Blocklists – what affiliates need to know – AffiliateINSIDER

As an iGaming affiliate, it is important to remember that compliance is a must at all times. Many countries are currently reviewing their online gambling laws and introducing new practices that could mean that your casino affiliate links are added to blocklists. Knowing how to navigate these changes and potentially alter campaigns is a must for all affiliates.

Blocklists have been steadily rising over the past few years. In the last six months of 2020 alone, blocked domains in many European countries went up by 21.4%, giving a total of over 110,000 links on various blocklists. This is an increase of over 34,000 domains compared to just two years ago.

It is thought to have been caused in part by the COVID-19 pandemic. There has been a noticeable increase in the number of people betting online especially given the closure of retail betting and various sports events. Due to this, many governing authorities have taken this as the opportunity to review online gambling, and as a result have increased the sites that they deem to be unlawful.

As an affiliate, you cannot be offering your customers links to a site that is blocked in their country. It is quite simple if they are unable to access the site then they are not going to be able to take advantage of the offers that you can present them. You are not going to be able to drive sales or conversions, and you potentially could run into further problems.

Blocklists typically are domains that operate illegally within a certain country. For example, in the UK an online casino must be licensed by the UK Gambling Commission to be able to offer their games and services here. Though they might be available to customers in other countries such as Sweden or Malta, their lack of this specific clause means that they should not be able to operate in the UK.

It is therefore fruitless for you as an affiliate to offer links to UK customers. Though you might have ones for Swedish or Maltese ones, you cannot have the same deals for UK-based customers as this goes against compliance.

Working across multiple jurisdictions as an affiliate can be difficult, but it is something that you must get right. Staying compliant is a must at all times.

Make sure you closely monitor the regulatory news from any countries that you operate in. If one of the casinos that you have links for is added to blocklists, you need to make sure that you are removing those links or updating them to ones that are available. This is a clear issue of compliance that cannot be ignored, and it is your responsibility to ensure that you are following these rules.

Review your links today, and find out if they are on the blocklists for certain jurisdictions or territories. This is an issue that is only going to become more prevalent as further changes to regulations are made.

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Blocklists - what affiliates need to know - AffiliateINSIDER