Affiliate / Referral Scheme

Affiliates are external promoters who refer customers to your site and earn a commission on the paid orders that result. Common for raffle sites because influencer marketing is now a primary distribution channel, reaching an 18–35 audience with peer-trust and a native feel on Instagram and TikTok.

How it works

1. Your affiliate has a code (e.g. JANE10) and a unique link: https://<your-site>/?ref=JANE10.
2. When a customer clicks that link, our ref-capture client writes a aff_ref cookie with the code, 30-day lifetime.
3. At checkout, if the cookie is present and the code is still active, an affiliate_referralsrow is written tying the order to the affiliate. Commission accrues at the affiliate’s rate (typically 5–15%).
4. You see the running total in /admin/affiliates. Mark referrals as paid once you’ve sent the commission via bank transfer.

Commission structures that work

• Flat 10% across the board.Simplest. Pays for itself if the affiliate’s audience is targeted.
• Tiered: 5% / 10% / 15%. Affiliates above £5,000/mo in referred revenue jump to 10%; above £20,000/mo jump to 15%. Rewards the top creators without overpaying small ones.
• Flat + bonus.10% on every order plus a £200 one-off when an affiliate’s referrals first hit £10,000/mo. Cheap excitement-builder.
• Free product tier. Free entries instead of cash for smaller creators. Costs you very little.

Where to be careful

• ASA disclosure.UK affiliates must disclose “#ad” or “Paid partnership” on every post. Provide them an example caption + checklist. Your name ends up in any ASA ruling if you don’t.
• Gambling Commission rules. For UKGC-licensed operators, additional rules apply about who you partner with (no targeting under-18s, no irresponsible-play framing). For free-entry-route operators, the rules are looser but the spirit applies.
• Code reuse / fraud.The first-touch attribution cookie window is 30 days. A customer who sees an affiliate’s post today, clicks 25 days later, buys 4 days after that, is still attributed. Beyond 30 days, the attribution drops, since the customer was acquired elsewhere by then.
• Self-referral.Block the affiliate from using their own code on their own purchases. Today this is operator- managed (just don’t pay it). Future release: automatic check via the cookie.

How to enable

In your raffle admin: /admin/affiliates → New affiliate. Enter the customer’s email (they need to already have a signed-up account on your site), assign their code + commission %. Send them the unique link (auto-generated on the affiliate detail page). They can also view their own dashboard at /account/affiliate once logged in.

Related: UTM Tags & Attribution.