NGR Meaning: What Is Net Gaming Revenue in iGaming

NGR meaning: NGR stands for Net Gaming Revenue — GGR minus the bonuses and promotions given to players and, in some markets, industry-specific taxes or fees. If an operator had US$15,000 in GGR over a period and gave out US$3,000 in bonuses, NGR is US$12,000 (illustrative numbers) — the closest figure to “what the house actually kept” before overhead like staff, infrastructure and traffic acquisition.

What is NGR and how to calculate it

NGR = GGR − bonuses and promotions − sector taxes and fees (in some markets)

The exact deductions aren’t universal. Each operator — and each affiliate contract — defines what comes out of GGR to reach NGR: bonuses almost always, sometimes taxes, payment fees or platform costs. If you’re paid on NGR, the definition in your contract is the one that counts.

NGR is not profit

Like GGR, NGR still isn’t net profit. It deducts bonuses and sector taxes, but not operating costs, payroll or what the operator pays affiliates and media buyers to bring in players. NGR is one step deeper into the math than GGR, not the end result.

Why NGR matters if you run traffic

NGR rarely shows up directly for media buyers — it stays on the operator’s side. But it matters because it’s the most common base for the revshare model: instead of paying a fixed amount per FTD (the CPA model), the operator passes the affiliate a recurring share of the NGR each player generates while they stay active. That changes the incentive on the traffic side. With CPA, what matters is FTD volume. With revshare on NGR, what matters is bringing players who deposit, play and don’t burn everything through bonuses — because bonuses reduce the very NGR the payout is calculated on.

NGR vs GGR in practice

The gap between the two is most visible at operators that invest heavily in welcome bonuses or cashback to attract and keep players: two operators can have the same GGR, but the one that hands out more bonuses has lower NGR — and pays less revshare because of it. If you’re paid on revshare, this explains why the same FTD volume can generate very different payouts depending on each operator’s bonus policy.

NGR and tracking

Neither metric (GGR or NGR) reaches the media buyer’s tracking — what reaches it is the FTD, via postback, signaling that a click turned into a deposit. Still, knowing whether you’re paid on CPA or on revshare over NGR changes what’s worth optimizing in the campaign: raw FTD volume, or the quality of players who stay active and deposit again.

See what CPA means in iGaming for the difference between CPA and revshare in more depth, the GGR vs NGR comparison for the full side-by-side, and the real CPL ranges by vertical to compare what a lead costs you with what the operator pays back for it.