1% - GPWA Times

Transcription

1% - GPWA Times

8
LETTER FROM
THE DIRECTOR
James Lowery explains that search marketing is a lot
like fishing: some people use single lines and some
cast wide nets – nets that Google Panda is designed
to remove.
T
GPWA
Executive Director: Michael Corfman
Marketing Director: Andrea Mullaney
Program Manager: Steven Corfman
Forum Moderator: Anthony Telesca
Membership Manager: Nancy Troy
GPWA Times Magazine
Managing Editor: Vin Narayanan
Senior Editor:
Aaron Todd
Associate Editor:
Dan Igo
Copy Chief: Bill Riley
Designer: George Choi
Advertising
To advertise in the GPWA
Times, please e-mail: [email protected]
Subscriptions
For a FREE subscription to
the GPWA Times Magazine,
visit: gpwatimes.com
he fallout from Black Friday is still with us. In
this issue, our 17th (which will be distributed in
September at the Barcelona Affiliate Conference and the
EiG Congress & Expo in Milan), Vin Narayanan and Aaron
Todd give updates on what’s been happening over the
past few months, and Jeremy Enke shares some ideas
for what webmasters can do about it.
28
Our cover story, by Aaron Todd, examines the
phenomenal growth of live streaming as online
sportsbooks develop and expand live sporting event
coverage on a scale that makes Vegas sportsbooks look
primitive by comparison. What does this mean for you?
How about increased revenue!
54
Also in this issue: Louis Deering of Income Access
shows us how to structure our data analysis so as to
avoid information overload (or “filter failure”); Connie
Burstin extols the benefits that come when affiliates
and affiliate managers “play nice” together; Sinead
Lambert shares with us some of the stats that are
tracked by OLBG.com and explains why knowing stats
of this type will help you accurately determine how
and whom you should be promoting; James Lowery
takes a look at Google’s Panda update to their ranking
algorithm; and Vin Narayanan analyzes the condition
of online gambling in France more than a year after it
was regulated.
I also encourage you to check out this issue’s affiliate
manager interview; five affiliate interviews, photos
from Ireland (taken by yours truly) and Canada, and
the Departments – the latest industry news, numbers,
quotes, updated lists of GPWA sponsors, the cartoon
caption contest, the Wall of Shame, and a revamped
Events Calendar, where you’ll find information
about our brand-new GamingMeets.com site – it’s
absolutely fabulous!
Before I sign off, a reminder: if you’re not getting the
GPWA Times Magazine in the mail, make sure you stay
in the loop by subscribing to the print edition right now.
Visit gpwatimes.com to start your free subscription. The
price is right, and what’s inside is priceless.
Sincerely,
Michael A. Corfman
GPWA Executive Director
ISSN 1941-9872
Google Panda – What It Means, and
What You Can Do!
Cover Story:
Live Stream Goes Mainstream
Aaron Todd takes a look at what’s driving the
phenomenal growth of live online sporting event
coverage by sportsbooks. Hint: people like to bet
on it.
Online Betting in France –
A Taxing Situation
Vin Narayanan discovers that more than a year
after France began licensing online gambling, the
cautious optimism of gaming executives has given
way to frustration.
64
Strategies for U.S. Poker Affiliates
Moving Forward
Jeremy Enke advises us that, in Black Friday’s
aftermath, promoting online poker to U.S.
players is a risk-reward proposition.
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
12
Fairway Charity Golf Tourney Raises €1,400
18
Dublin and Niagara Falls Photo Galleries
34
I’ll Show You My Stats If You Show Me Yours!
by Sinead Lambert
50
Can’t We All Just Get Along? by Connie Burstin
56
Affiliate Marketing by the Numbers, by Louis Deering
60
Black Friday: Bad for Some, Better for Others,
by Aaron Todd
62
Judgment Day Delayed for Full Tilt, by Vin Narayanan
DEPARTMENTS
4
Webmaster News
6
By the Numbers
7
Cartoon Caption Contest
38
Affiliate Interview Series
52
Affiliate Manager Interview
67
Event Calendar
68
GPWA Sponsors
72
APCW’s Wall of Shame
WEBMASTER NEWS
QUOTABLES
“The current system for regulating
remote gambling doesn’t work.
Overseas operators get an unfair
advantage over U.K.-based
companies, and British consumers
who gamble online may have little
or no protection depending on
where the operator they deal with
happens to be based.”
– John Penrose, Minister for Tourism and Heritage
in the U.K.
“This lack of activity by law
enforcement led to a significant and
growing perception that operating
Internet poker and other Internet
gambling did not violate U.S. laws,
or at least that the Department of
Justice thought that the case was
uncertain enough that it chose not
to pursue enforcement actions.”
– Sen. Harry Reid and Sen. Jon Kyl, in a letter to the
U.S. Department of Justice
“I don’t think those things appear
on someone’s website by accident.
It’s a deliberate action by him
to demonstrate a willingness to
have a different look at poker.
It’s something we always felt was
going to be the case with Sen. Kyl.”
H2 revises online gambling revenue forecast downward
By Aaron Todd
A
fter analyzing the first five months of
data and taking into account recent
developments in the United States and
Japan, H2 Gambling Capital has revised
its forecast for revenues for the online
gambling sector down from €25.0 billion to €23.76 billion. The former number
would have represented a rate of growth
of 10.2 percent, while the latest projection
predicts growth of just 4.4 percent, the
lowest increase since H2 started tracking
the industry in 1998.
“Black Friday (and subsequent actions
occurring in the U.S.) has decimated the
scale of the Internet poker industry in that
market,” the company stated in a press release. “At this state we have calculated that
the impact will equate to as much as €765
million of lost market value this year and a
further €100 million next year.”
The earthquake and subsequent tsunami
in Japan are also playing a role in H2’s revised projections.
“The [Japanese Racing Association] remains by far the largest interactive operator in the world,” reads the press release.
“Following the earthquake all aspects of
their business were down and particularly mobile betting as people freed up the
networks for emergency care.”
While events in the U.S. and Japan have
had a dampening effect on growth, H2
predicts that the opening of the Italian
casino market this summer, along with
the expected opening of markets in
Spain, Greece and Belgium in 2012, will
ensure that the market does indeed continue to grow.
H2 also believes that the prospects for a licensing and regulatory scheme for online
poker in the U.S. have improved, despite
the recent crackdown by the Department
of Justice.
“There appears to be some buy-in across
party lines to at least consider the issue
more closely,” the press release reads.
“However, H2 remain of the view that it
will be at least three to five years before
any significant regulated activity will be
seen on the ground in the U.S.”
– Poker Players Alliance Executive Director John
Pappas on a possible change of heart from antigambling advocate Sen. Jon Kyl
“Ultimately, it doesn’t really
matter where I end up. So long
as I can get myself to a country
with good Internet connections, a
country that allows me to earn a
living again, I’m there.”
– American online poker pro Isaac Haxton, on
plans to move abroad
“I was in shock. I guess I kind of
expected it to come in the future
but for it to happen so quickly and
so all of a sudden. Things literally
unraveled in a matter of hours. It
was quite a shock because there
was no warning.”
– Poker pro Christian Harder on his response to
Black Friday
Webmaster News
“I will give the
board all possible
support during the
succession process
so we can find a
great, new chief
executive to steer
Betfair through
its next phase of
growth.”
– Betfair CEO David Yu, who
announced he will leave the
company in October 2012
when his contract expires
“I’ve decided to
transfer the Victory
Poker international
player base over
to CAKE Poker to
manage. The brand
will continue doing
strategy, news,
videos as an affiliate
site.”
– Victory Poker CEO Dan
Fleyshman
“Poker is an allAmerican game,
and it’s a game that
requires strategy
and skill. Millions
of Americans play
poker online.”
– Rep. Joe Barton (R-Texas)
WEBMASTER NEWS
More online gambling indictments issued in Maryland and New York
By Vin Narayanan
T
wo businesses and three people
were charged with money laundering and operating an illegal gambling
business according to indictments unsealed recently by U.S. Attorney Ron
Rosenstein. As part of the indictment,
10 domains were seized, including
Doylesroom.com.
