We list poker affiliate programs listing revenue share and CPA commissions.

Online poker affiliate programs. Get reviews of the best poker programs for poker webmasters

Online poker is a unique product to promote, and it certainly can offer high commissions for poker webmasters. Online poker is so popular that these poker websites are featured on nearly all poker TV shows and poker magazines. You can't find a professional poker player that isn't sponsored by an online poker site. What makes online poker far more attractive is the competition.

Online Poker Room

The poker game has been around for decades, but it wasn't until the 1990s that online poker started to take off. The explosion of online poker was not an accidental occurrence, it came in on the back of the success of the online gaming industry in general.

From its humble beginning in the early 1990s to today’s billion-dollar industry, online poker is here to stay. But why has online poker gained such momentum so quickly?

According to Pokerscout.com at nearly any given moment you can find over 100,000 cash game players and over 500,000 players online. Keep in mind, the online poker industry is still a growth market that continues to grow in popularity year after year.

Poker is typically popular with males under 30 years old, with many studies that suggest that less than 20% of poker players are female and over 80% are male players. Poker is still growing in more markets and also in many ways. More females are being marketed to, and this is a wide open market. In Canada, poker was already popular but will make a bigger jump in the next year thanks to Jonathan Duhamel who is from Montreal, Canada and won $8.9 million at the World Series of Poker at age 23. The former factory worker turned poker pro has made news headlines across Canada and will attract more players.

Mobile poker has also found its share in the market, but it won't become as popular as mobile casinos or mobile sportsbetting however iPad and Tablet poker is now surging.

Let's look at some of the aspects that have led to the growing acceptance of online poker by both punters and operators.

Accessibility and Convenience

First, with the advent of the Internet, to play poker a person does not need to go to land-based casinos, which are usually located in areas far from the place of residence. An online player does not have to leave the comfort of his home to play poker or any other casino game, which attracts many players. Therefore, playing poker without the need to move to a geographical location is an attractive factor in favor of an online casino. 

Then, the mobile phone industry has made things even easier. Advanced technologies in mobile phones have enabled extraordinary visual effects of games, resulting in increased access to online gambling through cell phones. 

There are hundreds of apps you can install on your smartphone or tablet to increase accessibility. You can play your hands from anywhere and anytime. In addition, mobile online gambling offers several advantages to gamers, such as loyalty points, additional deposit options, and multiplayer gaming options with players located anywhere in the world.

The Pace of the Game

Participating in an online poker game is much faster and more fun than live poker. The pace is faster when playing poker online because the time it takes for the dealer to shuffle, deal cards, distribute pots, and gather chips is saved. 

While a no-limit cash game deals about 30 hands per hour, an online poker table deals 60 hands per hour (or more), and even more in short-handed games.

The ability to play multiple tables online also means playing many more hands per hour than is possible when playing live.

With the limitations of the actual game eliminated, online poker has developed into an invigorating quick moving game loaded with new choices and valuable open doors. 

Players can set their brains in opposition to others from any place on the planet whenever of the day. Online players can play fast-paced matches at any time of the day and against anybody from around the world.

Bonuses and Promotions

With the growing number of players, poker brands and networks inhabit an extremely competitive market. It is a challenge to attract potential new players and retain existing customers. Therefore, online poker sites must implement the right strategies in place to increase the number of customers.

Many operators offer big bonuses and promotions than their brick-and-mortar counterparts, and players can even find special online promotions that are better for their poker game.

Players can take advantage of free money and match bonuses for making a deposit, cash back rewards, discounts on membership fees, and even anniversary bonuses.

In addition to bonus chips, many sites also have ranking systems that will help players measure their performance against the field and other players around the world.

Tournament Size

Poker tournaments allow players the chance to win huge sums of money for much smaller investments. The most popular and lucrative tournaments are usually held online. The biggest ones are hosted on the largest websites, and they tend to draw in a large number of participants.

More Payment Options

In the beginning, online poker sites only accepted credit cards and direct bank transfers. However, over the last several years, many online banking services have become available to poker players, most notably e-wallets and cryptocurrency.

Free Poker Games

In an online poker room, it is possible to play poker for free. Many sites offer a free version of the game, making it an ideal way to learn the game. Players can start with simple games to learn the rules and strategy. Once they master the basics, they can play the more complicated games. 

What’s even better is that players can also play for real money prizes without risking anything. Many poker sites run freeroll tournaments, which are free to enter (as the name implies) but offer prizes that have real value. These prizes can be cash, tournament tickets, merchandise, or something else.

