Last month, industry leaders from around the world came together for SiGMA Europe, a conference to explore and learn about key Gaming trends. Taking place on the sunny shores of the Maltese seaside, this idyllic venue was host to a productive week for affiliates, operators, and suppliers alike. In fact, Malta is known as a “mecca for the gambling industry,” and the island nation truly lived up to its name.

Our team from Income Access was delighted to have a booth with Paysafe, and we are ready to share all the insights we learned from the experience! Read on to learn the key takeaways from the conference for both affiliates and operators, along with our masterclass panel on affiliate marketing in North America!

The Income Access team was represented by: Erica Anderson, Director of Marketing; Melissa Del-Gaudio and Luke McQuillian, Senior Business Development Managers; and Naomi Jung, Senior Affiliate Marketing Coordinator.

Key Trends for Operators

With operators looking to start a new chapter in business in 2022, they remain eager to expand to emerging markets. Many industry titans are noticing growth in the gaming sector for markets like Canada, India, and Latin America (specifically Brazil), as popularity for online betting in these regions is rising.

From our discussions with operators at the conference, it is clear that the coming years will see promising growth from these emerging markets. However, operators emphasize that they cannot start entering places like Canada and India without adequate market research. Before launching programs here, they need competitive data, strategic planning to enter, in-depth knowledge of affiliate programs, and marketing intelligence on player demographics.

As operators begin to feel out their competitors in these markets and devise strategic marketing campaigns, they will be searching for as much advice and insight as possible.

Both operators and affiliates are exploring initiatives to retarget traffic. This acquisition method is being used more and more as a method to bring in a greater number of players.

Key Trends for Affiliates

Similar to operators, affiliates are following in their footsteps as they look to expand into emerging markets. Many affiliates at the conference expressed their desire to explore new regions, discover new player traffic, and reach a wider audience. Yet at the same time, there are a few trends that affiliates value and want to see in the new year.

Mainly, affiliates are excited to see more user-friendly affiliate platforms to make the most of their advertising. They need an easy-to-use UX (user experience) that can provide clear and actionable data to optimize their campaigns. These aspects of an affiliate platform, like multi-channel tracking to see the impact of creatives, are becoming increasingly standard for affiliates and operators should take this into account when launching an affiliate program.

Affiliate Marketing in North America: Panel Recap

During the conference, Income Access’ Director of Marketing Erica Anderson participated in a panel called the “Focus North America” Masterclass. The panel discussed topics like what it means to be an affiliate in North America and how to start as an affiliate here.

The panelists first touched on how live sports and esports are the key market for affiliates, and that these will be the strongest areas for affiliates to generate traffic from. Of course, the market may be more competitive if most affiliates are targeting sports, but this is still the most defined and regulated industry. For new affiliates to the market, sports are certainly the easiest way to start.

On top of starting with sports, the panelists agreed that affiliates should look at the states as individual entities, as each region represents a unique player demographic and has its own affiliate requirements.

Affiliates should also consider creating and streamlining their content for mobile users, as these account for a large proportion of players in North America.

In terms of which state to target first, they advised that New Jersey is the easiest to start with from a licensing and regulatory standpoint.

The panelists also touched on the importance of educational content for affiliate sites in North America, as many of the players and stakeholders are unaware of the value of affiliates. From their experience, affiliates who take the time to teach and advise their audience, essentially building strong relationships, are those with the most success.

Final Recap

SiGMA Europe was a thrilling experience for all who attended, and we are grateful to have been a part of it! Thank you to everyone there for making the conference an enjoyable and productive week for all. We hope this article provides some insight into the state of gaming for 2022 as well as affiliate marketing in North America.