A federal grand jury in Maryland returned the indictments on April 26.
Other domains seized by order of
the court include: Bookmaker.com,
2 B e t s d i . c o m , Funt imebingo.com,
Goldenarchcasino.com, Truepoker.com,
Betmaker.com, Betgrandesports.com,
Betehorse.com and betED.com.
Eleven bank accounts located in Charlotte,
North Carolina, Guam, Panama, Malta
and Portugal were also seized, according
to an announcement by the Department
of Justice.
The indictments allege Canadianbased ThrillX and Cyprus-based BMX
Entertainment offered sports betting
services. ThrillX operated betED,
according to the indictment, while BMX
Entertainment offered six websites that
ran sports betting services.
Darren Wright and David Parchomchuk
were also charged in the ThrillX
indictment. Both are from British
Columbia, Canada. Costa Rica’s Ann
Marie Puig was charged in the BMX
Entertainment indictment.
According to the DOJ announcement,
investigators opened up an undercover
payment processing company called
Linwood Payment Solutions. The
company allowed “undercover agents to
gain person-to-person contact with top
managers of gambling organizations to
discuss the Internet gambling business,
to negotiate contracts and terms of the
processing, and to handle the intricate
movement and processing of collection
and payment data from the gambling
organizations to the banks.”
Linwood has been processing transactions
for betED.com and other online gambling
companies since 2009. Between December
2009 and January 2011, investigators say
the company processed more than 300,000
transactions. And those transactions were
worth more than $33 million. Linwood also
processed transactions for other online
gambling firms.
If convicted, the defendants face a
maximum sentence of five years in prison
for operating an illegal gambling business
and a maximum of 20 years in prison for
money laundering.
QuickTender’s wallet slams shut
By Vin Narayanan
Q
uickTender, a popular electronic wallet for online gaming affiliates, announced recently it is halting operations.
QuickTender announced the move on its
website and e-mailed account holders
about its decision.
“With regret, the QuickTender service has
been discontinued,” QuickTender said on
its website. “All account holders will be
notified by e-mail.”
In a letter e-mailed to account holders,
QuickTender blamed the stoppage of service on bank accounts being frozen by
court order.
“Further developments specifically relating to our main bank processing company
have resulted in our accounts being fro-
zen subject to a seizure order giving us
no ability to make payments in any currency,” QuickTender said in the letter emailed to account holders.
betting services. ThrillX operated betED.
com, according to the indictments, while
BMX Entertainment offered six websites
that ran sports betting services.
“In light of these developments we have
had no option but to discontinue the
QuickTender service with immediate
effect and for the foreseeable future,”
QuickTender wrote. “At this time we are
unable to confirm when or if we could
make payments of remaining balances.”
Additionally, 11 bank accounts located in
Charlotte, N.C, Guam, Panama, Malta and
Portugal were seized, as were ten domains.
The stoppage in service came just two
days after the U.S. Department of Justice
unveiled a second round of indictments
against online gambling companies and
seizures of related accounts. The DOJ
charged Canadian-based ThrillX and
Cyprus-based BMX Entertainment with
money laundering and operating an illegal gambling business. The indictment
alleged the two companies offered sports
On April 15, the DOJ unsealed similar charges against the founders of
PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute
Poker. In that case, the DOJ moved to
seize more than 70 bank accounts and is
seeking $3 billion in penalties.
Webmaster News
BY THE NUMBERS
16.67%
Germany’s proposed
licensing tax on
betting turnover.
7 million
The number of active users
Facebook lost in the U.S.
and Canada in May,
according to data from the
Inside Facebook blog.
1%
$470,407.62
The amount received by
the Anne Arundel County
Police Department for its
involvement in a two-year
investigation called
“Operation Texas Hold’em.”
$100 million
The amount paid out to
American customers by
PokerStars in the month
after Black Friday.
1/8
The odds that players
would not be playing
real money poker on
Full Tilt Poker on July 27,
according to Paddy Power.
The bet paid off!
£1.5m
The price paid by
KAX Media for the
domain Gambling.com.
By the Numbers
6,865
The number of players
who paid the $10,000
entry fee to play in the
2011 WSOP Main Event.
The tournament was the
third-largest in history.
The percentage of
Americans who placed
a bet online in 2010,
according to a VP
Communications poll
commissioned by the
American Gaming
Association.
$34.6 billion
The amount lost by
Americans in commercial
casinos in 2010, according
to the American Gaming
Association’s 2011 “State
of the States” report.
£1,000
Bonus earned by a Scot
who placed the millionth
bet on William Hill’s
Racing Post App.
€2 million
Investment made by GTECH
G2 in the International
Poker Network.
$3.9 million
The amount paid by
Caesars Entertainment in
2010 in lobbying efforts
for online gambling
legislation, according to
The Republic.
1 billion
The number of unique
visitors Google’s websites
had in May, according to
comScore.
$125,000
$150 million
The amount won by a
middle-aged father on
Slotland’s Witch’s Brew
slot machine.
Amount sought by poker
star Phil Ivey in a lawsuit
filed against Full Tilt
Poker. The suit has since
been dropped.
4.4%
10
Online gambling’s
projected rate of growth
in 2011, according to H2
Gambling Capital.
Number of Team UB
Pros who were informed
in May that their
sponsorship agreements
had been terminated.
CAPTION CONTEST
THIS ISSUE’S cartoon
So who is this amazing young
woman our favorite affiliate has
taken from brewery to bed since
the last issue of the magazine (see
cartoon below)? What’s happening?
They both look like they could use
another Guinness! And what is
she saying? Is she upset with him?
Confused? Is she offering some
sort of criticism, constructive or
otherwise? Is our GPWA guy having
“second thoughts”? What’s going
on in this smoke-filled room? You
tell us.
Go to the forums at gpwa.org and submit
your caption for this cartoon. We’ll take
a look at all the entries and pick the one
we think is the funniest. The winner will
be announced in our next issue and
will receive a free copy of the iGaming
Business Directory.
Last issue’s cartoon
Drawings by Ben Riley, www.ben-riley.com
The Winner is . . .
“What a sucker, a few beers and a little flirting, and I might be
able to convince him to buy my Ultimate Bet dollars at par.”
— Frank Richards
Congratulations to “Frank Richards,” who wins a free iGaming Business Directory
And the runners up . . .
Last time around, we saw our GPWA
guy sharing a magic moment – and
a Guinness – with an attractive,
mysterious young woman. We asked
you to clue us in, and you responded.
Nice going, everyone!
“‘Guinness Public Works Administrator’
... wow, that is an impressive title!”
— Anthony
“Is that an issue of GPWA magazine in
your pocket or are you just happy to see
me?” — pokerbanter
She: “You’re blushing... is that because
you’re attracted to me?”
He: “No, I’m just thinking about what my
accountant is going to say when she sees
how much two pints of Guinness cost in
Dublin!” — HodgeyBoy
Caption Contest
Google Panda – What it means, and what you can do!
By James Lowery
T
here are two ways of fishing: with
a rod and line or with a net. The
methods employed by a fisherman using
a rod and line are based on using a highly
targeted methodology: a specific bait, a
specific part of the water, and a specific
type of hook. Line fishermen target the
best fish in a particular area and hook
them one at a time. The initial effort is
greater, but generally, so are the rewards.
Net fishermen operate under a completely different paradigm: they spread
their nets as wide as possible to catch the
largest number of fish at one time. They
catch fish they do want, and fish they do
not want. The fish they do not want are
thrown back into the water.
Fishermen using nets from trawlers
found that the bigger the net they cast,
and the smaller the holes in that net, the
more fish they could catch. Nets got bigger and bigger, and holes got smaller and
smaller until no fish could escape. The
fishermen found that they were able to
catch many more fish, which inevitably
meant that they also had to throw more
back into the ocean.