Bankroll Size

As for a bankroll that players need to play online poker, it is within everyone's reach. While live poker can’t afford to host games below a certain level, online operators don’t have such restrictions. Thus, you’ll find cash games with blinds as low as $0.01/0.02 and tournaments featuring buy-ins of $1 or even lower.

How much money players want to deposit and how they manage their bankroll is entirely up to them. Most online poker sites give players a high degree of flexibility and they never have to play outside of their comfort zone.

Mobile Devices

Real money poker rooms on mobile devices are the best way to enjoy poker games, with options for cash games, tournaments, and more. Playing poker games for real money on mobile devices can be exciting, whether you are logging on to enjoy a tournament or playing a quick cash game.

Highly Secure

Online poker rooms use the latest technology to ensure high security in all transactions. They offer players only the best banking methods for deposits and withdrawals, as well as stick to quality security protocols, ensuring all personal data is secure.

Cost Efficient

The start-up cost of an online gaming operation is substantially less than a land-based casino. A company or individual can open an online gambling operation for a fraction of the cost, as they do not have to worry about physical infrastructure or a large overhead of employees. 

According to iGaming Direct, the expansion of online gaming is inevitable as governments around the world seek new sources of revenue. As a result, more and more governments and legislators are seen to support the expansion of online gambling. The legalization of online gambling is gaining even more ground in the face of the closure of land-based casinos and, as a result, online poker rooms will continue to increase.

Gaming Affiliate Marketing

The continuous technological advances in the gaming industry, the increased investment in online gambling, and the growing number of live casinos across the globe are significantly driving the growth of the industry. To break into all major markets, affiliate marketing has increasingly set its sights on the rapidly developing world of the online gaming niche.

According to Grand View Research, the online gaming market was valued at USD 57.54 billion in 2021 and is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11% from 2022 to 2030.

This makes it one of the most profitable digital industries to invest in. With the increasing usage of smartphones and consoles and cloud penetration, the market shows high growth potential in the future. Everything indicates that online gambling is a safe bet for affiliate marketing. Thus, affiliate marketing and online casinos represent a partnership of giants.

Whilst poker has always been a popular pursuit, its online incarnations in popular industries have truly revolutionized the idea of gambling. Another major reason for this online success can be attributed to game developers continually striving to enhance the gaming experience.

What Is a Poker Affiliate Program?

Affiliate marketing is a strategy that encourages engagement and interaction, bringing advertisers lucrative opportunities waiting to be explored. 

Poker affiliate programs connect advertisers with publishers to promote poker-related offers. Affiliate traffic is a major asset in the poker gambling business, and there is a very clear reason for this. In many countries, poker advertising is simply prohibited or heavily regulated. So, the poker affiliate program is an ace of the online poker room.

Affiliate poker programs are a great way for the online poker room to reach a large audience without having to spend a lot of money on expensive advertising campaigns. Affiliates can gather and drive traffic to the poker room, using the same channels for potential users, such as SEO, social networks, and even personal contacts. All available methods are useful.

There’s another great advantage of affiliate programs over more traditional advertising methods. Companies can target their content much more efficiently. TV ads, and even ads on social media, often fail to reach the interested customer and become white noise for those who are not the actual target. Affiliate marketers talk directly to an interested audience. So, every follower or visitor is a potential customer.

Affiliate programs and online poker rooms are best buddies now. When two thriving industries meet, success surely follows. Here are the main advantages this kind of marketing brings to the online poker world.

With the consistent rise of online poker and the number of countries opening for online gaming, poker affiliates have a prospective future ahead. Moreover, being a competitive sub-niche, affiliates with the right marketing message can expect high deals and fair revenue sharing.

Make Money With Your Traffic Source

The world of affiliate marketing offers diverse ways to make money online. Although affiliate marketing can be done by other means, it is better known as a system through which we monetize the traffic of a website, blog, social networks, etc. 

Affiliates of any size can look to online poker to offer simple ways to earn commissions, particularly when hitting the right target audiences. 

Depending on how traffic is driven, some poker affiliate programs classify affiliates as follows:

• Established. They have several personal contacts, many followers, well-developed websites, and active social networks linked to the poker community.
• Brand -New. They usually have no personal contact and have little experience in the poker sphere.
• Geographically defined. They aim at players in a certain geographical area and community.

In an industry as large as online gaming, or more specifically, poker, there is plenty of scope for the subject matter and material. One thing to keep in mind if you are designing a site specifically with poker affiliate marketing in mind is that you don't necessarily need an affiliate network.

