The most popular winning method for poker affiliates is via CPA. While CPA is a huge advantage in the short term, it can be very detrimental to affiliates in the long run. A serious affiliate in the world of poker affiliation, referring a good quality player to a recognized brand, will earn more money within 18 months with a revenue sharing agreement than a CPA agreement.
The increasing fees for acquiring poker players make some CPA deals quite attractive. However, you need to keep one thing in mind: companies are willing to pay these CPA fees on the understanding that players will give them more money in the long run than if they were offered a profit-sharing deal.
I have been in the online gambling industry for over ten years and, during my time, I have seen several small affiliates win over large numbers of select players. Luckily, these affiliates opt for revenue sharing, so they continue to earn money from their nominated players long after they keep sending depositors. A good pokerace99 player can easily make over $ 1,000 per month in rakes, where if you receive CPA, you will only win one payout from that player, while sharing the revenue you will continue to earn for the life of that player.
Choose revenue share over CPA, as in the long run this is a winning option for affiliates sending quality players. The average revenue share is 25-35% commission for a player’s lifetime.
If you brought in an average of 10 depositors a month and made $ 200 CPA for this player, you would earn $ 2,000. However, with the same players, they made an average of $ 75 per month in each rake ($ 750 per month in total rake). You’ll earn an average of 30% of $ 750, a total of $ 270. Players tend to stay in the same poker room for several years, which means you’ll earn $ 3,240 in commission in the first year alone. This is $ 1,240 more than you would receive for a generous CPA offer.
If these arguments are not convincing enough for you to consider working with a revenue-sharing affiliate program, you should take a moment to think about how you would feel if you mentioned that all the important VIP players who made $ 1,000 EUR a week have already been accepted. Very little CPA.
One of the main risk factors that affiliate managers need to consider when working with CPAs is the potential for CPA fraud. This occurs if the affiliate deliberately enters into a CPA contract with the program in order to defraud the program). The program has overcome this problem by setting limits / rakes that need to be created before the CPA is released, but the potential for abuse is still there.
As a seasoned poker affiliate manager, I think those who work strictly with profit sharing are more valuable, however, I handle both. Some of the major poker affiliates earn six figures a month, and most of the commission checks come from players they referred 12 months ago.
This article was written by Simon Eaton, affiliate manager for the poker affiliate program.