Sonny Cott: Why standard KPIs fail to provide the full picture in affiliate partnerships

Reflecting on a summer of iGaming conferences, it’s clear that affiliate traffic remains one of the most important - if costly - acquisition channels in betting and gaming, accounting for up to 60% of total player intake. But are operators measuring the right success metrics? Sonny Cott, Chief Insights Officer at beBettor, explains why assessing the wealth profile of affiliate traffic is a missing piece in the puzzle for iGaming operators.

Q: Affiliate traffic makes up a significant share of operators’ newly acquired players. Why is there a need to reassess how it is being measured?

Affiliate traffic accounts for30% to 40% of all iGaming operators’ traffic, and commission rates can reachup to 50% revshare. It can’t be denied that affiliates provide a welcome service, yet many operators are paying millions without the proper means to assess a new first time depositor's financial capacity. Meaning that costs of acquisition might not reflect the long-term potential of the new players gained.

With long-term affiliate relationships, operators can of course see how the value of players acquired develops over time, but this rearview perspective can be too late. Adjustments to spending or customer engagement must be made in real-time. And we know that affiliate traffic is not static, it evolves. Even trusted, long-term affiliates may shift acquisition strategies or experiment with new content formats, both of which can change the value profile of incoming traffic.

With a surge in new affiliates entering the space, especially as more markets open up, there is growing unpredictability in the quality of players being sent to operators. This makes real-time wealth data all the more important. It gives operators a forward-looking signal and allows them to validate quality from day one.

WealthScore™ offers a new lens for optimising affiliate strategy, allowing operators to evaluate the wealth profile of players immediately upon sign up. The product places individuals on a scale from 1 to 10 based on their Great British (GB) wealth bracket. A score of 10 indicates a player is among the wealthiest 10% of the population, while a score of 1 reflects their position in the bottom 10%. This has the potential to redefine how operators measure the quality of affiliate traffic from different sources.

Q: What’s the practical advantage of this kind of segmentation?

Affiliate marketing is typically driven by metrics such as sign-up volumes or first-time deposits, but these surface-level KPIs ignore a crucial question: what type of players are being acquired?

Two affiliates may deliver the same number of new players, but those groups can have dramatically different value profiles. One might attract players with an average score of 3 meaning they are likely to offer low LTV, while the other may convert more financially healthier players with an average score of 8. This group is more likely to engage long term, is proven to have a higher propensity to spend and may grow into high value customers. To succeed, operators must move beyond volume-based thinking by segmenting new players by their relative wealth - reframing what quality affiliate traffic means.

Armed with this data, operators can then reward higher-quality affiliates with improved revshare terms, exclusivity or additional advertising spend. Conversely, lower-performing affiliates can be re-evaluated or incentivised to shift their targeting.

Q: What are the broader business cases for player wealth dataonce a customer is successfully onboarded?

The value of WealthScore™ moves beyond affiliate management. Generated immediately upon sign-up, player wealth scores unlock strategic segmentation from the very first player interaction. The real-time algorithm allows CRM teams to instantly tailor welcome offers, allocate budgets more intelligently and enhance marketing strategies. Operators can also customise user journeys based on wealth segmentation and shape their retention strategies.

In a market increasingly governed by tighter margins and evolving regulations, operators need these early-stage signals that prioritise real player value, not acquisition at all costs.

Operators can now benchmark affiliates, not just by conversion rates but through player wealth data. By integrating WealthScore™ into their wider business intelligence platform, brands can conduct LTV modelling and shape bonus strategy steered towards long-term value.

Q: What is a key message operators need to understand?

Not all traffic is equal. Affiliate performance must be judged on more than conversion rates and first time deposits in a space where user churn rates and acquisition costs are high. With WealthScore™, operators can gain clear, data-driven insights into the long-term potential of affiliate-sourced players, transforming affiliate marketing into a more efficient, profitable and sustainable channel.

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