Hi
I have come the other way from 4 years of bookmaker marketing in the UK to casinos in the last six months and I think it is a lot harder to make money than in casinos. Here are some quick thoughts on market entry.
First, the market isnt as attractive as casinos. Even if you do a 25%-35% or a combo CPA+ net profit share deal with a bookmaker you are working off their 8-10% margin (across their entire customer base). Unless you get a customer base that resembles their underlying customer base you will struggle to get 25%-35%x 8%-10% of the net profit. 3-4 years ago affiliate deals were 2-3% of revenue before deductions which – of course – is much more interesting.
There is also the question of affiliate saturation in most major markets.
So what could be done. Apart from specific sites – like the NFL site which might get some organic traffic (and I hope it does Simon !) – the only market that I think can still make major money in sportsbooks is Asian tipping sites.
There are a set of sites in Hong Kong and Singapore which have massive traction in Asia through running tipping asian-odds competitions. Several large syndicates are signed up through them and this makes the underlying bookmakers and their affiliates a lot of money. Interestingly, affiliates tend to make their money through tenancy deals.
Now if someone out there knows how to optimise for Baidu.com or Yahoo’s new chinese engine and could combine this with a tipping portal then they could make some serious mullah.
Best
Devendra