Revenue Share, CPA And Hybrid Affiliate Deals
Three deal shapes cover almost all affiliate activity in this industry, and each moves risk to a different side of the table. Revenue share pays a percentage of the value a referred player generates over time. Cost per acquisition pays a fixed amount once a referred player meets a defined qualifying action. Hybrid deals pay a smaller fixed amount plus a smaller share.
Revenue share leaves the affiliate exposed to how well the operator retains and monetises the traffic, and to whatever deductions the operator applies before calculating the share. It rewards partners who send players that stay. Cost per acquisition leaves the operator exposed instead, because the payment is made before the player's value is established, and it rewards volume regardless of what follows.
The terms that decide whether either shape works are rarely the headline rate. The qualifying action for a cost-per-acquisition deal, the deduction list for a revenue share, the treatment of negative carryover between months, and the point at which a player stops being attributed to the partner all move the effective rate further than a few percentage points on the headline.
Hybrid arrangements exist because they let a new partnership start without either side betting heavily on an unproven traffic source. They are usually a transitional shape rather than a permanent one, and they are worth revisiting once enough activity has run through them to show which of the two pure shapes the traffic actually suits.