An attribution model is a rule or algorithm for assigning credit for a conversion across the marketing touchpoints that preceded it. A player who eventually deposits may have clicked a review-site link, later seen a push ad, then searched the brand and clicked a paid search ad.
Definition
An attribution model is a rule or algorithm for assigning credit for a conversion across the marketing touchpoints that preceded it. A player who eventually deposits may have clicked a review-site link, later seen a push ad, then searched the brand and clicked a paid search ad.
The attribution model decides how much of that deposit's value each of those touches receives — all to the last, all to the first, evenly split, weighted toward recency, or distributed by a data-driven estimate of each touch's contribution.
The model is a lens, not a fact. The same underlying customer journey produces very different channel performance reports depending on which model is applied, and those reports drive budget decisions.
Choosing an attribution model is therefore choosing which channels will look efficient and get funded — which is why it deserves deliberate thought rather than accepting a platform default.
In context
iGaming has a specific structural problem with attribution: affiliate deals are usually settled on a last-click or last-affiliate-click basis with a cookie window, so whichever affiliate touch is closest to registration is paid, and earlier-funnel contributors (a content review that first introduced the brand, a comparison page that built trust) get nothing. This rewards brand-bidding and coupon or "bonus code" sites that intercept users near conversion, and underfunds the awareness and consideration content that actually generated demand.
Operators that only look at last-click reporting will keep shifting budget toward the interceptors and wonder why top-of-funnel volume shrinks.
Better practice is to hold the payment model (contractually last-click for simplicity) separate from the analysis model used for budget decisions. Operators review multiple models side by side, use path and assist reports to see which affiliates and channels appear early in winning journeys, and validate with incrementality tests rather than trusting any model absolutely.
For affiliates, understanding the operator's attribution setup is commercially important: a content affiliate competing against coupon sites for last click is fighting the model, and may negotiate for a first-click or assisted-conversion component, a longer cookie window, or a baseline CPA that does not depend on winning the final touch.
Worked example
An operator's last-click report shows a coupon affiliate as its top performer. A path analysis reveals that in 60% of those journeys a content review site was the first touch weeks earlier.
The operator keeps last-click for payment but adds an assist bonus for first-touch affiliates and validates with a holdout test, which confirms the coupon channel's true incremental value is much lower than last-click credited.
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