In this article, Moon Partners explores how iGaming teams can choose the right partners and build collaborations that deliver value beyond a one-off exchange of audiences.
Collaborations have become something of a trend lately. Teams from adjacent spaces are putting out promos together, and it makes sense, because we’re all working in a fairly narrow niche aimed at fairly specific audiences. And at some point marketing came around to an important idea: we’re not competitors, we’re colleagues in the same market, and we can be genuinely useful to each other.
The question is how to set up the process and choose a team that will make the collaboration work for both sides. These are the things we look at when we choose a partner.
Checking reputation and brand is essential
The most useful thing you can do at the start is take the time to get to know a team properly before you begin agreeing on anything. At Moon Partners that’s always where we begin.
Start with the basics: search for the team name and the founders’ names, and look through two or three pages of results, not just the top three links. Then look them up in industry channels and on forums, because that’s where you’ll find things that don’t make it into search results: discussions, mentions, the market’s reaction. That way you’ll understand how the team is seen in the market, and whether it fits what you have in mind for a collaboration.
After that, take a look at their audience and how the brand works with it. See what they post about, how they communicate, what their tone is, and how they handle more difficult subjects. It’s the most reliable way to understand whether your styles are compatible, because in a collaboration your two voices will sit side by side.
And a separate word about numbers. Look at how well an audience overlaps with yours rather than at its size, because this is what really matters. It’s not only about the follower count, but also about reach and the conversions you can realistically expect. Three thousand relevant readers in a niche channel can work better than fifty thousand, as long as they’re the right people.
Ask the team for statistics on reach and engagement rather than subscribers, and look at the ratio of views to followers. In a narrow niche, concentration always matters more than scale.
Clear agreements benefit both sides
What separates a collaboration that works from one that doesn’t isn’t only the idea. What sets them apart is how thoroughly both sides discussed everything at the start, how well the ideas were thought through, and what kind of synergy comes out at the end. So it’s worth agreeing on who is responsible for which part and what the deadlines are. It may seem obvious, but these agreements are exactly what save time later and make the collaboration efficient, mutually beneficial and pleasant to work on.
Here’s something almost nobody brings up at the start: compare your sensitive topics. Every team has its own legal boundaries, and something you write about freely on your own channels may be restricted for your partner. Names, GEOs, specific figures, brand mentions- everyone has their own list of words to avoid.
At Moon Partners, for instance, we go over these boundaries in the very first meeting, because it’s five minutes of conversation that saves a lot of time on revisions later. It’s also worth agreeing on how you reach each other quickly and who on each side makes the final decisions. These two agreements alone make the whole process calmer and better organised.
Tone of voice matters too
In a collaboration, a great deal depends on how naturally two voices sit together. There’s a simple rule here: what works well with your audience may read differently to theirs.
You might have a playful brand that allows itself to step outside the usual framing, while your partner’s audience is used to a calmer tone, and your joke may be read in a way you didn’t intend. So it’s worth agreeing on the overall register in advance: how informal the piece will be, where the line sits, and which topics you’re both avoiding.
Before publishing, it’s worth running a simple test. Imagine one paragraph taken out of context and read on its own, without any explanation and without the rest of the article. Does it still look the way you intended? If you’re unsure about a particular phrase, replace it with one you’re confident in.
The same applies to memes and pop culture references: they work very well, but only if both audiences read them the same way, so it’s best to choose the ones everyone is sure to know.
A win-win for both teams
Now for the main point, what all of this is actually for. Choosing a team for a collab is really about choosing people you’ll be comfortable working with. It has to be worthwhile for both sides, and that’s the lens to use while you’re still at the discussion stage.
Keep in mind that the benefit isn’t only reach. What you’re really exchanging is far more valuable: expertise, access to an audience you’d otherwise spend years building, and a shared piece of content you can reuse in ten different ways. One good piece lasts longer than ten separate posts, because both sides publish it, it reaches different audiences, and it builds recognition for everyone involved.
Here’s another thing people underestimate: a single publication rarely produces a noticeable result. People see it, scroll on, move to the next thing. Working with the same team repeatedly is different. It builds an association, and the audience starts to see you as two names that go together, which is a whole other level of trust.
One last point, the simplest and the most often skipped: don’t disappear after publishing. Say thank you, share the results, tell them what worked best. That’s what separates a one-off project from a proper working relationship, because the best partnerships don’t end with a post; they begin with one.
For Moon Partners, working together is always about people and a shared result, not a one-time exchange of reach. We do our best to make it work for both sides. So if you have an idea, get in touch and let’s talk. We’re open to joint projects with teams heading in the same direction as we are.