CPA is the total marketing spend required to acquire one new depositing player at an iGaming brand, calculated as ad spend divided by NDCs.
Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)
TL;DR: CPA is the total marketing spend required to acquire one new depositing player at an iGaming brand, calculated as ad spend divided by NDCs.
What it means
In iGaming, CPA almost always refers to the cost of acquiring a real-money depositor, not a registration. Operators and affiliates use CPA to price media buys, evaluate channels (paid search, Meta, ASO, affiliate deals, streamers) and benchmark UA performance against LTV.
Affiliate CPA deals are also a commercial structure: an affiliate is paid a flat fee (e.g. $150) for each FTD they deliver, instead of revenue share. In that context "CPA" is the cost the operator pays the partner, not a media metric.
Formula / How it's measured
CPA = Total Acquisition Spend / Number of NDCs (or FTDs) in the same period.
Example: a LATAM sportsbook spends $80,000 on Meta + Google in a month and gets 1,000 FTDs. CPA = $80 per FTD. If only 600 of those are NDCs (the rest are reactivations), true acquisition CPA = $80,000 / 600 = $133.
Why it matters for operators
CPA is the gating metric for scaling paid UA. If CPA exceeds 6–9 month LTV the channel burns cash. CMOs use CPA-to-LTV ratios (target 1:3 or better) to decide budget allocation between brand, performance, and affiliates.
Common benchmarks (2026)
- LATAM sportsbook (MX, BR, PE, CL): $40–$90 per FTD
- LATAM casino: $60–$130
- Regulated EU casino (ES, IT, DE): $180–$350
- US regulated sportsbook: $300–$700 (state-dependent)
- Affiliate flat CPA deals: typically $100–$250 in Tier 2, $250–$600 in Tier 1
Common mistakes
- Mixing FTDs with NDCs and inflating CPA efficiency by counting returning depositors
- Ignoring bonus cost when comparing CPA across channels (a "cheap" CPA channel may carry $80 of welcome bonus)
- Reporting blended CPA instead of channel-level CPA, hiding loss-making sources
See also
- FTD — First Time Deposit
- NDC — New Depositing Customer
- CPL — Cost Per Lead
CPA vs CPC vs CPL vs CPM vs CPS
All five are cost metrics, but they price different events. CPM prices impressions (awareness, top of funnel). CPC prices clicks — useful for traffic buys but says nothing about player quality. CPL prices leads (registrations without a deposit). CPA prices the event that matters to an operator: a depositing player. CPS (cost per sale / revenue-share hybrid) ties payout to actual revenue and is the standard in affiliate deals. In iGaming media buying you optimize campaigns on CPC/CPM signals but you judge them on CPA and downstream LTV — a cheap click that never deposits is expensive.