A poker affiliate can work independently and get deals directly from brands. Almost every poker room or website has an affiliate or webmaster’s section that allows you to sign up. But, getting good deals and even the right contact from a poker brand can be cumbersome. A lot of the affiliate's effort goes into establishing connections and negotiating a good deal with a brand. So, it is advisable to work with an affiliate poker network.

Working with an affiliate poker network has its advantages, such as established contacts and revenue share agreements or CPA deals with different poker rooms and poker brands. 

A poker affiliate network allows you to promote as many poker affiliate programs as you want from one place with higher commissions. So, instead of earning a smaller amount from each room after you have signed up with each one individually, you can get all your payouts together from one place and earn more money from the start.

Poker affiliate networks support poker affiliates with exclusive deals, so they can focus on finding new players and supplying information to existing ones.

Whether you want to work with a poker room or with a network of affiliate programs, there are many online poker apps, websites, and platforms for players to choose from, and affiliates can earn money through revenue sharing, CPA, or a hybrid affiliate arrangement.

Another thing that is important to differentiate is affiliate marketing and influencer marketing, they are similar concepts but not the same.

Affiliate marketing is understood as a marketing arrangement in which a public gaming operator or broker pays an operator for an external Internet site. You pay for visiting their site or for sign-ups, or you enter into contracts generated by links from the external website. 

While influencer marketing is understood as the planned interaction of a gaming operator with multipliers on social networks, to increase the value of brand messages. This is done through recommendations to positively influence the gambling behavior of the target group.

How Does a Poker Affiliate Program Work?

Simply sign up for the affiliate program and receive a unique affiliate marketing ID that you can use to market the site. When a visitor clicks on an affiliate link, is redirected to the poker room, and creates an account, you receive credit for that player.

In other words, an affiliate agreement is established between you and the affiliate program, and you are granted permission to market the online poker site.

In brief, the process involves:

• Have a website or relevant traffic source that can convert if given the right message.
• Sign up for the affiliate program via their affiliate portal. 
• Retrieving unique tracking links and marketing material and placing it on the affiliate’s website.
• Let the target audience know about interesting promotions, special offers, and news relevant to the brand so that they can become real money players, generating rake and profits for the poker room and the affiliate.

Poker affiliate programs usually pay with recurring commissions. Each person who visits an online bingo room, and purchases chips or credit, becomes a source of income for the affiliate. Once the affiliate has passed the player onto the respective poker site, their job is effectively done, for that player. 

Next, the affiliate should concentrate on attracting more and building on the initial success. There is no need for follow-ups or extra work after finding a player, the job is done when the link is clicked on, and a person signs up for a cash account. 

As for the marketing tools, they will offer you as an affiliate of an online poker site, generally, each program has an extensive collection of updated and different-sized banner ads, content, bonus codes, and other types of promotional material that you can use to market the poker room. As well as real-time statistics so you can instantly analyze all the traffic you send them.

Another way operators support affiliates is through player bonuses. It is in the operator's interest that the affiliate is successful in its role of attracting visitors to the online poker site. Therefore, it is in the best interest of both parties that the affiliate does everything possible to produce fully enrolled members to a poker site. The site gets its customers, and the affiliate gets an income for the lifetime of that player. 

In addition, poker sites are interested not only in getting new customers but also in keeping them. So, one strategy they apply to achieve this goal is the introduction of bonuses, special games, and other retention ideas. In this way, the poker room can keep a player interested for longer and therefore produce more money for the site. More money for the poker site also means more money for the affiliate.

Not all poker affiliate programs are the same. Each one has its characteristics, so an affiliate needs to research the program thoroughly before deciding to join. Among the attributes to consider are:

• Affiliate Dashboard and API
• Regularly updated Media
• Reliable tracking
• Contactable, responsive, helpful affiliate managers
• Commission payout percentages
• Reliability of commission payments. Timely payouts
• How long the poker room has been online
• Size of the player base
• Good reputation in the iGaming affiliate industry

Affiliate Reward Methods

Most poker sites have affiliate programs with different offers and percentages of a player's lifetime value. Players create money for the site by participating in tournaments, playing in hands with large rakes, and adding extra money to their accounts. So, fundamentally, all a player has to do is play regularly to produce an income for the site. 

Therefore, an affiliate by driving traffic to the site earns a share of all the money generated by their player. 

Typically, affiliate reward methods include revenue share, CPA, and hybrid deals.

Revenue Share (RevShare)

One of the ways to stimulate affiliate activity is revenue share. This model is when you earn a commission on all actions you send to a program. When a player signs up at the poker room via your affiliate link, you earn some percentage of the lifetime rake this player generates for the company.

