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iGaming Affiliate Marketing Glossary

158 terms every operator, affiliate manager and iGaming marketer should know — defined in plain language, with the operational context that generic dictionaries skip.

A

  • Active Affiliate A partner currently generating measurable activity — clicks, registrations or FTDs — within the…
  • Admin Fee A percentage deduction operators apply to gross revenue before calculating affiliate commissions, covering platform,…
  • ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) Independent bodies resolving player-operator disputes without courts — mandatory referral routes in strong licensing…
  • Advertising Standards (CAP Code) The advertising rulebooks — like the UK's CAP Code — governing gambling marketing content,…
  • Affiliate Agreement The binding contract between operator and affiliate covering commissions, obligations, compliance duties, and termination…
  • Affiliate Compliance Monitoring Ongoing surveillance of affiliate marketing conduct — placements, claims, GEO targeting, RG messaging —…
  • Affiliate Event Industry gatherings — conferences, summits, program-hosted meetups — where affiliate deals are made and…
  • Affiliate Licensing / Registration Regimes where affiliates themselves must register with or be licensed by the regulator to…
  • Affiliate Link A URL containing tracking parameters that identifies which affiliate (and campaign) referred the visitor.
  • Affiliate Manager The operator-side professional who recruits, negotiates with, supports and monitors affiliate partners.
  • Affiliate Network An intermediary aggregating many operators' offers and many affiliates in one marketplace, taking a…
  • Affiliate Newsletter The program's regular communication to partners: offers, product updates, term changes, compliance notices and…
  • Affiliate Onboarding The intake process from application to first active link: vetting, agreement, account setup, and…
  • Affiliate Portal The self-service interface where affiliates get links, creatives, statistics, statements and payment history.
  • Affiliate Program An operator-run partnership scheme paying third parties commission for referred players, governed by its…
  • Affiliate Recruitment The outbound discipline of finding, pitching and signing new traffic partners.
  • Affiliate Tier Segmenting partners into service and terms levels — VIP, key, standard, long-tail — matching…
  • Affiliate Whitelisting Explicitly authorizing specific affiliates for restricted activities — paid search, specific GEOs, or sensitive…
  • Age Verification Confirming players meet the legal gambling age before they can play — increasingly before…
  • AML (Anti-Money Laundering) The legal framework obliging gambling operators to detect, prevent and report money laundering through…
  • App Attribution (MMP) Mobile measurement partners (AppsFlyer, Adjust, Branch) that attribute app installs and in-app events to…
  • Attribution Window The period after a click during which a conversion is still credited to the…

B

  • Banner Rotation Automatically cycling multiple creatives through one placement, measuring and favoring the better performers.
  • Black Market Jurisdictions where online gambling is explicitly prohibited — served, if at all, illegally.
  • Bonus Abuse Exploiting promotions against their intent — multi-accounting, low-risk wagering patterns, or organized bonus-ring farming.
  • Bonus Advertising Rules The specific requirements for how gambling bonuses may be promoted: significant terms upfront, no…
  • Bonus Wallet The separate balance holding bonus funds and their winnings while wagering completes, apart from…
  • Bounty / Milestone Payment A one-off payment for a defined non-recurring achievement — first FTD from a new…
  • Brand Bidding Policy Program rules on affiliates bidding operator brand terms in paid search — usually prohibition,…

