AI Search Engines & iGaming Affiliates: Threat or Opportunity for Traffic?

[David Astor]

Hey guys,

Over the past few months, we've seen a massive surge in users relying on conversational AI tools (SearchGPT, Perplexity, Google Gemini) to search for top casino recommendations, game strategies, and bonus comparisons directly - bypassing traditional Google search results altogether.

Since these AI engines synthesize answer summaries instead of giving a list of 10 blue links, organic CTRs on classic affiliate review tables are taking a hit in certain GEOs.

I wanted to ask the SEOs here:

• Have you noticed any shift in your organic traffic patterns due to AI-generated search overviews?
• Is anyone actively optimizing for "Generative Engine Optimization" (GEO) to get their affiliate brands cited inside AI summaries?

Let's discuss where you see affiliate SEO heading as search habits continue to evolve.

 

[LuckyBuddhaAffiliates]

Many sites have seen a 30%-40% drop in organic traffic this year from Google - with Rich Snippets and AI overviews being used more.

The average position 1 result is now on average 5 years old - with only ~2% of pages making Page 1 in Year 1.

GEO/AI optimisation has become a much quicker cost-effective SEO channel, than traditional organic search, in my opinion.

 

[topcaz]

taking into account the quality of information in our niche, I think the AI will not be able to cover the needs of main part of the users at least for next 5 years

 

[Mother Of Ads]

Public data point: Catena Media's preliminary Q3 (16 Oct) showed revenue down 29% to €8.3m, and the company blamed generative search and weaker rankings. On GEO, a Fintel Connect study of 2,400 AI answers in finance found citations on 90% of decision prompts ("which", "best") but 8.8% of explainer-style ones. Finance, not gambling, so test it on your own queries.

 

[Richo]

Public data point: Catena Media's preliminary Q3 (16 Oct) showed revenue down 29% to €8.3m, and the company blamed generative search and weaker rankings. On GEO, a Fintel Connect study of 2,400 AI answers in finance found citations on 90% of decision prompts ("which", "best") but 8.8% of explainer-style ones. Finance, not gambling, so test it on your own queries.

On the gambling side, SEOmonitor’s UK Q3 snapshot for “best online casinos” shows the cited sources are mostly mainstream media like talksport, independent and thesun, not affiliate review sites. Studies on AI search also keep finding a strong bias toward third-party coverage over brand-owned pages. So GEO probably means getting mentioned on those publishers rather than polishing our own toplists. Has anyone checked which domains get cited for their main money queries?

 

[Mother Of Ads]

We also ran a test of our own on 23 October. For "best online casinos UK", Google AI Mode cited talkSPORT, Evening Standard, Racing Post, The Sun and Oddschecker, so mostly media, as you say. For "best casino affiliate programs 2026" it cited Track360, Fatads and AFFCatalog. If you get interesting results from your own checks, please share them in this thread.

 

[Velocitix Agency]

I ran a similar check on a few casino queries and saw the same pattern — big media brands getting cited, affiliate toplists mostly not. One thing I noticed is that it changes a lot with the wording: 'best' type prompts pull media lists, while explainer questions are more open to specialist sites. Making the top of the page a short, direct answer with dated facts, licence and payout details, seems to matter more for getting cited than polishing the toplist itself.

 

[Mother Of Ads]

Thanks for sharing your check, Velocitix. We also noticed that the cited sources change when we repeat the same queries. It's a very interesting topic to study, and we'll keep following other people's comments and experience here.

 

[Qumia]

Yes, these changes are already noticeable. I think GEO will gradually become an important part of SEO, so it's worth adapting content for AI search instead of relying only on traditional Google results.