Eventually it became clear that at some
point there would be no fish left, and governments around the world took action.
They put in place rules that limited the
types of fish that could be caught, restricted the size of nets and kept the trawlers in
port. They reasoned that by reducing the
number of fish that were taken in each
net, the overall ecosystem that provided
the fish could be protected.
Competition increased. As more fish
were being caught, there were fewer fish
left to catch, which meant that bigger
and bigger nets, now stretching down to
the ocean floor, scraping up everything
that they passed over, were deployed in
the hope that something of value would
be captured.
Search marketing is the same. Some
people run a highly targeted campaign in
which they know exactly which users they
want to capture, and they expend all of
their effort to find them. These marketers spend more time on acquiring each
visitor, warming them up through a conversion process, and then hooking them
when they’re ready.
Others run a broad-based campaign in
which they get as many people onto their
website as possible. Overall, they expend
less effort per individual visitor, but they
get more visitors, so it balances out. In
search marketing, particularly SEO, vast
websites that targeted the widest number
of visitors possible from the largest
amount of keywords possible became the
equivalent of the giant drift net, capturing
all of the users through millions of pages
of content formed into a closely connected
web of related content.
Of course this would be fine if the users
being drawn into the net were of any use
to the publisher, but in most cases they
weren’t. The website had nothing to offer
them, so they were either squeezed back
into the search results to find something
else or they were encouraged to click
on ads, which meant that the publisher
earned money.
Clearly, this presented a fairly poor user
experience for searchers. Search results
were clogged with low-quality, factorycreated pages, reducing the level of trust
people had in searching through Google.
Why bother using Google to find something if the only thing that you find is
more links to more ads, which in turn
take you to websites where you’ll find
more ads, and you never get to what you
actually want to find?
This also presented a problem for marketers. The price they had to pay for traffic increased, because rather than the answer to a query being found in the Google
search results, all a user got was something that looked like the answer, but was
in fact a page that simply provided a place
where the people with the answers could
pay for an ad.
Coping with Panda
Google’s Panda update
Webmasters wondered what they could do
to counter the effects of Google Panda. In
a lot of cases, the answer was “Not much,”
particularly for webmasters adhering to
the concept of churning out content at a
fraction of a cent per word and using that
content to build out their site to target almost every conceivable variation of a keyword that a user might search for.
Google’s answer to this problem was to
unleash Panda, an update to their ranking algorithm that attempted to remove
a lot of the big nets from their index to
protect the ecosystem. Overnight, publishers who had operated under a model
in which they created millions of pages to
capture users across a huge range of keywords found that their websites had disappeared from Google’s results – along
with their traffic.
With no traffic, there is no revenue, and
faced with statistics that looked like the
graph below, panic ensued.
Initially, a lot of webmasters thought
that the update would be something
with only a short-term impact, but as the
weeks passed it became apparent that
revenue generation through developing
the widest possible network of low-quality content supported by highly visible
ads would no longer work.
It soon became clear, though, that Panda
was about more than just low-quality
content. That was a part, but it wasn’t
the whole. Panda was about improving
user experience. It makes sense when
you think about it. Google wants to pres-
10
ent users with the best possible websites
for them. They have access to massive
amounts of data about how people interact with the web:
• Comparative page data among the 120
billion documents in their index
• Click and bounce rate data from about
3 billion searches per day
• On page engagement data from the 50
percent of sites that use Google Analytics
• Click and context data from the 12 billion AdSense ads served each day
Content is a part of the answer, but it is
not everything. And understanding that
there is more to recovering from Panda
than just rewriting content provides a
practical starting point for doing so.
The first step in solving any Panda problems is to take a very critical look at your
site from all angles and concentrate on what
you can do to improve it for your users.
Change 1: Content
If you’ve spent the last five years paying
barely literate people to produce thousands of pages of low-quality content for
your website, then you have a problem.
Take a look at each of your pages and ask
yourself: Does this page answer a question, or just restate it again and again with
the view to move the user on elsewhere?
Get a good writer in place, and direct him
or her to write the answer to the question
so that your user is looked after. Then,
take all of the other hundreds of similar
pages on the same theme, and use a 301
redirect to push all of their accumulated
value onto the main page.
Change 3: Design
User experience has a massive impact on
the stickiness of your website. If you want
to reduce the bounce rate – the number of
people who click through to your website
and then click straight back to the search
results – then you need to focus on your
design. We’re not all great artists, so it’s
important to get a designer who knows
what he or she is doing to deliver something that works. Think about what you
would want to see as a user – it’s probably
not a confusing mess of dense and poorly
written text sandwiched between ads.
Make it easy to navigate around the site,
and encourage users to find out more.
“
“Overnight, publishers
who had operated under
a model in which they
created millions of pages
to capture users across a
huge range of keywords
found that their websites
had disappeared from
Google’s results – along
with their traffic.”
Change 2: Advertising
If you’re running Google AdSense on your
website and you have multiple ad-units in
place, then you need to reduce them. This
is actually a good tip for anyone. AdSense
is based on an auction model: the fewer
ads you display, the higher the bid that is
required to appear on your page.
There is plenty of evidence that websites
with a lot of advertising on them have been
disproportionately penalized by Panda.
And it’s not just Google AdSense that has
an impact. If you’re running a lot of affiliate programs from each page, then cut back
to the ones that make you the most money.
”
dedicated server if you have lots of traffic,
run regular error reports on your site to
check whether content is still in place and
make sure you have a proper, helpful error
page in case something goes wrong.
Change 5: Focus
One of the reasons why people struggled
with Panda is that it affected websites where
the publishers hadn’t necessarily interrogated their data thoroughly enough on an
ongoing basis to see whether their sites were
great for users. By focusing on top-line data
such as the number of visits or the number
of ad clicks that their sites were generating,
they lost sight of the way in which users
were interacting with their sites.
User satisfaction counts
Google has had access to user satisfaction
metrics for a long time. The fact that they
have started to use this data more aggressively to rank websites is a big challenge for people who put user satisfaction
second to other factors. Google Panda is
about more than content farms, but websites of that type are the ones that most
prominently ignore user needs in favor of
their own.
If you look after your customers, they
will look after you!
Change 4: Experience
If you run a commercial website on a server
that is shared with hundreds of other sites,
then it will be slow. That makes for a poor
user experience, and one that Google tracks.
If your site is riddled with broken links or
code that validates poorly, those too will
make for poor user experiences, and are
also things that Google tracks. If you offer a
poor user experience, Google will not want
to direct its users to your content. Look at
ways to optimize site speed – invest in a
James Lowery is the Head of
SEO and Affiliate Marketing at
Latitude, a U.K.-based digital
agency. He’s been working
in search marketing for eight
years, and has developed and
implemented SEO and social
media strategies for a diverse
range of blue chip clients
across the gaming, finance and
retail industries.
12
Fairway Charity Golf tourney
destined to become a classic
O
nline gaming affiliate conferences are known for their
networking opportunities, business meetings and the
party/bar scene (more networking opportunities).
But at this year’s iGaming Super Show in Dublin, a new event
was added to the mix – charity golf.
Fairway Casino hosted the Fairway Charity Golf tournament
at K Club Golf Resort in late May. And the event raised €1,400
for the Children First Foundation.
The Children First Foundation operates outreach services in
Ireland that try to help children escape poverty.
“We are delighted to have been linked to the charity golf tournament and are extremely grateful to everyone who contributed on the day and donated to the work of Children First,”
said Tom Farrell, chief executive of the foundation. “These
are difficult times especially here in Ireland and raising funds
to help vulnerable and disadvantaged children has become a
very difficult task. Well done to everyone involved in making
the tournament a great success. Thanks again for your most
welcome support!”
About 40 golfers hit the Palmer Ryder Cup Course to play for
charity. The event featured closest to the pin competitions in
addition to 18 holes on a beautiful golf course.
