricter quality requirements, and less tolerance for inefficiency).

That shift is what many people feel, even if the model itself isn’t disappearing yet.

There's just a huge difference now with affiliate marketing. The casino themselves are helping the affiliates to do every technique that they can apply.

There is one now that's very aggressive and that's by partnering with gambling streamers to use their affiliate link.

But I think with this strategy, this is where they have to do money down first to the streamer.

[LUCKMCFLY]

When a casino cuts rewards or changes terms after traffic has already been delivered, the affiliate model stops being a business and becomes a risk game. Affiliates front-load the work and wait for ROI, if the rules aren’t stable, there’s no real incentive to keep investing.

I understand that , but it shouldn't be like that because, in part , we do a job that isn't easy, and we work to always have Something to offer When the casino meets its objective, it discards that Option for those who work and that's not the goal , It's like using people to then obtain the profit and then goodbye, I don't see it as right , but that's how it works.