With its uncertain official regulations, and its law restricting online gambling payment processing but not online gambling itself, casino affiliate marketing exists largely in a gray area in the United States.
But in Europe’s largely regulated market, things aren’t all that much simpler.
Many EU nations have chosen to regulate online gambling within their borders. But because each country has its own regulations, or lack thereof, the situation isn’t really any less confusing.
As a quick glance at the CAP News page during any given week indicates, European nations seem to be constantly revising and challenging their own online gambling laws.
And those national online gambling regulations often clash with larger EU online gambling laws to create regulatory confusion, sometimes upsetting the market.
The breakdown
With that in mind, it’s important to stay informed.
It’s not that tough to make sense out of the European online gambling market, if you know where to begin. Here, then, are the basics regarding Europe’s current online gambling market:
- Italy is the EU’s biggest online gambling market with an approximate gross win of €19 billion.
- The UK is a major hub of online gambling business, and to a lesser extent, so is Ireland. That means these nations offer headquarters to some of the industry’s biggest brands, including PartyGaming, William Hill, Paddy Power, and many others. And, as with most brands, these tend to perform better in their home markets.
- The UK market is closest in business ties to the U.S.; it’s likely the British iGaming companies would have the advantage in a regulated U.S. market, if that ever happens.
- France is newly regulated and a good test market for EU igaming regulations; there have been a volley of complaints from foreign operators but the market seems to be booming.
- Scandinavia (Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway) is an up-and-coming online gambling jurisdiction. Denmark is in a delayed process of licensing online gambling.
- Spain and Portugal offer a robust sports betting market (bwin is very popular there), but other sides of their online gaming activities have had run-ins with the larger EU body and await more concrete regulations.
- Germany stands as a potentially huge market that’s still largely unregulated; Austrian native bwin is trying to expand its presence in the German market.
Conferences abound
One of Europe’s key advantages is that it’s regularly the focus of online gambling affiliate conferences, like the London Affiliate Conference and the iGaming Super Show, organized by iGaming Business and iGB Affiliate (though other European iGaming conference companies have sprung up to get in on this huge market, as well).
Find your European niche
Sort through online casino directories like CAP’s page of listed affiliate programs; on CAP, each program is broken down into what countries they operate in and what languages their casinos offer. That’ll help you figure out your exact niche within the European iGaming community.
But the most important thing to remember is that online gambling is global, and virtually every European and non-European brand gives you the chance to market in a number of different countries, no matter where you’re based.