Game Lounge Launches iGaming’s First-Ever Trust and Data Index For Affiliate Platforms

Game Lounge, a leading SEO-driven affiliate, has launched the Affiliate Trust and Data Index – iGaming’s first-of-its-kind, data-driven benchmark for affiliate platforms.

Designed to improve industry standards and bring much-needed transparency, the Index evaluates how well affiliate platforms – which mediate data between operators and affiliates – perform based on over 100 real-world data points.

Until now, affiliate platforms have operated largely without comparison or accountability, in a traditionally opaque, inconsistent affiliate tech landscape – with data discrepancies often arising from an operator’s poor choice of platform. 

The Affiliate Trust and Data Index challenges that dynamic, scoring platforms across three core pillars: granularity of data, usability of platform tools and security features, from a data-driven affiliate’s perspective. The Index scores each platform on criteria such as API quality, sub-ID tracking and support for 2FA, before being placed into a quadrant analysis that visually maps performance. All this encourages data accessibility, integration quality and operational transparency – elements that directly impact affiliate ROI and operator performance.

Game Lounge’s Affiliate Trust and Data Index is already reshaping how the industry makes tech decisions, explains Keith Cassar, CTO at Game Lounge. “Affiliate platforms have long been a black box. With better data helping operators to gain higher-value players, affiliates benefiting from stronger partnerships and performance gains, and platforms enjoying increased commissions through improved operator success, the Affiliate Trust and Data Index is a win-win-win for everyone.”

Meanwhile, the innovative quadrant system helps stakeholders identify those platforms that are data-rich but difficult to integrate (‘Manual Maze’), user-friendly but with a limited depth of data (‘Easy but Opaque’), lack both usability and data transparency (‘Black Box’) or, in the best cases, are highly usable and offer granular data (‘Gold Standard’). A smart, digestible ‘Usability vs Granularity’ quadrant also helps operators and affiliates navigate trade-offs and strengths across platforms, with security parameters built into the usability criteria such as support for 2FA using OTP, API key authentication and 2FA for sensitive changes including bank details, password updates or withdrawals.

“We’re not here to compare, we are here to raise the bar.“ This report shifts the conversation from vague opinions to measurable performance, empowering decision-makers across the industry to choose tech that supports performance. We’ve laid the foundations for healthy vendor competition based on real value rather than marketing, addressing a long-standing gap in the industry.”

This initiative also doubles as a consultancy-style service. Game Lounge has made the full Affiliate Trust and Data Index report available via a dedicated landing page and stands ready to advise affiliate platforms and operators on how to improve their score or select better tools, pioneering a stronger affiliate tech landscape for all.

Download the full PDF report and learn more at www.gamelounge.com/affiliate-trust-data-index-report