MyAffiliates: ‘Tracking the Truth’ podcast episodes three and four

Episodes three and four of MyAffiliates Tracking the Truth podcast focus on an issue the industry talks about in private, but rarely in public: disappearing players, disputed numbers and the uncomfortable gap between perception and reality.

This two-part series takes the same problem and examines it from opposite sides of the table. First from the affiliate perspective, then from the operator side. The result is not a clear winner, but a clearer picture of where the friction truly lies.

The affiliate POV

Episode three, ‘Vanishing Players’, featuring Joe Hatch, vice-president of product at StatsDrone, starts with a blunt premise: what happens when players don’t churn, don’t fail compliance, don’t obviously disappear, yet somehow stop existing in the affiliate view?

Hatch frames the issue as a “revenue leak”, with ‘shaving’ and ‘downgrading’ at the centre. Shaving is when players or revenue are removed from an affiliate account. Downgrading is more subtle; the player remains, but the commercial outcome changes. A lower revenue share. A different calculation. Less money at the end of the month.

One line from the episode cuts straight to the tension: “If it’s legitimate, it should be communicated. If it isn’t communicated, then it’s theft.” Hatch is clear there are legitimate reasons for removal – fraud, chargebacks and regulatory constraints – but silent changes destroy trust. And once trust is gone, every discrepancy becomes a battle.

More importantly, episode three moves the conversation beyond villains. It questions the structure itself. Affiliates control traffic. Operators control data. When numbers don’t align, the side without data ownership is always negotiating from a weaker position.

 Add to that inconsistent definitions, unclear deductions and revenue share deals that look attractive but lack precise calculation logic, and disputes become systemic rather than exceptional. Hatch’s frustration is not theatrical. It is structural. “Affiliates control the traffic, but they don’t control the data,” he says. That imbalance shapes everything.

The operator POV

Then episode four, titled ‘Calling out the other side of the table’, deliberately flips the lens. Here, the conversation shifts to the operator view with Fabiola Olaso, a 20-year industry veteran and co-founder of Women in Gaming.  

The same accusations are placed under scrutiny. Are players truly vanishing? Or is the market itself evolving faster than many are willing to admit?

Olaso does not deny shaving exists. She acknowledges cases where numbers simply do not make sense, with active players dropping off in ways that cannot be explained by normal churn. But she also introduces a second layer: changing player behaviour, aggressive incentive traffic, bonus rotation and the reality that “lifetime” attribution is far from uniformly applied across the industry.

One of Olaso’s strongest red flags is manual reporting. Affiliate programmes are still uploading data every 24 or 48 hours instead of relying on automated technologies.  Not because delays are inconvenient, but because they create room for interpretation before data reaches affiliates. In her view, automation reduces suspicion. Manual intervention invites it.

Episode four also surfaces a topic often underplayed publicly: affiliate-driven abuse. Incentivised traffic, coordinated CPA behaviour, organised groups manipulating deposit patterns and traffic designed to trigger payouts rather than create value. The message is not that affiliates are the problem, but that pretending abuse only flows one way is naïve.

Across both episodes, a pattern emerges.

• Opacity fuels mistrust
• Inconsistent definitions fuel disputes
• Lack of education fuels miscommunication
• Outdated terms fuel conflict

Both guests, despite approaching from opposite sides, converge on a similar solution: transparency must be operational, not cosmetic. Clear attribution rules, clear revenue calculations, automated data flows, defined traffic types and written terms that reflect today’s market, not yesterday’s assumptions.

Episode three names the imbalance. Episode four names the complexity.

Together, they expose something bigger than shaving or abuse. They expose an industry negotiating relationships without shared standards, shared language or shared accountability. And perhaps the most important takeaway from both conversations is this: mistrust does not start with fraud. It starts with silence.

Episodes three and four of Tracking the Truth are now live on YouTube and Spotify.

About MyAffiliates

MyAffiliates is a market-leading affiliate marketing software designed to help operators streamline and consolidate all their gaming brands and products under a single, powerful platform.

Trusted by top operators in igaming, forex, binary and lottery industries, MyAffiliates delivers scalable, data-driven solutions that optimise affiliate management and performance. Our commitment to continuous innovation and client-driven development ensures our platform evolves to meet the industry’s ever-changing demands.