Online Poker Affiliate Programs

Everyone has heard stories of high stakes online poker players winning or losing many thousands of dollars in a single month, but not everyone knows it’s possible to profit from Internet poker without ever playing a single hand.

Poker affiliate programs offer a way to get paid (and get paid big, in some cases) when new players sign up and play at an online poker site, with some of the larger poker affiliates making well over $100,000 a month.

Below you will find the best poker affiliate programs together with objective program reviews.

The Best Poker Affiliate Programs

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myBet Affiliates description

mybet.com

Quick facts

Base Commission:

$150

Commission type:

CPA

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What is an online Poker Affiliate Program?

So what exactly is a poker affiliate or a poker affiliate program? One of the solutions for online poker sites looking to find new players is to offer an incentive for other people to refer new players to them, essentially doing their marketing work for them.

Affiliate marketing is a natural fit for that approach, as that model lets individual website owners and marketers step in and promote poker via poker affiliate sites that they create.

Poker Affiliate Sites

Anyone can serve as online poker affiliates, and the process is very simple. Once you pick an online poker site to promote (see the reviews on this page for the best poker affiliate programs to work with), you’ll have to fill out a quick and easy application and submit it.

Once you’re approved by the affiliate program, you’ll be given links and marketing material (including graphics and banners) to promote the poker site on a poker affiliate site that you build, via emails, posting on forums or on blogs, and even through old-fashioned approaches such as business cards or direct mail.

Payment Options for Poker Affiliates

Most affiliate programs allow you a choice as to how you get paid. One option is collecting a one-time payment for every player that you refer who signs up and plays on the site, this is called CPA.

Or you can choose instead to be paid a certain percentage of the rake generated by players that you refer, this is called rev-share. The programs all give you online access to stats so that you can not only see how much money you’re making from players you’ve referred, but also more detailed stats such as which banners or graphics are most successful for you, what website is most successful for you, etc.

Many programs also provide affiliate managers that work with you directly to give you the best chance of success, as when you succeed and send tons of players to their poker site, they succeed as well, so it’s in their interest to help you be as successful as possible. Top 2 poker affiliate programs: Mybet and PKR

UIGEA

The Intent Of The UIGEA

Like many pieces of legislation, the UIGEA is very broad and vague in its language at times and can be interpreted in different ways. One key thing to note, however, is that the main intent of the UIGEA is to make it illegal for US banks to knowingly do business with online poker and gambling sites.

It primarily addresses the financial processing side of the equation, as far as attempting to cut off deposits and withdrawals to and from poker sites to US players (and vice versa) by putting the burden on banks in the US to closely monitor and block any attempts by players to deposit or withdraw money to online gaming sites.

The UIGEA never addresses poker affiliates directly, or even whether or not the act of playing poker online itself is legal or not; the UIGEA largely focuses on making it illegal for US banks to knowingly do business with online sites.

UIGEA AND POKER AFFILIATES

That said, parts of the UIGEA do spill over to poker affiliates, especially in regards to a very vague section of the UIGEA that states that it consider it to be illegal for online sites and their employees to actively market to US players or to otherwise do business in the US.

While details were very scarce, many affiliates were initially worried upon passage of the UIGEA that the US government would consider poker affiliates to in fact be employees of the sites they promoted, potentially exposing US-based poker affiliates to prosecution.

That interpretation led to some poker affiliates shifting their focus to non-gambling affiliate programs immediately in the wake of the passage of the UIGEA, as at the time there was no clue as to what the future might hold.

That argument, though, was tenuous at best due to the very broad language of the UIGEA, and the fact of the matter is that in the years since the UIGEA was passed there hasn’t been a single instance in which any poker affiliate has been investigated or charged.

As mentioned above, the true focus and burden of the UIGEA is squarely on US banks, as the real purpose of the legislation was to try to cut off the flow of money to and from online gaming sites.

CONCLUSION

While the US government likely isn’t happy that poker affiliates continue to promote various sites on websites accessible by US citizens, there’s next to nothing in the UIGEA (or any other laws) that directly addresses the situation, as far as trying to make it illegal to act as a poker affiliate.

As with any legal issue you should always consult an attorney if you have concerns, but at the moment there’s little to fear for poker affiliates in the US.