“The entire event was fantastic,” said Gian Perroni, Fairway
Casino’s Affiliate Director. “The GameOn Marketing team
thought of everything, so each participant was well looked
after from start to finish. The K-Club was amazing as well
– not only were they very hospitable, but it is seriously one
of the most beautiful courses we have been on. The player
feedback was universally very positive and everyone wants to
do it again next year!”
“What [really] struck me was how such a diverse group of players, literally from all over the world, got together for a good
cause and had a great day together. There
was a lot of laughter, and more than a
few new friendships were started.”
The tournament, played in a scramble format, was won by the team of Tom Galanis
(GameOn Affiliates), James Randall
Doughty (Micro Markets), Brad Leeb
(GPWA member playing for CalvinAyre.
com) and Ian Semel (Break Even).
The GPWA and APCW were media
sponsors for the Fairway Charity Golf
tournament.
See more pictures on page 14.
Fairway Charity Golf tourney destined to become a classic
Ian Semel (left), Tom Galanis of GameOn Affiliates (center) and GPWA member Brad Leeb (right) were on the winning team at the Fairway Charity Golf Open.
SEO expert Gary Beal drives
a golf cart at the K Club.
Karl Dukes hits a shot during the tournament.
Players for the Fairway Charity
Golf Open warm up on the range.
Staying busy
on both sides of
the Pond
T
he GPWA camera was
working overtime the last
few months as it snapped
some great pictures in Ireland
and Canada. Its first journey was to
Dublin and the iGaming Super Show,
which included the wild and crazy
50th birthday party of Calvin Ayre.
It then crossed the Atlantic to the
more subdued, but certainly no less
informative, CBG Affiliate Weekend in
Niagara Falls.
The dance floor was crowded at CalvinAyre.com’s
Seven Deadly Sins party.
There is never a shortage of beautiful women at online gaming parties.
Renée Maté of Rewards Affiliates gets a hug.
Lyceum Media’s Jodie Thind dances
the night away.
The GPWA camera always finds something interesting going on.
Sometimes a kiss is just a kiss.
Wouter Sleijffers and Mathias Adler (both from Moneybookers)
get in on the fun.
That’s why she’s a professional.
They’re not drinking Guinness. But it sure looks good.
No Calvin Ayre party is complete
without little people.
Don’t try that one at home.
Dancing on a raised stage is a lot easier when you
have something to hold on to.
Every time a commission is made, an angel gets its wings.
Dancing in a cage looks like fun.
We’re sure glad these snakes were at the party and not on the plane.
Who invited the angry guy?
This is Dublin. But it looks like Vegas.
Renée from Rewards Affiliates gets a different type of hug.
The acrobat looks like she’s having more fun here.
The Bodog booth always stands out at conferences.
888.com and PartyPartners were also at the iGaming Super Show.
Anita Nikolic from StarGames reads her copy of the GPWA Times Magazine.
There was a healthy supply of water for the speakers at the iGaming Super Show.
And the conference sessions were pretty
intense at times.
The meeting area at the conference was always packed.
William Hill and bet365 were there too.
Casino City’s Caroline Shaool (left) and the GPWA and APCW’s Steven Corfman and Anthony Telesca work the booth.
The CBG Affiliate Weekend was in Niagara Falls (Canada) again this year. And the view attendees had was spectacular.
Clockwise from lower left: Sean from Affactive, Jonathan and Chris
from Europartners, Ryan from GoodPoker, Ashley L., Luke P, and Andy Q.
The Fallsview Casino Resort, which overlooks the
Horseshoe Falls, lights up the night sky.
The views in Niagara Falls are great. But there was some serious business
to be done as well.
GPWA Executive Director Michael Corfman spoke at the conference.
The Search Guru’s Leslie Carruthers spoke at the conference too and
shared some of her search engine marketing expertise.
Wanda K (center), who won BrightShare’s iPad 2 drawing, stands between
BrightShare’s Shelley Shalmoni (left) and Marcia Ashkanazy (right).
Shalmoni (right) gets in some time at the air hockey table with Layne M.
GPWA member Tony S. (GPWA screen name Belgamo), left, enjoys a
beverage with Sean from Affactive and Lenny S.
Ryan (left), Andy Q, Ashley and Luke P. enjoy a drink.
Live stream goes
mainstream
Research shows players like to bet on sports they can watch. And with
live streaming on the Internet, online sportsbooks are bringing more
sports to the people – and the people are making more bets.
By Aaron Todd
W
alk into a Las Vegas sportsbook and you’ll find dozens
of high-definition television screens broadcasting
sporting events. Bettors
place wagers at the front
desk and then watch as
the action unfolds on the
screens in front of them. Some sportsbooks have
personal stations with a small television screen
where bettors can choose the event they’d like to
watch and put on a pair of headphones to listen to
the action, as well. But that’s nothing compared to
what online sportsbooks have to offer.
With the increased bandwidth available both to
the operators in the online gaming industry and
to bettors within their own homes, online sportsbooks have now developed a menu of live sporting event coverage that dwarfs what’s available at
a Vegas sportsbook.
Betfair, which started live streaming five years ago,
now streams more than 2,000 sporting events a
month through its website, livevideo.betfair.com.
Horse races, football (soccer) matches, tennis
matches, and even darts are available through
Betfair’s live streaming offering.
“You name it, we’ve got it,” says Will Brown, head
of commercial operations for Betfair. “We have
top-flight horse racing, over 50 football leagues
and cups, and various other sports.”
The menu of options has expanded greatly over
time, and not just at Betfair. William Hill, bet365,
bwin and many other online sportsbooks have
begun live streaming events through their sites,
and with good reason.
According to Brown, bettors who watch events
through live streaming at Betfair bring about 20
percent more value than those who do not watch
live streams. And if affiliates have revenue share
deals with sportsbooks and betting exchanges,
that 20 percent increase in player value can make
an enormous difference in the monthly payments
affiliates receive.
“If you can bring a customer in and they’re
aware of live video and they start using it early
on, you’re going to make more revenue by taking
them to a site where they’ve got a decent range of
live streaming than you will by taking them to a
site where they don’t have live streaming available,” says Brown. “It’s like companies that have
decent mobile products; it’s just having that extra little thing that gives them more information
and a better experience.”
While watching the outcome of the game is part
of that experience, live “in-play” or “in-running”
betting is perhaps a more important part of that
experience for the operator. Live streams are
accompanied by a host of live in-play markets,
where bettors can bet on a game as it unfolds
in front of them. Gone are the days when you
missed your window of opportunity to place a bet
once the game had begun. Now you can bet on
the winner of the match at any point in the game,
as well as a host of other outcomes.
“There’s a massive trend towards in-running
betting,” says Tony Kenny, head of international and online PR at William Hill, which boasts
about 1,200 live streaming events a month. “We
now offer 100 markets in play, and 170 markets
before every football match. The increase in
turnover on sporting events, especially in football, has grown dramatically.”
Live stream goes mainstream
30
That increase in turnover has been seen most in
the in-play markets. Year-over-year, William Hill
has seen a 114 percent jump in the wagers made
during sporting events. And those wagers aren’t
just on which team is going to win the game.
Bettors can back their predictions on an almost
endless number of positions, from who will score
the next goal to who will get the next card, or
which team will be awarded the next throw-in or
corner kick.
“Ten years ago you’d
have said we’d be mad
to be offering [these
bets],” says Kenny.
“If you’re sitting
there watching the
live stream and playing away yourself, it’s
just phenomenal to
get involved. I would
never bet on the
first throw-in of the
match, but obviously
some people have
theories behind it.
They might be wacky
theories, but they have
their theories.”
Football is undoubtedly the most popular sport
to bet on in Europe, and about 15 percent of those
betting on the sport on Betfair are watching live
streams. That pales in comparison to some of the
other sports, where bettors may not be able to
watch the action on television. At Betfair, one in
four tennis bettors watches live streaming, while
30 percent of basketball punters will be watching
the live streams. For niche sports like bowls (also
known as bocce), as
many as 40 percent
of the bettors watch
the
live
stream.
Many events would
not be available for
bettors to watch, if
the live streams were
not available.
