Transparency between operators and affiliates is crucial for long-term success. However, in practice, friction and mistrust are not uncommon in this supposedly symbiotic relationship. In the first part of this iGBA Barcelona 2025 speaker interview series, Sam Darkens, commercial manager at OLGB, shares his journey of building a career around data, explores why the lack of transparency persists in the igaming space and advises affiliates to strengthen partnerships.
Sam Darkens doesn’t bet, yet he’s the brain behind one of the UK’s leading sportsbook guides.
Like many in the affiliate space, Darkens (picture below) stumbled into the industry by chance, driven by a passion for sports. He studied experimental psychology at the University of Bristol, a course seemingly unrelated to the igaming world but heavy on statistics training; He also wrote for sports publications about the Bundesliga and avidly followed esports events such as Counter-Strike matches.
After Darkens graduated in 2016, he decided to stay in Bristol for a few more months to try his luck in the job market. Then an opportunity from OLBG for an entry-level web performance analyst popped up, and he grabbed it.
“When I saw the job posting, the main thing that went off in my head was it was a sports-related job, and as a young male, obviously, that was something most people were going for,” Darkens recalls. “But more broadly, I’d classify myself as someone with an outsider perspective. I don’t necessarily bet, but I’ve always found that as someone who watches sports, you know how you can give feedback to operators.”
The year 2016 was also a critical time in the affiliate industry, as Google just divided its index to prioritise mobile results: “It was a very dynamic period where you needed to be able to find places on site which were underperforming to see what areas you needed to improve, which was the role I was doing.”
A cut-throat moment
Now, eight years into his tenure at OLBG – with a promotion to commercial manager in 2018 – the affiliate site is thriving, topping the UK’s casino traffic with over 373,000 clicks this past November. But Darkens isn’t the type to sit back and relax. With the ranking volatility caused by Google’s frequent updates and the persistent parasite SEO content in SERPs, he worries the affiliate space is “at a cut-throat moment”.
“We are solely operating in a very mature and regulated market, so the only way to improve performance for both affiliates and operators is to have finer levels of data accessible,” he says.
However, achieving data transparency can be tricky in an affiliate-operator partnership, and accessing the necessary data to fine-tune campaigns isn’t always easy. While third-party affiliate systems and custom-built proprietary platforms have mushroomed in recent years, this proliferation complicates standardising data sets.
The only way to improve performance for both affiliates and operators is to have finer levels of data accessible
“When I started, I'd say that 90% of the brands were on Income Access or NetRefer, and you’d know what you were getting out of them. But now, we have about 45 affiliate systems that we have access to. This means we can't actually apply standardised data sets to this stuff, because you don’t even necessarily have the data from some affiliate systems,” he explains.
Tied together by profits, operators and affiliates are meant to have a symbiotic relationship. Still, the lack of data transparency can sometimes make it feel almost adversarial, or even “predatory in a sense”. That said, Darkens doesn’t believe operators are unwilling to share data. More often than not, affiliate managers are simply too overwhelmed with work and will only prioritise a request when “a critical mass of affiliates are asking”.
“Also, in most instances, if you are talking to an affiliate manager, they don’t hold the keys to giving you that data. There are multiple processes which they'll have to go through, such as talking to their manager and the operations team to see if this is something they’re able to sanction,” he adds.
This bureaucratic delay and miscommunication can be especially frustrating when it comes to identifying small outages, where the affiliates bear the burden of proof. Most recently, Darkens encountered a data issue where players depositing on casino accounts were untagged in the sports account, causing discrepancies in deposit and turnover metrics. He ended up monitoring the performance for five days and compiling pages of reports before the brand’s affiliate manager fixed the issue.
Another common trust problem, according to Darkens, stems from the black box between gross gaming revenue (GGR) and net gaming revenue (NGR).
“There could be factors included in the net calculation for commissions you are unaware of,” he explains. “As a trusting person, you might assume these details are clearly outlined in the terms and conditions. But without access to that data, you can never be 100% certain.”
The purpose of gathering data should be providing it to operators to the best ability you can, so they can be aware of how they can improve and what they are strong on
An open conversation
So how can the igaming industry heal from this mistrust? Darkens suggests affiliates should be proactive in partnerships by gathering insights to initiate meaningful conversations with operators.
“When either starting a new client relationship or catching up with clients, I don’t just hoard data for myself – collecting data in spreadsheets certainly isn’t the number one love in my life,” he says.
“The purpose of gathering data should be providing it to operators to the best ability you can, so they can be aware of how they can improve and what they are strong on. For example, if we give someone feedback that there is a particularly fantastic live casino crossover, then maybe they can lean heavily on the product.”
In return, Darkens hopes that providing detailed reports will encourage operators to communicate more openly and move beyond the outdated dynamic of affiliate managers constantly pushing for more traffic. In this increasingly regulated space, he emphasises the need for transparency and ROI-driven strategies could benefit both operators and affiliates in the long term.
Still, Darkens acknowledges that he is “privileged” to work for an established company. For smaller affiliates, reporting data outages and giving feedback often means being neglected or even risking losing commissions: “If your request doesn’t ring a bell in the affiliate manager’s head because of your size, then it can be a case of you waiting for months to gather the report just so they ignore you completely.”
“This is really tough, and this is why transparency as a standard needs to be integrated into the industry, then any level of affiliate can do the same level of analysis, which allows a true performance-based competition.”
Sam Darkens will be speaking at “Trust and Transparency: What Does a Win-Win Affiliate Data Share Look Like?” on 22 January at iGBA Barcelona 2025.