Each new IPL season feels like a stress test, even for experienced affiliates. This makes sense, as the market has long been saturated with competitors fighting for user attention. At the same time, players have become far more selective after years of aggressive offers, so the cost of mistakes continues to rise. In this special Point of View edition, we asked the affiliate teams at Already Media and Growe Partners to share their insights on how traffic behaves this season, where money is being lost, and how to adapt to India’s biggest tournament’s constantly shifting dynamics.
How has traffic dynamics changed?
Traffic trends during the two days before and after the event launch were in line with expectations. Compared to non-event periods, average daily traffic increased by 200-300%, with peak hours in the evening. By the end of the first week, performance had stabilized at typical seasonal levels, with growth in the 125-150% range. However, in the second week, the pattern shifted and diverged noticeably from previous years. Average growth dropped to 10-15%, with occasional spikes of up to 50% depending on the match’s significance. – Already Media
Traffic has become highly event-driven, with most deposits happening during live matches. This has made auctions more aggressive, as CPC can spike within minutes during peak times. Only teams that can manage bids in real time are able to stay competitive. – Growe Partners
What matters more for results: speed or preparation?
Both factors matter. It’s easy to get stuck in the preparation phase, endlessly refining the “perfect” plan and never moving on to execution. On the other hand, rushed decisions can lead to losses when the stakes are highest. The key is balance: having well-developed core scenarios and frameworks combined with the ability to quickly launch an MVP and scale from there. – Already Media
Speed is important for testing, but solid infrastructure now outweighs quick, unprepared launches. In a competitive IPL environment, success comes from a well-built funnel — from warmed-up accounts to stable apps. Profit today is the result of consistent, high-quality groundwork. – Growe Partners
Why don’t classic bonuses and universal funnels work anymore?
They do, just not the way they used to. The market has matured and become more crowded. Acquisition and retention costs have both increased. Without staying aligned with trends or offering a clear differentiator or strong USP for your target audience, it’s easy to fall behind. Standard approaches still deliver results, but they’re less effective than well-developed, tailored strategies. What used to be a competitive advantage is now the bare minimum. – Already Media
The Indian market has matured, and users have seen thousands of similar offers. Generic funnels often ignore regional and cultural differences, as well as varying fan engagement. Personalization now wins — users respond better to offers that connect them to their favorite teams. – Growe Partners
What impacts conversion the most today?
It’s the same as with bonuses and traffic setups: what used to deliver maximum results is now just a basic requirement. On the operator side, features like fast and universal payment methods, one-click flows, and single-email onboarding used to be standout features. Today, they’re standard. The same applies to personalized tournaments and well-designed leaderboards with bonus mechanics. What once drove strong performance is now expected by default. Lightweight native apps, strong retention and support, and clear USPs tailored to specific audiences all fall into this category. – Already Media
Payment flow is the biggest bottleneck — without one-click payments, you can lose up to half of potential deposits. Product stability is also critical, as only platforms that can handle peak IPL traffic without issues maintain strong conversion rates. – Growe Partners
Where does the funnel break and budgets burn fastest?
Well-known bottlenecks include landing pages, slow response times, payment delays or limited payment options, low-quality or irrelevant traffic, heavy products and UX, and overly generic positioning. However, the bigger risk is a lack of clarity around what constitutes a sufficient end result and an inability to identify and stop ineffective strategies. – Already Media
Budgets are wasted on broad targeting without timing strategy, especially when buying expensive pre-match traffic without warming up users. Poorly optimized creatives and slow-loading mobile pages also kill performance, as most users won’t wait for the first screen to load. – Growe Partners
Which traffic formats perform best during live events?
It depends on how you define results. If your goal is to generate initial volume with a strong CTR, high-scale formats like shorts, pop-ups, push notifications, banners, and even email can deliver that. You shouldn’t expect high LTV or fast payback from these channels. If you need high-quality traffic, SEO and influencer traffic can deliver it, each with its own specifics. For example, if you expect an ARPU of $100 or more from a hypothetical user flow on Chicken Road, it might take a very long time. – Already Media
Short-video creatives, especially “15-second prediction” formats with direct links, drive the highest CTR as users scroll during match breaks. Event-driven in-app and push notifications also perform well when tied to real-time moments rather than generic calls to action. – Growe Partners
What is the hardest to control: traffic, attribution, or user quality?
User quality is a key challenge. Traffic control is simple if you have the right systems. Attribution is also manageable; it comes down to a solid setup and a structured approach. Quality is harder to define. It’s usually evaluated using a combination of experience, testing, comparative metrics, historical data, and the capacity to terminate underperforming channels promptly. This is an ideal scenario. In reality, traffic volumes always include users of varying quality, and performance becomes clear over time, especially during major events. Early diagnostics, a structured evaluation model, and segmentation are essential. They form the baseline for protecting budgets from fraud, bonus hunters, and low-value traffic sources. – Already Media
User quality is the biggest challenge, mainly due to low LTV. The market is saturated with bonus hunters and short-term players driven by IPL hype. The hardest task is filtering out users who make a single deposit and churn immediately after. – Growe Partners
Conclusion
The old approach of jumping in, pushing volume, and taking the profit no longer works. This year made it clear that the IPL is not an easy way to enter the industry anymore. However, that doesn’t mean it’s time to step back or look for other niches. A maturing market signals the need to rethink your approach, infrastructure, and processes. And for brands it’s a good opportunity to allocate budgets more strategically by partnering with experienced teams that understand the cost and true value of every acquired player.
