Scheme Traffic 2025 — What Is It and How Does It Work

Promoting gambling and betting is often associated with gray traffic methods for most users, but even among these, some sources spark intense debate in the affiliate marketing community. One such method is scheme traffic. Although schemes emerged in the early 2000s and many consider the method outdated, some webmasters still use it to generate income. Today, the 888STARZ Partners team will explain what scheme traffic is, its characteristics, and shed light on its advantages and, more importantly, its disadvantages.

What is Scheme Traffic

Scheme traffic is a specific method of attracting players to online casinos and bookmakers, based on promoting “schemes”, “algorithms”, or “guaranteed strategies” for earning money that imply “beating the platform”. The webmaster convinces the user that by following this scheme and making a deposit, they will definitely beat the casino/bookmaker and make a profit. In reality, these schemes don’t work, and the user, believing in easy money, simply makes a deposit which they most often lose. The schemes or algorithms might be provided by the affiliate program itself, or the webmaster invents them independently. This approach primarily targets gullible people who are into gambling and actively searching for “easy money” methods online.

Scheme traffic is often equated with incentivized traffic (where the web pays players for visiting the platform) and is not accepted by reputable affiliate programs and operators. It’s worth noting that schemes exist not only in gambling and betting, but also in finance, crypto — anywhere there’s the potential for quick income.

Characteristics of Promoting Scheme Traffic

Working with scheme traffic has several distinct characteristics:

• Target Audience: The primary focus is on young people under 35 seeking additional online income, and those who believe in “freebies” and hope to win big quickly. However, it’s important to understand that an audience prone to quickly losing money chasing losses after a scheme fails is not valued by serious affiliate programs and operators in the long term.
• GEO: Emphasis is placed on Tier 2 and Tier 3 countries (Africa, developing Asian countries, Latin America), where people actively seek additional income and may be less aware of the real chances of beating a casino or bookmaker. Certain segments of this Target Audience can still be found in the CIS region, despite schemes supposedly originating there.
• Choosing an Affiliate Program: Reputable affiliate programs, mindful of their standing and operators, do not accept scheme traffic due to its low quality and the ethical issues of deceiving users. Players and bettors attracted this way are one-time depositors and don’t play long-term. Webs are forced to seek out dubious and lesser-known platforms, which often offer poor payment terms and are considered unreliable.

Important: We at 888STARZ Partners belong to the category of proper affiliate programs and do NOT accept scheme traffic. But we gladly accept honest traffic from effective sources: SEO, contextual advertising, SMM, push notifications, and many other traffic types across 100+ GEOs, offering favorable rates for quality traffic.

• Traffic Sources: Scheme promotion happens where people look for “easy money”: in thematic groups and channels (Facebook, Instagram, Telegram), on forums, through personal blogs or websites. On platforms with strict moderation (FB, Insta), such ads get banned instantly, requiring the use of cloaking, anti-detect browsers, proxies/VPNs. Sometimes webs act as “handlers,” contacting potential players manually (via messengers, social media) and guiding them to make a deposit for a percentage or as part of their own advertising.
• Developing the Scheme: If the affiliate program doesn’t provide a scheme (which is unlikely), the web invents one themselves. Any seemingly plausible but knowingly non-working algorithms are used: “Make a $100 deposit, play 5 spins at $20, then deposit $500, 2 spins at $250, then bet $10,000 — profit!”. The key is to create the illusion of a system and a guarantee.
• Creatives: All creatives revolve around money. Photos/videos of stacks of cash, screenshots of “wins,” loud headlines are used: “Easy $1000 per hour!“, “Working Scheme 2025!“, “Guaranteed Income from Casinos!“. Creatives in stories, posts, videos, and reels must be maximally convincing that the scheme works.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Scheme Traffic

At first glance, scheme traffic might entice with its apparent simplicity, low cost, and accessibility (if using free channels like blogs, channels, or groups). There’s no need for deep testing of funnels or complex strategies — invent a scheme, cast the lines, and wait for deposits.

However, the disadvantages significantly outweigh these perceived pluses. Working with such traffic damages a web’s reputation in the eyes of operators and reliable affiliate programs. Platforms accepting schemes usually offer low rates and high hold requirements. Building up a channel or manually handling each player consumes a huge amount of time and effort. The constant threat of ad platform bans necessitates the mandatory use of expensive circumvention tools. The ethical aspect is also questionable — the method is inherently based on deceiving gullible people. And crucially — players attracted seeking easy money rarely become loyal players with high LTV; they quickly lose their deposit and leave to try earning schemes on other platforms.

Case Study on Driving Scheme Traffic

Despite the obvious drawbacks, some affiliates manage to successfully drive traffic using this dubious method. Let’s look at a classic 2023 case study on driving scheme traffic:

Account Setup

The affiliate decided to promote a casino offer via social media blog — created an account themed around business ideas, added a simple avatar, thematic description, and published several posts about earning money online. Then they boosted the account to 600 subscribers, with likes and views on posts, continuing to add new posts about effective and easy online earning ideas, like breeding crayfish or renting out a banquet hall.

Launching the Ad Campaign

The affiliate created a post about the business idea “Unstoppable Log” with ad text copied from a thematic website. To bypass social media moderation, they used ads without hyperlinks in the text (“Business Idea…” + “Show More” button). After the first approval, they cloned the ads for uncontrolled scaling. Published an article in the group with video content, fake reviews, and payout screenshots.

Lead Handling 

Enabled DMs in the group for communication. For negative reactions (threats to complain, doubts about the scheme’s viability), they used template responses to steer users towards repeat deposits, ignoring objections.

Results:

• Test Budget: $20-$30
• Lead Conversion: 1,000+ clicks → 63 registrations
• Financial Result: $200 payout with $30 spent
• ROI: 6,500%

The case confirmed the viability of scheme traffic when bypassing moderation and using aggressive handling, but revealed the key problem — the limited pool of affiliate programs willing to accept such traffic.

Conclusion

Scheme traffic is a highly questionable way to promote iGaming offers, condemned by most platforms. Of course, it can’t be called completely non-viable, as gullible people are unlikely to ever disappear, but it carries serious risks for a webmaster’s reputation. Furthermore, it’s hard to earn much, as webmasters have to work under unfavorable conditions with unreliable affiliate programs.

Remember, a quality player is one who plays for enjoyment and excitement, not in pursuit of a mythical “scheme” for quick enrichment at the casino’s expense.

888STARZ adheres to principles of fair and transparent partnership. We never accept schemes or incentivized traffic. Instead, we offer webs broad opportunities for legal and profitable affiliate marketing: working with SEO, contextual advertising, SMM (Facebook, Instagram, etc.), Push notifications, and a multitude of other sources across a huge number of GEOs (100+). We have created the best conditions for partners who value long-term collaboration and high income.

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