Affiliate Managers/Programmes - Unresponsive

Hi all

Brand new here, so Hi! I've been in affiliate marketing for around 7 years but in a very different niche, I have just started with a new casino site.

I was wondering about other peoples experiences with casino Affiliate Managers and programmes were - I have applied to maybe 15 casinos, ones I have used at some point so I am able to write a review, but the majority of them seem extremely unresponsive.

Most just haven't even had the courtesy to reply or get back to me after filling in the (very basic) application form - they've got no idea what I have planned, how I plan to promote the site etc, I find it very odd when you have dedicated affiliate teams that they'd be so unresponsive.

Another one that I have joined, I changed the site name after joining and have emailed them 4 times now asking them to change my links but I get nothing back at all.

Is this normal for this industry?!

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Originally Posted by let_em_spin

Is this normal for this industry?!

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There's a lot of once great aff programs who have gone rogue, so without knowing who you've contacted, hard to make a call. Given your a newbie, could be because you've got no traffic, hence your an unknown (that's just a guess)... FYI out of 100 new affiliates, maybe 3 last a year. Not saying this happens, but with such a low success rate, some programs might want to see results, before they commit energy and time.

Could one of 2 things.

Firstly, your email looks suspicious or not to par. No real URL listed, hence the delayed reply.

Secondly, some programs are self serving upon approval.

As long as you meet the min requirement you should get your account approved.
Some aff programs are under staffed.

(Like Dave said)...New affs are less a priority over existing partners.

That said would your interest/motivation change if said program replied right away?

As already Said by another Member in another post, the answer / no answer, in most os the cases os a question of on which Affiliate programs you registered, if you say the name of Affiliates may be more easy to answer your questions.

THere might be a lots of reasons fro you not to get approved :

- your site is too fresh and does not get a reasoanble traffic.

- much of the programs are concentrated on the existng or already big and super affiliates.

- it is getting harder each year on our indsutry ( 2-3 ago you might have never created such thread here).

- As @good4bonus said it would be good if you mention the names of the casinos and them affiliate programs, we migh be of a help.

- if you are or you still lay in some of the casinos , they may resign to approve you as affiliate ( I had few cases like that in the near past).

- I agress with AussieDave that most of the affiliates does not long/last for a year. You have to be totaaly commited and devoted to what you do. Take a deep seach in the forum and you will see affiliates and good guys, who are in this field for over a decade of serious job.

- And one advice from me. Get to use to getting "no's" in the beginning. If few declines just ruin your motivation, maybe this is not the proper industry for you.

Morning Let_em_spin,

Welcome to the forum!

Add me to your skype Maria.florides1 . I will be happy to help you get in touch with some affiliate managers.

Have a great weekend!

I started my site in January 2016. I didnt put any affiliate links on it before I saw my traffic growing and rankings improving. Not sure if thats a SEO myth or really good practice, but I know for a fact that a lot of affiliate companies believe that in the beginning you rank better without affiliate links. At least for me this strategy paid off.

Anyhow,at one point i decided that it is time to send my readers to those casinos which would fit best for their search intend. But instead of signing up with dozens of different affiliates, I went for an affiliate network. Since i am living in Malta and knew a few guys working for Matching Visions, who offer more than 50 well known brands for "my" German market, I took them. Overall they have approx. 150 operators in their portfolio, with the a focus on Europe (especially Scandinavia and Germany) and Canada.

Especially for the beginning this is IMHO the easiest and best approach. All stats, all tracking links, all promotional material and invoices you can find at one place, which is super convenient. Instead of having incoming payments from lets say 20 different programs you get one combined one. The deals - mostly rev share - are ok, considering you dont have any traffic in the beginning. I doubt that you in your current position will get better rates directly with affiliate programs. Minimum payout amount is 100€ (all operators combined). I also found their affiliate managers very helpful - usually you wouldnt wait longer for a reply to your question than a few hours. and yes, theys are even open for feedback in case eg you believe that casino xyz should change their landing page or offer.

Besides matching visions there are also other programs, but i never tried those. Other forum members might give you more input.

