I agree that general casino branding is pretty saturated. What I’m talking about is a little more specific.
But, given that, look at gamblingads.com
The wizzard of odds.com site sold advertising to bodog for around $15,000 a month. The alexa rank of the site is not high at all and the traffic is not high either. There absolutely is a value to displaying an ad even if you don’t get clickthroughs. Could he make more than $15k a month through an affiliate deal? Maybe, but now he has a contract locked in.
I’m not saying you can’t make any money being an affiliate. But it is a fact that click through rates are very low and the casino gets tons of exposure for free.
I’ve played tons of casinos, bet on a million sporting events, but not once have I ever clicked on an ad on someone’s site to sign up. But, I did learn the names of the people in the business, then I just googled xyz casino to sign up. There are loads of people out there that do the same thing and the casino’s know it.