Yep, I also wonder about these numbers and find this 20% very suspicious.
Say poker. If you’re Full Tilt Poker, Pokerstars or Party and your name and advertisements are plastered all over, and you get free TV promotion from players wearing your cap and shirt, you have so much exposure you could easily live without affiliates is my guess.
But that’s just 3 companies. There are dozens of other poker rooms that have zero exposure, zilch, none. How do they get only 20-40% of their clients through affiliates? I find that difficult to believe, honestly.
Hell lots of companies have so little exposure that I myself didn’t know about them until recently even though my #1 market is small (french sportsbetting websites). Perhaps they have more exposure in Europe but here in North America and generally on the web, they are invisible aside from being promoted from affiliate websites.
I’m much more comfortable with the 60-80% average.