NDC (New Depositing Customer) in iGaming: Definition and How It Differs From FTD
New Depositing Customer (NDC) is a depositing player counted as new acquisition for a specific period or contract. It is closely related to FTD and often used interchangeably, but the two are not always identical. NDC tends to appear in affiliate contracts and regional reporting…
TL;DR
New Depositing Customer (NDC) is a depositing player counted as new acquisition for a specific period or contract. It is closely related to FTD and often used interchangeably, but the two are not always identical. NDC tends to appear in affiliate contracts and regional reporting (especially in Europe) with specific contractual requirements that go beyond a simple first deposit.
Formula
In its simplest form:
What makes NDC different from FTD is what counts as "new" and "depositing". Common contractual additions include a minimum first deposit amount, a requirement to settle a real-money bet within a defined window, a maximum elapsed time from referral click, and identity-level deduplication across operator brands.
A typical warehouse-level aggregation under a strict contractual definition:
Warehouse-level aggregationWITH ftd AS (
SELECT player_id, MIN(deposit_date) AS ftd_date,
SUM(deposit_amount) AS first_dep_amount
FROM deposits
WHERE deposit_status = 'completed'
GROUP BY player_id
),
first_bet AS (
SELECT player_id, MIN(bet_date) AS first_bet_date
FROM bets
WHERE stake > 0 AND bet_status = 'settled'
GROUP BY player_id
)
SELECT COUNT(*) AS ndc_count
FROM ftd
JOIN first_bet USING (player_id)
WHERE ftd.ftd_date BETWEEN :start AND :end
AND ftd.first_dep_amount >= :min_dep
AND first_bet.first_bet_date <= ftd.ftd_date + INTERVAL '30 days';Why it matters in iGaming
NDC is mostly an affiliate and contractual metric. It exists because affiliates and operators historically argued about which deposits should trigger payment. A player who deposits 5 EUR and never plays is technically an FTD but rarely justifies an affiliate commission. Contractual NDC adds the qualifications that make the metric tied to real value: minimum amount, real-money play, time window.
Different teams read NDC differently:
- Affiliate teams track NDCs against the specific definition in each affiliate contract.
- Marketing reports NDC alongside FTD to show the quality-adjusted acquisition number.
- Finance pays affiliate commissions on NDC counts, so the definition has direct cash impact.
- Executives read NDC as the higher-quality version of acquisition volume.
The relationship between FTD and NDC is itself a useful diagnostic. A wide gap (many FTDs that fail to become NDCs) signals low-quality acquisition where players deposit small amounts and never play. A narrow gap signals strong acquisition quality.
Common mistakes and how teams get NDC wrong
Treating NDC and FTD as synonyms in reporting. They overlap but are not identical. Reports that quote one definition's number under the other's name produce reconciliation problems and disputes with affiliate partners.
Inconsistent NDC definitions across affiliate contracts. Different affiliates often have subtly different contractual NDC definitions: different minimum amounts, different time windows, different settlement requirements. Operators that report a single internal NDC number create disputes with multiple partners simultaneously.
Applying NDC qualifications retroactively. If a player deposits today and the NDC qualification window is 30 days, the count cannot be finalised until those 30 days have passed. Operators that report NDC before qualification windows close produce numbers that change later.
Forgetting cross-brand attribution. A player who is new to one brand but already exists on a sister brand within the same operator group is sometimes counted as NDC for the new brand. Whether this is correct depends on the contract, but it needs to be explicit either way.
Ignoring chargeback and reversal effects. An NDC whose first deposit later chargebacks or reverses should be removed from NDC counts retrospectively. Operators that do not maintain this reconciliation overpay affiliates and overstate acquisition quality.
Healthy ranges and benchmarks
NDC is scale-dependent. Useful framings:
- NDC-to-FTD ratio is the cleanest acquisition quality signal, with stronger channels delivering higher ratios.
- Channel-level NDC variance is often larger than channel-level FTD variance, because NDC strips out the lowest-quality activity that channels generate at high volume.
- Affiliate channels typically deliver higher NDC-to-FTD ratios than paid display, reflecting their pre-qualified audience.
- Markets with stricter regulatory KYC tend to show wider gaps between FTD and NDC because of completion friction.
These are directional patterns based on industry observation, not strict benchmarks. The most useful comparisons are within operator over time and across acquisition channels.
How Gamblitude handles NDC
In Gamblitude, NDC is a governed Metric with multiple variants by contract type. Operators can configure NDC definitions per affiliate, per market and per channel, with explicit minimum-amount thresholds, qualification windows and identity-level deduplication. The platform reconciles NDC counts as qualification windows close, automatically removing chargebacks and reversals. Affiliate Lists, Reports and AI Agent answers all reference the appropriate NDC variant for each context, so there is no ambiguity in payment calculations or partner reporting.
FAQ
FTD is any first-ever real-money deposit by a player. NDC is a depositing player who meets specific qualification rules, often defined contractually with minimum amount, real-money play and time-window requirements. Every NDC is an FTD, but not every FTD becomes an NDC.
To align affiliate compensation with player value. A player who deposits 5 EUR and never plays generates no real value for the operator and rarely justifies an affiliate commission. NDC qualification rules ensure that affiliates are paid for delivering players who actually become customers, not just deposits.
Typically 7 to 30 days, depending on the contract. Shorter windows (7 days) put pressure on affiliates to deliver players who convert quickly. Longer windows (30 days) allow for more realistic deposit and play behaviour but delay reconciliation. Most modern affiliate contracts settle around 14 to 21 days.
Yes. A player whose qualifying first deposit later chargebacks should be removed from NDC counts. Operators that do not maintain this reconciliation overpay affiliates on transactions that produced no real revenue. Most modern affiliate platforms handle this automatically.
No. The same player should only count once for the affiliate whose referral was attributed under the cookie window or attribution model. Multi-affiliate attribution disputes are common in iGaming and need clear contractual rules to resolve.
Further reading
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