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Where clicks really go
Between a button and the site where your customer lands, there are often more steps. We traced 1,597 links from the buttons of 717 sites. 15 igaming and crypto brands, August 27 to October 6, 2026.
links that lead off a site pass through at least one hidden step before the final site: 113 of 800
hosts in the middle appeared in the paths of two or more different sites. Such a host connects sites that look unrelated
final sites in two days behind two sites using the same brand name. 6 of them belonged to one operator
The button goes through a link-masking service
- “brand casino”
- Thailand
- 2026-08-26
- position 1
- brand-plus.com · “PLAY NOW”
- short-link.xx/plus-registerlink-masking service
- redirect-xx.com/register?affid=…&aftcamp=…affiliate ID and campaign
- final-xx.com/th-th/registerthe site where the customer lands
The brand's own site was not in the first 100 results for this search. The link-masking service does not appear in search results at all. Only a click shows it.
One link-masking service connected six sites
Six sites in three countries had different domains, designs and markets. Their buttons went through the same link-masking service. Nothing else connected them. The affiliate IDs along the way show which accounts get paid. You check these IDs against your affiliate program.
What sits between the button and the final site
| Step in the middle | What it does | From our data |
|---|---|---|
| Link-masking service or short link | Hides the real URL behind a neutral link. | 6 sites behind one service |
| Affiliate tracker | Records the affiliate ID and campaign, then sends the visitor on. | One network marks the traffic it sends as “seo_cross” |
| A link that sends different visitors to different casinos (a rotator) | The final site depends on the country, the day and the visit. | One button: 5 countries, 5 casinos |
| A redirect in a header | The site responds with “OK” and passes the visitor on. Simple checks do not follow it. | 4 sites in one country. Two of them, with the names of two brands, used the same affiliate link |
| A script on the site's own page | The button opens a page on the same site. A script there sends the visitor on. | 26 of 66 sites for one brand |
One button, many final sites
One button, five countries
The same button on one site, clicked from five countries
| Country | Final site |
|---|---|
| New Zealand | Casino A |
| Mexico | Casino B |
| United States | Casino C |
| Brazil | Casino D |
| Indonesia | Casino E |
It never led to the brand.
Two days, seven final sites
Two sites using the same brand name, August 26–27, 2026
| Site | Final sites | Operator |
|---|---|---|
| Site 1 | 3 domains | Operator A |
| Site 2 | 4 domains | Operator A (3), operator B (1) |
Two of these domains were registered half a minute apart, a week earlier. The brand's own team made some of the visits.
One visit does not give a reliable answer. We check more than once and record the operator, not only the domain. A rotator can also show a simple check a bot-protection page. Then we report “final site not found” and do not call the middle of the path its end.
The affiliate ID shows who is behind the sites
127 domains, 2 accounts
For one brand, 127 domains with its name led to two affiliate accounts. If the accounts are in your affiliate program, you close them.
One ID, two brand names
In 3 cases, the same affiliate ID was on sites with the names of two different brands. One account owner used both names.
A shared host does not mean one owner
One tracker host appeared in the paths of 11 sites with the names of 4 brands. Different affiliate IDs went through it. So we group sites by the ID, not by the host.
Trackers work the same way. One tracker campaign served six domains using the same brand name. Each domain had its own label in the link, and the campaign was the same.
How we trace a click
| Step | What you get |
|---|---|
| We open the site from a local IP address in its country | the site as your customers see it |
| We click each button and save its link | every button, not only the first one |
| We follow every redirect to the end | entry, middle steps, final site |
| We save affiliate IDs and campaign numbers | who gets paid for the click |
| We repeat on other days and from other countries | all final sites, not one |
| We group sites by affiliate ID and middle host | a network instead of a list of domains |
How we collected the data
Sample
- 15 brands in igaming and crypto.
- 1,597 links from the buttons of 717 sites. We traced 1,497 of them to the end.
- We traced each redirect from a local IP address in the site's country.
- The brand's own team found some of the final sites. We log them with the date, like our own.
- This is a snapshot as of the dates we checked. Final sites change every day.
What is not included
- 100 links did not open. They are “not checked”, not “clean”.
- Here we count redirects made by the server. A redirect made by a script on the page needs a browser, so we check it separately.
- A shared host or a shared address is not proof of a single owner.
- We do not name brands or sites.
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