Poker affiliate programs are a great way for operators to acquire new poker players, and most of the online poker rooms have an affiliate program available. A poker affiliate program is a program where an individual sends traffic to an online poker room in return for a commission of some sort.
There are two basic compensation types for poker affiliate programs, revenue share and cost per aquisition. From this point on, I am going to refer to revenue share as MGR and cost per aquisition as CPA.
MGR – Revenue Share
MGR is an option that every online poker room offers. The MGR option is where the affiliate receives a percentage of the revenue generated by the players that have been sent to the poker room by the affiliate. Most poker affiliate programs offer between 20% and 30% MGR for the revenue generated.
MGR is typically the best option for affiliates who send high stakes poker players or poker enthusiasts who play a large amount of hands. These players will generate more rake by either playing in higher value games or by playing a large volume of hands at a lower value. Of course, a combination of high stakes and high volume is the most desireable type of player for an affiliate to have because they generate the very most income possible.
CPA – Cost Per Aquisition
CPA is an option that over half of the online poker affiliate programs offer. Unlike MGR, CPA is not a share of the revenue generated by the players sent to the online poker room, but rather a lump sum of money per player sent. Most online poker rooms offer between $65 and $100 per player in the CPA commission model.
CPA is the best option for affiliates who send players that are not high stakes players or poker enthusiasts. Regular players will generate a typical amount of revenue or less and a prepaid commission such as CPA is paid before that revenue is actually generated. This makes it so you don’t have to worry about your players generating a large amount of money before you are paid.
Popular Poker Affiliate Programs
Some of the most popular poker affiliate program sites are pretty obvious. The largest poker affiliate program is definitely Pokerstars. Pokerstars has a lower commission schedule compared to most poker affiliate programs, but have a large database of players and a high player retention.
