New v Established: the dilemma for online casino affiliates

James Ashton from FindMyUKCasino.com says affiliates shouldn’t get carried away with promoting only the latest online casino brands 

The online casino sector is currently thriving in markets all over the world. From the UK to Sweden via Denmark and the USA, more countries are legalising and regulating the activity. 

This in turn is encouraging more operators to enter the sector with hundreds of new online casinos launching every year with each fighting hard for their share of the market. 

This is great news for players as they like to try new online casinos and take advantage of the often generous welcome offers and incentives they provide. 

This has seen online casino affiliates focus heavily on new online casinos, creating dedicated landing pages and content in a bid to rank the highest in the SERPs for associated keywords and phrases. 

Some affiliates have even launched dedicated sites and brands focused entirely on promoting new online casinos to players. But is this really the best way of engaging players in the long-term? 

Established and new – strike the right balance: 

Here at Find My UK Casino we don’t, and we believe it is important for publishers to strike the right balance between promoting established and new online casinos. 

This is why we work with some of the most reputable online casino brands such as 888 Casino alongside the latest online casino brands such as PlayOJO and ChilliCasino. 

We understand that a high percentage of our readers wish to try new online casinos as soon as they launch, but just as many like to play at established brands they know they can trust. 

This means working with both new and established online casino brands, being fair with positioning in top tens and ensuring equality when it comes to content.

But this can be tricky for affiliates as there are tremendous upsides to promoting new online casinos above established brands. 

Not only is “new online casinos” one of the highest volume traffic search terms, affiliates are often well incentivised by new brands to drive traffic to their sites. 

This can mean extremely generous commission agreements plus greater spend to ensure their sites are featured at the top end of listings and in the best homepage positions. 

That being said, affiliates must consider their whole readership and not just those searching for new online casinos – this is certainly the case if they want a broad range of returning visitors. 

Indeed, the search term “best online casinos” has just as much if not more search volume than “new online casinos” and provides a great chance to promote established brands. 

Affiliates must also consider the experience the player receives at the online casino they choose to play at and ensure that it is a good one. 

While new online casinos may offer exciting themes, thousands of games and innovative loyalty schemes, the long-term player experience provided remains unknown. 

Just this month MustardBet Online Sportsbook and Casino announced that it was closing its doors a little over a year after it first launched, for example. 

Established brands, on the other hand, have been operating for many years and over that time have proved to offer a tremendous experience that players return to time and again. 

It is often the case that players play at a one or two established online casinos regularly and then try a new online casino just to mix things up a little bit. 

Established brands generate trust: 

Most players visiting an online casino affiliate site for the first time are reassured by seeing online casino brands they recognise. This in turn helps build trust between reader and publisher. 

Affiliates must also remember that established brands often have huge marketing budgets which they use to advertise to players across TV, radio, social media and online. 

Affiliates can tap into this brand equity and use it to their advantage in order to not only engage players but convert them into first time depositors. 

Of course, that is not to say that affiliates should stop working with new online casino brands and just work with established sites. 

It is about striking a balance between the two and ensuring both new and established casinos are given the exposure they deserve. 

Those that do will be able to ensure they are competing for top positions around the most searched online casino terms while giving readers genuine choice about where to play.