The CEO of a major European gambling publisher explains how much money sports betting could make US media companies

• Digital media companies like Barstool Sports and Bleacher Report are making plays to become the US' gateway to gamblers, and affiliate fees could become a lucrative new revenue stream for them.
• Charles Gillespie, the CEO of Gambling.com Group, an affiliate that publishes online gambling comparison sites, broke down for Business Insider how affiliates make money from sports betting.
• There are three main models, including a cost-per-action model that can generate $100 to $500 from each depositing sports bettor delivered, a revenue share model, and a hybrid of the two.
• Newer sports betting operators that aren't as well known in the US are relying most on affiliates today, though companies like FanDuel and DraftKings also use them, Gillespie said.
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In 2006, when North Carolina native Charles Gillespie wanted to start an affiliate business for online gambling, which would become Gambling.com Group, he moved from the US to China, and later to Europe to be closer to its large, regulated gambling market.

But with more US states legalizing sports betting - following a May 2018 Supreme Court ruling - Gillespie has brought the business to his home turf, where it acquired sites like Bookies.com and Bookmakers.com early last year.

Affiliates get commissions for sending customers to other businesses. Gambling.com Group, for instance, publishes comparison sites for online gambling services, including sportsbooks, to drive potential players to those platforms. The company's sites are loaded with links that users can click through to sign up and place bets online.

Other kinds of businesses, like tech review sites, also generate affiliate revenue when users click through their links and buy the gadgets or other electronics that they've reviewed.

With sports betting expanding in the US, digital media companies that are popular with sports bettors, like Barstool Sports and Bleacher Report, are interested in getting a piece of the affiliate action, too.

Companies that run affiliate sites, like Gambling.com Group and Catena Media, are among the handful of business categories that investors say are are already making money from the rise of legal sports betting in the US, Business Insider previously reported.

Gillespie broke down for Business Insider how affiliates make money from sports betting, and where the biggest opportunities - and challenges - are in the US market.

Affiliates can make $100 to $500 for each depositing sports bettor they deliver

Gillespie said there are three main models for affiliate deals:

• Cost per action (CPA): Sports betting operators pay a fixed fee for every customer that's delivered to them via an affiliate link, but only after the player takes an action like registering with the sportsbook, making a deposit, or making their first wager.
  • Fees can range from $100 to $500, depending on the market, sport, and type of player.
  • Rates for online bingo players can go as low as $50 and fees for blackjack and other online casino players can go as high as $1,000.
• Revenue share: Operators pay a percentage of the net gaming revenues, or the wagers remaining after winnings are paid out, generated from each player delivered. If a gambler plays once, wins big, and the sportsbook loses money, the affiliate could get nothing. But sportsbooks that get players to come back can generate big returns for affiliates.
  • Major affiliates like Gambling.com can get as much as 40% to 50% of the net gaming revenues over the lifetime of the customers they deliver, usually after costs like gaming duties, platform fees, or player bonuses are deducted.
• Hybrid CPA-revenue share: Operators pay a smaller flat fee for each customer delivered, and a lesser share of the net revenues generated from those gamblers, in the ballpark of 20% to 30%.
  • This model is more common in Europe than in the US.

While sports betting, particularly in the US, is a big focus for Gambling.com Group, Gillespie said 50% of the company's business comes from online casinos, where people play games like blackjack, slots, and roulette.

Gambling.com Group reported in November 13.8 million euros in revenue for the first nine months of 2019, up 22% of the year before. It posted profit of 1.1 million euros for the period, down 80% from a last year, after doubling the size of its workforce to 120 staffers and expanding its footprint in the US, among other places.

In the established UK gambling market, sports betting operators may get as much as 30% of their players from affiliates

Newcomers in the US market - like international operators PointsBet, William Hill US, and Bet365 - are relying most on affiliates to acquire new players, Gillispie said.

"Those that don't have huge, well-known brand names in the US, they would be looking to prioritize the affiliate channel most," Gillispie said, adding that Gambling.com Group works with most legal US sportsbook operators. "FanDuel and DraftKings, they've spent hundreds of millions on US TV, people have heard of them because of that media spend."

In the UK, which has a more established sports betting market than the US, sports betting operators may get 20% to 30% of their players from affiliates, Gillespie estimated. It's a smaller share than many online casinos get from affiliates.

"Sports bettors tend to be more loyal," Gillispe said. "The casino players are more promiscuous. They sign up for a new casino. They play. They get a bonus. They lose their money. They come back a week or two later to a site like Gambling.com and they want a different experience."

Gillespie said Gambling.com Group delivers 5,000 to 10,000 new depositing customers per month globally, across all types of online gaming.

Media companies like Barstool Sports and Bleacher Report are interested in affiliate revenue

Gambling.com Group, which raised $15.5 million from New Jersey private equity firm Edison Partners this year in part to expand in the US, is bracing itself for a wave of new affiliates in the country.

Sports betting is now legal in 19 US states and Washington, D.C., but more are moving toward legalization.

Execs from media companies like Barstool Sports and Bleacher Report, which also make money from sports betting through selling ads in content made for gamblers, told Business Insider this year that they're interested in exploring affiliate models, as well.

Gillespie thinks those companies can build decent businesses from affiliate fees. But he doesn't expect them to overtake pure-play affiliates.

"Bleacher and Barstool will be successful affiliates on their own; those guys do understand digital media," Gillespie said. "But at the end of the day [the affiliate business is] heavy duty digital marketing. It's understanding customer lifetime values. It's understanding customer acquisition costs."

Gillespie expects more media companies to tap into affiliate revenue by working with gaming companies, the way Fox Sports partnered with The Stars Group on Fox Bet. Fox Sports gets certain affiliate fees as part of the broader deal.

"I expect that to be a pretty solid success," Gillespie said. "There's a lot of different ways to make money in this industry. It's not all performance marketing."