Business & Operations

Net Gaming Revenue (NGR)

NGR is GGR minus bonuses, gaming taxes, payment fees and (depending on the contract) platform and content fees. It's the figure most revenue-share deals are paid on.

What it means

A casino brand closes the month at 480,000 in gross gaming revenue. Its biggest affiliate is on a 30% revenue share and expects 144,000. The statement says 57,000. Nobody cheated. The deal is paid on NGR, not GGR, and the gap between the two is where most of an operator's cost base lives.

Net Gaming Revenue takes GGR and subtracts the direct costs tied to generating it: player bonuses and free spins, gaming duty, payment processing, and often platform and content fees. Unlike GGR, it has no statutory definition; it's a contract term. Two operators with identical GGR can report NGR 20 points apart because one deducts content royalties and the other doesn't. Pin the definition down in writing before a deal is signed.

The formula

NGR = GGR − bonus cost − gaming tax − payment fees − platform and content fees (if the contract says so)

Component	What goes in	Typical range
GGR	Stakes minus winnings paid	100%
Bonus cost	Bonus money wagered through or withdrawn, plus free spin winnings	15-30% of GGR
Gaming tax	Duty on GGR or turnover, by licence and market	0-40% of GGR
Payment fees	PSP charges, chargebacks, FX. A rolling reserve isn't a cost, it's held cash	3-6% of GGR
Platform and content fees	Aggregator or studio royalty, PAM fee	8-20% of GGR

Affiliate contracts usually stop after gaming tax and payment fees; platform contracts and investor decks often include the last row. Some affiliate programmes replace the list with a flat "admin fee" of 15-25%. Read the definition clause, not the headline percentage.

Why it matters for operators

NGR is your margin before marketing and salaries. In a taxed European market, keeping 45-60% of GGR as NGR is healthy. Below 40%, the brand is over-bonusing or in the wrong tax jurisdiction.

It also prices everything you outsource. A 30% revenue share on NGR costs far less than the same rate on GGR once a generous welcome offer is in play. And when a buyer runs an M&A valuation, the multiple goes on NGR or EBITDA, never on gross.

Worked example

A mid-size casino, licensed in Malta, selling into one market with a 20% GGR tax.

Line	Amount	Note
Deposits	1,000,000	Context only
Total stakes	9,600,000	Deposits recycled through play
Winnings paid	9,120,000	Blended RTP around 95%
GGR	480,000	Stakes minus winnings
Bonus cost	−96,000	20% of GGR
Gaming tax	−96,000	20% of GGR
Payment fees	−40,000	4% of deposits
Content and aggregation fees	−57,600	12% of GGR
NGR	190,400	39.7% of GGR

On this NGR the 30% affiliate deal pays 57,120. Quoted on GGR it would've paid 144,000. Smaller scale, same logic: 50,000 GGR minus 12,000 in bonuses and 5,000 in gaming tax gives an NGR of 33,000, a third below gross.

How to increase NGR

You either grow GGR or shrink a deduction line.

Cut bonus cost, not bonus count. Tighter wagering requirements and game weighting push bonus money through low-RTP games. Five points off adds 24,000 to the example above.
Fix the payment mix. Cards and e-wallets cost 3-6%; open banking and PIX run under 1.5%.
Renegotiate content. Two points off the aggregation share beats most CRM campaigns.
Pick markets by after-tax NGR, not GGR. A 5% MGA market and a 40% UK market don't deserve the same bonus budget.
Stop leaking to bonus abuse and multi-accounting. Track NGR per player next to ARPU.

How platforms handle it

iGamingHub tracks the revenue model of 44 platforms: 30 charge a revenue share, 7 a hybrid of fixed fee plus share, and 7 a fixed price.

Softswiss is listed with a hybrid model and licences covering MGA, Curacao, ONJN, Kahnawake and Brazil, so the NGR definition in the annex decides how hard the variable part bites. EveryMatrix runs on revenue share and is also a large content aggregator, so content fee and platform fee can land in the same deduction line. Slotegrator is one of the fixed-price entries, so the vendor bill doesn't move when NGR does. The Softswiss vs EveryMatrix comparison walks through both pricing structures.

Common confusions

GGR vs NGR vs turnover: GGR is stakes minus winnings, NGR is what's left after direct costs, and turnover (handle) is total stakes. A sportsbook with 10 million handle at 7% margin has 700,000 GGR.

NGR vs net revenue: listed operators report revenue as GGR minus bonuses, before tax and fees. Affiliate NGR deducts tax and fees but often not content.

Regulators don't tax NGR. The UKGC taxes gaming profits with free plays counted as stakes, the MGA taxes gaming revenue, Brazil's SPA taxes GGR at 12%, and Curacao's GCB charges fixed fees. The GGR page covers each base. NGR stays a private number between you, your vendors and your affiliates.