iGaming Marketing Glossary: 44 Terms for Agencies and Brands

The agency says “we sent you 200 FTDs”, the brand replies “we counted 140” — and both are right, because they're counting different things. Most misunderstandings between agencies and iGaming brands start with terms each side reads its own way.

Below are 44 terms you'll run into in offers, contracts and reports. Where a term has no single industry standard, we flag it: in those cases, your contract defines it, not a glossary.

Traffic and players

Every brief starts here: where the traffic goes, where it comes from and how results are tracked. If this part isn't clear, there's nothing to argue about later — the two sides' numbers simply won't match.

• Offer — a brand's terms for partners: GEO, payout model, rate, baseline, allowed traffic sources and restrictions. In effect, a spec and a price list in one document.
• GEO — the country or region the traffic is aimed at. The GEO determines the brand's licensing, the ad rules, the permitted traffic sources and the audience's spending power.
• Tier-1, Tier-2, Tier-3 — an informal grouping of countries by audience spending power and level of competition. There's no single list: every affiliate program and agency has its own split.
• Media buying — buying ads on paid platforms such as Facebook with your own budget, expecting to recoup it from brand payouts. Hence the media buyer's core risk: ad spend goes out before payouts come in.
• Landing page (lander) — the page a user lands on after clicking an ad. Meta requires gambling ad authorization even when it's only the destination page that promotes gambling, and even if nobody can actually play on it.
• FTD (first-time deposit) — a player's first deposit. In everyday talk, the term often means the player who made it, too. In reports, check which FTD is meant — any first deposit or a qualified one.
• Cap — the limit on players or conversions a brand will accept from a partner in a given period. Whether players above the cap get paid is agreed separately.
• Incentivized traffic (incent) — users who get a reward from the traffic source for registering, depositing or taking another action. Whether it's allowed is set out in the offer; if it isn't mentioned, assume it's not.
• Postback (S2S postback) — a server-to-server notification from the brand or affiliate platform to the agency's tracker — the system that logs clicks and conversions — about an event: a registration, a deposit, a player qualifying.
• Sub-ID — an extra parameter in the tracking link: source, campaign, creative, influencer. It's passed back in the postback and ties a conversion to a specific click.

Money and payout models

This is where the money is — and most of the disputes. Nearly every term here is worth defining in the contract in plain words, not by reference to “standard industry practice”.

• CPA (cost per acquisition) — a model where the agency gets a fixed payout for each qualified player. It gives the brand a predictable cost per player and the agency fast cash to fund media buying.
• Baseline (qualification criteria) — the minimum threshold for a player to count under CPA: deposit amount, wagering, number of deposits or active days within a period. The higher the threshold, the fewer players qualify from the same traffic.
• Qualified player (QFTD) — a player who has met the baseline and passed the brand's checks. Under CPA, this is what gets paid for — not just any FTD.
• RevShare (revenue share) — a model where the agency gets a percentage of the brand's revenue from referred players, usually of NGR. The agency earns more the longer players stay with the brand.
• Hybrid — a mix of CPA and RevShare: a fixed fee per qualified player plus a share of NGR. The two sides split the risk between a fast payout and a long-term one.
• GGR (gross gaming revenue) — player stakes minus winnings, before bonuses, taxes and other costs. It's a gross figure: it doesn't yet tell you what the brand actually earned.
• NGR (net gaming revenue) — GGR after deductions: bonuses, taxes, payment fees and other items. There's no single standard, so the list of deductions is fixed in the contract.
• Negative carryover — rolling negative NGR forward into the following periods. Until the negative balance is covered, no new RevShare accrues.
• Hold (hold period) — the time between an event and the payout, during which the brand checks the players. The contract sets how long it lasts and what's checked. While the hold is running, the payout is accrued but not yet paid.
• Shave (shaving) — slang for conversions that go uncounted in the stats with no clear explanation. The protection against suspicion on both sides: postbacks, sub-IDs and regular data reconciliation.
• Clawback — withholding or reversing a payout that has already been accrued, if a player is later flagged as fraud. Whether clawbacks are allowed, and within what window, is agreed up front.

Metrics

Metrics let you talk about traffic quality in numbers rather than gut feeling. The key is to agree up front which cohorts and periods they're calculated on, and whose system is the source of truth.

