Why Lottery and Bingo Operators Can't Run Affiliate Programmes Like Casinos
Julian Pitts, head of commercial at RavenTrack, shares what lottery and bingo operators need
When registrations don’t equal money in and your entire model works differently, how does affiliate marketing work? Julian Pitts, head of commercial at RavenTrack, shares what lottery and bingo operators need
While sportsbooks can retain roughly 40% to 45% of gross gaming revenue, lottery operators keep only a small single-digit percentage of ticket sales, and bingo sits in much the same position, with individual player value remaining tiny compared to traditional casino benchmarks.
Because this fundamental difference in margins reshapes how an affiliate programme must be structured, lottery and bingo operators who copy and paste casino strategies often end up concluding that performance marketing simply doesn't work for their vertical.
In reality, applying high-margin casino economics to thin-margin verticals is a recipe for commercial failure.
When discussing online expansion with a Mexican lottery operator recently, their stance was unequivocal: they could not accept fixed acquisition costs of any kind, as a standard cost per acquisition (CPA) would easily exceed the lifetime value of the customer.
Having previously contracted an affiliate who delivered 5,000 registrations over a weekend with only about 100 ever playing, an agreement that rewarded raw sign-ups produced a catastrophic real cost per active user.
With margins in the single digits, operators simply cannot afford unvetted traffic.
The long(er) game
Another critical difference that receives far less attention is settlement velocity: unlike online casino or instant-win games where outcomes settle in seconds, lottery and bingo draws unfold over hours, days, or even weeks.
As a result, operators cannot immediately evaluate traffic quality or retention, making rapid payouts on slow-resolving products a quiet drain on monthly profitability.
To address this, commission structures should never trigger on registration alone, as rewarding low-friction sign-ups prioritises sheer volume over genuine commercial value.
Since player value in lottery and bingo accrues through repeated small purchases rather than large upfront deposits, payouts ought to align with multi-stage qualification metrics:
triggering initial payouts only after a qualifying purchase, a specific number of draws entered, or sustained engagement over a set period
unlocking commission in stages – for example, a minimal payment upon the first purchase, a second portion once cumulative spend exceeds the acquisition threshold, and the final balance only after the player remains active at 60 or 90 days.
This staged approach is particularly effective during major rollover events, where large jackpots attract temporary players who participate once and leave, ensuring operators avoid paying full CPAs for single-ticket buyers.
While an unexpected surge from 150 to 400 referred players delights a high-margin casino brand, that same volume represents an unbudgeted liability for a thin-margin lottery operator.
Implementing CPA caps pauses commission accrual once a target threshold is met until higher limits are reviewed and approved.
When established transparently, these caps protect operator margins and cash flow without hindering growth or harming partner relationships.
Fighting volume-driven fraud
High-volume, thin-margin business models naturally attract bonus-hunting syndicates and automated tools that exploit weak conversion triggers, producing traffic that appears valid in summary metrics but yields no long-term value.
Combating these threats requires moving beyond aggregate reports to click ID tracking and server-to-server postbacks, which map the full customer journey and uncover critical patterns:
clusters of similar-value accounts originating from a single IP or sub-publisher,
irregular conversion rates between registration and gameplay and
campaign anomalies across specific time windows.
Without this granular visibility, protecting thin margins against hidden fraud is virtually impossible.
Ultimately, maintaining a profitable affiliate channel on single-digit margins depends on precise attribution, real-time visibility, and transparent partner agreements.
Transitioning from casino-style CPAs toward staged commissions, capped budgets, and detailed tracking, lottery and bingo operators can turn performance marketing into a reliable driver of sustainable growth.
