How link and subid tracking works
Each affiliate gets a unique link — or a code, when sign-up happens directly inside the app — carrying a tracking parameter, the subid, that identifies not just the affiliate, but the campaign, the channel, and sometimes the specific creative that generated the click. When a user clicks the link, a cookie or URL parameter records that origin, typically for an attribution window of 30 to 90 days: if the user registers within that window, the referral is credited to the affiliate, even if the actual sign-up happens days after the click.
This tracking is what feeds the affiliate's performance report — clicks, sign-ups, FTDs, revenue generated — and it's also the point most exposed to fraud: inflated clicks, cookies forced without real user interaction, or duplicate subids shared between affiliates are the kind of problem a quality affiliate platform needs to catch before releasing payment.
Commission models
| Model | Calculation base | When it works for the affiliate |
|---|---|---|
| CPA | Fixed amount per qualified player | High-volume traffic with predictable conversion |
| Revenue share | Recurring percentage of the NGR the player generates | A base of high-value, long-retention players |
| Hybrid | Reduced CPA + a revenue share percentage | Balance between immediate cash and recurring revenue |
The model is negotiated per affiliate, not fixed for the whole program — an affiliate with high-volume traffic and a low average ticket tends to prefer CPA, while one with a niche audience and higher-LTV players tends to prefer revenue share.
What is negative carryover — and why does it drive so many disputes?
Negative carryover is the rule under which, in a revenue share model, a negative balance generated by a player in one month — when that player wins more than they wager — rolls over into the following month and is deducted from the affiliate's future commission, instead of resetting to zero each period. Without negative carryover, the affiliate earns revenue share only in the months when the NGR generated by their players is positive, and nothing is deducted when the result is negative — which, across many players and months, tends to favor the affiliate over the operator.
It's the most contested contract clause between operator and affiliate because it directly changes how much the affiliate takes home: with negative carryover, one bad NGR month can zero out an affiliate's commission for several months running until the negative balance is offset; without it, the affiliate is shielded from the variance of player results. Serious affiliate contracts spell this clause out explicitly, including whether there's a cap on the carryover and whether it resets at the end of a fixed period, such as annually.
What an affiliate backoffice needs to deliver
To run an affiliate program without depending on manual spreadsheets, the backoffice needs to deliver, at minimum: link/subid generation and management per affiliate and per campaign; a real-time performance dashboard (clicks, sign-ups, FTDs, GGR and NGR generated per referred player); automatic commission calculation based on the contracted model, including negative carryover where it applies; an auditable payment report with historical data by period; and flagging of suspicious tracking patterns, such as click spikes with no matching sign-ups or an abnormal concentration of registrations from the same device.