“
If you can bring a customer
in and they’re aware of live
video and they start using it
early on, you’re going to make
more revenue by taking them
to a site where they’ve got a
decent range of live streaming.
– Will Brown, Betfair
”
Brown says that live
streaming, accompanied by in-play wagering, gives the bettor an opportunity to make a more informed decision.
“A lot of [punters] might wait [to make a bet] until five minutes into a match,” says Brown. “The
reality is the odds might not be any different than
they were before the match started, but those first
five minutes give the bettor confidence of seeing
that a player isn’t limping round the pitch, or
whatever else they may see that helps them make
a decision about who to back.”
“From our research,
we know that people
only like to bet on
matches that they
can actually see,”
says Kenny. “We’re
giving people access
to the markets, and
the streaming video
makes them more
likely to bet with
William Hill.”
Sites have also learned that the quality or importance of a match isn’t what necessarily determines whether it will be popular on a live
stream. Just as important can be the day of the
week or the time of the day that the match is set
to begin.
“What you’re looking for sometimes are holes in
the sporting schedule for the day,” says Brown.
“Rather than all the football kicking off at three
o’clock on a Saturday afternoon, a lower level
31
33
football match starting at 10
a.m. on a Tuesday morning when
there’s nothing else really on that
is probably more popular.”
“From a revenue perspective, it’s
not always as impactful as I think
people perceive it to be,” says
Brown. “But from a marketing
and customer expectation point
of view, it’s an important part of
what we do.”
Punters who access the live streams
can watch the video on part of their
computer monitor, but the in-play
wagering options surround the
video, giving bettors the opportunity to peruse the markets to see if
there are any positions they would
like to back.
Books continue to look to expand, not only in the number
and scope of their live streaming
options, but also in the mediums
where bettors will be able to view
live streams. With many books
already offering bettors the ability to wager on mobile devices,
an integration of live streaming
and in-game betting on mobile
devices can’t be far behind.
With the exception of horse racing, a bet is not required to access the live stream. Most sites
simply require that viewers of
live streams have a funded account – and when more than 90
percent of those watching a live
stream are making in-play wagers, why not? While some viewers take advantage of this lax
policy to gain free access (minus
the minimal deposit they make
to fund their account), the books
are happy to provide the service.
“We’ve streamed the Australian
Open for the last three or four
years,” says Brown. “Acquisitionwise, it produces hundreds if not
thousands of customers. Now
With many sites already boasting successful mobile applications
(Betfair took £1 billion in mobile bets last year), live streaming of
some of those [bettors] are not of
sporting events on mobile phones is likely the wave of the future.
huge value, because all they actually want to do is come in and watch
the tennis; they’re more tennis
fans than bettors. But over a period of time,
“We’ve got 25 different country sites,
those customers, once they get used to it
and the availability varies by country,”
and they get savvy about it, they quite often
says Kenny. “For Champions League
will develop into punters further down the
football, we can’t show it in the U.K.,
line. And if people want to come in and all
but we can in Ireland, Canada and
they do is watch the streams and they’re not
Australia. Going through the whole
betting, but then go off and tell their friends
thing, it’s absolute madness. There are
they’ve had a great experience at Betfair, or
a lot of restrictions out there in terms of
if six months down the line they form opinwhat matches or what events are availions that make them want to bet, then that’s
able, but obviously we try and get the
perfect for us.”
most access we can.”
The complexity of live streaming agreements, however, requires a great deal of
diligence on the part of the sportsbooks.
Not only do licensing agreements need to
be reached, but each license will have differing conditions depending on the jurisdiction of the viewer. A punter in Ireland
may be able to access a live stream while
a gambler in France may not.
And despite what Betfair estimates is a
20 percent increase in player value for
punters who view live streams, those
increases don’t always mean a big increase in profit for the operators. The
licensing cost of providing the live
streams can be onerous.
Aaron Todd is the senior
editor at the GPWA. He has
more than five years of
editorial experience in the
online gambling industry,
covering major industry
conferences, innovations and
trends. You can reach him at
[email protected], and
follow him on Twitter
@CasinoCityAT.
34
I’ll show you
mine if you
show me
yours!
By Sinead Lambert
Get your mind out of the gutter, people!
I’m talking about statistics.
Trying to find information on industry
stats is nearly impossible. We affiliates
are a secretive bunch. I think it’s high
time we started sharing more information
with each other. The more we share, the
more we can learn and become stronger
as an industry. I’ll get the ball rolling by
sharing some stats from OLBG.com.
The industry is changing at a phenomenal
rate and we need to change with it. Part
of this change, I think, should be more
transparency. We need to work collectively, not independently. We’re not asking you to disclose your family secrets,
just some insight on conversion rates.
OLBG.com is a sportsbetting community site and has been in the sportsbook
affiliate marketing industry for quite
some time. From day one (way before I
was on the scene) they started to collect
data and information on their traffic and
bookmaker stats. Based on this information, they could make calculated moves
on how they should grow and whom
they should promote. This helped them
become one of the largest sportsbook affiliates in the U.K., with over 15 people
working for them.
If you don’t know your data, you’re taking
a big risk. You’re flying in the dark.
I’ll show you mine if you show me yours!
Statistics We Track
Visits 1,716,000
Bookie Clicks 56,000
Page Impressions 9,346,000
Uniques 697,000
Registrations 3,688
Funded A/Cs 2,633
It’s important that you know these stats.
These will shape how you’ll promote and
whom you’ll promote. You’ll know what
you can afford to spend on advertising,
you’ll know when your marketing has
been successful and you’ll know which
bookmakers to cut as they’re wasting
your referral traffic by not converting it.
You’ll know what you need to work on
and which areas you need to improve.
Most Important Stats
• Click to Registration
• Registration to Deposit
• Deposit to First Bet
First Bets 2,501
EPC £2.96
Lifetime Value £205
What happens to the traffic after it
leaves your site? You’ve invested a lot
of money and time in referring traffic to
the bookmakers, but what happens to it
then? Did they hold up their end up of
the bargain?
Table source: OLBG.com
These are just a sample of stats we track.
How many of these do you track? Do you
know your players’ lifetime value by operator? Your earnings per click? Registration to deposit percent, by operator?
You should have access to these stats.
If you don’t, you need to talk to your affiliate managers. It is essential to your
business that you have access to this information. They have access to it, and so
should you.
35
Click to Registration
Registration to Deposit
Bookie
Click To Reg %
Bookie
Click To Reg %
Bookie 1
18.3%
Bookie 1
81.1%
Bookie 2
10.8%
Bookie 2
79.7%
Bookie 3
9.6%
Bookie 3
79.0%
Bookie 4
9.0%
Bookie 4
64.4%
Bookie 5
8.5%
Bookie 5
63.8%
Bookie 6
6.8%
Bookie 7
6.7%
Bookie 8
6.7%
Bookie 9
6.5%
Bookie 10
6.4%
This is a sample of 10 bookmakers
we work with currently. You can see
the massive differences in conversion
rates of our traffic from click to registration, with the worst being 6.4 percent and the best 18.3 percent.
Knowing these allows you to select whom
to work with, and to cut those who are
wasting your traffic. Why waste your traffic with a bookmaker converting at 6.4
percent when you know you can get 18.3
percent conversion elsewhere?
You can use this information to actively
work with bookmakers to try to improve
their conversion rates. Together you can
look at the landing page: Is the sign-up
offer prominent enough? Perhaps you
could look into doing a co-branded
landing page specific to your site, with
clear instructions on how to register
and redeem the sign-up offer. These are
all simple, basic online marketing steps
that will help improve conversion rates
and most importantly optimize your referral traffic. Again, it’s about sharing
information and working with affiliate
managers to improve performance.
OLBG.com is primarily a sportsbook site,
so keep this in mind when looking at these
stats. The registration to deposit percentages are quite consistent, on average 75
percent. If you’re promoting U.K. sportsbooks, you should be getting stats similar
to this. U.K. sportsbook sites are quite
good when it comes to this step. There are
a few reasons why some bookmakers are
a little lower than the 75 percent average
mark – e.g., some are stricter than others
on ID requirements or they simply don’t
have enough funding options.
