Parasite SEO Is Thriving in iGaming — and It’s Costing Affiliates

If you’ve noticed your iGaming affiliate site slipping in the rankings despite great content, decent backlinks, and all the usual SEO hygiene, you’re not alone. A growing number of affiliates are being outranked by an old — and increasingly sophisticated — tactic: parasite SEO.

New analysis from several SEO specialists has confirmed what many in the affiliate space have suspected for months. Parasite SEO is back in fashion, and the iGaming niche is one of its favourite playgrounds.

What is parasite SEO?

Parasite SEO is when someone publishes content on an authoritative third-party domain — think major news outlets, .edu sites, or even public publishing platforms like Medium or LinkedIn — and uses that domain’s trust and backlink profile to rank quickly for competitive search terms.

In the iGaming space, this often means creating keyword-stuffed reviews, listicles, or “best UK betting sites” guides on these high-authority platforms. Because Google trusts the domain itself, it’s far more likely to rank those pages well, even if the content is thin or biased.

The result? Affiliates running legitimate operations on their own sites often get pushed down the rankings by these parasites — losing valuable traffic, revenue, and brand visibility.

Why it’s spreading now

There are a few reasons parasite SEO is seeing a resurgence in iGaming:

1. Google’s Helpful Content Update (HCU) hit hard: Many affiliate marketers reported a nosedive in rankings after recent Google updates. Pages that were optimised and well-written suddenly lost out to articles with weaker content but stronger domain authority.
2. Platforms are opening up publishing access: More authoritative sites are allowing sponsored posts, user-generated content, or pay-to-publish options. For example, a gambling operator might pay a newspaper site to publish a “Top 10 sportsbooks” article filled with affiliate links — and it ranks within hours.
3. AI content makes scale easier: Using large language models, marketers can pump out hundreds of articles optimised for every variation of a keyword. Combine that with high-DR platforms, and it’s easy to flood the SERPs.
4. Low risk, high reward: For many operators and black-hat SEOs, parasite SEO offers quick wins with little investment. If the page gets taken down or penalised, another can be spun up in minutes. For affiliates playing fair, it’s a nightmare.

Real-world impact on affiliates

One UK-based casino affiliate who spoke anonymously said their organic traffic dropped by nearly 40% over the past six months — despite improving content quality and link-building efforts.

“I’ve spent five years building a site with detailed reviews, clear compliance, and decent UX,” they said. “Now I’m getting outranked by pages on Forbes and Reddit that were clearly written in five minutes and stuffed with dodgy links.”

The real kicker? Many of these parasite SEO pages don’t even disclose affiliate partnerships properly, violating ASA and Gambling Commission rules in the UK. But because the content sits on a trusted domain, enforcement is difficult — and in many cases, regulators don’t even realise what’s happening.

Who’s behind it?

It’s a mix. Some operators run these campaigns themselves, hiring SEO agencies or freelancers to publish on third-party platforms. Others are run by affiliate arbitrageurs — marketers who grab the top spot, earn the click, and forward the lead elsewhere for a cut.

Then there are networks of expired domains and hacked sites quietly repurposed as parasite hosts. It’s not always easy to tell what’s legitimate anymore — and Google doesn’t seem to have an effective handle on it.

What can be done?

Unfortunately, not much — at least for now. Google has made vague statements about cracking down on “spammy third-party content,” but enforcement has been inconsistent. Many parasites continue to thrive.

Affiliates are left with a few (unsatisfying) options:

• Focus on long-tail keywords: Targeting specific, lower-volume queries can help bypass the parasite-heavy head terms.
• Use PR to build E-E-A-T: Getting real backlinks from respected sources can still make a difference — especially if the content includes genuine expertise.
• Diversify traffic: Affiliates relying solely on SEO are most vulnerable. Paid traffic, email lists, and even social can provide buffers.
• Monitor your niche: Tools like Ahrefs or SERanking can help identify when new parasite content starts climbing the rankings.

That said, none of this changes the fact that clean affiliates are competing against a model designed to cheat the system — and right now, it’s working.

The bottom line

Parasite SEO is a real and growing threat in iGaming affiliate marketing. It’s eroding trust in search results, undermining the efforts of genuine content creators, and skewing the playing field in favour of those willing to push the limits of compliance and quality.

If search engines don’t act soon, we may see even more affiliates abandon organic altogether — or worse, join the parasite game themselves. And that would hurt not just the affiliates, but players too.

Because when rankings are bought and sold on rented trust, everyone loses.

Let me know if you’d like a follow-up guide with strategies for spotting and countering parasite SEO in your own vertical.