Usually, this rate is set by operators based on their marketing and financial strategy. Winning is very exciting, but it is not the only reason to stay loyal to a certain poker room. Players don't want to feel like losers when they lose. To keep players' spirits up and motivated to continue, poker rooms share their commission with players. 

The rakeback is an incentive for the player to continue playing. The more a player puts into the game, the higher his rakeback. This means that poker revenue shares vary widely, mostly based on whether players are receiving cashback or rakeback, which can significantly affect profits available to be shared by the operator and the affiliate.

Some programs offer affiliate rewards that may vary from month to month. For example, based on account performance during a calendar month. This means that commissions are dependent on new player acquisition and activation numbers.

While there are poker affiliate programs that offer fixed revenue share based on net gaming revenue of players tagged to an affiliate during a calendar month, with no player quotas involved. 

Revenue share deals typically range from 15% to 40% and again vary greatly from program to program. If the poker room charges a 5 percent rake, then the affiliate could earn between 15% and 40 % commission on that 5%. For example, if a player deposits 10,000 USD, the poker room takes 500 USD and shares up to 200 USD with the affiliate. It is in the affiliate's interest to have his players at the table so that an affiliate would support their players with a rakeback.

The affiliate revenue share can be substantial, but it is tied to the higher quality of traffic. Generally, you can get a higher commission percentage the more players you bring to a program.

One more specification about the poker RevShare model. Net profit or NGR is a financial indicator that determines the net gaming income minus other costs and taxes.

CPA

CPA stands for Cost Per Acquisition and is an affiliate revenue model in which vendors pay affiliates a fixed commission (per action). In CPA affiliate poker, some types of action are registration of a new player, first deposit, deposit over a certain sum of money, etc. 

With the CPA model, each time a customer converts, the affiliate receives a fixed amount regardless of the total value of the order.

The amount of money per acquisition varies greatly from program to program. Typically, CPA offers range from $100 to $300.

Some poker programs do not offer CPA plans, to avoid CPA fraud. That is a situation where affiliates refer their friends and family or try to control and incentivize referring players just so they can make a guaranteed profit. 

For that reason, we can find operators that do not offer CPA and, if they do, they only accept deals from long-established and trusted poker affiliate sites.

Hybrid

Sometimes it is possible to use the combination of these two forms, revenue share and CPA to further encourage a partner, as the CPA model can work both with revenue share and separately. This model is called hybrid (usually a small CPA plus a fixed % of revenue share) and the offer is agreed upon between the operator and the affiliate.

Which of These Reward Methods Is Better?

One of the dilemmas poker affiliates face is whether they should choose the CPA model or the revenue sharing model. The answer to this can be quite complex and varies from affiliate to affiliate.

The first advantage of being in a CPA plan is that you get paid upfront. You simply refer players and after they deposit a small minimum amount, you get paid the full CPA amount. If you are a new affiliate or are limited with your cash flow, this is a great thing. It makes it much easier to know the value of a customer you send to a program.

The second advantage is that you do not have to worry about this player's activity in the future. Something important in the revenue share model because the more the player plays, the more you earn. In the CPA model, your work is done once players make a deposit.

Another advantage of the CPA model is the fact that you are not affected if an affiliate program changes terms and conditions, goes out of business, or is acquired by another company because your commissions have already been paid.

On the other hand, the RevShare model is ideal for maximizing affiliate commissions while generating ongoing income. Each time your referrals complete a successful conversion, you earn a percentage.

With this model, you now care about the value of the players you send to a poker site because the more they play, the more you earn. Choosing RevShare means agreeing to do a more demanding job of clients/referrals acquisition for advertisers.

However, the potential for residual income, year after year, is the real benefit of the RevShare model. In a poker affiliate program, this works quite well because we know that poker players are loyal to the place where they play. Once they find a home, they tend to stay there.

The revenue share plan tends to create a stronger relationship of trust between the affiliate and the operator, as the latter knows that the former is in it for the long haul. They know that the affiliate has a vested interest in their site doing well.

To conclude, there is no final word when it comes to deciding which commission model is better, CPA or RevShare, in the end, it all depends on what the affiliate is looking for. Still, the most simplified way to decide on one of them is to consider three key factors. 

The first is the quality of your traffic, the second is your business plan, and the third is the quality of the affiliate program you’re partnering with.

RevShare is the best commission plan if you have good quality leads and a reliable affiliate program. CPA may be better if your leads have a short life cycle and you have a less reliable affiliate partnership.

Size of Poker Rooms Matters

Poker players like sites that concentrate the largest number of players. This means that the largest poker site generates large revenues. But there are disadvantages to an affiliate promoting very large sites for two reasons. The site may focus more on its competitors, who are trying to get as many players as they can for their respective poker rooms, than on the affiliate partners and therefore may not be as generous in rewarding them.

