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Allan Stone CEO at Intelitics

Movers and Shakers: Why flexibility and accountability are key to customer acquisition

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“Movers and Shakers” is a dynamic monthly column dedicated to exploring the latest trends, developments, and influential voices in the iGaming industry. Powered by GameOn and supported by HIPTHER, this op-ed series delves into the key players, emerging technologies, and regulatory changes shaping the future of online gaming. Each month, industry experts offer their insights and perspectives, providing readers with in-depth analysis and thought-provoking commentary on what’s driving the iGaming world forward. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or new to the scene, “Movers and Shakers” is your go-to source for staying ahead in the rapidly evolving iGaming landscape. 

Allan Stone, CEO at Intelitics, looks at recent changes to paid search ads and how a bigger budget is not the magic bullet for successful affiliate programs

Just as online sportsbook and casino operators embraced paid media and paid search as powerful and effective customer acquisition channels, the game has changed again, with new challenges to overcome.

What’s happened? At Google Marketing Live 2025, the search giant announced it will be rolling out ads inside AI-generated answers. This is going to have a seismic impact on paid search, but get it right and marketers can gain a significant advantage over their rivals.

Here’s what the change means for real money gambling brands.

 

1 – Placement isn’t placement anymore

Your ads won’t show up in traditional search blocks and instead will be embedded inside the AI answer itself. This changes how you write copy for sports-betting-related queries. For example, “Best odds” messaging hits differently when it’s inside an AI response.

2 – Fewer clicks but better players

AI answers will reduce total clicks, but the users who click through will be high-intent bettors. Expect click-through rates to drop, but player conversion rates to rise. In short, it will be a shift from quantity to quality.

3 – Context beats keywords

Forget exact-match keyword strategies, as now, you need to match the intent behind what the user is asking AI across a wide range of sport betting-related queries, from betting lines to game props and even deposit methods.

4 – SEO traffic is about to crater

The AI block dominates the entire screen, especially on mobile, and is likely to be the player’s first port of call. If you’ve been relying on organic search alone for player acquisition, expect fast traffic drops.

5 – Optimise for AI, not just search behaviour

 

Operators and their marketers will need to rethink how their sportsbook features, player reviews and betting content show up when AI crawls and indexes it. Getting into the AI result is now just as important as ranking in the top positions for competitive keywords.

For me, this is the biggest shift in paid acquisition since the iOS privacy changes hit Meta, and operators and their marketers need to respond immediately.

Those using Performance Max and Google’s AI Max program can get ads in AI Mode, and so long as they adapt their messaging and targeting to this new reality, they will capture higher intent players while their competitors scramble.

Another area where some sportsbooks continue to scramble is performance marketing, where underperforming partner programs are costing operators millions. But not for the reason they think…

It’s not about having partners; it’s about how you manage them. In our experience, the gap between top-performing programs and the rest isn’t budget, it’s the freedom given to affiliate partners.

We’ve evolved from the days when operators controlled every pixel of partner content, and this is welcome progress. But there’s still a disconnect between what we say and what we do – allow me to elaborate.

Operators talk about empowering partners but then micromanage their messaging. They say they want authentic voices but reject content that doesn’t match their corporate tone. They seek performance but restrict the very tactics that drive it.

The reality is that the best partners already understand their audience much better than the operator ever will. They’ve built trust and they know what resonates, but they need to be able to speak authentically.

This is why smart operators focus on frameworks rather than restrictions. And this should include clear brand guidelines that protect compliance, as well as consistent values that maintain brand integrity. It’s also important to provide flexible creative assets that partners can adapt.

But creative freedom is only half the equation.

Without proper measurement, the partnership program is flying blind, and, in most cases, operators can’t answer even the most basic questions like “Which partners drive actual player value beyond initial sign up?” and “What’s the true LTV of players from different channels?”.

When budgets get tight, the first things to be cut are partnerships that the operator can’t prove are working. The market leaders have figured this out and have built both flexibility and accountability into their programs.

And at Intelitics, we are proud to be working with a growing number of operators who are using our marketing-tech suite and services to streamline tracking, automate reporting and push into new customer acquisition channels, including paid media and paid search.

In short, we help them bring flexibility and accountability to their acquisition efforts.