Deposit to First Bet – The final step
Bookie
Click To Reg %
Bookie 1
99.7%
Bookie 2
99.3%
Bookie 3
98.7%
Bookie 4
96.2%
Again, these figures are pretty consistent,
with no major discrepancies to be found.
You shouldn’t be seeing anything below
95 percent. If you are, have a chat with
your affiliate manager and ask if there
are any issues. Typically, there shouldn’t
be a drop-off here. The figures should be
within the high 90s, but still worth your
while monitoring.
“
We’re not
asking you
to disclose
your family
secrets, just
some insight
on conversion
rates.
”
These are the main stats we monitor, and
based on the information we glean from
them, we make decisions about whom
to promote. Most of these stats should
be available on the bookmakers’ affiliate
backend. If they are not, talk to your affiliate managers about setting up monthly
reports for you. It is important that you
understand who is optimizing your traffic
and who needs to make some improvements. Once you have that information,
share it with other affiliates. Talk to the
underperforming bookmakers, tell them
they need to make some improvements
and offer some suggestions on what they
can do to optimize your referral traffic.
Now go out there and start talking to
other affiliates about their stats. If we
work collectively, we can make this industry stronger.
Sinead Lambert is the Online
Marketing Manager for OLBG.com.
She is primarily responsible for
OLBG.com’s live odds solution, winner of Best iGaming
Innovation in 2011.
HILARY ST. JONN
AFFILIATE
INTERVIEW SERIES
For these five
it’s all sweetness
and light
In this issue, we have two from
Sweden (one of them by way
of California), a former affiliate
manager from Scotland, a
Singapore native now living in
Buenos Aires and a guy who
splits his time between London
and Antalya, Turkey.
Their websites are both handson and how-to, and run the
gambling gamut: bingo, casino, keno, lottery, poker – and
a leprechaun-themed slot site.
Their favorite foods range
from the universal (pepperoni
pizza) to the specific (lobster
with saffron rice). Two of them
would love to invite Jesus to
their place for dinner.
They’re five friendly, down-toearth people who like what
they do, have a positive attitude and truly believe that the
best days for our industry are
still to come. You’re going to
enjoy their stories.
*Due to space constraints, we could not print
the interviews in their entirety. The complete
text will be posted at gpwa.org.
GaGaGirl
There’s no stopping this lady,
especially when she’s on her
dirt bike
Your username refers to your gagagambling.com site, which is “the girl’s
guide to online gambling.” Why did you
choose this niche? Are you a Lady Gaga
fan? And what is it about leprechauns
that inspired you to build a whole site
around them? As you posted, it is “very
niche.” I know slots are a big market with
women, and I thought it would be fun to
make a slot review site focusing on that
target group. As I started working on it
I realized it was a huge project, and an
affiliate recommended that I go for niche
sites. Again, I thought the leprechaun
site would be fun, so I did it and because
it was so niche it was much easier to finish. And yes, I am a Lady Gaga fan!
Your poker site also focuses on a niche
— the 3D online poker industry. Explain
your reasoning behind focusing on
niches rather than the entire industry. I
started to get interested in poker and decided to try PKR. I really enjoyed it, and
it is so much easier to write about something you enjoy. Since I’m a beginner in
poker myself I knew it would never be
an authority site on poker, but at least I
could be an authority on 3D poker.
How long have you been working in the
industry? What drew you to the business? I’ve been in the industry for a long
time, starting with customer service, and
later marketing and affiliate management. After being an affiliate manager, I
wanted to give being an affiliate a shot
and here I am. My father was in the business years before me as well.
What did your father do? And what did
you learn from him? He also did marketing for a casino but was done by the
time I came in. But he knows some oldtime affiliates, and when I mention he is
my dad they are usually shocked. I think
I learned to be passionate from him.
Marketing doesn’t work if you aren’t passionate about what you are marketing.
Are you a full-time online gambling affiliate, or do you hold down another job
as well? When I am in between projects,
I am a full-time affiliate. Just recently I
joined a new team to help them launch
their new website, CashArena.com,
which is a unique penny auction site
where bidders can win cash and play
other mini games. The concept is very
innovative, and again something I’m enjoying. However, I will continue to work
on the affiliate sites during my free time.
What don’t you like about the industry?
I don’t like that it is not completely regulated yet. I know taxes and different laws
are annoying, but I think we should really make sure all operators are fair not
only to their players, but to their affiliates as well. And I think that would improve with regulation.
What surprised you the most about the
industry? How great the parties are.
What did you do before you joined the
online gaming industry? I did applied
behavior analysis (ABA) therapy with
autistic children.
You were born in California, but now
live in Sweden. When (and why) did you
move? How do you like living in a Nordic
climate compared to the California sunshine? I actually moved to Sweden only
a year ago, but before that I was living in
Prague, Czech Republic for seven years.
So I haven’t been living in the California
sunshine for a long time. I moved to
Skelleftea, Sweden (which is eight hours
from Stockholm and can be -40C in the
winter) because of love.
Do you think you’ll ever live in the
States again? No, probably not. I’m in
favor of the higher taxes, free health
care, and free universities type of system. Plus I love languages, and that is
lacking in America.
AGE: 28
HOMETOWN: Walnut Creek, California
LIVING IN: Skelleftea, Sweden
FAVORITE FOOD: Fried cheese
MUST READ Death by Black Hole: And
BOOK: Other Cosmic Quandaries
by Neil deGrasse Tyson
SITES:
SITE:
leprechaunonlineslots.com
play3dpokeronline.net
pokieland.com
gagagambling.com
GPWA Affiliate Interview Series
HILARY ST. JONN
GaGaGirl
You’ve said that you would be bored if
you had only one site to concentrate on,
and that you have a schedule for working
on your five or six sites. How does it work?
Yes, I basically try to update them weekly,
but it also depends on the site and if there
is anything to add. Some weeks there is
not much going on, so I don’t worry about
it. I figure it is better to fill up with content
slowly over time, then upload everything
and be done with it.
Usually I do each site page and link building
once a week; I just put it on my to-do list.
You’ve posted that doing SEO, link building, content management, etc., for your
gambling sites is very different from
doing the same work for your non-gambling sites. Please elaborate, and tell us a
little bit about your non-gambling sites?
Actually, what I’m finding is each site is
completely different. It’s amazing to see
what works for some and what doesn’t
work for others. Gambling is specifically
a challenge because tools won’t let you
do keyword research on gambling sites,
some link building is harder, such as link
bait, and social media is harder in general
– but then again I just made a fan page for
my poker site on Facebook and got 42 users in a couple of days. Not tons, but that
was with no advertising and not even a
post on the wall yet.
I have two non-gambling sites, one
about motorcycling off road (dirtymotorcycleadventures.com), and the other
about Sweden called SwedishFreak.com.
Surprisingly the motorcycle site is generally harder to generate traffic in SMM.
Swedish Freak is surprisingly popular,
especially on Twitter and with Swedes. I
suppose it all depends on what is popular
with your target market as well.
What prompted you to join the GPWA, and
how has it helped you so far? I worked
with GPWA first on the operator side of
things and loved the idea of a forum for
affiliates. Now as an affiliate it is a great
resource if I have specific questions.
What was your first affiliate conference?
Was it worth the time, effort and expense? My first conference as an affiliate
was Budapest. I think all conferences are
worth the time and effort, especially when
it is in a city I haven’t been to before. It is
much nicer to make it a work vacation.
Luckily I live in Europe so flying to the
conferences is not that expensive, and to
save money I usually book my own hotel
outside of the conference hotel.
Time management is one of the biggest
issues facing affiliates. What time management tips can you offer your fellow
webmasters? I need a to-do list. I also
use Paymo Widget to track time on each
project and what I have done – not only
for records or analytics, but also to make
sure I get a full day of work in on the
weekdays.
