Boomerang Partners is running the third season of the Golden Boomerang Awards, its global affiliate tournament. In 2026, the format has grown beyond a short-term competition and now focuses on consistency and performance over time.
In this interview, Affiliate Team Lead, Kristina Shkredova, explains how the approach has changed, how affiliates behave across the season, and what value they get from participating beyond incentives.
How has the GBA concept evolved from a performance campaign into what you now describe as a full industry platform going into its third season?
At the beginning, some affiliates, I think, saw Golden Boomerang Awards as just another performance campaign – a chance to push traffic and get results over a short period.
But by the second season, the approach had already changed. Teams began preparing in advance, planning budgets and developing strategies for the entire competition, not just individual spikes.
When that happens, it stops being just a campaign. It becomes part of how affiliates plan their work.
Now, GBA is more like a space where affiliate teams worldwide can see their real level over time – how stable their results are, how they move on the leaderboard, and how they compare to others.
And at the same time, it’s a chance to demonstrate your expertise, become more visible in the market, and gain recognition for consistent results, not just a single strong period.
This year’s theme, ‘Beyond the Moment’, signals a clear shift in positioning. What drove the decision to move from short-term performance to long-term legacy?
From what we see in day-to-day work, short-term results are not that hard to achieve in affiliate marketing. You can catch the right moment, scale quickly, and get a strong spike.
The real challenge is to stay at that level over time.
That’s exactly where the idea of ‘Beyond the Moment’ comes from. It’s less about a single result and more about how consistently you can perform across different stages, with different conditions and pressure.
This year, we’ve reinforced that with the Golden Boomerang awards format itself. So, we split the five-month season into three stages, each with its own main prize. It naturally shifts the focus from quick wins to managing performance across the full distance.
In that sense, ‘legacy’ is not something abstract. It’s your track record – how you show up over time, not just in one strong period.
And this kind of format makes that very visible.
How important is it for affiliate programs today to build culture and narrative, rather than just offer commercial incentives?
I think it’s one of the key things today.
The market is very crowded, and from a purely commercial perspective, many affiliate programs look similar – offers, payouts, conditions. It’s hard to stand out just on that.
In reality, people choose who they work with not only because of numbers, but because of how they feel about the brand. If there’s a clear idea behind it, a certain style, a story –it builds a stronger connection.
That’s what culture and narrative give you. It’s not something abstract; it’s what makes the affiliate program more recognizable and easier to relate to.
In the long run, that plays a big role in whether partners stay and grow with you, or just switch to the next offer.
At what point did GBA transition from a marketing initiative into a strategic pillar of Boomerang Partners’ brand?
I’d say it became clear after the first season, when we started seeing not just participation, but consistent engagement.
At the beginning, it worked as a strong marketing initiative – something that attracts attention. But very quickly, it started doing more than that.
It began shaping how affiliates see Boomerang Partners itself – not just as a program, but as a partner that brings structure, competition, and recognition into the space.
At the same time, it’s not just about prizes, even though they are strong. What really stands out is the experience – access to places and moments affiliates wouldn’t normally get, like San Siro Stadium visits, private networking events, and more.
That creates a different kind of value and a sense of exclusivity around participation.
And when you see more teams joining every year, it’s a pretty clear signal that this approach resonates. At that point, it’s no longer just a campaign, but something that continuously builds the Boomerang Partners brand over time.
How do the different phases – Kickoff, Mid-Season, Playoffs, and Final – change affiliate behavior over time?
Right now, we’re only a few days into the 1st half, so most teams are just getting into it – testing setups, scaling what works, and trying not to lose time at the start.
At the same time, the stage itself already affects behavior. There’s a clear short-term goal – for example, the 1st half prize is a trip to Wimbledon – so teams are not only thinking about the overall ranking, but also about winning this stage.
As the competition goes on, teams usually stop experimenting so much and start playing more carefully. They look closer at their position, decide where it actually makes sense to push, and use the mechanics to pick up extra points.
Towards the end, it becomes a much tighter race. The gaps are smaller, so it’s less about trying something new and more about getting the most out of what already works.
In general, you can feel how the focus shifts – from testing at the start to much more precise, result-driven decisions closer to the finish.
Retention is a major challenge in long-running campaigns. How have you engineered the mechanics to keep partners engaged across five months?
Retention is always one of the hardest parts, especially in a long competition like this.
At a basic level, it’s about personalisation, segmentation, and constant testing. You need to see what works and adjust as you go.
In some GEOs, it’s very hard to do this properly without strong technical support and AI tools – you lose accuracy and speed, and that affects results.
The tournament itself also helps a lot. There are stages, mechanics, and a live leaderboard – you see movement, you see your position, and you understand that you can still improve.
Timing plays a role, too. This year is packed with major sports events, so there are always opportunities to scale, which naturally keeps participants active.
So it’s not one single thing – it’s a combination of tech, constant optimisation, and the way the competition is built.
From an affiliate’s perspective, what is the tangible business value of participating in GBA beyond prize incentives?
For many affiliates, it’s not just about competing but about pushing themselves a bit further.
The Golden Boomerang Awards gives a good environment for that. Affiliate teams do not work in isolation – they see how others perform, compare approaches, and that naturally makes them rethink their own strategy and improve.
For us, it’s also closely tied to our sports focus. We position ourselves as a sports-first affiliate program, and we see that many partners actually start working with sports traffic more actively through GBA.
We support that on our side as well. For example, earlier this year, we shared the Sports Marketing and Betting Calendar 2026 – a practical tool that helps affiliates navigate the schedule, plan around key events, and catch traffic peaks instead of reacting to them.
So the value is quite practical. It’s about gaining experience, improving your approach, and, in many cases, expanding into sports with a better understanding of how it works.
How does Time to Win strategically connect with the GBA?
Time to Win was a short, high-intensity tournament we ran earlier this year as part of our partnership with AC Milan.
For affiliates, it was a chance to quickly test setups,try different approaches, and see what actually works in the current conditions.
GBA continues that, but over a longer distance. It’s less about quick results and more about how consistent you can be over time.
There’s also a direct link between them. For some affiliates, results from Time to Win have carried over into GBA through bonus points, giving them a small advantage at the start.
The experience side is also connected. Through our partnership with AC Milan, both tournaments give access to exclusive experiences that are hard to get in a standard setup.
Thus, it doesn’t feel like two separate competitions. It’s more like a continuous flow – first you test and adjust, then you run it for a longer time to define the final result.