C

  • Card Scheme Rules Visa and Mastercard's private rulebooks for gambling transactions — registration programs, country permissions, coding…
  • Cashback Returning a percentage of player losses (or wagers) over a period — a retention…
  • Chargeback A card payment reversed through the issuer at the cardholder's dispute — fraud's paper…
  • Churned Affiliate A previously active partner whose traffic has stopped — moved to competitors, lost their…
  • Clawback Reversing previously credited commissions after the underlying transaction is invalidated — by chargeback, fraud…
  • Click ID The unique identifier generated for each click on an affiliate link, used to match…
  • Click Spamming Fraud that fires large volumes of fake or unearned clicks to steal attribution for…
  • Commission Hold Period The delay between a commission being earned and becoming withdrawable, allowing time for fraud…
  • Comp Points Loyalty currency accrued per wager, redeemable for cash, bonuses or perks — turnover made…
  • Complaint Handling The regulated process for receiving, investigating and resolving player complaints — with timelines, records…
  • Compliance Audit Trail The documented, timestamped record proving what was published, decided and enforced — the difference…
  • Conversion Pixel The specific pixel placed on a post-conversion page (registration complete, deposit confirmed) that reports…
  • Cookie Stuffing Fraudulently dropping affiliate tracking identifiers on users who never meaningfully clicked, to claim credit…
  • Cookieless Tracking Attribution methods that don't depend on browser cookies — server-side IDs, first-party storage, fingerprinting…
  • CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) A fixed one-time payment to the affiliate for each referred player who completes a…
  • CPA Baseline The set of minimum player-activity conditions (deposit size, wagering, sometimes redeposit) required before a…
  • CPC (Cost Per Click) Payment per click on an ad or link — the pricing model of paid…
  • CPI (Cost Per Install) Payment per verified app install, used in mobile-first casino and sportsbook acquisition.
  • CPL (Cost Per Lead) Payment per lead — in iGaming, usually a completed registration with verified contact details,…
  • CPM (Cost Per Mille) Payment per thousand ad impressions — a media-buying metric that appears in iGaming through…
  • Creatives The advertising assets — banners, landing pages, text links, video — a program supplies…
  • Cross-Device Tracking Linking one user's activity across phone, desktop and tablet so the journey and its…
  • Curacao License (CGA) The Caribbean licensing regime historically covering much of the offshore industry — reformed in…

D

  • Data Residency Requirements on where gambling data physically lives — several regulators mandate in-country or in-region…
  • Deep Linking Pointing an affiliate link at a specific page — a game, bonus or registration…
  • Deposit Match A bonus equal to a percentage of the deposit — the standard promotional currency…
  • Device Fingerprinting Identifying a device by its technical characteristics (browser, OS, screen, fonts, network) instead of…
  • Direct Linking Sending traffic straight to the operator's page — no redirect — with tracking parameters…
  • Dormancy Clause A terms provision reducing or ending commissions for affiliates who stop sending new traffic…
  • Duplicate Click Filtering Automatically discarding repeat clicks from the same user within a short window so reporting…
  • Dynamic CPA CPA pricing that varies automatically with measured traffic quality or player value rather than…

E

  • Exclusive Deal Enhanced commission terms granted in exchange for the affiliate restricting competitor promotion — a…

F

  • First-Click Attribution Crediting the conversion to the first affiliate click in the journey rather than the…
  • First-Party Cookie A cookie set by the domain the user is actually visiting, used to remember…
  • Flat-Fee Deal A fixed payment for placement or exposure — a homepage spot, a review position,…
  • Free Spins Bonus rounds on specified slots granted as promotional currency — winnings usually land as…

G

  • Gambling License State authorization to offer gambling services, defining where an operator may market, which rules…
  • Game Aggregator A single integration delivering many providers' games — one API, one contract, hundreds of…
  • Game Provider The studios building casino games — slots, tables, live — licensed to operators directly…
  • Game Weighting The percentage each game type contributes toward wagering requirements — slots typically 100%, table…
  • Gaming Tax / License Fees The state's cut of regulated gambling: application and annual license fees plus ongoing tax…
  • GAMSTOP Great Britain's national online self-exclusion register — one registration blocks the player at every…
  • GDPR The EU's data-protection regulation — governing every player and affiliate data flow in and…
  • Geo-Blocking Technically preventing access from prohibited jurisdictions — the enforcement layer of an operator's market…
  • GGR (Gross Gaming Revenue) Total player stakes minus total player winnings — the industry's top-line revenue measure before…
  • Global Postback A single account-level postback configuration that fires for all of an affiliate's campaigns, instead…
  • Gray Market A jurisdiction where online gambling is neither locally licensed nor explicitly prohibited — served…

