Affiliate Review: Emerging markets and increased taxation

Affiliate Review reflects on what has been a tumultuous year for affiliates. We assess the US affiliate outlook in the aftermath of the landmark PASPA repeal, and gauge reaction to a governmental Budget that included a sizeable Remote Gaming Duty hike.
Jesper Søgaard, founder and CEO, Better Collective (talking after the launch of US-facing site us-bookies.com)
“Just like most of our peers in the industry, we are very excited about the Supreme Court ruling [repealing PASPA]. Better Collective is looking to increase our portfolio in the market, and us-bookies.com is just the start of a much wider plan to target the US market.
“The USA has always been an interesting market to follow, and US traffic to our bettingexpert.com site already ranks within our top-five traffic sources. This decision is sure to become a catalyst for many operators and affiliates to become more aggressive with their strategies to enter it.
“My hope is that Better Collective will establish a stronger presence in the US to help give the proper tools to new punters navigating the igaming space for the first time.“
Damien Fearn, Managing Director, Tipstrr
“With the Remote Gaming Duty impacting major operators it’ll ultimately trickle down to the users and affiliates. Whether this is tighter purse-strings with CPA and commissions, or stricter rules for ‘qualifying affiliates’ remains to be seen.
“Ultimately though, it’ll be the end user that gets the worst of the deal. With margins tighter for operators you could see account closures and restrictions become even more aggressive as they look to balance the books for shareholders – to the detriment of their customers.”