A 6-point FTD quality audit before you scale a source

A 6-point FTD quality audit before you scale a source

Volume lies. A source pushing 80 FTDs (first-time deposits) a week can be worth less than one pushing 30. Audit before you 5x the budget.

▸ Check 1 — Deposit-to-FTD median. Below $40 median deposit on a Tier-1 GEO is a red flag for incentivized or bot traffic.
— Check 2 — Second-deposit rate at day 14. Healthy sports traffic sits 30-45%. Under 20% means one-and-done players who never repay CPA.
— Check 3 — Bonus-only ratio. If over 60% of FTDs never wager past the welcome bonus, NGR (net gaming revenue) will collapse next month.
— Check 4 — Time-to-FTD. Sub-2-minute signups skew toward fraud; 1-3 day windows skew toward real intent.
— Check 5 — Chargeback / reversal rate above 4% eats your effective payout silently.
— Check 6 — GEO-mix drift. A source quietly swapping Tier-1 for Tier-3 to hit volume targets.

Fail two or more and you're scaling a leak, not a winner.

Benchmark of the day: across ~25 audited sources, the ones clearing all six held month-3 retention above 28%; the rest averaged 11%.