Online Gambling Definitions for the Affiliate Crowd

Most industries have their fair share of “buzz words”. Phrases are always being tossed around in the casino affiliate programs industry, but what do they really mean? Here, we’ll break down some of the popular lingo in the online gaming world so make sure no one is left in the dark.
Negative carryover – When a casino affiliate programme requires affiliates to work off any winnings from their players from a previous month. For example, if Affiliate A’s players win a total of $5,000 from an online casino in a given month, if that online casino has a policy of negative carryover, Affiliate A’s players will need to “lose back” that $5,000 in the following month before any of their losses begin to count towards Affiliate A’s revenue share commission model.
Rakeback – This is a term primarily used in the poker affiliate world. Since poker is a zero-sum game played among opponents, online poker rooms charge “rake” which is money taken out of each pot. As a promotional method to acquire players, many affiliates are able to offer “rakeback” deals in which players who sign-up through them receive some percentage of the rake they pay refunded to them each month. Usually a rakeback percentage is somewhere between 20-40%.
Ring-fencing – In online gambling, ring-fencing is when an affiliate program allows you to sequester a whale who goes on a huge win streak away from your other players. You won’t receive any revenue share from that player until they play back their winnings, but at least that player won’t prevent you from getting revenue from your other players. Learn more about ring fencing.
Bundling – Many casino affiliate programs manage the affiliate programs for several different online casinos. When players sent to any and all casinos under the umbrella of a single casino affiliate program are managed through a single affiliate account, this is called bundling. Bundling is generally frowned upon by affiliates since just one winning player from a casino can sabotage the earnings from players at other casinos across the whole network.
Payment models – There are a number of different compensation models in Internet affiliate advertising. The most common payment models in iGaming are CPA (cost-per-acquisition of a new player) and revenue share.
Shaving – An unscrupulous practice by some rogue affiliate programs in which they conceal some of an affiliate’s earnings in order to avoid having to pay them commission. Programs suspected of doing this should be avoided by all affiliates and left to wither.
Rogue programs – A casino affiliate program “gone rogue” has begun to scam their affiliates through practices like shaving or simply refusing to process payouts. Recently, the Expekt affiliate program told some affiliates they were removing their players from their account over alleged cheating by these players but in all likelihood it was an excuse by the program to avoid paying commissions.
Super affiliate – An affiliate who earns a huge amount of income on a monthly basis, usually at least five-figures per month.
Scraping – A technique used by black-hat affiliates through which they literally steal the content from another website for display on theirs.
eWallet – An online payment processing program that helps affiliates transfer their earnings from affiliate programs to their bank accounts or to their player account at an iGaming site.
Revshare – Short for revenue share, this affiliate payment method entitles affiliates to a percentage of the revenues generated by their players on behalf of an online casino.
SERP – Stands for search engine results pages which are the pages displayed after a search term is entered into a search engine.
Freeroll – A freeroll is a promotional method through which poker rooms or casinos offer players a chance to play for free in order to win real-money prizes without having to put up any personal financial risk.
PPC – Stands for pay-per-click, a method for generating traffic by paying for a link to one’s website to appear in search engine results or content network advertisements.