The Real ROI of Affiliate Casino Programs: Calculating Profit Beyond First Deposits

If you’re evaluating ROI in casino affiliate programs solely based on FTD, you’re making a fundamental mistake from the outset. It may seem simple: if the first-time deposits cover your traffic costs, then all the profit is yours. But, my friend, that’s not the case: the real picture of profitability only becomes clear over time, when you start considering factors like player retention, LTV, and the payment terms of RevShare/hybrid models.

ROI in affiliate marketing is much more than the formula “spend on traffic – recover via FTD”. For an affiliate, it becomes an essential strategic indicator that shows whether you are moving towards growth or just going in circles. To prevent the latter, 888STARZ Partners has prepared a detailed guide on the importance of ROI in casino affiliate programs, why it’s far more critical than FTD, and how to maximize it.

What ROI in Casino Affiliate Programs Really Means

In affiliate marketing, ROI is always calculated as a percentage. A simplified formula looks like this:

ROI = (Revenue – Expenses) / Expenses × 100%

But in practice, it’s never that simple. There are many formulas and ways to calculate it, but we’ll focus on this. For affiliate marketers, expenses always have a lot of hidden costs: anti-detect, proxies, account rentals, creatives, software, and other consumables that require investment. If you remove them from the formula above, the numbers will become more pleasant but also completely useless – you won’t see the real picture.

The second mistake is calculating ROI based only on the first deposits. In the long run, an affiliate’s profitability is always tied to the payout model and timing:

1. If you work with a CPA, ROI can be monitored monthly, since cash comes in almost immediately;
2. If it’s hybrid or pure RevShare, it’s better not to look at statistics without a 3–6 month horizon.

The payback period is extended, but thanks to the players’ LTV, the profit can often outweigh the CPA. It’s important to remember a basic fact: an ROI less than 100% means you’re at a loss. Anything above that is already a profit. After that, it’s a matter of ambition: some people are satisfied with a stable 120–150% in the short term, while others are willing to wait half a year for a full 300% on Revshare.

In the 888STARZ Partners affiliate program, you can choose payment models such as RevShare (up to 50%), CPA (up to $200), or Hybrid (by request only).

Key Metrics That Affect ROI in Affiliate Marketing

ROI in online gambling is always a balance of income and expenses. Dozens of metrics in combination provide the true picture, and by influencing them, you can increase the profitability of your advertising campaigns. For convenience, let’s use the basic formula and divide the metrics into revenue and expense metrics. Let’s start with the first one.

Revenue Metrics

FTDs (First-Time Deposits)

How many new depositing players have you brought in? For CPA models, the first deposit is the leading indicator on which profit is based. However, in FTD, distance is meaningless without quality. How to influence: Check offer-level conversions and filter traffic by GEO and traffic sources. Yes, the offer terms already set the framework. Still, within those boundaries, you control quality: track which combinations bring in players with high retention, which channels produce “trash” traffic, and optimize your acquisition for the long term.

The number of FTDs alone doesn’t mean much here; the quality of the traffic is more important. If you generate traffic indiscriminately and deposits don’t convert into active players, ROI quickly goes negative.

ARPU (Average Revenue Per User)

Average revenue per player. This is especially important for RevShare and hybrid models (CPA and a percentage of it are credited during the reporting period). You may bring in a few FTDs but can still be profitable with a high ARPU. To increase revenue, analyze traffic behavior by cohorts and choose offers with strong retention.

Retention Rate

Player retention: the longer they stay active, the more repeat deposits they make; this metric needs to be viewed in conjunction with ARPU. While retention is mostly a product responsibility, it’s also essential for affiliate marketers to track it. For example, at 888STARZ Partners, the average retention rate is 50%. To keep casino players engaged, you must test different gambling affiliate programs, compare their retention rates, and choose casino operators with bonuses, VIP programs, and cross-product offers. Alternatively, maintain your own themed public page/channel and tipster chat to actively engage and warm up your audience.

LTV (Lifetime Value)

A key metric in RevShare is a player’s total revenue over their entire lifetime. At 888STARZ, the average LTV exceeds $1,500, making RevShare more profitable than CPA. To increase player value, you should shift traffic toward Tier-1/Tier-2 and high-paying audiences, work with sources providing quality players, and monitor traffic quality. The more targeted real gamblers you bring in, the higher their LTV will be in the long run, and therefore your income over time.

Payment Terms

RevShare %, CPA payout, or Hybrid – the choice of model also determines the final income. Two offers with the same FTD can yield different profits due to payouts. In this case, the affiliate should choose a payment structure that suits their strategy. For example, if you need a fast turnaround, CPA works best. If we’re talking about the long-term perspective, RevShare is the better choice.

Cost Metrics

CPC / CPM / CPV

The basic traffic cost input is the price per click, impression, or view. To influence them, optimize targeting, lower bids on “low-quality” segments, etc. The better your traffic-buying strategy, the lower your traffic cost. The trick is to reduce the price of traffic without losing quality.

