If you send players to an online casino as an affiliate, the casino has to pay you for it, and there are two common ways they do that. CPA pays you a flat fee once, per player. RevShare pays you a percentage of what that player loses, every month, for as long as they keep playing. Same traffic, two very different payout shapes.
What is a CPA deal?
CPA stands for cost per acquisition. You get paid a one-time flat fee for every player you bring who signs up and makes a qualifying deposit. Rates commonly run $100 to $300 per depositing player, depending on the market and the operator.
Say your revshare rate landed on the lower end and you sent 10 depositing players at $200 each. That is $2,000, paid once, and you are done. The casino owes you nothing else for those 10 players, no matter how long they keep playing or how much they eventually lose.
What is a revenue share (revshare) deal?
Revenue share is different. Instead of a flat fee, you get an ongoing cut of what the casino wins from the players you brought, for as long as they keep playing. It is usually structured as 15 to 25 percent when it is paired with a smaller upfront CPA, or up to about 45 percent on a pure revshare deal with no CPA component at all.
Take the same 10 players. Say they generate $1,000 for the casino this month, and your revshare rate is 30 percent. You get $300. Next month, if they are still playing, you get paid again on whatever they generate then. And the month after that.
Which pays more, CPA or revshare?
It depends entirely on how long the players you brought keep playing. CPA has a hard ceiling: one flat payment, and that is the most you will ever see from those players. RevShare has no ceiling, but it starts smaller and only catches up if the players stick around long enough.
Using the numbers above, here is what the same 10 players would pay out under each model over time, assuming they keep generating $1,000 a month for the casino:
| Month | CPA total paid | RevShare total paid (30%) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,000 | $300 |
| 3 | $2,000 | $900 |
| 6 | $2,000 | $1,800 |
| 7 | $2,000 | $2,100 |
| 12 | $2,000 | $3,600 |
Revshare crosses CPA's total somewhere around month seven. By month 12, it has paid nearly twice as much. But that only happens if the players are still active seven months in. If they stop depositing after month two, CPA would have paid more than three times as much for the same traffic.
When does revshare beat CPA?
Revshare wins when the players you bring are high quality and stick around. If your traffic tends to convert into players who keep depositing, month after month, the ongoing cut compounds into far more than any flat fee would. This is exactly why the casino, not the affiliate, usually prefers revshare deals: they only pay you when the player is generating revenue, not just when they sign up.
When does CPA beat revshare?
CPA wins when you need cash now, or when you cannot yet predict how long your traffic sticks around. A guaranteed $200 today is worth more than a maybe of $300 spread out over a year you cannot forecast. CPA also protects you from a risk revshare does not: if the casino's affiliate program shuts down, gets sold, or simply stops paying, a revshare affiliate loses future income they were counting on. A CPA affiliate already has their money.
Can you combine CPA and revshare?
Yes, and many programs default to exactly this. A hybrid deal pays a smaller CPA fee upfront, often lower than a pure CPA rate, plus a smaller ongoing revshare, commonly in the 15 to 25 percent range. You get some cash right away instead of waiting entirely on player retention, and you still collect a cut of what those players generate later. It splits the risk between you and the casino instead of putting it all on one side.
Should you take affiliate deals, or own the casino yourself?
Both CPA and revshare have one thing in common: the casino sets the terms, and the casino can change them. Your rate, your tiers, whether the program even keeps running, none of that is up to you. We cover this trade-off in more detail here, including what changes when you own the casino instead of sending it traffic, and what that costs to set up with Whitelabels.com.
The bottom line
CPA is a quick payday. RevShare is a long-term bet on the quality of the players you bring. Neither is wrong, they are just different trades: certainty now versus upside later. The traffic is the hard part either way, how you get paid for it is the part you can choose.
Key takeaways
- CPA pays a flat fee per depositing player, once, and the payment does not depend on whether that player keeps playing afterward.
- RevShare pays an ongoing percentage of the casino's net gaming revenue from the players you brought, for as long as they keep depositing and playing.
- Typical CPA rates run $100 to $300 per depositing player. Typical revshare rates run 15 to 25 percent as part of a hybrid deal, or up to about 45 percent on a pure revshare deal.
- RevShare only beats CPA if the players stay active long enough. A single flat CPA payment has no crossover point to catch up to.
- Many affiliate programs offer a hybrid: a smaller upfront CPA plus a smaller ongoing revshare, so you get some cash now and some upside later.
- Both models pay you on terms the casino sets and can change. Owning the casino instead of sending it traffic is the only way to set your own terms.
