Are Operators Losing Better Players by Chasing Cheaper CPA?

For Episode 78

of iGaming Real Talk, our host Surya Palli spoke with Prash Patel, Founder of DMR Strategic, about where operator-affiliate relationships are going wrong and why some familiar acquisition strategies need another look.

Prash has experience on both sides of the industry. He previously built and sold an affiliate business and has spent years working with operators. It gives him an interesting perspective on the mistakes businesses make when buying traffic and managing affiliate partners.

The conversation also moved into AI, the growing competition among affiliates and why building a website has become easier than building an audience that trusts it.

Here's what stood out.

Not all affiliate traffic works the same way

One of the first mistakes Prash identified was how operators approach different affiliate channels.

SEO, PPC, social media, streamers and communities can all bring players to an operator. But they do not operate in the same way.

“Each one of those channels has its own ecosystem. They have their own model, their own cost base.”

An affiliate investing in SEO has different costs and challenges from a streamer building an audience or a community-led business maintaining direct relationships with its members.

Yet some operators continue to approach all these partners with similar commercial arrangements.

Prash believes this lack of understanding can lead operators towards lower-quality traffic and missed opportunities.

The problem is not necessarily the affiliate or the channel.

Sometimes, it is the operator failing to understand how that channel actually works.

Cheap CPA can become an expensive mistake

This was one of the strongest points in the conversation.

Operators continue to negotiate heavily around CPA, often trying to acquire players for the lowest possible cost.

But Prash questioned whether that approach makes financial sense in the long run.

“Player value down the line is much more important nowadays than cheap traffic.”

He gave a simple example.

Imagine one affiliate brings a player for a $200 CPA, while another charges $400.

At first, the $200 player looks like the better deal.

But what if the player acquired for $400 generates five times the value over the following months?

The acquisition that initially looked expensive could turn out to be the better investment.

For Prash, operators need to think more carefully about the kind of business they are building and which metrics actually matter.

A lower CPA might look good in an acquisition report.

It does not automatically tell operators how valuable those players will become.

Affiliates are still being treated like traffic sources

The discussion then moved to something Prash admitted he had experienced from the operator side himself.

Poor affiliate communication.

He described situations where operators send the same newsletters to every affiliate, change deals without sufficient notice and make little effort to understand their partners' businesses.

These practices make it difficult to build lasting relationships.

And with traffic becoming harder to acquire, those relationships are becoming more important.

“Treating them as partners rather than as just traffic sources is going to be much more valuable for operators going into the future.”

Surya raised an interesting question here.

Is fixing this entirely the affiliate manager's responsibility?

Prash did not think so.

Affiliate managers generally work within the strategy set by the company's leadership.

That means improving affiliate relationships also requires operators to rethink their wider commercial approach.

Better communication cannot simply be left to one person managing an affiliate account.

AI is making affiliate marketing easier for everyone

Creating an affiliate website once required considerable time, technical knowledge and resources.

AI has changed part of that process.

Content can be produced faster, and new affiliate businesses can launch websites with fewer resources than before.

But Prash sees another problem developing.

If everyone can create similar websites and content, how does an affiliate stand out?

“Everybody can now produce a website really quickly.”

The value of simply having a website is becoming less significant.

And with more entrants competing for attention, affiliates need something beyond another casino review or bonus comparison.

This is where Prash believes the market is heading towards a different kind of competition.

One based more on the relationships affiliates can build with their audiences.

Trust and community could become the real differentiators

Prash believes the affiliates that perform well in the coming years will be those that give people a reason to choose them over the competition.

That could come through a recognisable personality, a strong brand, rewards, community engagement or consistent interaction with their audience.

“I think trust and building communities is where the differentiation is going to take place.”

For years, many affiliate websites have relied on presenting casino offers, promotions and bonus information.

But those are things competitors can also publish.

Building a community around a brand takes a different kind of effort.

It requires regular engagement and an understanding of what the audience actually wants.

And unlike generating another piece of content, that relationship cannot be built simply by asking AI to do it.

AI will help good affiliates, but what about the weaker ones?

Prash was not dismissive of AI.

In fact, he believes affiliates who use it intelligently could gain a significant advantage.

But he made an important distinction between using AI to produce more content and using it to improve an existing business.

He pointed towards localisation, personalisation and dynamic translation as areas where the technology could become particularly useful.

These applications can help affiliates reach and communicate with audiences more effectively.

However, technology alone cannot replace a weak business strategy.

“AI will amplify the effectiveness of good affiliates. But I don't think AI will become a rescue plan for weak affiliates.”

For smaller affiliates and new entrants, Prash believes the opportunity is still there.

But simply launching more sites may not be enough.

The ones building trust and meaningful relationships with their audiences could have a better chance of surviving and growing.

Can AI really replace human relationships?

Towards the end of the conversation, Surya brought up AI-powered customer support and the argument that automated systems could sometimes manage customer interactions better than humans.

Prash acknowledged that AI could be useful at the initial support stage.

But he questioned what happens when the interaction becomes more complicated.

How quickly can a customer move from an automated conversation to an actual person?

And at what point does the bot begin creating frustration rather than solving a problem?

For Prash, the effectiveness of AI support depends heavily on how the escalation process is designed.

He also admitted that he personally still prefers human interaction.

“I like people talking to people.”

It was an interesting end to a conversation that had repeatedly returned to the same idea.

Technology can make business processes faster and cheaper.

But whether it can build the same level of trust is another question.

What stood out to us

1. Not all traffic channels are equal. SEO, PPC, social, streamers and communities have different costs, audiences and business models. Operators need to understand those differences.
2. Cheap CPA does not guarantee better players. A higher acquisition cost can be worthwhile when the player delivers greater value over time.
3. Affiliate relationships need better communication. Personalised deals, transparency and understanding the partner's business are becoming more important.
4. The responsibility goes beyond affiliate managers. Operator leadership and commercial strategy influence how affiliate partnerships are managed.
5. AI is lowering the barrier to entry. More people can create affiliate websites, making differentiation increasingly difficult.
6. Trust and community are becoming valuable assets. A recognisable brand and genuine audience relationships can help affiliates stand out.
7. AI works better as a tool than a business strategy. Localisation, personalisation and translation may strengthen good affiliates, but they cannot automatically fix weak relationships or poor business models.

The most interesting part of this conversation was how the challenges facing operators and affiliates seem to be connected.

Operators want cheaper traffic.

Affiliates want to produce more content and reach more people.

And AI is making some of those activities easier for everyone.

But the real value may lie somewhere else.

An operator that understands its affiliate partners could attract players who stay longer. An affiliate that invests in its audience could become more valuable than another website offering the same bonuses.

The industry has spent years trying to improve acquisition numbers.

Perhaps it is time to pay more attention to what those numbers are actually worth.

Are operators measuring acquisition success by what they spend today or by the players they keep tomorrow?

Episode 78 of iGaming Real Talk, featuring Prash Patel, Founder of DMR Strategic, explores affiliate relationships, player acquisition costs, traffic quality and the changing role of AI in affiliate marketing.

This episode is part of The Real Roadshow 2026 and is brought to you by Evoverse, providing custom crypto casino and source code solutions, and Wicked Games, creating slot games that slap.

iGaming Real Talk is a podcast, media platform and WhatsApp community dedicated to open conversations with iGaming experts and industry leaders. Join our community to connect with founders, operators, affiliates and industry professionals for discussions, insights and networking opportunities.