Obviously these affiliate networks do not offer all operators you want to promote. Besides that it is also a quite big risk to rely only on one business partner/affiliate. So at one point you will have to sign at more affiliate programs directly. But since you will have some results already, this should be much easier for you than it is for a Newbie without traffic.

If you wanna give it a try:

http://matchingvisions.com/?ref=848 (sub-affiliate-link, hope thats ok, didnt find anything about it in the forum rules ;))

Good luck!

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies.

I don't really want to name them just but they're all mainstream sites for UK players (big sites) - I am not 'upset' about it, I get that it happens and it's fine because it's not like every single one ignored the application, but I was just surprised at the amount of them that just don't make contact.

I guess it's a case of me valuing my time - I have filled out the same form so many times the least I expect back is some acknowledgement or even a decline email!

I understand being a new site may be off-putting, but on the other hand even their biggest affiliates started somewhere? They don't know what I have planned for the site, what my advertising plans are - none of these questions are asked.

I will say though, as someone mentioned above, those that bothered to reach out to me and understand what my plans are I already feel more loyal to. I am not planning on having hundreds of casinos on the site, I have a few now to get started with so my focus has to shift to getting traffic to the site.

I've experienced plenty of "no's" in my time, my skin's a lot thicker than that so I'll be sticking around!

I'd put it down to "Millennials"

They just don't give 2 s%&^s

Most upstart AM's who work for regulated brands wont even touch you unless you have large amounts of traffic , they don't realize that XL, Catena, Blexr where all small once earning a pittance but grinding

I was an AM back in the good old days , I would treat Affs in the same way regardless if the sent a click or 100 ftds a month. I would also advise affiliates to split their traffic and only send me 20 to 30% of their traffic and advise them on other good programs giving skype and contact details of my peers and never take a master affiliation.


Iv'e never dealt with them but from what iv'e seen on GPWA the AM's at KingBilly seem nice and helpful but they don't accept UK

Good luck

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Originally Posted by FreeSpins74

I'd put it down to "Millennials"

They just don't give 2 s%&^s

Most upstart AM's who work for regulated brands wont even touch you unless you have large amounts of traffic , they don't realize that XL, Catena, Blexr where all small once earning a pittance but grinding

I was an AM back in the good old days , I would treat Affs in the same way regardless if the sent a click or 100 ftds a month. I would also advise affiliates to split their traffic and only send me 20 to 30% of their traffic and advise them on other good programs giving skype and contact details of my peers and never take a master affiliation.


Iv'e never dealt with them but from what iv'e seen on GPWA the AM's at KingBilly seem nice and helpful but they don't accept UK

Good luck

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For every XL Media there are also a thousand or more affiliates that once started with quite some plans, but never succeeded.

AM's should invest time in affiliates with potential, while it's waste of time to spend time in affiliates with no potential. The problem is that about 99% of all AM's can't judge potential, but can just look at ftd's, top positions and banners at the homepage.

Most UK regulated brands are not interested in new affiliates, I think, as they have to check if reviews and other materials are compliant, etc.

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Originally Posted by FreeSpins74

I'd put it down to "Millennials"

They just don't give 2 s%&^s

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Now that is total buls***. Two of my best affiliate managers (and I have dealt with many over the past years) are so-called "Millennials". They are hard working, helpful, quick to respond, knowledgable and never pushy. It is a joy to work with them.

Age has nothing to do with it. There are very good affiliate managers and terrible ones.

Just like there are amazing affiliates and terrible, lazy affilates.

Welcome to GPWA, let_em_spin.


My take on this is that obviously this is a very competitive market at the moment and it’s much harder than it was even from only a few years back and not all affiliate managers will view your criteria in the same way when applying to be a new affiliate. As a result, some programs will just not welcome you onboard to be a part of their team. I’ve also applied to be an affiliate with at least 4 different casino operators and I’ve had all of my registrations turned down. Simply because they required certain things of me which I didn’t have. I’m more focused on the affiliate programs that I joined a long time ago in the early to mid 2000s when the casino industry was still fairly young and new and the competition was certainly much less and these casinos are still working well for me until now. If you’re already doing well with just a handful of programs, then just stay more focused on them and keep working with them.

