Monitoring Domain Visibility in ChatGPT and Perplexity Using A-Parser
Executive Summary
We collected and analyzed 17,873 citation records from ChatGPT and Perplexity responses across 12 slot games, 6 commercial intents, and 4 target countries. The overlap of cited websites between the two AI systems was only 16.12%: ChatGPT prioritizes official providers and Reddit, while Perplexity heavily favors traditional affiliate review platforms. In this study, we highlight which types of sites gain visibility in AI search, how proxy routing reshuffles citations among competitors, and how to automate regular AI visibility monitoring with A-Parser while keeping AI API costs near zero.
A single manual check of ChatGPT and Perplexity responses fails to provide an accurate picture: AI search outputs fluctuate from session to session. For affiliates, operators, and SEO specialists, tracking how citation patterns change over time is critical—identifying which domains enter or drop out of AI responses, and how their citation share changes. In this article, we examine how target countries and proxy routing impact citation sources and explain how to automate regular data extraction.
Methodology: How We Measured
Open Dataset: The complete raw data from both the primary audit and the control test is available in our
public archive so the study can be reproduced.
For our experiment, we selected 12 slot titles with the most likes on Casino Guru at the time of sampling:
Gates of Olympus, Sweet Bonanza, Sugar Rush, Joker's Jewels, Wanted Dead or a Wild, Le Bandit, Book of Dead, Sizzling Hot Deluxe, 40 Super Hot, Hot Hot Fruit, Cleopatra, and
Fruit Cocktail.
For each slot game, we defined six commercial and conversational search intents:
- Real-Money Casino Search: Finding a place to play for real money (Where to play for real money).
- Affiliate Review Sites: Sites with casino ratings and reviews (Casino review sites).
- Crypto Casino Query (Explicit Source-Link Prompt): Crypto casinos with fast withdrawals + an explicit request for source links (Crypto casinos + Include source links).
- Crypto Casino Query (Standard Prompt): The same crypto query without a request for source links.
- Demo Mode: Free demo play without signing up (Free demo without signing up).
- Cross-Selection: Similar slots and the casinos where they are available (Similar slots & hosting casinos).
Queries were formatted using the template
[intent] + [game] + [country] in localized versions across four target regions:
- New Zealand: English (en-NZ) — e.g., Where to play Sweet Bonanza for real money in New Zealand.
- Brazil: Portuguese (pt-BR) — e.g., Onde jogar Sweet Bonanza com dinheiro real no Brasil.
- Mexico: Spanish (es-MX) — e.g., Dónde jugar Sweet Bonanza con dinero real en México.
- Kazakhstan: Russian (ru-KZ) — e.g., Где играть в Sweet Bonanza на реальные деньги в Казахстане.
We collected data from ChatGPT and Perplexity through two distinct proxy setups:
target-country residential proxies and a
mixed proxy pool (unlimited proxies with a random country assigned per request).
Additionally, we conducted a
Control Test: to isolate the effect of IP geolocation without geographic cues in the prompt, we ran 40 control runs (the same five English-language queries × 2 AI systems × 4 target countries). In this control test, queries were phrased strictly in English without mentioning country names (e.g.,
Where to play Sweet Bonanza for real money or
Best crypto casinos for slots), but were routed sequentially through residential proxies located in New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, and Kazakhstan.
Before analysis, all extracted URLs were normalized and deduplicated based on unique
query + URL pairs. The final dataset comprised
17,873 citation records (
7,571 for ChatGPT and
10,302 for Perplexity). We extracted six key fields:
Query | Country | AI Model | URL | Anchor Text | Snippet
Perplexity: Substantially Higher Citation Density
Comparing the average number of citations per response revealed a marked difference in model behavior:
Code:
13.14
ChatGPT (Average citations per response)
Range: 12.38 – 14.00 links
Code:
17.95
Perplexity (Average citations per response)
Range: 15.10 – 22.58 links
Average: 36.6% higher than ChatGPT
What This Means for iGaming Marketing: Perplexity returns an average of
36.6% more citation links per response (17.95 vs. 13.14 in ChatGPT), resulting in a higher citation density in the extracted data.
