Guest: Alessandro Gherardi, Co-founder, Fomento
Host: Jack Crabtree, Head of Sales, Gamecheck
Jack Crabtree sits down with Alessandro Gherardi, co-founder of the iGaming affiliate agency Fomento, to explore how affiliates decide which operators deserve their traffic, and what changes when a market like Brazil moves from grey to regulated almost overnight.
Brazil's regulated betting market has forced every affiliate operating in the region to rethink how they choose partners. Alessandro Gherardi, co-founder of Fomento, an affiliate network focused on Brazil and the wider LATAM region, has spent six years building traffic relationships across the region, and joins Jack Crabtree to talk about what that experience has taught him about trust, traffic and the choices affiliates face every day.
The conversation covers how affiliates are vetted before they're allowed to send traffic, what operators need to prove before Fomento will work with them, why withdrawal speed and fake games are the two factors that make or break trust, how regulation has professionalised the Brazilian market, and the risks that sit behind bigger payouts from unregulated offers.
Fomento puts affiliates through KYC checks, reviews their traffic sources and screens for fraud before any partnership begins. Alessandro explains that this vetting process exists to protect the operators they work with, as much as it protects players who click through from affiliate traffic.
The same scrutiny works in both directions. Affiliates are also weighing up operators, looking for signals that a brand can be trusted with their traffic and their audience's money.
Withdrawal speed is the number one test affiliates use to judge an operator, according to Alessandro. If players can't get paid out quickly and reliably, the relationship doesn't last, regardless of how attractive the commercial terms look on paper.
Fake games are treated as an absolute deal-breaker. An operator offering manipulated or copycat titles is not someone Fomento will send traffic to, whatever the pay-out terms suggest.
Alessandro describes how regulation has changed the affiliate business in Brazil, pushing operators and affiliates alike towards more professional standards. Licensing requirements have raised the bar for compliance, reporting and how affiliates are expected to operate.
That shift also exposes the risk behind unregulated offers that still promise bigger pay-outs. Alessandro sets out why chasing higher commissions from operators outside the regulated market carries risks that outweigh the short-term upside, both for affiliates and for the players they send.
Growing an affiliate business in a market that is still settling into its new regulatory framework means constantly reassessing which operators and offers are safe to promote. Alessandro talks through how Fomento balances growth with compliance as the Brazilian landscape continues to shift.
He also points to a pattern he sees regularly: affiliates going direct to operators once a relationship has proven itself. Alessandro frames this as a natural part of the cycle rather than a threat, and shares the biggest mistakes he sees affiliates make when they try to scale too quickly.
Affiliate networks like Fermentoto run KYC checks, review an operator's traffic sources and screen for signs of fraud before agreeing to send traffic. This protects both the network's reputation and the players who click through from affiliate links.
Affiliates use withdrawal speed as a reliable signal of whether an operator treats players fairly. If payouts are slow or unreliable, players complain, trust breaks down, and the affiliate relationship rarely survives.
Yes. Unregulated operators may offer bigger commissions, but the trade-off is weaker player protection and greater compliance risk for the affiliate. As markets like Brazil regulate, working with licensed operators becomes the safer long-term strategy.
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Gamecheck Insider is the official podcast from Gamecheck, the independent game integrity platform for online casino players and operators. Each episode features candid conversations with industry figures, player protection advocates, and the Gamecheck team on the subjects that matter most: fake games, fair play, and the realities of the online casino world. New episodes are available on YouTube.
