Hi All,
There are implicit benefits to both models … that is, both have pros and cons … you guys are all very good at pointing out the benefits of the RevShare model because you’ve got experience with it. However, there are also implicit benefits of the wager model.
Let’s discuss the no negative carry forward for a moment. The real benefit to affiliate is that they might ‘get lucky’ and somebody wins the casino’s money at the end of the month … the month ticks over – the affiliates negative balance is zeroed – and the affiliate sits back hoping that player dumps the casino’s money back into the casino early in the following month so the affiliate can earn some free money.
So, on the RevShare model you only get this benefit over a very short period of the month if these few variables line up for you. Let’s consider the wager model. It doesn’t matter when the aforementioned scenario happens on the wager model. It could be at the start of the month, at the beginning of the month, or yes, even the end … and what happens? The player wins … and just keeps playing that money. More Play = More Wager = More Commission to the affiliate.
Next, no bundling … certainly a benefit in the RevShare scenario … but that’s because you have to worry about going negative because the model is based on net win. Another implicit benefit of the wager model is that you can’t go backwards/negative … so you don’t need to even worry about bundling to protect yourself. It’s not a factor.
Anyway, all that said … we do have a couple months of data under our belt now and the model costs more. That is, the affiliate payments are higher so far (yes, excluding mergers, etc). So our affiliates are earning more dollars with this model … so far.
If I can lend any insight from “behind the scenes”, I would say that these past few months have shown us a couple of things.
1. Having the critical mass helps keep things level. I’m not talking about being a ‘super affiliate’ … but more than a handful of players make the model behave consistently. If you’re just getting started you may be subject to relative extremes until you get some more players in there. That is, if your 1 player wins & plays back, you will be shocked at the earnings. Conversely, if the player only places a single bet, it will look a bit painful. While neither is the norm they obviously can happen and with very few number of players it would be impossible not to think something strange was happening.
2. On the whole it depends on the ‘type’ of players you send. I put type in quotes because this is a very loose definition of a player type. What I’m getting at is do your players like to play or not? This may sound like a silly question because “hey, they’re at an online casino, obviously they like to play!” … but it seems affiliates who have loyal players or communities send players that simply wager more because, as common sense would dictate, they like to play more than the next person.
Enough rambling, but as you all know, the bottom line is: push it if it works for you.