CTR (Click-Through Rate)

It shows how clickable your affiliate creatives and landing pages are. The higher the CTR, the cheaper the lead. CTR requires analysis at different stages, so it’s important to test formats, headlines, and visuals, and use split tests across the board: creatives, pre-landers, and landing pages. End-to-end analytics is our everything.

CR (Conversion Rate)

Traffic conversion into registration and deposit. If the conversion rate is low, the ROI will continually decrease. Here, you should check the “creative → landing page → offer” chain and identify the weakest link. But with low-quality traffic, conversions will be low even with perfect creatives and landing pages. Therefore, increasing conversions involves working on both the quality of the creatives and landing pages and the quality of the traffic itself.

CPA (Cost per Acquisition)

Indicates the final cost of acquiring a depositing player. This is the primary expense metric and should be compared to LTV. How to influence it: work across the entire funnel’s path – from click to deposit – and cut sources with high CPA.

Ad Spend

Total spending on traffic acquisition. This is the “hardest” number: you can’t reduce it directly, but you can manage it wisely. For example, keep strict records, account for commissions, and work with trackers. Ultimately, optimizing all the expense metrics in this list should impact the effectiveness of your total spend: how much you earn from those investments.

Other expenses

As the saying goes, “unpublished but inevitable” in terms of expenses. This includes anti-detect tools, proxies, accounts, creatives, domains, and commissions. Many affiliates ignore these costs but can consume up to 20% of profits. Therefore, control is also needed here: track each expense item and optimize infrastructure (share software, work via subscription, and so on).

ROI cannot be considered in isolation from these metrics. For some, the main driver of income is FTD on CPA, while for others, it’s LTV on revenue share. In any case, an affiliate should monitor the complete set of these expenses.

How ROI Differs Across Payment Models

In CPA, everything is straightforward: bring in a player for $100, receive $150 — ROI = +50%. Here, tracking FTDs is sufficient because the entire profit is realized at the moment of the first deposit.

However, in Hybrid or RevShare models, this logic no longer applies. FTD is no longer the ultimate revenue metric — it’s just an entry point into the funnel. In RevShare, revenue comes gradually over time, and the real profit is based on the player’s LTV, for example, as he stays active in the online casino and continues depositing.

Usually affiliates make the mistake of looking only at the first month and concluding that a source “didn’t work”. Such an opinion can be critical: two offers might pay the same for FTDs in the first month, but after three months, their ROI can differ significantly.

Tier-1 players can generate dozens of deposits per quarter/year, surpassing the ROI of entire batches of cheap FTDs from Tier-3. Focusing solely on FTDs may cause you to cut sources that appear expensive but actually produce premium, high-LTV players.

Let’s take a classic case for clarity: imagine we are running iGaming ads in two different GEOs. First, India: 100 FTDs at $50 CPA = $5,000 in revenue. Second, Hungary: 20 FTDs on RevShare, each player generating an average of $400 per cycle = $8,000 in income. In the first month, India seems more advantageous, but Hungary’s ROI significantly outperforms the investment in the long run.

In RevShare and Hybrid models, ROI is calculated as:

ROI = (Revenue from players over the period – Acquisition costs) / Costs × 100%

Calculating ROI based solely on player deposits is misleading. In RevShare or hybrid models, your income is not formed on the initial deposits, but on what the gambling affiliate program pays out: after all deductions (taxes, payment system fees, NGR/GGR conditions, and so on). Therefore, when looking at ROI, focus on the actual payouts for the players you’ve acquired – not on the total amount of their deposits. This is why many affiliates abandon expensive Tier-1 traffic, even though that’s where the “big whales” are, making deposit after deposit.

If you’re working with RevShare, track ROI for at least 2–3 months; otherwise, you’ll always underestimate your traffic. For a deeper dive into payment model strategies, see our guide: RevShare vs CPA: Which one is more profitable in 2025?

10 Tips to Maximize ROI in Affiliate Marketing

ROI increases due to traffic and how you manage expenses, tests, and the affiliate program’s product. Here are the top 10 recommendations that truly make an impact:

How to Increase Revenue

1. Choose an affiliate program with a high LTV and strong retention. 

Even if the CPA seems lower, long-term players on RevShare drive ROI over time. Before joining, ask your personal manager for statistics on the GEO and average retention rate. A player can make his first deposit of only $20, but if he keeps returning to the casino for months and continues to play, you’ll earn many times more with RevShare. Before connecting, don’t hesitate to ask the manager for retention and LTV stats across key GEOs. The difference can be enormous: in Tier-1, the average LTV may reach $400–500 (and sometimes even $1k), while in Tier-3, it rarely exceeds $50–100.

2. Use AI for creatives and landing pages.

The same GPT models allow for quickly testing dozens of variations for different regions, saving time and money. For instance, using ChatGPT or MidJourney, you can make a lot of unique creatives for different target audiences in just a couple of hours. For example, one affiliate tested banners for African regions, where AI produced localized texts in various dialects, and CTR increased by 20%. But remember – no AI will do the work for you, but it will help speed up routine tasks. The time saved is better spent on traffic quality analysis and finding new funnels.

