Casino and sportsbook affiliate programs pay differently from almost every other vertical. A registration is worth nothing on its own; what matters is whether the player deposits, whether that deposit meets the deal's rules, and how much the player loses over months afterwards. This guide explains how iGaming commissions are calculated — CPA, RevShare on GGR or NGR, hybrid deals — and the two clauses, qualification and negative carryover, that change what a deal is really worth.
The Three Deal Types
CPA pays a fixed amount once, when a referred player makes a qualifying first-time deposit (FTD). RevShare pays a percentage of the revenue each referred player generates, every period, for as long as they play. Hybrid deals combine both: a smaller CPA up front plus a smaller revenue share. Which one suits an affiliate depends on cash flow and on how long the players they send tend to stay. The general trade-offs between fixed and revenue-based payouts are covered in CPA, CPL, CPS and RevShare explained; this guide is about the iGaming specifics.
CPA and FTD Qualification
An FTD is not automatically a paid CPA. The deal defines what qualifies it, and the two most common rules are:
- A minimum first deposit. A $10 deposit on a deal with a $20 minimum does not qualify, however genuine the player.
- A qualification window. The deposit has to land within a set number of days of registration. A player who registers today and deposits in two months may be valuable, but not as a CPA on that deal.
Some operators add wagering or activity requirements on top. Whatever the rules are, they need to be applied the same way to every affiliate, at the moment the deposit is reported — not reconstructed from a spreadsheet at month end, when disputes are hardest to settle.
RevShare: GGR Versus NGR
GGR (gross gaming revenue) is what the players you referred staked, minus what they won. NGR (net gaming revenue) starts from GGR and subtracts further costs — typically bonuses, chargebacks and sometimes fees or taxes. The exact NGR deductions vary by operator, which is why two deals with the same percentage can pay very different amounts.
A worked example. Over a month, your players stake $100,000 and win $92,000. GGR is $8,000. The operator then deducts $2,500 in bonuses, $300 in chargebacks and $800 in fees, leaving NGR of $4,400.
- 30% of GGR: 30% × $8,000 = $2,400
- 30% of NGR: 30% × $4,400 = $1,320
Same players, same percentage, and one deal pays almost twice the other. When you compare RevShare offers, compare the definition of the base first and the percentage second.
Hybrid Deals
A hybrid deal pays a CPA on each qualified FTD and a revenue share on the same players — for example a lower CPA than a pure-CPA deal, plus a lower RevShare percentage than a pure-RevShare deal. It gives the affiliate some cash up front while keeping a stake in long-term player value, and it gives the operator a smaller up-front cost than a pure CPA. The CPA part is subject to the same qualification rules as any other CPA.
Negative Carryover
RevShare can go negative. If your players win more than they lose in a period — one big jackpot is enough — the revenue base for that period is below zero. Standard RevShare deals do not make the affiliate pay the difference back; the affiliate simply earns nothing that period. The question is what happens next period.
With negative carryover, the deficit is subtracted from the next period's base. Without it, the deficit is written off and the next period starts from zero. Take a 30% deal where month one's NGR is −$2,000 and month two's is +$5,000:
- With carryover: month one pays $0; month two pays 30% × ($5,000 − $2,000) = $900.
- Without carryover: month one pays $0; month two pays 30% × $5,000 = $1,500.
For an affiliate with a small player base, one high-roller's winning streak under a carryover clause can wipe out several months of earnings. That makes carryover one of the first clauses to read in any RevShare agreement.
Operators differ on whether they apply it, and some cap how long a deficit can be carried. Whatever your terms say, your tracking platform should apply exactly that — per campaign — rather than one global rule.
Settlement Periods
RevShare is calculated per period — usually monthly, sometimes weekly or daily. Only a closed period can be settled: until it ends, wins, chargebacks and bonus costs can still arrive and change the base. Settling on a period that is still open is how affiliates end up with clawbacks, and operators with disputes.
Where the Money Leaks
iGaming tends to attract incentive-driven and fraudulent traffic, because a CPA can be worth far more than the cost of faking a player. Bonus abusers, multi-accounting and incentivised sign-ups all look like FTDs at first glance. Qualification rules filter out the cheapest of them; the rest needs click-level fraud detection — datacentre and VPN traffic, impossible click-to-deposit times, repeated devices — before any CPA is approved, not after it has been paid.
Running It Without Spreadsheets
Everything above can be enforced by the tracking platform instead of reconciled by hand. On Affclix, an iGaming campaign marks which event is the FTD and sets a minimum deposit and a CPA window counted from registration. Each deposit postback is checked against those rules as it arrives: a deposit that provably fails is rejected, one that cannot be decided yet is held as pending, and both record the reason. RevShare can be set on NGR or GGR; wins, chargebacks, voids and bonus credits reported by the operator come off the base; negative carryover is a per-campaign switch; and a daily run settles each closed daily, weekly or monthly period. Payable never goes below zero.
See how it fits together on the iGaming affiliate software page.
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