Affiliate Forecast: Emerging markets and increased taxation

Affiliate Forecast looks ahead to what 2019 holds for the affiliate space. With Brazil on the cusp of opening up to sports betting, we assess what affiliate opportunities the South American superstate can offer. While Richard Moffat examines affiliate prospects closer to home, assessing what UK tax hikes mean for the sector.
Marcos Oliveira, Head of Business Development, Clever Advertising Group
“The opening of the Brazil market is something that everyone has been anticipating. And as a Portuguese company, we have a special relationship because of the language, and so the market will be the top emerging market after regulation.
“For affiliates, Brazil will be the market for 2019 with such a huge country divided by states. We will see national and state online operators investing a lot in marketing, and affiliates will be a huge part of this growth.”
Richard Moffat, CEO, OLBG
“Affiliates will need to wait and see what impact this has on them as it isn’t a given that operators will pass all of the increase on or whether this will be done immediately.
“One area significantly affecting the affiliate/operator relationship at the moment is the lack of transparency from most operators around the deductions they make between gross and net revenue which consequently affects the revenue paid to affiliates on revenue share deals.
“There is an opportunity here for operators to improve transparency by detailing the exact deductions which they pass on to affiliates. For some programmes the current deductions may well be more than enough to cover this rise already.
“We all know that affiliates have a significant impact on the growth of operators, driving large numbers of new players at a very low cost compared to other sources.
“Reducing the revenue of such important partners may not be the wisest move for operators fighting for market share in the UK. Perhaps there is an opportunity here for some operators to increase their share of affiliate business and steal a march on their competitors.”