Affiliates and acquisition

Attribution: whose player is it

Attribution (marketing attribution) is linking a registration or deposit to its source: an affiliate, a campaign, a channel. It decides who the casino pays CPA and RevShare to and which traffic it considers profitable.

Yevhen SychovOctober 2026

How it works

  • Tracking link: it carries the affiliate ID and the click ID. At registration they are saved to the player's profile.
  • Promo code: for streamers, bloggers and offline, where there is no link.
  • Postback (S2S): the casino's server itself sends events to the affiliate's tracker, for example registration, FTD and second deposit. This is more reliable than a browser pixel, which ad blockers and cookie restrictions cut off.

Usually a player is assigned to an affiliate at registration and stays with them for good. CPA and RevShare are calculated on this link.

Attribution models

ModelWho gets credit for the playerRisk
First clickthe source that brought the player firstwhoever convinced the player at the end gets nothing
Last clickthe last source before registrationthe player is intercepted at the end of the journey

Affiliate programmes usually run on last click with a window, for example 30 days from the click. Write the model, the window and the event (registration or first deposit) into the contract.

For CRM, a click on an email before a deposit does not prove an effect: the player might have deposited anyway. Measure campaigns against a control group.

Where the source gets lost

A player clicked the link on their phone but registered on a laptop: the cookie with the affiliate ID stayed on the other device. Clicks from apps with an in-app browser and from browsers with strict cookie blocking get lost the same way. A promo code covers some of these cases, but not all. Track the share of players with no source: if it grows, look for where the chain breaks.

Common mistakes

  • No rule for two sources. A player came through one affiliate's link and entered another affiliate's promo code. Without a rule in the contract, every such player becomes a dispute.
  • The affiliate cannot see their own data. A report without events by click ID raises suspicions of shaving, that is, under-reporting the stats. Give transparent data on every player.
  • Not looking for fraud. Cookie stuffing and bidding on the casino's brand terms credit the affiliate with players they did not bring.
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