As affiliate marketing grows increasingly complex and data-driven, the need for clear, standardised, and transparent reporting becomes urgent. The Affiliate Standard Reporting (ASR) initiative answers this call—a collaborative movement spearheaded by four big names in the iGaming industry: Better Collective, Game Lounge, Raketech, and Catena Media. The initiative’s goal was to redefine affiliate reporting and establish a universal framework that enhances clarity, efficiency, and trust.
NetRefer has been listening closely to the needs of the industry. More importantly, we’ve been acting decisively. As the first affiliate platform provider to bring ASR to life, we’ve transformed these standards into tangible solutions within our technology. Our mission: to build a more collaborative, transparent, and data-empowered affiliate ecosystem.
The success of ASR hinged on the collaboration and leadership of its founding members. The initiative originated from a key meeting in 2019, where four major players in affiliate marketing — Better Collective, Game Lounge, Raketech, and Catena Media — came together to establish common ground for data handling and reporting standards.
NetRefer, the leading Affiliate Marketing Platform, soon joined the ASR talks. Once it became clear how transformative ASR could be for the industry, NetRefer moved swiftly to translate the initiative into a technological reality by embedding these standards directly into its platform.
ASR brings together optimal technologies and practices to address the keystones of affiliate reporting. By doing so, it increases trust, transparency, utility, efficiency, and profitability for both affiliates and operators. Knowing that they’re working with an ASR-approved platform that handles all current and future reporting instils confidence and peace of mind — strengthening relationships across the affiliate ecosystem.
To transform ASR from concept into reality, collaboration was key. Four of the most influential names in affiliate marketing—Better Collective, Game Lounge, Raketech, and Catena Media—joined forces to set the foundation for a universal reporting standard. Each brought a distinct legacy, expertise, and reach that helped shape ASR into what it is today.
Better Collective: Established in 2004, Better Collective is one of the top digital sports media groups. Listed on Nasdaq Stockholm (BETCO) and with its headquarters in Denmark, Better Collective boasts over 16 offices worldwide housing 1200+ employees. They engage their audience with data, information, and tips for sports entertainment through several sites. They also have a massive sports betting network – bettingexpert.com.
Game Lounge: Established in 2011 with the aim to revolutionise affiliate marketing in the Nordic regions, Game Lounge has grown to become a leader in SEO, all the way from the European market to the Asian one. Its vast portfolio of products focuses primarily on the online casino niche, while also providing digital marketing for various other industries. Game Lounge employs 130+ individuals, spread out across 6 continents.
Raketech: Raketech was established in 2010. Today, it’s a major affiliate company handling data and leads in the iGaming sphere. They take a smart and straightforward approach to assisting clients through a 4-way strategy. They’re listed on the Nasdaq First North Premier Growth Market. Their extensive product portfolio caters mainly to the Online Casino niche.
Catena Media: Catena Media is a world leader in online lead generation for companies in the iGaming and Finance industries. Their strategies focus on organic growth combined with geographical expansion and acquisition. They went from being a passion project of two people in 2012 to a company of 280+ employees spread out over 9 locations worldwide. Their massive product portfolio includes renowned sites such as AskTraders.
The vision driving ASR is to refine data and the way it’s delivered, making it more reliable and detailed but also smarter and simpler to handle. Streamlined and simple reporting practices will increase transparency and build trust between Operators and Affiliates.
ASR will start by revolutionising Financial Reporting. Eventually, all areas of reporting will be reimagined and implemented. The end goal is to have ASR become the standard for reporting throughout the entire industry. A widespread solution common to all means reduced costs and time spent tailoring solutions, as well as servicing and maintenance.
ASR is being developed by affiliates, service providers and operators. It will be governed by the same entities, yielding benefits for everyone involved. It’s a true affiliate community initiative promoting inclusiveness, fairness, and better communication on one hand. And on the other, maximum profitability for all.
The ASR initiative isn't just about compliance or convenience — it's about empowering operators and affiliates with tools that enable better decision-making, faster integrations, and more accurate financial accountability. ASR brings together technical excellence and practical standardisation to strengthen performance, profitability, and trust across the affiliate ecosystem.
At the heart of ASR is the pursuit of better business intelligence. Standardisation enables smarter, faster, and more insightful reporting. This is made possible through cutting-edge technologies like AI, predictive analytics, and machine learning. By aligning how data is structured and accessed, ASR makes it easier for stakeholders to generate insights that drive growth.
Standardisation enables you to build smarter and better BI. This hinges on the most innovative techniques in predictive analysis, AI, etc. The goal is to increase depositors and maximise revenue for both parties.
Just as critical is the ability to speed up the entire data lifecycle. By collecting and transforming data into a coherent format, ASR significantly reduces the time required to make it actionable. This efficiency frees up resources that can be redirected toward higher-value activities, driving both strategic and financial gains.
Collecting and transforming data into a coherent format becomes time efficient. This frees up resources to be used effectively elsewhere and increase profit.