H

  • High-Roller Policy A contract clause capping or specially handling the commission impact of exceptionally large winning…
  • Hold Percentage Revenue as a share of money handled — in casino contexts, GGR over deposits…
  • House Edge The casino's built-in mathematical advantage — 100 minus RTP — expressed as the expected…
  • Hybrid Deal A commission structure combining an upfront CPA payment with an ongoing revenue-share percentage on…

I

  • In-House Program An affiliate program the operator runs directly on its own (licensed) software, owning partner…

K

  • KYB for Affiliates Know-your-business verification of affiliate partners — corporate identity, ownership, sanctions and payment-details checks before…
  • KYC (Know Your Customer) Mandatory identity verification of players — who they are, their age, and increasingly where…

L

  • Last-Click Attribution Crediting the conversion entirely to the final affiliate click before registration — the iGaming…
  • Lifetime Revenue Share Revenue share paid for as long as the referred player remains active — no…
  • Listing Fee A one-time or recurring charge some publishers require merely to be included on their…
  • Live Dealer Real dealers on streamed tables with OCR translating physical outcomes into data — the…

M

  • Marketing Preferences / Opt-In The consent layer for gambling marketing communications — who may be contacted, on which…
  • Master Affiliate An affiliate who manages a downline of sub-affiliates, earning overrides on their production —…
  • Max Bet Rule The stake ceiling (commonly €5) while wagering a bonus — breaching it typically voids…
  • Max Cashout A ceiling on withdrawable winnings from a bonus — standard on free offers, a…
  • Media Kit A publisher's document presenting audience, traffic, placement options and pricing to prospective advertisers and…
  • MGA (Malta Gaming Authority) Malta's gaming regulator — the EU hub license under which a large share of…
  • Minimum Deposit Requirement The smallest first deposit that counts as a qualifying acquisition under a CPA or…
  • Misleading Advertising Marketing that creates false expectations — about bonuses, odds, risk or terms — measured…
  • Multi-Touch Attribution Splitting conversion credit across several touchpoints in the player's journey instead of giving it…

N

  • Negative Carryover When a month's negative net revenue (players won money) carries into following months, offsetting…
  • NGR (Net Gaming Revenue) Gross gaming revenue after deducting bonuses, payment fees, gaming taxes and agreed costs —…
  • No-Deposit Bonus A small bonus granted without any deposit — an acquisition offer priced by registration…

O

  • Odds Boost A promotionally enhanced price on selected outcomes — margin given back to look generous,…

P

  • Payment Orchestration A routing and management layer across multiple PSPs and methods — one integration, portable…
  • Payout Threshold The minimum accumulated commission balance required before the program issues payment.
  • PEP Screening Identifying politically exposed persons among customers and partners, triggering enhanced due diligence on their…
  • Performance Kicker A bonus payment triggered by hitting agreed targets — extra CPA, a rate bump,…
  • Pixel Tracking Client-side conversion tracking that fires a snippet of code (an image or JavaScript tag)…
  • Player Churn Referred or acquired players going inactive — the decay curve that determines lifetime value.
  • Positive Carryover Unpaid commission balances below the payout threshold rolling forward to the next period rather…
  • Postback URL A server-side callback the operator's platform fires to notify the tracking system that a…
  • Program Audit A periodic structured review of a program's economics, compliance, fraud exposure and partner portfolio…
  • Program Migration Moving an affiliate program between tracking platforms while preserving links, player attribution and commission…
  • Program Terms The public rulebook of an affiliate program — commission structures, qualification rules, payment schedules…
  • Progressive Jackpot A jackpot growing with a slice of every wager across the network until won…
  • Promo Code Tracking Attributing players to affiliates via a code entered at registration or deposit, independent of…
  • Promo Materials All promotional content a program authorizes affiliates to use — offers, copy, terms summaries,…
  • PSP (Payment Service Provider) The company processing an operator's deposits and withdrawals — connecting the gambling business to…

Q

  • Qualified FTD A first-time deposit meeting all the deal's qualification criteria — minimum amount, GEO, payment…

