Sports Just Became More Profitable Than Ever

If there’s one thing to be thankful for, during these times of pandemic, that’s the performance of certain verticals. That’s right, we said it:

Sporting Events are a great source of income, and this shouldn’t surprise you!

In fact, before many important matches, several (if not all) verticals, perform spectacularly well. Plus, there are also a bunch of GEOs that are more attractive.

So, in the rows that will follow we’ll tell you more about the performance of some of the most followed competitions from 2020, and how the iGaming vertical’s audience prospered.

Sporting events calendar for affiliates 2021

Let’s see some stats, to figure out their importance, pricing, and how to get the best of them. And while we’re at it, we’ll also check some offers from your campaign partner, Zeydoo. 

Could these verticals have brought even more users?

And if so, are there any verticals that might perform better during these prime-time events.

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When it comes to football, the UEFA Cup took the lead, in 2020

With a stroke of grace, Bayern kept its winning streak on the 28^th of August 2020, defeating PSG in the UEFA Cup final.

Not only the goal scored in minute 59 was spectacular, but also the impact this game had marketing-wise. Think 76% increase between: Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, and the US. 

While the first two each contributed with an over 20% increase, we also witnessed a format preference, as follows: OnClick, Push, and lastly, Interstitial.

VPNs and Apps took the lead in verticals, being followed by the iGaming sector, Dating, and eCommerce.

And, as you’d expect, some had more viewers from certain GEOs👇:

Geo	Top vertical	Increase
BR	VPNs	59%
CA	iGaming	34%
US	Applications	31%
DE	Dating	30%
FR	Dating	27%

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Let’s talk UFC, in affiliate marketing numbers

One event doesn’t cut the chase with you? We figured, so we changed the sport and we found even more impressive results. 

Take the Nurmagomedov vs. Gaethje UFC mixed martial arts fight of the year (24^th of October). You might be thinking Ultimate Fighting Championships couldn’t be as popular as football matches. 

Well, think again! Cause this baby more than doubled the UEFA Championship numbers. That’s right! We saw a 44% increase in US traffic, 34% in Spain, and 33% in Great Britain. 

Even Canada held close by with 27%, followed by France with 20%. You weren’t expecting these numbers, were you now?

Interstitials will likely surprise you as well, with their 28% increase, followed by OnClick with 24%, and lastly, Push with only 6%.

Utilities continued stealing the show, with an even higher increase – VPNs got 53%, Web-Utilities 52%, and Apps 31%. Even Media had a 27% hike, while Finance only got 15%.

And if you think that you can’t get anything better than this, well, get ready to be shocked, cause here are the top verticals by GEO increase:

Geo	Top vertical	Increase
GB	VPNs	77%
US	VPNs	76%
ES	Media	70%
FR	Sweepstakes	31%
CA	iGaming	30%

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The Cherry on Top of the 2020 Sporting Events – BOX

Big titles don’t cut it for you? Ok then, what do you think happened during the Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr match? Let’s check the numbers first:

Geo	Top vertical	Increase
CA	VPNs	85%
US	VPNs	84%
BR	eCommerce	69%
GB	VPNs	65%
IN	VPNs	47%

Now we’re talking, right? From the looks of it, VPNs had the events covered, almost doubling the performance from a week before the match. 

In fact, their overall performance was quite impressive, with a 71% increase. Web-Utilities followed next with a 25% increase, and then Media with 21%. eCommerce only had a 10% raise, and iGaming 3%.

But here is where Push notifications shined brighter, with a 20% increase, mostly from In-Page Push that contributed with 64% to that. 

Next up were Interstitials and OnClick with 16% and 15% increase, respectively. Not much, but it’s still something!

GEO wise, the US took the lead with a 53% increase, followed by India with 25%, and Canada with 23%. Great Britain and Brazil had a smaller rise of 17%, and 12% respectively.

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How do you like the numbers?

These events sure do seem to draw a lot more attention from worldwide viewers, if we compare with the increase we witnessed during the shopping month of the year, November: 

• OnClick for the iGaming vertical: +22% in the top GEOs –  BR, IN, VN, MX, JP, RU; 
• Push on the iGaming vertical: + 10% in ID, MY, UA, VN, PL. 

Find out more about the overall performance from the month of Novembers, by watching our latest news bulletin.

Ready to schedule your next campaign for the coming Sporting event? What format, vertical, or GEOs are you gonna go for?  

You already decided? That’s cool! Cause we checked and found a few very interesting events you should get ready for:

UFC	Box	Football
23/01/2021	May-June 2021	16/02,17/02, 23/02, 24/02 2021	18/02, 24/02, 25/02 2021
Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier	Anthony Joshua vs. Tyson Fury	UEFA Champions League, Round of 16	UEFA Europa League, Round of 32

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Looking for a Winning Strategy?

When it comes to approaching these events, you want to make sure you have a solid marketing strategy. So make sure you choose wisely.

But will you sacrifice quality over quantity? We’ve asked our Account Strategists, and as always, they didn’t fail to deliver.  

Before you get started, make sure you check the Advertiser’s Guide to iGaming Offers.

Over a fruitful talk with our exuberant geniuses, Anton Gamov and Alex Shovkun, there are some things in particular that stuck with us: 

• First off, make sure you’re choosing tried and tested creatives; 
• Also, try to adapt your bids, by increasing them to match those of your competitors; 
• Especially if you’re a newbie, you might find it a bit more complicated to run iGaming campaigns during these events. However, you can approach the above verticals that scored high during matches;
• If you go for generic creatives, make sure you aim for some that have a higher CTR;
• Always be aware of matches and increase everything before them, to stay on top of the events.

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If you run a sporting campaign, check the below Sport Vertical offers from Zeydoo:

CPA Offer	ID	Geo	Conversion	Device	Payout
AE – Sports Video	1602	🇦🇪 AE	Pin Submit	Mobile	$2.4
Sport content	1413	🇩🇪 DE	CC Submit	[WEB+MOB]	$21.35
Videostripe_Sportphone – Bright	677	🌐 Multi	CC Submit	[WEB+MOB]	$17.15
StreamSport	781	🌐 Multi	CC Submit	[WEB+MOB]	$17.15
Sport League stream	926	🌐 Multi	CC Submit	[WEB+MOB]	$17.15
Betway Sports	1117	🇳🇬 NG	CPL	[WEB+MOB]	$0.40

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Kickstart your A-Game!

Here’s a little extra to top up your campaign! We checked some popular generic keywords (according to SemRush) that you could use for your ad copy: 

• ‘football’, ‘football matches today’, ‘live football’, ‘livescore football’, ‘football’, ‘football dream league’, ‘football major league’, ‘Shaolin football’;
• ‘boxing match’, ‘boxing match today’, ‘how to watch boxing matches online’, ‘who won the boxing match tonight’, ‘boxing match today’;
• ‘ufc’, ‘ufc news’, ‘ufc 249’, ‘ufc 254’, ‘ufc schedule’, ‘what is ufc’, ‘ufc today’.

Think you’ve got all the aspects for your upcoming Sporting Vertical campaign setup? That’s great! 

Just in case you decide to stay ahead of your competition, make sure you gaze into the future, with the 2021 Affiliate Trends PDF we created just for you.

It’s loaded with everything you need about digitalization, post-pandemic power-savers, vertical growth forecasts, and all about new trends.  

And for anything else, make sure you join our Telegram Chat. 

But whatever you do, get ready for action!