In addition, there is the possibility of dealing with the problem of old players. If the poker room is very busy, you could be sending players who already have an account, so you can't sign them up since the site pays you for new players.

Roles of a Poker Affiliate

Affiliates play a key role in customer acquisition and retention by introducing the product to their audience. But the affiliate's role is not limited to connecting brands with users. Let's look at other affiliate contributions.

Form Communication Channels Between Consumers and Brands

Affiliates are the link between the brands and poker fans. While poker brands offer excellent platforms and an overall game environment, they often fail at direct communication with players.

Poker affiliates fill the communication gap of major poker brands. Often It is not the brand, but the affiliate, who turns a poker player into a member of the poker community.

Affiliates provide deeper communication with players. They are not just sites, but opinion leaders and influencers. In addition, players' questions are almost always resolved with the help of the affiliate.

Help Build Trust

Affiliates help increase users' trust in brands, especially when trust barriers on a site are extremely high. The difference between the gaming world and the online poker world is that the poker realm is often more socialized 

In the world of online poker, whether playing or viewing content, end-users enter an interactive mode, clicking, engaging, and chatting. Such an environment is a breeding ground for engagement, especially when the content is relevant. Users find people they trust, which makes them more likely to accept their recommendations.

A poker affiliate, in addition to offering their website visitors a place to play and wager some money, promotes content that helps visitors understand the game.

What’s Next After Joining a Poker Affiliate Program?

The next thing to do after joining a poker affiliate program is to focus every action on making your online presence more valuable. 

You must constantly focus on growing your website, making things go viral, and learning the important factors that can lead to high search engine rankings and massive traffic. 

The message must reach the audience. The goal is not necessarily to catch them all, but rather to engage the right ones.

One thing you should take care of is how you want the content to present your advertisements. Enrich your website content. By researching and targeting keywords, you can create a series of solid posts that address your target audience. You can use low competition and long tail keywords to have the best chance of getting to the first page in search engines and thus be in a good position for subscriptions.

So, although you might want to focus exclusively on poker, it helps to know that there are other aspects of gambling that you could consider for your marketing and content strategy.

Finally, if you are trying to make an affiliation with an online poker site, a business that you can make a lot of money from, you must treat the ads as if they were your product. Just like any online business that would promote their items to maximize profits, so should a successful affiliate. Except that the affiliate is marketing another site to make their money, and not selling any product for themselves.

The Future of Poker Affiliate Marketing 

With the rapid growth seen so far in the online gaming industry, it is hard to imagine what the sector could look like in the next five to ten years. But let's look into the crystal ball to see what the future will most likely hold. 

Online poker will continue to grow in popularity due to the increase in the number of smartphones, cloud penetration, adoption of digital currencies, and easy access to casino sites, which is a huge market.

As the poker gaming industry grows there will be an increasingly attractive opportunity for several traffic sources and affiliates, but the number of high-quality traffic sources will also grow because new affiliates will enter the industry, especially players who know the game of poker well. Therefore, there will be greater competition.

As we already know, when it comes to online poker affiliates, it is the reputation and exposure that builds trust in a consumer that stands as the most difficult component. Instead of playing the waiting game and opting for organic testimonials and reviews from players that venture into the unknown, it is a great idea to turn to intermediaries and leverage their credibility to promote the online poker room.

These players-turned-affiliates will have a better view of the audience to target and how to capture their attention, which will be an open opportunity to offer them poker products or convert them into new players.

On the other hand, the industry's growth means bigger budgets and bigger campaigns and those mean larger opportunities. This finally translates into more affiliate publishers, more affiliates, more revenue, more online bingo affiliate programs, and more gaming affiliate programs in general. 

On a less positive note, another thing to look forward to is the greater regulation of gambling advertising. We see this already gradually taking shape in various countries of Europe for operators of virtual slot machine games and online poker.

We understand that the focus of the regulation is not on the affiliates, but on the operators behind the advertised products. However, affiliates should be aware that in the regulated environment they are closely linked to licensed gaming operators and these operators are responsible for the advertising done by their affiliates, so operators are contractually obliged to enforce the legal provisions against third-party online advertisers.

All of this would mean that affiliates would likely be subject to a more restrictive framework than at present in terms of the content and manner of presenting the advertising.

Finally, it is undeniable that the formula of poker affiliate programs works. Although operators can use a certain variability of channels for the advancement of their online poker room. The main traffic is achieved with the help of affiliates. Therefore, operators will look for ways to always have a good offer for affiliate members.