R

  • Reactivation Returning lapsed players to activity via targeted offers and CRM — the cheapest revenue…
  • Recreational Player The casual majority betting for entertainment — favorites, parlays, brand loyalty, and the revenue…
  • Redirect Tracking Click tracking that routes the visitor through one or more intermediate URLs (the tracker)…
  • Referrer The HTTP header identifying the page a visitor came from — a primary signal…
  • Regulated Market A jurisdiction with a local licensing regime — legal certainty, consumer protection and tax,…
  • Reload Bonus A deposit-match offer for existing players — the retention counterpart to the welcome bonus.
  • Responsible Gambling (RG) The framework of policies, tools and marketing duties aimed at preventing gambling-related harm.
  • Rev Adjustment A manual correction applied to an affiliate's revenue or commission figures — for mispriced…
  • Revenue Share (RevShare) An ongoing commission paying the affiliate a percentage of the net revenue their referred…
  • Risk Management / Trading The sportsbook function pricing markets, managing exposure, and deciding who may bet how much.
  • RNG (Random Number Generator) The certified algorithm generating unpredictable outcomes for digital games — the audited heart of…
  • RTP (Return to Player) The percentage of total wagers a game pays back over the long run —…

S

  • S2S Tracking Server-to-server tracking passes conversion data directly between the operator's and tracker's servers, with no…
  • Safer Gambling Tools The player-facing control set — deposit/loss/session limits, reality checks, time-outs, self-exclusion — that licensed…
  • Sanctions Screening Checking players and business partners against sanctions and watchlists — strict-liability territory for operators…
  • Second-Tier Commission Earnings from the activity of affiliates in your downline — the generic term for…
  • Self-Exclusion A player's formal request to be barred from gambling — per operator or across…
  • Server Log Tracking Recording clicks and events from raw server request logs rather than client-side scripts.
  • Session A continuous period of play — the behavioral unit RG monitoring, product analytics and…
  • Sharp Bettor A consistently skilled bettor whose action beats closing prices — valuable as information, unwelcome…
  • Slot Volatility How a slot distributes its RTP — frequent small wins (low volatility) versus rare…
  • Social Responsibility Code The license conditions binding operators to actively prevent gambling harm — interaction duties, marker…
  • Source of Funds (SoF) Enhanced due diligence verifying that a player's gambling spend comes from legitimate income or…
  • Sticky vs Non-Sticky Bonus Whether bonus funds are ever withdrawable (non-sticky) or only their winnings are (sticky) —…
  • Sub-Affiliate Commission The override percentage an affiliate earns on the commissions of partners they recruited into…
  • SubID An affiliate-defined parameter appended to tracking links to segment their own traffic — by…
  • Super Affiliate A top-tier partner whose volume materially moves program numbers — typically the top handful…

T

  • Table Games The classic casino card and wheel games — blackjack, roulette, baccarat, poker variants —…
  • Tenancy Deal A recurring fixed-fee arrangement renting a defined placement on a publisher's site for a…
  • Third-Party Cookie A cookie set by a domain other than the one being visited — the…
  • Tiered Commission A commission scale that increases with volume — more FTDs or higher NGR in…
  • Tracking Domain The domain used in affiliate links to route and record clicks — either the…
  • Traffic Cap A limit on payable volume from an affiliate — maximum FTDs or spend per…
  • Traffic Source Declaration The affiliate's stated inventory of where their traffic comes from — sites, channels, methods…

U

  • UKGC (UK Gambling Commission) Great Britain's gambling regulator — the strictest major licensing authority and the de facto…
  • UTM Parameters Standardized URL query tags (utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign…) used by analytics platforms to classify traffic…

V

  • View-Through Attribution Crediting a conversion to an ad impression the user saw but didn't click, within…
  • VIP Program Structured high-value player treatment — hosts, tailored bonuses, faster payouts, events — under increasing…

W

  • Wager-Based Commission Commission calculated as a share of referred players' total wagering turnover rather than of…
  • Wagering Requirement The multiple of a bonus (or deposit + bonus) that must be staked before…
  • Welcome Bonus The acquisition offer for new players — typically a deposit match, spins package, or…
  • Win-Back Campaign A structured effort to reactivate churned or dormant affiliates with improved terms, fixes, or…

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