SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Alanbase Chief Product Officer Artur Yulbarisov tells SBC News about the importance of having accurate and reliable data in the affiliate space and how crucial it is for having a trustworthy relationship between operators and affiliates.
SBC: How important is it for affiliates and operators to be able to see transparent data in keeping long-lasting and trustworthy relationships?
Artur Yulbarisov: It is important: in fact, all affiliate marketing is built on trust between the advertiser and webmaster, so transparent statistics are the key to building a strong partnership. Any discrepancy in data leads to conflicts and loss of trust, so one of the operator’s tasks is to build a transparent relationship, which includes reliable statistics.
We should not forget about the importance of data detailing. Today it is no longer enough to have simple metrics like the number of registrations and the number of FTDs: modern advertisers and advanced media buying teams look much deeper, including the use of cohort analysis functionality. Choosing a software partner that can provide such detail is an important task for the operator.
SBC: A core part of the Alanbase platform is the ability for users to customize their experience. Why is this so important and what are the main customisations users can make?
AY: In continuation of the answer to the previous question, I would like to point out that the market is already emerging and competition for players is constantly growing. Hence the need to look deeper into the numbers, run more and more tests and analyse more and more metrics.
If five or so years ago, there were few platforms for creating an affiliate program, and they were the ones who dictated to the market how to count numbers, today we see the opposite situation. It’s the software today that has to adjust to the requirements of clients who are no longer satisfied with a set of ready-made events and one type of payout. Since Alanbase was created against the background of outdated platforms for creating party programs, we, first of all, tried to respond to this market demand.
So, with us, you can count any metric and change the statistics tab to suit your requirements
SBC: What do you notice are the biggest pain points for both affiliates and operators when it comes to reporting and tracking? How can Alanbase solve these problems?
AY: One of the initial tasks of an affiliate program platform is to evaluate the quality of traffic. Everyone, without exception, wants lots of filters and their combination and many indicators of player activity. Also for a qualitative assessment it is not enough to have only those parameters that show the effectiveness of traffic only “in the moment”. It is important to see how the traffic behaves at a distance; to see which affiliate channels pay off for you and which do not; which sources pay off and which do not, etc. All this allows you and your affiliates to earn more in the long run.
For partners it is also important to see detailed statistics to evaluate the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns in a large number of cuts, because classic and outdated PPs are extremely reluctant to share detailed information about the activity of players. Sometimes it is due to technical impossibility, sometimes it is the company’s policy, sometimes the operator pursues some of its own goals. But affiliation is always a two-way work and that’s why it is important to follow the win-win strategy and give your affiliates comprehensive information, because it allows you to earn a lot more together at a distance
SBC: What are the biggest things that brands need to consider when developing an affiliate program?
AY: Factors to list a lot of infinite number, but if you take a large stroke in any affiliate program, there should be:
- Detailed statistics: general, by players, advanced analysis of player activity
- Flexible commission builder, which allows you to build absolutely any type of commission
- Payment module and payment management
- A variety of different promotional materials and their storage.
- Presence of intuitive and clear personal account for the partner
Competent implementation of this functionality will lay a strong base for you for further development and modernisation of your affiliate program. At the same time, you should always include the possibility to cover your entire platform with some additional functionality and give the opportunity for scaling.
Depending on your positioning either you make a mono-brand affiliate program or all brands will be in a single affiliate program, you need to design the internal links between the brands, ensuring seamless tracking, unified reporting, and a cohesive user experience for both affiliates and players. These internal links should facilitate cross-promotion, shared analytics, and efficient management, while maintaining the flexibility to address the unique needs of each brand.
SBC: What are the main trends in the affiliate program space that you have picked up on in 2024? How have these trends impacted the way you interact with your clients?
AY: I think it’s not wrong to say that trends in the affiliate program industry are directly dependent on how advertisers are evolving and their new requirements
To give you an example: a trend that has been going on for a long time is working with Influencers. I know products where 95% of players are attracted only by influencers, it’s amazing and unusual how a product can work only with traffic from bloggers, streamers, etc. At the same time an affiliate program platform should be ready to work with this type of traffic, giving the same quality analytics and working conditions as when working with referral links.
Based on the above – affiliate programs platforms will have to be more sensitive to the players on the market and be ready to change quickly and adapt to new realities.
SBC: Do you foresee any trends for 2025 when it comes to affiliate programs and their management? Where do you see growth coming from?
AY: I think that in 2025 will continue expansion into all platforms, which are still atypical for the promotion of igaming-products, because it at least gives access to the audience of these platforms + some trust due to the authority of platforms. If a platform allows it – it means that it has filtered it and it is not something illegal.
Entering new platforms igaming-products can generate new mechanics of attracting traffic and affiliate program platforms can face new interesting challenges, requirements for successful attraction of traffic, so surely products will require more interesting and unusual integrations into their affiliate programs.
