Traffic Quality and Fraud: How iGaming Brands and Agencies Agree Before Launch

Both sides know the scenario. The brand refuses to count some of the players, the agency can't work out why, screenshots fly back and forth in the chat, and the payout is stuck. Often it isn't bad faith at all — it's simply that nobody defined “quality” before launch.

For the brand, a bad player is one who brings in no revenue or breaks the rules. For the agency, a violation has to be proven. Until the criteria are written down, each side is right in its own way. Below: how to settle this in advance.

Why traffic quality is agreed before launch

Before launch, both sides are on equal footing: nobody has spent anything and nobody owes anything. After launch, the agency has burned through its media budget, and the brand is holding money it doesn't want to pay out for questionable players. Negotiating the rules at that point is slow and painful.

That's why quality should be defined as precisely as the rate: what counts as a violation, how it's proven, what happens to the payout and how quickly it all gets resolved.

Common traffic quality issues

Multi-accounting

One person registers several accounts with the same brand — usually to claim the welcome bonus more than once. Telltale signs: shared devices, shared payment methods, matching verification details. The risk for the agency is that these “players” can clear the baseline and then get excluded during the review.

Bonus hunting

Players sign up for the bonus, wager it through and leave. Formally, that isn't always a breach of the brand's terms, but in a CPA deal it's a straight loss. Agree on what exactly counts as bonus hunting: the behavior itself (one deposit for the bonus, then gone) or only a breach of the bonus terms.

Incentivized traffic

The user gets a reward from the traffic source for signing up or depositing. That player came for the reward, not for the product. Whether incentivized traffic is allowed is set out in the offer; if the offer says nothing, assume it's prohibited.

Fake engagement and the wrong audience on influencer channels

Bought followers, bot views and bot reactions inflate reach but don't deliver players. The second problem is more serious: the audience is simply wrong — the wrong country, or a large share of minors. Gambling advertising must not be directed at people under 18, and a number of countries add requirements of their own.

In the UK, for example, the CAP advertising rules have, since 1 October 2022, prohibited gambling ads that are likely to be of strong appeal to children or young people. That also covers the people appearing in the ads, including influencers with a young following. So an influencer's audience demographics are checked before the integration, not after.

How to define traffic quality in the contract

A good quality clause answers four questions: what counts as a violation, what evidence supports it, what happens to the payout, and how quickly the brand has to report the problem.

• List of violations. Multi-accounting, bonus hunting under the agreed criteria, incentivized traffic without approval, prohibited traffic sources, breaches of platform rules and advertising law.
• Evidence. The brand provides player IDs or sub-IDs, the type of violation and the signals that flagged it. Players' personal data isn't needed for this.
• Consequences. Proportionality: rejecting specific players is one thing, shutting down a source is another, withholding the entire payout is a third. Spell out what applies in which case.
• Hold. Its length, when the clock starts and what gets checked in that time. The hold should give the brand time to review, but it shouldn't freeze the agency's working capital indefinitely.
• Notification deadline. The brand flags disputed players before the hold ends, not several months after the payout.
• Clawback. Whether amounts already paid can be recovered, and within what period.

Here's an illustrative example of how such a clause might read (it's an illustration, not legal wording — have a lawyer review the contract):

“A player shall not be deemed qualified if, during the hold period, a link to another account is identified via a shared device or payment method. The brand shall send the agency a list of player IDs, stating the type of violation, before the hold period ends. The undisputed portion of the payout shall be paid on schedule.”

Quality KPIs: what to measure beyond FTD

An FTD shows that a player arrived. Whether they stayed is shown by other metrics. It helps to agree on them in advance as a shared language for talking about quality.

Two caveats. First, KPIs are a signal to investigate, not grounds for refusing payment retroactively. Second, retention depends not only on the traffic but also on the brand's product: bonuses, payment methods, support. An honest conversation about KPIs takes both sides into account.

Data exchange: postbacks and sub-IDs

Arguing about quality without shared data is pointless: each side is looking at its own system. So agree on the technical setup before launch.

• Postbacks. Which events the brand sends to the agency's tracker: registration, first deposit, qualification, redeposit, player rejection. The more events, the sooner the agency spots a problem.
• Sub-IDs. Tags for the source, campaign, creative or influencer in every link. They let you switch off one problem source rather than the whole flow.
• For influencer campaigns — a separate link and promo code for each influencer. Otherwise there's no way to tell whose audience produced the problem players.
• Reconciliation. Regular comparison of tracker data against the brand's dashboard, plus a discrepancy threshold beyond which the sides dig into the cause.

Which other numbers belong in reports is covered in our article on agency reporting metrics.

The dispute process: how to review players without the drama

Even with a good contract, there will be disputed players. What matters is that the review follows a procedure both sides understood in advance.

1. The brand sends a list of disputed players: IDs or sub-IDs, type of violation, signals, date identified.
2. Within the agreed timeframe, the agency checks its sources and responds with its own data.
3. The sides reconcile postbacks and tracker logs for the disputed players.
4. A decision is made: accept or reject the players, switch off the source, adjust the payout.
5. If there's no agreement, the conversation moves up to management or to an intermediary who supports the partnership.

The key point: the undisputed part of the payout goes out on schedule. A dispute over a dozen players shouldn't block payment for everyone else.

A line for the agency: “Could you please share the IDs and signals for each player? If it's confirmed, we'll switch off the source — but let's process the rest of the payout on schedule.”

Pre-launch checklist

1. A qualified player is defined: deposit, wagering, timeframe, KYC.
2. Types of violations and the bonus hunting criteria are listed.
3. It's stated whether incentivized traffic is allowed.
4. The hold period and what's checked during it are agreed.
5. The evidence the brand provides on disputed players is described.
6. Consequences are set out separately for the player, the source and the payout.
7. There's a deadline for reporting violations, plus clawback rules.
8. Quality KPIs and the threshold for revisiting terms are agreed.
9. Postbacks and sub-IDs are set up, and the reconciliation frequency is fixed.
10. For influencers, audience demographics and geography are checked, with separate links and promo codes.
11. The brand's license in the target GEOs, an 18+ audience and compliance with platform rules are confirmed.
12. The dispute process is described, including on-time payment of the undisputed part.

For how traffic quality ties into the payout model, see CPA vs RevShare vs Hybrid. If you're looking for a partner willing to settle these terms before launch, Avero matches agencies and brands with each other and supports the partnership. Tell us about your task via the brief.