February 23, 2026 · 10 min read

Sub-Affiliation 101: Building Your Referral Network

Scaling

Sub-Affiliation 101: Building Your Referral Network

Most casino affiliate programs offer sub-affiliate commissions. You earn a percentage of the earnings generated by affiliates you recruit. This is a key strategy covered in our casino affiliate income blueprint.

It's an additional income stream that can become significant—but it's not as easy as some make it seem.

How Sub-Affiliation Works

The Basic Model

Three-tier structure:

  1. Casino (pays commissions)
  2. You (primary affiliate)
  3. Your sub-affiliates (recruited by you)

Payment flow:

  • Player signs up through sub-affiliate
  • Sub-affiliate earns commission from casino
  • You earn percentage of sub-affiliate's commission

Typical Commission Structures

Common rates:

  • 5% of sub-affiliate earnings (most common)
  • 10% of sub-affiliate earnings (generous)
  • 2-3% of sub-affiliate earnings (conservative)

Example:

  • Sub-affiliate earns $1,000
  • You earn 5% = $50
  • Casino pays both of you

Important: This comes from the casino's margin, not from your sub-affiliate's earnings. They still get their full commission.

Where to Find Sub-Affiliate Programs

Most major programs offer it:

  • Check program terms for "sub-affiliate" or "referral"
  • Usually in the affiliate dashboard
  • Separate tracking links for recruiting affiliates

Programs like PureOdds offer competitive sub-affiliate rates, making them ideal for building referral networks.

The Real Economics

Income Potential

Let's be realistic:

Scenario: 10 active sub-affiliates

  • Average earnings per sub: $200/month
  • Your 5% cut: $10 per sub
  • Total: $100/month

Scenario: 50 active sub-affiliates

  • Average earnings per sub: $300/month
  • Your 5% cut: $15 per sub
  • Total: $750/month

Scenario: 100+ active sub-affiliates

  • Mix of earnings levels
  • Total: $1,500-5,000+/month possible

The Catch

Most recruited affiliates:

  • Never send meaningful traffic
  • Quit within 3 months
  • Earn very little
  • Generate minimal sub-affiliate income for you

The 90/10 reality:

  • 90% of sub-affiliates generate almost nothing
  • 10% generate most of your sub-affiliate income
  • Finding and retaining that 10% is the challenge

Break-Even Analysis

Question: Is recruiting affiliates worth your time?

Time investment:

  • Creating recruitment content
  • Answering questions
  • Providing support
  • Managing relationships

Compare to:

  • Same time spent on direct traffic
  • Direct earnings potential
  • Opportunity cost

Sub-affiliation makes sense when:

  • You can recruit efficiently (existing audience)
  • You enjoy helping other affiliates
  • Passive income outweighs active opportunity cost

Recruitment Strategies

Strategy 1: Content Marketing

Create content about:

How it works:

  • People find your content
  • They want to start affiliate marketing
  • They sign up through your sub-affiliate link
  • You earn on their future earnings

Pros:

  • Scalable
  • Passive recruitment
  • Qualified leads (already interested)

Cons:

  • Content creation time
  • Competition for these keywords
  • Takes time to rank/build audience

Strategy 2: Community Building

Build community for affiliates:

Provide value:

  • Answer questions
  • Share strategies
  • Build relationships
  • Sub-affiliate links to programs you discuss

Pros:

  • Deeper relationships
  • Higher retention
  • Multiple touchpoints

Cons:

  • Significant time investment
  • Need to provide genuine value
  • Community management overhead

Strategy 3: Direct Outreach

Identify potential affiliates:

  • Small gambling content creators
  • People asking about affiliate marketing
  • Adjacent niche sites

Reach out:

  • Offer help/guidance
  • Share your experience
  • Introduce programs through your link

Pros:

  • Targeted recruitment
  • Can find quality affiliates
  • Personal relationship from start

Cons:

  • Time-intensive
  • Low response rates
  • Not scalable

Strategy 4: Training/Courses

Create educational resources:

  • Free guides
  • Video tutorials
  • Mini-courses
  • Email sequences

Include sub-affiliate links:

  • Naturally recommend programs in training
  • Provide your referral links
  • Help them succeed (they'll earn more = you earn more)

Pros:

  • High-value leads
  • Builds authority
  • Natural recommendation context

Cons:

  • Significant upfront work
  • Competition from established courses
  • Need genuine expertise

Maximizing Sub-Affiliate Success

Why It Matters to You

Your sub-affiliates' success = your income:

  • Help them succeed, you earn more
  • Let them fail, you earn nothing

This is different from direct affiliate marketing where you control traffic and conversion.

