The sports betting industry is on one side, the attorney general’s office is on the other, and in the middle is the Mass. Gaming Commission regulators who will soon have to decide whether to allow certain marketing arrangements in Massachusetts.

At issue is third-party affiliate marketing, in which a company pays content websites and publishers to drive customers to its product. In the sports betting world, that often takes the form of sports betting-related websites that get paid to promote the legal sportsbooks they partner with.

Advertising regulations that the Gaming Commission promulgated on an emergency basis in January do not allow sports betting companies to enter into revenue-sharing or cost-per-acquisition agreements with third-party marketing affiliates if the compensation is based on the number of people who sign up for an account or based on the number or amount of wagers placed because of those advertisements.