How Geo-Blocking Impacts iGaming Revenue
Geo-blocking is a standard part of the iGaming industry. By geo-blocking, online gambling operators comply with licensing agreements and protect their company from legal issues.
Geo-blocking is a necessary part of the industry for compliance. However, it causes a hidden problem for publishers and affiliate marketers who see visitors from all over the world land on their websites and attempt to join an operator that will not accept them.
Understanding how geo-blocking impacts iGaming revenue and finding ways to reduce that impact will ultimately result in better revenue for all industry stakeholders.
What Is Geo-Blocking?
Geo-blocking refers to the practice of restricting visitors from gaining access to an operator’s website according to their country of origin.
Operators use geo-blocking to comply with licensing agreements that will limit where they can offer their gambling services.
The geo-blocking software can set limits according to the visitor’s:
Country
Province/State
Territory
IP address
Device location
These restrictions will allow the online gambling operator to remain compliant with its licensing regulations.
Why Geo-Blocking Exists
The regulations for the gambling industry differ from country to country around the world.
An operator licensed in Country A may not be able to legally accept players from Country B.
Geo-blocking will allow them to:
Meet licensing requirements
Reduce the risk of encountering legal issues
Ensure that players are safe while using their website
Comply with local regulations
Prevent players from creating unauthorized registrations
Without geo-blocking software, they may receive legal issues from their licensing authority.
The Publisher Challenge
The publishers who feature various online gambling operators will typically attract visitors from all over the world.
Traffic from search engines, social media, and other platforms will come from various countries.
Publishers will frequently send visitors to gambling operators that will not accept them based on their location.
This will result in the publisher losing potential commissions and earning potential from those visitors.
The revenue that these publishers earn is impacted by the geo-blocking software implemented by gambling operators.
Revenue Loss from Geo-Blocking Happens Before Registration
Affiliate marketing software publishes reports for their website visitors to track the revenue they earn.
These reports will display information on the number of visitors who:
Clicked on the link
Completed registration
Deposited money
Geo-blocking will stop potential visitors before they ever reach the registration page for the operator.
The cost of clicking on a visitor is already logged in. However, no revenue is ever earned from the visitor. Publishers’ revenue is lost before they even register for the gambling website.
User Experience for Visitors is Negatively Impacted
The user experience will be negatively impacted when website visitors encounter geo-blocking software.
Visitors will likely be frustrated by the blocking of their access to the gambling website of their choice.
Their experience will be worsened by the error messages, denied access pages, blank pages, and broken links displayed to them due to geo-blocking.
These negative experiences will result in them not finding alternative online gambling operators that may be of interest to them.
Identifying Geographic Traffic Patterns
The first step towards reducing revenue loss from geo-blocking is understanding where traffic comes from.
Publishers should monitor the traffic and viewers from each country, device type and make an analysis of how many are registering with the online gambling operators.
This data will help publishers show only the best operators for specific countries.
Matching Offers to Eligible Geographic Markets
Publishers can optimize their content and tailor it towards specific countries.
These localized websites can feature information about:
Licensed operators in the area
Payment methods that are accepted locally
Bonuses available to local users
Local currencies
Languages spoken by locals in the area
Using this information, publishers can create content that features only the gambling sites that will accept the visitors of these regions.
Building Country-Specific Landing Pages
Each country-specific landing page can have content that will optimize the site for SEO as well as earning revenue from the visitors who come to these sites.
Some of these landing pages can include titles such as:
Best Online Casinos in Canada
Top Sportsbooks in Brazil
Licensed Casinos in Germany
Using geo-targeting in their content will result in more visitors of these countries and fewer who attempt to visit other countries’ websites.
Using Intelligent Traffic Routing Software
Intelligent traffic routing software will allow publishers to automatically show visitors an alternative gambling operator if one of the featured operators will not accept them.
Factors that can be evaluated with this software may include:
Geographic location
Device type
Browser language
Traffic campaign
Operator availability
If one operator will not accept the visitor from their location, the software can automatically route their traffic towards another site that will accept them.
Diversifying with Multiple Online Gambling Operators
Working with multiple online gambling operators will provide publishers with various advantages.
By having multiple operators, publishers can increase:
The available markets for them
The number of visitors who can register with them
The overall conversion rates of the users who visit their websites
The number of sites they can depend on for revenue
Introducing diversity in the types of gambling sites they work with will allow them to earn more revenue from international audiences.
Monitoring Licensing Changes
The licensing agreements and the availability of the gambling operators will change from time to time.
Publishers must monitor their licensing to ensure that the operators they feature will continue to accept visitors from the countries their websites attract.
They should monitor the licenses of the online casinos to ensure that they will remain available to the viewers they attract.
Using this information, publishers can keep up with changes and ensure that their websites will no longer lose revenue due to licensing changes.
Improving Internal Linking
Many visitors will try to find one specific gambling operator.
If they are unable to access it, they may leave the publisher’s website.
However, including internal links to other gambling operators will keep them engaged on the publisher’s website.
These links can go to:
Other regional casino rankings
Other review websites
Gambling education content
Other payment methods
By keeping them engaged, publishers can increase the opportunities for them to earn revenue from the publisher.
Measuring the Cost of Geo-Blocking
Publishers should monitor a variety of metrics to determine the cost of geo-blocking to the companies.
These metrics include:
Geo-blocking traffic volume
Registration rate by country
Revenue per visitor
Number of blocked visitors
Rate at which operators will accept visitors
Using these metrics, publishers can track the cost of geo-blocking and find ways to reduce that impact on their companies.
The Use of Technology to Improve Geo-Targeting
Publishing platforms are using technology to increase the geo-targeting of their websites.
Some of the emerging technologies include:
Artificial intelligence for better user targeting
Dynamic offers that are customized according to the individual visitors
Real-time availability of the gambling sites
Predictive software that will recommend a site for visitors according to their location
Automated segmentation of audience content
All of these technologies will reduce the amount of manual work publishers have to do. Furthermore, they will increase their revenue through better conversion rates of visitors.
Best Practices to Reduce Revenue Lost from Geo-Blocking
To reduce revenue loss caused by geo-blocking, publishers should implement a variety of practices.
These practices include focusing their website traffic to specific countries, ensuring that the operators they feature will accept the visitors from those countries, building country-specific landing pages, diversifying their operator partnerships, ensuring their licensing information is up to date, monitoring the traffic that gets blocked from geo-blocking, using intelligent traffic routing software, and optimizing the content that they create according to the region of the visitors.
These practices will ultimately improve the revenue potential of publishers.
Looking Ahead
Due to the growing number of countries that have introduced licensing regulations for the gambling industry, the number of websites that employ geo-blocking will increase.
The best publishers will use technology and create content that is specific to the regions of the viewers to compete with the growing number of gambling websites.
Rather than seeing geo-blocking as a problem for publishers and operators, the best companies will use this to their advantage to create better user experiences and increase the number of visitors who register on their websites.
Final Thoughts
Geo-blocking is an essential part of the online gambling industry. However, it is a revenue loss that should not happen.
By understanding how geo-blocking impacts publishers and finding ways to reduce that impact, they can earn more revenue from the visitors they attract.
By creating localized content and using various technologies to increase the efficiency and revenue earning potential of their websites, the iGaming companies will find success and thrive in the current and growing online gambling industry.
The companies that focus on finding ways to optimize their websites according to geo-blocking will ultimately find success in the highly competitive and regulated industry.