3. Optimize traffic by source.

Cut off those that offer no-deposit registrations and increase spending where FTD CR is higher. Don’t keep all budgets in a single traffic channel. For example, Facebook Ads may deliver high registration CR but result in negative ROI on deposits, while push notifications, in smaller volumes, will show much better ROI.

4. Work with multiple offers from a single direct advertiser. 

This reduces risk and provides more growth opportunities – one GEO may perform better with slots, another with live games. For example, if an online casino offers a 3-in-1 package: live section, fast games, and crash games across different GEOs, you can direct players to several products simultaneously. Even if one product performs poorly, another can increase overall ROI.

5. Systematically test hypotheses.

With new video formats, unusual audience segments, or native integrations, ROI becomes stagnant without continuous testing. Allocate at least 10–15% of your budget for pure testing. For example, try three new video formats or banners with different calls to action. Without split-testing, affiliates’ ROI usually stagnates after 2–3 months.

How to Reduce Expenses

1. Farm your own accounts and hosting.

Buying ready-made accounts is expensive, while your own accounts last longer and cost less. Maintaining your account farms and proxies for Facebook or TikTok are cheaper. Farming your own accounts reduces acquisition costs by up to 30% compared to overpaying for ready-made ones.

2. Refine every element of the funnel.

Sometimes a losing offer can be rescued simply by changing a landing page or a button on a creative. Check the loading speed of your landing pages – losing even 1–2 seconds on mobile cuts up to 15% of registrations. Affiliate marketers often waste their money on “heavy” landing pages that could be simplified. This brings to mind Leonardo da Vinci’s quote: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”, which Apple Inc. adopted as its slogan back in the 70s.

3. Work only through a proper affiliate tracker with postbacks.

Without this, you can’t see where you’re actually earning and where you’re losing money. With Binom, Voluum, or Keitaro, you can see not only FTDs, but also deposits, LTV, retention, and more. Without this data, budgets can quickly waste your budget on sources where “empty” registrations don’t lead to actual deposits.

4. Adjust bidding strategies in traffic sources.

Auto-rules and manual control maintain win rates and reduce traffic costs. For example, on Facebook, automated rules pause ad sets when CPA exceeds $150 or CR drops below 5%. Over time, this can save you thousands of dollars. Try different bidding strategies – don’t just stick with one. Remember that campaigns need time to optimize.

5. Connect anti-fraud measures.

If your tracker doesn’t have built-in protection, use a third-party solution. This will protect against click fraud and conversion cuts by the affiliate program. Even if the program is 100% clean, bots and click farms can burn 10–15% of your budget. To avoid such risks, use services like FraudScore or Keitaro. The higher the quality of your traffic, the fewer problems you’ll have with the affiliate program and the higher your final ROI will be.

Affiliate marketers who implement at least half of these practices consistently achieve a 20–30% higher ROI than competitors who take a more direct approach.

The Role of Direct Affiliate Programs in ROI Growth

Working through networks only gives you the “tip of the iceberg”: affiliates see postbacks and average statistics but don’t get access to in-depth product data. A direct advertiser opens up far more opportunities:

• Up-to-date product data. Your personal manager exactly knows which offers perform best, converting funnels, available GEOs, and payment methods. This allows you not to waste your budget on irrelevant directions.
• Clear terms and conditions. A direct advertiser doesn’t share the margin with an affiliate network and is ready to discuss individual rates. An affiliate can negotiate to provide higher RevShare or more favorable Hybrid terms as traffic quality improves.
• Constant support. Questions about payouts, tracker changes, or offer availability are resolved directly through your personal manager, without intermediaries or delays.

A prime example is 888STARZ Partners. Our affiliate program offers:

• RevShare and hybrid models are available for the entire product (not just individual offers).
• Honest analytics on LTV, retention, and other key metrics.
• Support for licensed products reduces the risk of sudden bans from advertising networks.
• The presence of cross-products, particularly fast games, betting, and esports.
• Recommendations for working GEOs and assistance in selecting combinations.
• Contests and ongoing tournaments to retain and reactivate players, which you can leverage in your ad campaigns.

For an affiliate, this means one simple thing: with direct advertising from 888STARZ Partners, your ROI grows faster because you have the data, the terms, and the control. On top of that, you can start real quick – registration and agreement approval take up to 24 hours. This allows affiliates to begin work almost immediately, without network delays.

The management team at 888STARZ Partners consists of former top affiliates with experience in ASO, PPC, SEO, in-app campaigns, and various payment models. These are not just moderators – they know what a profitable funnel looks like and can advise which GEOs are currently driving ROI and what pitfalls to avoid.

Conclusion

In casino affiliate marketing, ROI is not determined by the first FTD, but over the long term: how many deposits a player will make over their entire lifecycle matters. To grow consistently, an iGaming affiliate must look deeper than just “cost per lead”: analyze LTV, compare traffic quality across different parameters, and quickly adapt purchases based on the real-time accurate data.

With a direct advertiser, all the cards are in your hands: accurate data on retention and deposits, hybrid models that reveal the actual value of traffic, and dedicated personal managers who know where ROI is lagging and where there’s a place for your potential growth.