Mark Scerri Pace, Head of Product Delivery at NetRefer, commented:
“Developing and delivering alongside partners like Better Collective and Game Lounge has been a rewarding journey. Our goal was to bring clarity, consistency, and transparency to affiliate reporting – and we’ve done that by embedding standardisation at the core of the solution.
From a product perspective, we translated that vision into a scalable system that simplifies data handling for both affiliates and operators. With ASR now available as an API, stakeholders can access key reports in a secure, consistent format – enabling faster integrations, reduced complexity, and better decision-making.
It’s been incredibly rewarding to see our teams – from product and technical to commercial – come together to make ASR a reality. NetRefer firmly believes that ASR sets a new standard for fairness and collaboration in affiliate marketing, and we’re proud to have played a leading role in shaping that future.”
ASR also expands data coverage while enhancing precision. Affiliates and operators alike benefit from wider visibility and pinpoint accuracy in their analytics — enabling more confident, evidence-based decisions.
Standardising data means both broadened coverage and laser-focused accuracy. This translates to superior performance and cutting-edge optimisation. All parties can take decisions with greater confidence.
A major strength of ASR is its simplification of technical processes. Standardised data means affiliates and operators can rely on a single, unified system for reporting — eliminating the need for custom integrations. This not only saves hours of development time but also reduces technical friction between platforms.
Standardised data means a streamlined and unified reporting system used across the board. There’s no longer the need for individually tailored report integrations. This saves up precious hours, better spent elsewhere.
Another advantage is the shift toward third-party data handling. Affiliates no longer need to integrate directly with every operator. Instead, data is centrally managed, ensuring consistency and freeing both sides from duplicative integration efforts.
Affiliates no longer need to integrate directly with operators. Third parties will be handling all data, bringing both affiliates and operators in line, and saving time and effort for both.
Keith Cassar, Chief Technology Officer at Game Lounge, commented:
“We’ve been testing the ASR framework and can see its potential to improve consistency and structure in affiliate reporting. We ran it through a rigorous testing process, and the numbers matched. The data is accurate, reliable, and well-structured.
We encourage operators to activate ASR. Doing so will allow affiliates like us to benefit from unified and accessible data. This creates a win-win-win situation for platforms, operators, and affiliates alike.”
ASR also helps reduce ambiguity in communication. Variables and data formats are unified, so affiliates and operators always speak the same analytical language. It becomes easier to collect, interpret, and compare data across programs.
All data is streamlined in format and the way variables are presented. Everyone will have access to the same kind of data presented in the same way, increasing clarity, ease of collection and comparison.
By reducing the need for bespoke solutions, ASR also simplifies vendor support. System providers and operators can focus on strategy and service, not troubleshooting.
Time is no longer used up for tailoring technical solutions and offering support for them. System vendors and operators will have their burden eased when communicating with major players.
ASR goes beyond functionality—it reinforces trust. By refining and standardising financial reporting, the initiative ensures faster, more transparent flows of revenue data. This transparency enhances operational performance and builds long-term trust between stakeholders.
ASR means more than just providing business opportunities for operators and affiliates. Data will flow faster and be more transparent, meaning higher performance in many ways. By refining the financial reporting functionality, trust between key stakeholders is strengthened.
From a commercial lens, the benefits of ASR are clear. Christian Joseph Sammut, Head of Professional Services at NetRefer, elaborated:
“From a commercial standpoint, NetRefer immediately recognised the value ASR would bring to the affiliate marketing ecosystem. It aligns seamlessly with our core values – Clear, Fair, Trusted – and offers a practical solution to long-standing challenges in reporting, transparency, and communication between operators and affiliates.
ASR delivers clarity by standardising how financial data is reported, ensuring that affiliates can consistently access daily and monthly performance metrics. Available through API integration, these reports are concise, structured, and easy to interpret – significantly improving the efficiency with which affiliates can extract, analyse, and act on their financial data.
Above all, ASR strengthens trust. With consistent, verifiable financial reporting made easily accessible, it creates a more transparent operating environment for all parties involved. That’s why NetRefer has been fully committed to supporting ASR – not just as a product feature, but as a critical step forward in how our industry manages and shares data.”
Together, these pillars of purpose reflect ASR’s mission: to simplify complexity, deliver reliability, and power a more collaborative affiliate future.
ASR is more than a technical evolution—it’s a cultural shift. A move toward greater openness, collaboration, and accountability across the affiliate marketing landscape. At NetRefer, we’re proud to lead this transformation, turning industry ambition into real-world impact. These results aren’t theoretical — they’re being realised right now by partners using ASR. But this is just the beginning.
If you’re an existing NetRefer Operator: Contact your dedicated Account Manager to implement ASR on your platform. You’ll streamline integration, strengthen affiliate relationships, and gain a competitive edge with forward-thinking affiliates.
If you’re an Affiliate Marketeer: Ask your iGaming Operator to implement ASR. With clear, standardised reporting, you can verify your rewards and foster stronger, more transparent partnerships with your Affiliate Manager.
If you’re NOT a NetRefer Operator: Discover how NetRefer’s technology and features, such as ASR, NetRefer CoPilot AI, the new Report Builder, and more, can help you achieve your affiliate marketing goals. Request a demo today!