I agree it's extremely competitive, but I still believe there's always room for more! I've been watching the space for a while, I find the rise of the Twitch/YouTube streamers quite interesting - I am still a little on the fence about that way of recruiting players but it clearly works well.

I am in no rush to go in all guns blazing with as many casinos as I can get, I only ever wanted to get the ones I had played at so I could give an honest review of our experiences, I am happy with what I have and will continue with the plan and just try to grow organically over time.

I am looking forward to the adventure, it's only been a few weeks for me but let's see how things pan out - I'll be sure to stick around here for sure

@let_em_spin - What market are you targeting? If your main market is going to be the UK, which is highly regulated, then that could be why you're not getting a response from programs. They would want to see the type of site you'd be promoting them on first.

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Originally Posted by DaftDog

@let_em_spin - What market are you targeting? If your main market is going to be the UK, which is highly regulated, then that could be why you're not getting a response from programs. They would want to see the type of site you'd be promoting them on first.

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Yes it is going to be UK at first - I am not experienced or knowledgeable enough in this area at the moment to even think about targeting other countries - although it's certainly part of the longer term plan

They can see the site, it's nothing out of the 'ordinary' I guess you could say, very much in line with other affiliate sites - I am running it as a UK Business and not as an individual, I am comfortable working with regulation so that doesn't bother me.

I mean, even if that was the case that they don't want to work with me, a courtesy email wouldn't go amiss? Maybe me expecting something to happen within a week to 10 days is unrealistic, I have no idea how busy AM's are

THE AM are brokers. they buy and sell traffic, if they could they were buying traffic from the local post office. the problem is CMO and head of affiliating. they need to show increase on revenues so they won't deal with affiliate that just built his website.
as i see it you should join a network. yes, its not ideal but it a good stating point.

Since you are new in the igaming affiliate business you also might want to attend to one of the affiliate shows such as Sigma (Malta), LAC (London) or Amsterdam or Berlin. Entrance for you is free, so the only costs are for accommodation, travel and food.

If you agree during the registration process, some affiliate managers will contact you directly (mostly smaller programs, but hey...). Of course you also can simply request some meetings with some AMs directly - or you just pop by their stands, say hello and make an appointment or start discussing a possible collaboration immediately. Even with a brandnew site your chances are quite good to talk to those brands which didnt get back to you in the first place!

Especially in the mornings many affiliate managers have a lot of time to talk to you.

- Alcohol usually is for free. Try to stay sober (at least until you spoke to all the companies you wanted to talk to)
- show not only interest for CPA and Rev share deals, but also for their products, marketing materials and tools
- explain, why you would like to promote casino abc
- bring business cards
- have a downloaded version of your website, some stats (semrush, a hrefs) plus some proofs for your success on other fields of affiliation with you
- have fun and also try to attend one or two of the networking parties


This advice might sound very basic, but believe me, many affiliates in our industry can not even deliver that.

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Originally Posted by promotiontailor

as i see it you should join a network. yes, its not ideal but it a good stating point.

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Agree, networks aren't ideal but...

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Originally Posted by DaftDog

If your main market is going to be the UK, which is highly regulated, then that could be why you're not getting a response from programs.

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Keep in mind, Paddypowers, Landbrokes and others have bent their affiliates over (EG - closed accounts, stole players and earnings). Seems only Super Affiliates are immune from this action. Maybe a Network would guard you against this IDK (never worked with a Network).

But all in all, looks like a Network is your best choice right now. Once you get an idea of what's going on, by learning the ropes per se, then you'll be in a better position to make the best choices for your affiliate business.

Maybe that's why they're affectionately known as Ladcrooks over here!

I literally just received a newsletter from one group I signed up to, all I ever had was the 'Thanks for applying' email on the 14th May, I just received a newsletter and tried to login to the affiliate portal and lo and behold i can get in and have everything available - I mean they didn't even tell me my account had been approved!

I have just noticed there's an affiliate conference in Amsterdam in July, I am really tempted to go, the agenda looks really good for someone just entering the market

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Maybe that's why they're affectionately known as Ladcrooks over here!

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HaHa, Love it and so true!