• Reg2Dep (CR2D, registration-to-deposit rate) — the share of registered users who go on to make a first deposit. One of the first metrics a brand uses to judge traffic quality.
• Redeposit (redep) — any deposit after the first one. The share of players who redeposit shows whether people stick around after the start.
• Cohort — a group of players who share a trait, most often the same registration or first-deposit date. Quality metrics are fairer to compare cohort by cohort rather than across the overall flow.
• Retention — the share of a cohort still active after a set period, such as a week or a month. Falling retention with a steady FTD count is a reason to dig into traffic sources.
• ARPU and ARPPU — average revenue per user and per paying user over a period. Check what counts as revenue here (GGR or NGR).
• LTV (lifetime value) — the revenue a player brings the brand over their entire time playing. In practice it's forecast from cohort data over whatever period is available. Expected LTV determines what CPA rate a brand can afford.
• ROI (return on investment) — (revenue − costs) / costs. Illustrative example: spend $10,000, get $13,000 back — ROI is 30%.
• ROAS (return on ad spend) — revenue divided by ad spend. Unlike ROI, it doesn't subtract costs from revenue: in the same illustrative example, ROAS is 1.3, or 130%.

Influencer

Influencer marketing adds its own vocabulary on top of the general terms: reach, engagement, promo codes. It also puts extra scrutiny on the audience — its age and its country.

• Influencer integration (sponsored content) — a paid brand mention by a creator: in a video, stream, story or post. In iGaming, the creator's audience must be of legal age and located in countries where the brand is licensed.
• Promo code — a code the influencer shares with their audience. It attributes players to a specific influencer even if the person never clicked the link.
• Reach — the number of unique users who saw a post. It's not the same as follower count or views. When assessing an influencer, look at the reach of recent posts, not audience size.
• ER (engagement rate) — reactions (likes, comments, shares) relative to reach or followers. Every analytics tool uses its own formula, so only compare ER calculated the same way.
• Fake engagement (botting, fake followers) — artificially inflated followers, views or reactions: bots, bought activity. Warning signs: sudden spikes, unusual geography, cookie-cutter comments.
• Audience demographics — the breakdown of an influencer's followers by age, gender and country. In iGaming this isn't a formality: it determines whether the integration is legal.
• Ad disclosure (ad labeling, #ad) — marking a post as advertising. The requirements come from platform rules and local law.

Compliance and quality

This group decides whether you can launch at all. Licensing, audience age and platform rules aren't formalities — they're the precondition without which any payout model is meaningless.

• License — a regulator's permission to offer gambling in a specific jurisdiction. Meta, for example, only allows online gambling ads with prior authorization and requires proof of a license or of lawful operation in the target countries.
• KYC (know your customer) — the operator's verification of a player's identity: documents, age, sometimes source of funds. Often part of the player qualification criteria.
• RG (responsible gambling) — measures that reduce gambling harm: deposit limits, reality checks (time-spent reminders), self-exclusion, keeping minors from playing.
• Self-exclusion — a mechanism that lets a player block their own access to gambling for a set period. In the UK, for example, online operators licensed by the Gambling Commission must take part in the national GAMSTOP scheme.
• Fraud — bad-faith traffic or activity that leaves the brand paying for players who bring no real value: fake registrations, multi-accounting, bonus abuse.
• Multi-accounting (duplicate accounts) — one person holding several accounts with the same brand, usually to claim bonuses again. Detected via devices, payment methods and KYC data.
• Bonus hunting (bonus abuse) — signing up for the welcome bonus with no intention of playing on. In CPA deals it's a direct loss for the brand, so it's worth defining bonus-hunting criteria in the contract.
• Chargeback — a payment reversal the cardholder initiates through their bank. Chargebacks often appear on the list of NGR deductions.

Commonly confused terms

These pairs are a frequent cause of reporting discrepancies. If one of them comes up in negotiations, check what the other side actually means. For example:

“Let's align on definitions: by FTD, do you mean any first deposit or a player who has cleared the baseline? And which deductions does your NGR come after?”

How these terms turn into money is covered in CPA vs RevShare vs Hybrid. How to agree on fraud, hold and quality KPIs up front is in our piece on traffic quality and fraud. And the specifics of working with creators are covered in influencer marketing in iGaming.

If you're looking for a brand for your traffic or an agency for an ad campaign, Avero will find the right partner and support the negotiations. Start with a short brief.