Countries and Proxies: How IP Routing Reshuffles Affiliate Citations
Comparing data runs performed via target-country residential proxies against those using a randomized proxy pool yielded two key findings:
1. Linguistic Context Keeps Country-Specific Domains Visible
Including local language phrasing and country names in the prompt text correlates with maintaining a high share of country-specific domain extensions (
.br,
.mx,
.co.nz,
.kz) in AI outputs, even when requests are routed through randomized global IPs:
- ChatGPT BR (.br): 34.49% (target-country residential proxies) → 36.14% (randomly selected country).
- Perplexity BR (.br): 33.89% (target-country residential proxies) → 33.60% (randomly selected country).
- ChatGPT NZ (.nz): 37.60% (target-country residential proxies) → 35.69% (randomly selected country).
- Perplexity MX (.mx): 18.43% (target-country residential proxies) → 18.77% (randomly selected country).
2. The Mix of Specific Domains Changes Significantly
While the overall share of local domain extensions remains relatively stable,
the mix of competing domains shifts substantially:
- Brazil (Perplexity): On targeted Brazilian residential IPs, niche crypto affiliate criptocassinosbr.com leads with 4.46%. However, switching to randomized IPs from a mixed pool cuts its share by more than half—down to 1.99%. The displaced share goes to larger sports and general gambling portals such as guiacassino.com (growing from 0.80% to 1.75%) and umdoisesportes.com.br (growing from 1.35% to 2.07%).
- Mexico (Perplexity): Local review site estafa.info accounts for 4.56% of citations in runs using Mexican residential proxies. On a mixed proxy pool, its share drops to 2.85%, losing ground to global operator stake.com (rising from 0.46% to 1.20%).
- Kazakhstan (ChatGPT): On Kazakh residential IPs, ChatGPT frequently cites official state portals gov.kz (+1.0%) and egov.kz (+0.8%). On random IPs, their share declines, with German site novoline.de gaining ground (reaching 1.3%).
- New Zealand (ChatGPT): Official portals such as dia.govt.nz (Department of Internal Affairs) and tourism.net.nz drop from 11 to 5 appearances when switching from target-country proxies to a randomized mixed pool.
IP-Only Control Test:
When country names were stripped from the prompts and identical English queries were routed through proxies in 4 countries, domain overlap in ChatGPT dropped to just 16.28%. Through Brazilian IPs, the model returned local 3z.com pages featuring PIX payment options, whereas New Zealand IPs returned country-specific directory paths like /nz/.
Key Takeaway: Proxy mode was associated with noticeable shifts in which competitor domains were cited. To extract an accurate regional snapshot, we recommend using target-country residential proxies.
Crypto Intents Have the Highest Citation Density
We evaluated how prompt structure and commercial intent affect citation volume.
1. Prompts Explicitly Asking for Source Links
Comparing two otherwise identical crypto-casino queries—one explicitly asking for source links and one without that request:
| AI System | With Source-Link Request | Without Source-Link Request | Density Change |
|---|
| ChatGPT | 15.23 | 13.31 | +14.4% |
| Perplexity | 24.06 | 27.19 | -11.5% |
In our dataset, explicitly instructing the model to provide source links was associated with a 14.4% increase in citation density for ChatGPT, but an 11.5% decrease for Perplexity.
2. Crypto Queries vs. Other Search Intents
Aggregating crypto queries (fast crypto withdrawals) and comparing them with all other search intents (demo play, real-money play, affiliate reviews, and slot alternatives):
- ChatGPT: 14.27 (Crypto) vs. 12.58 (Others) — a +13.4% increase.
- Perplexity: 25.63 (Crypto) vs. 14.09 (Others) — an 81.9% increase.
Conclusion: Transactional crypto queries were associated with the highest link density across both platforms, with Perplexity nearly doubling its link density (+81.9%).
303 Citations Don't Make a Site a Leader: Where AI Places Its Sources
Six Categories of Source Domains: From Industry Pillars to Parasite SEO
Classifying extracted URLs by domain type reveals that the entire citation ecosystem of AI search breaks down into 6 distinct categories:
1. Parasite SEO, Doorway Pages, and Low-Quality Long-Tail Pages (53.9% ChatGPT / 60.7% Perplexity)
- Volume: 810 unique domains from ChatGPT, 1,444 from Perplexity.