Where and how do motorcycles fit into
your life? I basically ride any chance I get.
I live in Sweden but decided to go down to
Prague for the summer to visit friends. I
drove my motorcycle. It took five days but
it was well worth it. I now have planned
some weekend trips with friends around
the Czech Republic. When I’m home and
it is good weather, we usually take the dirt
bikes out for a spin in the forest!
If you could have dinner with any five
people, who would they be?
1. Bryan Bailey, aka Casinomeister – he
has been in the industry a long time
and I’ve heard great things about him
and I really like that he tries to make
casinos fair, talks about licensing, and
gives players a third party to complain
to if something does go wrong. I would
just love to pick his brain about being an
affiliate. I saw him in Dublin for a second and by the time I realized who I was
staring at he was gone. Next time I will
have to introduce myself.
2. Travis Pastrana – amazing dirt biker; I
would love to hear his stories and learn
from him.
3. My grandfather – he rode motorcycles
and my first memory of a motorcycle
was with him. I’d love to hear all his riding stories.
4. Neil deGrasse Tyson – an amazing astrophysicist; read his book and you will
understand.
5. Chef Gordon Ramsay – I’d love for him
to cook the dinner.
When you need to get as far away from
work as possible, where do you go? To
the cottage, where we don’t have an
Internet connection.
What are three things that nobody knows
about you? Hate to say it, but I think
there is nothing that nobody doesn’t
know about me – I talk too much!
What’s your all-time favorite movie? The
Princess Bride has everything you can
want in a movie and I remember watching it at my grandmother’s house in the
summers after swimming all day.
41
GREG
theGman
Nelson Mandela, Hunter S. Thompson and
Jenny Woo in the same room? It’s dinnertime
at the Gman’s!
You posted recently that you were drawn
into the online gambling industry by the
parties, the ladies, the coolness of the
webmasters – and the money. You also
said that you once worked as a program
manager. Please elaborate, and explain
how/why you made the transition from
manager to affiliate. I said all of the above
in jest but I have had a fantastic time as
both an AM and now as an affiliate. I became an affiliate almost by default. The
company that I worked for bought a network and simply did not know what to do
with it after having a major fallout with
the affiliate it had bought the network
from. I decided to take a chance and purchase some sites from them and do my
own thing. It has been hard going but very
rewarding on a personal growth level.
The hardest part of becoming an affiliate for me was to get used to working by
myself. I do have a team of people but everyone works remotely from different locations around the globe. Previous to that
as an AM I was in a very lively, creative office. Now I get to entertain myself, which
some days is hard going.
One of my great friends, Moshe from
Vegas Kings, told me way back that this
industry was the coolest with the nicest
people. On the whole I tend to agree with
him. I like the ideas and the creativity
that live within this part of the industry
and the challenge of actually getting players to an excellent destination.
I think that because I was an AM the transition to affiliate was a lot easier. I already
understood a lot about what needed to be
done. I do admit, though, that there has
been a steep learning curve. As an AM I
was told by an affiliate friend, “You AMs
are all lazy; why don’t you become an affiliate, and then you will see what work is.”
Unfortunately he was right. I would not
change it for the world, though.
About a year and a half ago, you decided
to stop promoting casinos and focus on
bingo. How long after that was it when
you launched Euromillions and Online
Casino World? All of the sites came about
at the same time; if you take a look at the
sites you can actually witness the learning
curve. Bingo actually took me by surprise.
When I started there were very few people
in the U.K. focusing purely on bingo. I decided to do just that and educate myself
about the game. There are now some fantastic bingo portals and the online version
of the game has developed massively in
the U.K. I guess we are also fortunate to be
in a jurisdiction where it was legal and so
I am sure that this has helped the game as
well. I have not really had the opportunity
or capacity to do much with Euromillions
and Online Casino World due to the demands of bingo; I still maintain a very
healthy bingo network and presence and
subsequently workload.
Are you a full-time online gambling affiliate, or do you hold down another job as
well? You must be joking! Another job as
well as this? I wouldn’t have time to sleep.
I am a full-time affiliate. At the moment
90 percent of my time is spent within
the gaming sphere but because of recent
events I am looking at other niches.
What do you like about the industry? I
enjoy the networking, I enjoy the people
– I know that sounds corny, but it’s true
– and I enjoy the parties. Who wouldn’t
enjoy traveling the globe and seeing some
fantastic people a few times a year?
What don’t you like about the industry? I
don’t like the fact that there is no transparency within this industry. I had long-standing VIP players at a massive Microgaming
affiliate program that conveniently disappeared when the global economic crisis
came about. They have never returned.
The fact that a program can do what it
wants, when it wants, with no checks and
balances, makes me very uneasy. We now
pick and choose our partners very carefully. I tend to promote those that I have
a personal relationship with and that have
solid standing within the industry rather
than going for the best revenue or money
options. As a community, we have been
hard hit by a number of disgraceful antics
by programs in recent times. It’s the lack
of transparency that seriously annoys me.
industry? The kindness and love shown
to members and their families within the
gaming community. The recent loss of
some the best-known affiliates has shown
that this industry does have a heart and
does give a lot back.
online gaming industry? I worked as a
broker consultant for a massive assurance
company. Very suit and tie stuff. Formal
and stiff are better words for that. As an
affiliate the words that spring to mind are
vibrant and fun.
How long do you give yourself for responding to e-mail? And what e-mail tips
can you offer? I tend to answer e-mail
pretty quickly. It’s only PMs that take me
a while to get to. My tip is to essentially
reread e-mail and try to put yourself in the
senders’ shoes when reading it. I always
try to understand what motivates a person
to send e-mail and hopefully I will be able
to provide assistance.
How do you manage your “to-do” lists?
Do you use any special software to help
you out? I utilize my wife’s organizational abilities and I have a super lady in
Budapest who works for me organizing
my to-do list. I am currently rolling out a
number of sites so am preoccupied with
that. Without the two of them I would be
lost. I don’t currently use any special software. We make use of Excel and Word and
Google Calendar. Very basic, I know, but
43
it works for us at the moment. If anyone
has any recommendations please feel free
to educate me.
How much time does it take to keep your
site updated? We work on the sites constantly. Bingostreet is my baby and so it
takes up a large portion of each day. The
recent Panda update has not been kind to
the site so we have had to make a large
amount of changes. We are also busy upgrading the site’s CMS. It takes up easily
five to seven hours of each day.
What prompted you to join the GPWA,
and how has it helped you so far? I was
involved with the GPWA for a number
of years as an AM. I joined as an affiliate
simply because of the value that the site
adds to the industry. I think the site helps
a wide range of affiliates, from newbies to
resolving disputes and creating relationships between affiliates themselves and
between affiliates and programs. It’s also
a fantastic place to hear about new programs and share stuff.
You’ve been a member for about two and
a half years, but have just recently become
much more active in the forums. Is there
any particular reason? How has your increased participation helped you? I am
more of a lurker rather than a poster. I
think I have become more active as a consequence of the goings-on in recent times.
My increased participation has helped to
get questions answered and to make my
mind up about certain issues. I come by
the site at least two or three times a day to
check out the new posts as there are always
some nice articles to read. A recent article
about Latent Symantec Indexing led me to
do quite a bit of research on the matter and
I simply would not have learned about it if
I did not pass by each day.
webmasters? I really am the wrong person to ask. My time is managed for me.
It’s 11:10 at night and I’m working. I love
my job, but as an affiliate there are so
many things to do. It brings to mind the
cartoon pic of the affiliate working in the
GPWA magazine a few years ago [Issue 4,
April 2008, p. 10].
people, living or dead, who would they
be, and why? Nelson Mandela – what an
inspirational man. Hunter S. Thompson –
well, if you don’t know why, look the man
up. Archie Karas – reputedly one of the
biggest gamblers of all time. Jenny Woo
and Calvin Ayre – who wouldn’t want to
have dinner with Jenny, and I could learn
a thing or two about the industry from
both of them, I am guessing.
work as possible, where do you go? I love
the sea, so I either get down to the beach
or if I have time we travel to remote small
villages and go out to small beaches with
a pre-packed picnic.
