PIN-UP Partners’ Team Lead Affiliate Oleksandr Hloza discusses how gambling affiliates can thrive despite increasing market competition and shares strategies for sustainable growth.
Key Takeaways:
- Competition in gambling affiliate marketing has intensified, making ROI and traffic quality the critical success factors
- PIN-UP Partners focuses on proactive solutions rather than reactive measures when affiliate campaigns face performance issues
- The company is developing new API tools and automation features to help gambling affiliates scale more efficiently
The Changing Landscape of Gambling Affiliate Marketing
The affiliate marketing ecosystem, particularly in the gambling sector, is experiencing significant shifts. Oleksandr Hloza, Team Lead Affiliate at PIN-UP Partners, acknowledges these changes affect everyone in the industry. External factors like account bans or Google algorithm updates immediately impact multiple traffic channels including ASO, SEO, and network traffic.
“Like everyone else on the market, we see changes happening on the affiliates’ side. The simplest example: if there’s a wave of account bans in the traffic sources, or Google makes adjustments on its side, it instantly affects several directions at once,” Hloza explains.
The fundamental challenge for gambling affiliates comes down to launch costs versus payback—essentially, maintaining positive ROI. This applies to both paid traffic from major sources and affiliates’ own traffic-generation projects.
Addressing Performance Challenges Head-On
When affiliate campaigns begin to underperform, PIN-UP Partners takes a systematic approach rather than immediately cutting caps or disabling offers. The company analyzes key metrics including ARPU versus eCPA, cohort behavior, and product-side changes to identify root causes.
“We never look at traffic linearly. For us, it’s crucial to dig deeper: where it can be optimized, what can be strengthened in the funnel, and which directions can be expanded or relaunched,” Hloza states.
This proactive approach helps build trust with gambling affiliates who often fear their traffic sources will be cut at the first sign of performance issues.
Scaling Traffic: Challenges and Solutions
For gambling affiliates scaling to high traffic volumes, the first metric that typically suffers isn’t conversion but payback. As traffic spikes, forecasting becomes less reliable, affecting budgeting decisions and user-retention strategies.
PIN-UP Partners has demonstrated success in improving critical metrics like Click2Reg and Reg2Dep. In one case, they increased Reg2Dep from approximately 10% to 15% through a combination of product improvements and affiliate-side optimizations.
“It wasn’t ‘magic’. It was the result of systematic work from both sides. On our side, we improved the product: simplified the registration flow and added more conversion-friendly payment options. On the webmaster’s side, there was work on creatives and funnel optimization,” Hloza shares.
Future Developments for Gambling Affiliates
PIN-UP Partners is currently developing an expanded API to help gambling affiliates integrate more seamlessly with analytics, collect data, and generate links more efficiently. The company is also creating tools for automating traffic optimization, including improved cohort reports and flexible tracking settings.
Following PIN-UP Partners’ transition from PIN-UP Global to the RedCore business group, the affiliate program has gained access to faster hypothesis testing, deeper analytics, and knowledge-sharing across the entire group—all aimed at helping gambling affiliates achieve better results.
“RedCore brought together strong brands from different niches under one structure, and now each company focuses on its own expertise, while staying connected with the rest,” explains Hloza, highlighting how this benefits their gambling affiliate partners.
I remember the first time I saw Kai Tak, Hong Kong’s gambling city, I thought I was in a fairy tale. All the lights blinking, the music and the monumental buildings, what 9-year-old wouldn’t think they’ve come to a magical place? It was my father who brought me, dragging me along and when inside I was hit by the smell of frying duck. As soon as I hit 21 I returned to Kai Tak, A bit nervous to see if my mind had embellished the memory, but it hadn’t. Kai Tak was still a magical place. I decided I wanted to spend as much time as I could at this place, so I did.