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Allan Stone CEO at Intelitics

Intelitics partners with Flows for US push

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3 years ago

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December 22, 2021

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Innovative businesses form strategic alliance to help customers make impactful decisions quickly and informed by real-time data

Intelitics, the leading performance marketing and analytics provider, has partnered with Flows, the innovation platform that allows companies and individuals to build without code, to provide added value to customers in the North American market and beyond.

The strategic partnership allows Flows’ customers to have seamless, real-time access to Intelitics, without the need to go through an additional integration. It strengthens the company’s drive to offer choice to its customers through a single integration with Flows and ensure they are not limited with who they can partner with.

For Intelitics, the partnership means it can layer on data to help inform its Business Intelligence tools. It will allow customers to customise what they can do with the data as well as using Flows to create additional features and applications.

Flows is an innovation platform that securely ingests data from any feed, learns it and then translates the payload into the no code Flows builder. From there you innovate and empower your organisation to connect systems, build features and drive digital automation and workflows. Flows is built to be one of the most agnostic pieces of software on the market, that is able to sit alongside any other piece of technology that you have or use. Flows plugs in to super charge what you already have in place and what you don’t have, Flows allows you to build, all without code.

Intelitics provides online sportsbook and casino operators with a single platform that allows them to track, analyze and grow all acquisition partnerships and campaigns across web and mobile through access to real-time data which in turn allows them to unlock hidden revenue and boost ROI.

James King, CEO at Flows, said: “Flows and Intelitics are two companies that are dedicated to pushing the boundaries in order to allow our customers to innovate and grow at scale.

“By joining forces, we can take this to the next level by providing partners with the ability to customise real-time data and by giving them the ability to build features and tools without code. This is a powerful combination and one that we believe will deliver tremendous added value to the North American market.”

Allan Stone, CEO at Intelitics, said: “This strategic partnership between Flows and Intelitics will provide marketers in the US and beyond with the data and ability to develop and build the tools they need to extract the greatest value from it.

“The marketing war is already underway in North America but with the focus shifting from growth at any cost to growth at sustainable cost, marketers are going to have to use data to inform decisions and refine campaigns based on what it is telling them.

“The combination of Intelitics and Flows enables them to do just that. This really is a great partnership and one that benefits the customers of both businesses.”

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Allan Stone CEO at Intelitics

Intelitics adds Colorado licence

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4 years ago

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February 10, 2021

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Performance marketing and analytics platform provider gets the green light to work with online sportsbook operators in the state as well as those in NJ and PA

Intelitics, the leading performance marketing and analytics platform provider, has been granted a licence by the Colorado Division of Gaming allowing it to work with licensed sportsbook operators in the state for the first time.

Intelitics already holds licences in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, with Colorado the third with more to follow in the coming months.

Intelitics provides online sportsbook and casino operators with a single platform that allows them to track, analyze and grow all acquisition partnerships and campaigns across web and mobile through access to real-time data which in turn allows them to unlock hidden revenue and boost ROI.

Intelitics’ real-time data hub keeps media buyers, analysts and executives on the same page about spend and results. Operators can use one set of metrics to “slice and dice” media performance to discover what activity is delivering the best results.

Powerful, streamlined reports provide full visibility into cross-channel interaction and the customer journey. A holistic view of costs v player value means operators can easily determine the most valuable media sources which improves revenue allocation modelling and inform media investment.

CasinoAffiliatePrograms, the premier standalone iGaming specific Ad Network, which is powered and run by the Intelitics team, has delivered more than $70m in net game revenue through 150,000+ new depositing customers.

Armed with its Colorado licence, Intelitics is now looking to work with licensed online sportsbook operators in the state in order to help them unlock the greatest value from their marketing activity.

Allan Stone, CEO at Intelitics, said: “We are delighted to have secured a licence from the Colorado Division of Gaming allowing us to work with licensed sportsbook operators in the state for the very first time.

“As legal online sports betting continues to roll out across the US, there is a tremendous first mover advantage to be had but operators must ensure they are acquiring players at the right cost and through channels that deliver true value.

“Our cutting-edge platform provides the real-time data, insight and reporting that operators need to do just that across all of the channels they use to market to players. We look forward to working with sportsbooks licensed in the state of Colorado.”

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