iGaming brands want scale. Not another affiliate deal, scale. Reacheffect, a performance marketing company working across gambling and betting verticals, says demand for scalable digital advertising is climbing fast. Operators want awareness. They want to test new markets. They want to grow globally without torching the budget doing it.
The reason is simple. Acquisition costs are up. Regulation keeps moving. And no brand can throw money at one channel and hope it works everywhere.
Marketing teams feel the pressure from both sides. Boards want growth. Investors want proof new markets are worth the spend. Signing more affiliates and waiting doesn’t always cut it — so operators are looking at what else can move the needle faster.
Affiliates Alone Aren’t Cutting It
For years, affiliate marketing was the backbone of iGaming growth. It still matters. The global affiliate industry is on track to hit roughly $24.7 billion in 2026, with iGaming accounting for around a fifth of that spend. But operators are running into its ceiling.
Affiliate traffic tends to be niche. It’s slow to scale. And roughly three-quarters of operators still lean on it as their primary acquisition channel, which means a lot of budget is riding on a small pool of top-performing partners.
Paid social isn’t picking up the slack, either. Google pushed through 18 separate policy changes affecting gambling ads in 2025 alone, and gambling ads are now blocked outright across the majority of markets for operators without certification. That’s squeezing brands toward channels that don’t depend on a platform’s mood.
So operators are adding something new: CPM and CPC campaigns, running alongside the affiliate model instead of replacing it.
What that mix looks like in practice:
- Affiliates — trust-driven traffic, slower to build, harder to scale fast, still roughly 30% of acquisitions industry-wide
- CPM/CPC campaigns — pay for impressions or clicks directly, live within days, no waiting on partnerships to mature
Speed is the real edge here. Affiliate programs take months to hit their stride. CPM and CPC campaigns don’t. For a brand entering a new market, that gap can decide who gets there first.
Where the Growth Is Actually Happening – Reacheffect Reports
Western Europe and North America? Mature. Crowded. Expensive. The real action right now is elsewhere.
Latin America is leading the way, with Brazil at the forefront. Since launching its regulated market in January 2025, Brazil has generated around R$37 billion ($6.6 billion) in gross gaming revenue, attracted 25.2 million bettors, and is expected to surpass $8.9 billion in revenue in 2026.
Africa is also expanding rapidly. Nigeria’s online gambling market is projected to reach $500 million this year, growing at more than 16% annually, with nearly 90% of bets placed via smartphones. South Africa, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo are following similar mobile-first trends.
Southeast Asia remains a key growth market. The region’s online gambling sector was valued at $3.66 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $5.67 billion by 2034, driven by markets such as Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Thailand.
Across these regions, growing internet penetration, mobile adoption, and relatively low brand loyalty are creating attractive opportunities for iGaming operators. At the same time, brands are increasingly tailoring campaigns to local audiences rather than relying on a one-size-fits-all approach.
Why Everyone’s Geo-Testing First
Geo-testing has become a key step before entering new markets. Instead of committing large budgets upfront, advertisers launch smaller CPM or CPC campaigns to measure audience engagement, identify the best-performing creatives, and assess market potential.
This approach allows brands to validate opportunities in markets like LATAM and Southeast Asia quickly and cost-effectively, using real campaign data to guide expansion rather than assumptions. It also helps advertisers adapt their messaging to local audiences and regulatory expectations before scaling further.
Looking Past the Usual Ad Inventory
As advertising costs continue to rise, iGaming brands are looking beyond traditional premium inventory. Global programmatic display ad spend is projected to grow by more than 17% year over year in 2026, increasing competition and driving up media costs. In response, many advertisers are turning to high-volume websites and alternative ad inventory that can deliver broad reach at a lower cost.
This strategy also gives operators more flexibility to test new markets without significantly increasing budgets. Many campaigns now combine multiple ad formats—including display, native, push notifications, and pop ads—to compare performance across regions and identify the most effective approach before scaling further.
Reacheffect’s Role
As iGaming operators expand into new markets, many are moving away from relying on a single acquisition channel. Instead, brands are testing campaigns across multiple regions, analyzing results, and scaling the strategies that perform best.
Reacheffect supports this shift with global digital advertising solutions for iGaming brands across CPM and CPC models, offering multiple formats designed for different objectives, from brand awareness to player acquisition.
The platform enables operators to run campaigns across LATAM, Africa, and Southeast Asia while adjusting budgets based on market performance. This flexibility helps brands reduce risk and identify new growth opportunities.
About Reacheffect
Founded in 2014, Reacheffect is a global web and mobile advertising platform connecting advertisers with large-scale traffic across multiple verticals. With over 13 billion monthly impressions and a range of ad formats, Reacheffect helps brands expand their reach worldwide while providing publishers with effective monetization solutions.
What Comes Next
The iGaming ad landscape isn’t sitting still. Operators are spreading bets across more channels, more regions, more formats than ever. Affiliate marketing isn’t going anywhere. It’s just not the only tool in the box anymore.