- Composition: Random blogs, doorway pages, irrelevant forums, and e-commerce sites (e.g., pukekohetraders.co.nz, kurortysaryagash.kz, 3z.com).
- Takeaway: These domains make up over 40% of unique domains but account for only 6–8% of total link volume.
2. Country-Specific Affiliates and Media (24.1% ChatGPT / 21.2% Perplexity)
- Volume: 293 domains from ChatGPT, 395 from Perplexity.
- Composition: Regional review portals and news outlets using country-code domain extensions (.br, .mx, .co.nz, .kz).
- Examples: criptocassinosbr.com, estafa.info, casino.co.nz, brasil247.com.
- Effect: These sources are more likely to appear when using target-country residential proxies.
3. Global Pillars and Major Affiliate Sites (10.4% ChatGPT / 11.7% Perplexity)
- Volume: 61 domains from ChatGPT, 106 from Perplexity.
- Composition: International affiliate sites with established SEO track records.
- Examples: casino.org, gambling.com, askgamblers.com, guru.casino.
- Behavior: Perplexity places 90% of these citations in footnotes at the end of the answer (positions 12–13).
4. Official Game Providers and Developers (6.0% ChatGPT / 0.9% Perplexity)
- Volume: 28 domains from ChatGPT, 11 from Perplexity.
- Examples: pragmaticplay.com, spribe.co, hacksawgaming.com.
- Control Test Insight: Prompts lacking country context were associated with ChatGPT defaulting to a single provider (pragmaticplay.com surges to 14.3% of all links).
5. Direct Operators and Crypto Platforms (1.6% ChatGPT / 4.0% Perplexity)
- Volume: 22 domains from ChatGPT, 55 from Perplexity.
- Examples: stake.com, bc.game, roobet.com, flush.com.
- Behavior: In Perplexity, stake.com is the most prominent domain in the source list (41.8% of its links appear in the Top 3).
6. Forums and UGC Platforms (2.4% ChatGPT / 1.3% Perplexity)
- Examples: reddit.com, quora.com.
- Fact: reddit.com has the strongest Top 3 presence in ChatGPT: 68.7% of its links appear in the top three positions.
Citation count is only the first layer of analysis. After normalizing
www, ChatGPT had 1,223 domains, while Perplexity had 2,019. Only 450 domains were shared: the similarity coefficient was
16.12%.
But citation frequency alone does not show how high a source appears in the list. Therefore, for each domain, we compared three metrics: citation count, average position in the source array, and the share of links appearing in the Top 3.
How to Interpret Source Position
Position here refers to the order of sources in the array saved by the parser. It does not show whether a link appeared in the first paragraph of the answer and cannot be used to infer CTR. In addition, Perplexity returns more links on average, so absolute position comparisons between the two systems should be made cautiously. The share of links in the Top 3 better reflects a source's relative prominence within the list.
| Domain | ChatGPT: Citations / Avg Pos / Top 3 Share | Perplexity: Citations / Avg Pos / Top 3 Share |
|---|
| reddit.com | 182 / 3.01 / 68.7% | 14 / 15.07 / 14.3% |
| askgamblers.com | 156 / 6.01 / 39.7% | 25 / 15.32 / 28.0% |
| pragmaticplay.com | 303 / 5.90 / 23.1% | 46 / 14.65 / 2.2% |
| casino.org | 36 / 9.89 / 16.7% | 216 / 12.17 / 10.6% |
| gambling.com | 141 / 6.51 / 29.1% | 207 / 12.52 / 13.5% |
| stake.com | 46 / 8.57 / 32.6% | 134 / 10.57 / 41.8% |
Three Metrics, Three Different Leaders
In ChatGPT,
pragmaticplay.com led in citation count, with 303 citations, but only
23.1% of its links appeared in the Top 3, and the domain held the top spot in the list 31 times.
reddit.com had 182 citations, but
68.7% of its links appeared in the first three positions.
askgamblers.com ranked first most often, with 38 first-place appearances. Thus, Pragmatic Play led in overall frequency, Reddit in Top 3 share, and AskGamblers in first-place appearances.