Supporting Your Sub-Affiliates

Provide:

  • Getting started guidance
  • Program recommendations
  • Strategy tips
  • Answers to questions

Don't:

  • Recruit and abandon
  • Give misleading expectations
  • Provide no value
  • Spam recruit

Retention Focus

Most important metric: How long do sub-affiliates stay active?

Improve retention by:

  • Setting realistic expectations
  • Ongoing support
  • Celebrating their wins
  • Being available for questions

Quality Over Quantity

100 inactive sub-affiliates = $0 10 active sub-affiliates = meaningful income

Focus on:

  • Recruiting people who will actually work at it
  • Helping them succeed
  • Building relationships
  • Quality of recruits, not quantity

Common Sub-Affiliation Mistakes

Mistake 1: Unrealistic Promises

Wrong: "Passive income! Sign up affiliates and get rich!"

Reality: Most sub-affiliates earn little, you earn less.

Better: Be honest about realistic expectations

Mistake 2: Recruit and Abandon

Wrong: Get signups, never help them

Result: They quit, you earn nothing

Better: Support success, everyone benefits

Mistake 3: Wrong Program Choice

Wrong: Promote programs based on sub-affiliate rate

Result: Recommending bad programs hurts their success

Better: Recommend programs you'd actually use

Mistake 4: Ignoring Direct Earnings

Wrong: Focusing on sub-affiliation over direct traffic

Reality: Your direct earnings potential is usually higher. Focus on scaling your own traffic first.

Better: Sub-affiliation as supplement, not primary strategy

Mistake 5: No Systems

Wrong: Random recruitment with no tracking

Result: Can't optimize or improve

Better: Track where sub-affiliates come from, their activity, and their success

Tracking and Optimization

What to Track

Recruitment metrics:

  • Where sub-affiliates come from
  • Conversion rate (visitor to signup)
  • Quality by source

Performance metrics:

  • Sub-affiliate activity rate
  • Average earnings per sub-affiliate
  • Retention over time
  • Your sub-affiliate income trend

Optimizing Results

Based on data:

  • Double down on effective recruitment sources
  • Improve support for common failure points
  • Cut recruitment methods that don't work
  • Focus on high-performer retention

Disclosure

You should disclose:

  • That you earn from sub-affiliate referrals
  • Just as you disclose regular affiliate relationships (see disclosure requirements)
  • Transparency builds trust

Honest Representation

Don't:

  • Promise unrealistic income
  • Hide the difficulty
  • Mislead about time investment
  • Exaggerate your own success

Do:

  • Share realistic expectations
  • Be honest about challenges
  • Help them succeed genuinely

Program Terms

Check that:

  • Sub-affiliation is allowed
  • You understand the terms
  • There are no restrictions you'd violate

Is Sub-Affiliation Worth It?

Good Fit If:

  • You have an audience of potential affiliates
  • You enjoy helping others succeed
  • You can create valuable educational content
  • You're patient (takes time to build)
  • It supplements, doesn't replace, direct efforts

Skip If:

  • You're looking for quick money
  • You don't want to provide support
  • Your time is better spent on direct traffic
  • You'd need to mislead to recruit

Realistic Expectations

Year 1:

  • Recruit 20-50 affiliates
  • Maybe 5-10 stay active
  • Earn $50-200/month from sub-affiliation

Year 2+:

  • Network grows to 50-100+ active
  • Relationships deepen
  • Earn $500-2,000/month possible

Long-term:

  • If done well, meaningful passive income
  • But never truly passive—relationships require maintenance

Getting Started

Step 1: Choose Programs

  • Select 2-3 programs you genuinely recommend
  • Ensure they have sub-affiliate programs
  • Get your sub-affiliate tracking links

Step 2: Create Value

  • Develop helpful content for aspiring affiliates
  • Be genuinely helpful, not just promotional
  • Build audience in affiliate communities

Step 3: Recruit Thoughtfully

  • Quality over quantity
  • Set realistic expectations
  • Provide support from day one

Step 4: Support Success

  • Answer questions
  • Share strategies
  • Celebrate wins
  • Be available

Step 5: Track and Optimize

  • Monitor what works
  • Improve weak points
  • Double down on success

Conclusion

Sub-affiliation can be a meaningful income stream, but it requires:

  • Time: Building recruitment channels takes effort
  • Value: You must help sub-affiliates succeed
  • Patience: Income builds slowly
  • Honesty: Realistic expectations matter

Best approach:

  • Treat it as supplement to direct affiliate income
  • Provide genuine value to those you recruit
  • Focus on quality over quantity
  • Be patient and consistent

The math works when: Your sub-affiliates succeed. Help them do that, and everyone wins.

Once you've built a network of sub-affiliates, you might consider building a full affiliate team to manage them effectively.

Tagged with

  • sub-affiliation
  • referrals
  • passive income
  • scaling
  • network