How it's calculated
The ROI formula is:
ROI = (Return − Investment) ÷ Investment × 100
Applied to an acquisition campaign, the investment is the media spend and the return is the revenue attributed to the players it brought in. Applied to an affiliate, the investment is the commission paid — whether a fixed CPA or revenue share — and the return is the revenue generated by the players they referred. In both cases, what decides whether the math actually holds up is what counts as "return" — and that's exactly where iGaming's most common trap lives.
ROI on GGR vs. on NGR: the contractual trap
Calculating ROI using the GGR generated by those players as the return inflates the number, because GGR hasn't yet deducted bonuses, payment fees, and the revenue share owed to the platform. The real ROI — what actually stays in cash after paying those bills — only shows up when the calculation runs on NGR.
That difference isn't cosmetic: affiliate contracts or internal reports that quote ROI on GGR can present a campaign or an affiliate as highly profitable when, in practice, the real net margin is far more modest — or even negative once costs that never show up in GGR are added back. Before approving budget based on a reported ROI, the first question should always be: was that number calculated on GGR or on NGR?
Are ROI and ROAS the same thing?
No. ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) is the simple ratio between revenue and spend — for example, R$ 180,000 in revenue over R$ 50,000 in spend gives a ROAS of 3.6x. It's always a positive number and easy to compare across channels, but it doesn't tell you net profitability: a 3x ROAS can still mean a loss if the margin on that revenue is thin.
ROI, by contrast, already subtracts the investment from the return and expresses the net result as a percentage. The two numbers are complementary — ROAS is useful for quickly comparing raw return volume across channels, but only ROI (calculated on NGR) tells you whether the operation actually made money on that investment.
Closing the math: a numeric example
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Campaign investment | R$ 50,000 |
| GGR generated by acquired players | R$ 180,000 |
| NGR (GGR − bonuses − fees − revenue share) | R$ 95,000 |
| ROAS (GGR ÷ investment) | 3.6x |
| ROI on GGR | (180,000 − 50,000) ÷ 50,000 = 260% |
| ROI on NGR | (95,000 − 50,000) ÷ 50,000 = 90% |
The same campaign yields a 260% ROI or a 90% ROI depending purely on the calculation base — and it's the number on NGR that reflects the return that actually lands in cash.