In Perplexity,
casino.org and
gambling.com led in citation count, with 216 and 207 citations. But only
10.6% and
13.5% of their links appeared in the Top 3.
stake.com had only 134 citations, but
41.8% of its links appeared in the first three positions, and the domain held the top spot 24 times, compared with 15 for gambling.com. Citation count, Top 3 share, and first-place appearances answer different questions, so they cannot be reduced to a single ranking.
Citation Counts Alone Aren't Enough for a Report
To see the underlying structure of the sources, we need to count citation volume, Top 3 share, and first-place appearances at the same time, and split the results by country and proxy mode. For example,
casino.org led in the overall Perplexity sample, while local sites received a notable share in country-level segments:
criptocassinosbr.com in Brazil,
estafa.info in Mexico, and
casino.co.nz in New Zealand. Even after the country was removed from the prompt text, identical English questions routed through IP addresses in different countries produced only
16.28% domain overlap in ChatGPT. A standard report based only on link counts would mix three different phenomena: overall frequency, position in the source list, and changes between countries.
The Long Tail Is Broad, But Its Weight Is Small
In ChatGPT,
478 out of 1,223 unique domains appeared only once (39.1%). In Perplexity, single-appearance domains accounted for
821 out of 2,019 (40.7%). However, these single-citation domains accounted for only
6.3% of total links in ChatGPT and
8.0% in Perplexity. Thus, the 40% figure represents the share of domain names, not the share of the entire output: recurring sources still provide most of the links.
At the same time, an unfamiliar domain name alone does not make a site low-quality.
pukekohetraders.co.nz received 43 links in ChatGPT, 29 of them in the Top 3. The Kazakhstan-based domain
kurortysaryagash.kz appeared five times in Perplexity and reached the Top 3 four times. Both domains look unexpected for an iGaming sample, but the pages themselves matched the queries. Therefore, long-tail domains should be evaluated based on page content rather than discarded only because the domain is unfamiliar.
️ Transitioning from One-Off Studies to Continuous AI Visibility Monitoring
A single data run captures a temporary snapshot of AI search results today. Only systematic, scheduled data collection enables marketers to track which domains remain visible, gain visibility, disappear, or appear for the first time in a given country. Continuous tracking turns one-off scraping into your own competitive intelligence system.
The A-Parser Scheduler enables complete automation of this workflow: upload your slot and brand lists, configure proxy parameters, and generate CSV reports on any schedule. Built-in FreeAI parsers also eliminate the need to pay for official AI API tokens.
A-Parser & Proxy Stack for ChatGPT & Perplexity Monitoring
A-Parser Pro
The Pro license costs
$299 as a one-time purchase. It includes the complete parser suite (featuring
FreeAI::ChatGPT and
FreeAI:: Perplexity), 6 months of updates, and 50 proxy threads for the first month. Once the update period expires, the software continues to work indefinitely.
A-Parser Unlimited Proxies
This is a practical solution for daily data collection. Pricing is based on the number of threads, not gigabytes of traffic. The pool includes more than 100,000 IPs and supports up to 2,000 threads, making it suitable for high-volume scraping with a fixed, predictable budget.
A-Parser Premium Residential Proxies
The pool contains more than 10 million residential IPs with country- and city-level targeting. It is used for precise country checks and control tests where reliable country-level geolocation is critical. Pricing is based on actual traffic consumed.
For day-to-day monitoring,
Unlimited Proxies handle routine scraping, while
Premium Residential Proxies are used for precise country-specific audits.
How to Launch AI Search Visibility Monitoring in Your Niche
- Install and launch A-Parser Pro or Enterprise.
- Build your query list: include target brands, products, competitors, or top games in your niche.
- Configure proxy routing: use Unlimited Proxies for routine monitoring and Premium Residential Proxies for target-country audits.
- Import pre-configured presets: download and import preset files for Perplexity or ChatGPT.
- Define CSV export schema: set output fields to query, geo, model, link, anchor, snippet.
- Schedule recurring tasks: set your desired scraping frequency (e.g., daily) in the Scheduler to track which domains appear and disappear over time.
After a few scheduled runs, you'll have your own AI visibility database for monitoring, evaluating, and optimizing your site's presence in generative AI search outputs.
This material is published strictly for analytical and educational purposes and does not constitute gambling advertising.