How do your family and friends feel about
how you make your living? To be honest,
I have not heard any complaints. My wife
and family are fairly easygoing and laid
back. I guess as long as I am not bugging
them they are happy.
AGE: Do I have to put this down?
I recently turned 40 but I
still feel like 20
HOMETOWN:
Living in:
I divide my time between
London in the U.K. and
Antalya in Turkey
At the moment, Antalya
in Turkey
FAVORITE FOOD: A Braai – that’s barbecue
– so anything with meat
MUST READ I love reading so this is
BOOK: a difficult one, but in a
gambling context I would
recommend The Dice Man
by Luke Rhinehart
SITES: mybingostreet.com
onlinekeno.net
online-slots.co.uk
onlinecasinoworld.com
euromillionlottery.com
bingotimes.com
What’s your all-time favorite movie?
Gosh, it must be Avatar, in 3D at the
IMAX. The graphics were insane.
ZOORANA GREEN
Zoorana
A tortoise is good, a dog is better – and they’re
both more fun than a fish
Your site provides a listing of casino bonuses and promotions, along with a casino directory and gambling tips. How
did you come up with this mix, and how
has it been working out for you so far?
There were a lot more on the list. These
ones I’ve kept are the ones players love to
see the most. I’ve recently added a blog to
keep the site looking more updated. Now
I’m working on redesigning the whole
website to make it look more organized.
How long have you been involved in the
industry? What drew you to the business?
Probably about two years. I started writing casino articles for a friend, and he
later recommended that I set up an affiliate site of my own. He’s been giving me a
lot of advice for which I can’t thank him
enough. He now helps other affiliates as
well on http://www.gaffg.com.
well? I would love to be. I need more than
just being a full-time mum.
What do you like about the industry? That
would be the people. It’s such a huge mix.
I love working with people from all over
the world and of every ethnicity. And the
gambling industry is always buzzing with
something new. I like that. Repetition
bores me. Besides, I get to work from
home and I can live anywhere I want.
Rogue affiliate programs that still manage to get on with their business.
industry? The amount of online casinos
there are.
What did you do before you joined
the online gaming industry? I taught
English for about seven years. It started
when I was traveling in India, actually.
The initial plan was to travel a month
in India and then go back to Singapore
to finish my degree in Interior Design.
But then I fell in love with teaching
and traveling. So after India, I took a
teaching course in Thailand and then
went to teach in France, Bangkok and
Barcelona. It’s been great working and
living in other countries and I want to
maintain that.
can you offer? Normally, I’d reply within
a day. But if it’s from an affiliate program,
I’d wait for a couple of days. Not that I
want to be rude. But I’d rather reply to
the ones that don’t constantly send me
the same messages over and over again.
I tend to ignore e-mail on link exchanges
for now; I’m still not sure how necessary
or important it is.
How do you manage your “to-do” lists?
Do you use any special software to
help you out? No special software, no.
I’m just making do with the task list
on my Gmail account. I’ll never lose it
that way. It’s convenient too as I see it
whenever I check my mail.
site updated? It depends. I make it a
point to come in every day if I can. Maybe
spend an hour or three or eight, depending on the workload.
You’re an avid student of SEO, especially
the “organic” variety. What progress
have you made on the SEO front over the
past year or so? There have been plenty
of trials and errors. And I’m still learning loads. SEO is a lot more than what I
thought at first and I’ve only begun to get
a grasp of it.
How much time do you devote to social
networking in order to drive more traffic
to your site? I’m not spending as much
time as I’d love to. It’s just Facebook and
45
Twitter for now. But I’m working on adding more.
You’ve posted that you think pingbacks
are “a good thing.” Tell us why – as a
true believer in providing fresh, original
content on your site – you feel that way.
I wasn’t sure if pingbacks were a good
thing. I was surprised to receive it one day
from a website that had my whole article
up. I thought my content was being copied until I saw that my links were there. So
I posted the issue on the forum and I was
told that as long as my links were there I
should have nothing to worry about.
You’ve been a GPWA member for just over
a year. What prompted you to join, and
how has it helped you so far? I needed to
learn more about the gambling industry
and keep myself updated with the latest
gambling news. I never thought I’d learn
so much from hanging out at the forums.
I’m surprised how helpful and friendly
the members are.
You’ve been a private member for a few
months now. What made you decide to
apply for private membership? How have
you benefited from access to the private
forums? There are a lot more threads on
the private forums for sure, but my main
reason was to apply for the GPWA seal.
webmasters? And how much time do
you spend running after your one-yearold son? I’m afraid I haven’t got any.
I need more tips than I could give. As
long as he’s awake, I’m there with him.
Thankfully, he now spends four hours
each day during the weekdays in day
care. I try to do as much as I can when
he’s away. Soon enough, when he gets
more comfortable, I’ll be able to put
him in school for a full day.
You recently recommended to someone
on the forums looking to get a pet that
they should get a tortoise – and yet you
have a dog. Please explain. I didn’t recommend it in a general sense, actually. A
member asked what sort of pets are of low
maintenance. And dogs are definitely not
low maintenance. He also mentioned he’s
not at home much, so that’s why I recommended that he get a tortoise. I saw somebody mentioned getting a fish but then I
remembered this friend of mine who has
a tortoise and he said it was one of the
chillest pets he’s ever had. And I reckon it
was more fun than a fish.
You list gardening as one of your interests in your profile. Do you grow flowers,
vegetables or both? And what are your
favorites? It’s just a small hobby. I’d love
to have a garden and grow sunflowers and
my own vegetables. For now, it’s just potted plants as I’ve only got a balcony.
be, and why? And since we know how
much you enjoy cooking, what would be
on the menu?
1. My aunt – I didn’t get to see her before
she passed away. She was like a mother
to me. I still miss her loads.
2. Beth Gibbons – I’m in love with her voice.
3. Bill Hicks – The best comedian ever.
4. Johnny Depp – I love his movies.
5. Clive Owen – A great actor, and not bad
looking, either.
Wouldn’t risk having spicy food on the
menu. Safest would be French food. That
never goes wrong. My friends never complain so that would be best.
How did a nice girl from Singapore eventually come to live in Buenos Aires? My
partner and I were living in Barcelona
before here. The plan was to escape winter since they have the opposite weather
here and still be able to carry on with the
Spanish lingo. But then we fell in love
with this city and decided to stay. It’s
almost two years and we’re still here. I
doubt we’ll go back to Barcelona, though.
I want to go to China next. It’d be good for
our son to learn Chinese.
AGE: 29
HOMETOWN: Singapore
Living in:
Buenos Aires
FAVORITE FOOD: Anything that is spicy
MUST READ BOOK: 1984 by George Orwell
SITE: zooranacasinobonuses.com
You’ve told us that you love watching
films. What’s your all-time favorite flick?
V for Vendetta. I just love this film. I
can watch it over and over again. I can
really relate to the story, especially in
today’s society.
about you? I’d rather not have it in black
and white. Ask me again when you see me.
work as possible, where do you go? I
take my dog out for a stroll. Walking
relaxes me.
How do your family and friends feel
about your work as a gambling webmaster? Most of them don’t really understand
what I do, to be honest. I tried explaining
and the best I could come up with so far is
– I do online marketing.
CARL-JOHAN
3jokers
Reading the GPWA
forums is part of
this joker’s job
description
Your sites are aimed exclusively at
the Swedish market. Tell us about the
Swedish online gambling market. What
are the most popular games? And do you
have any plans to reach out into other
markets? Sweden is a very good market
for online casinos and online poker since
Swedes love to gamble. Because of the
Swedish gambling monopoly, where the
government-owned “Svenska Spel” controls the land-based market, players tend
to look for alternatives online for better
offers, odds and bonuses. Swedish players also convert very well with no-deposit bonuses, which makes it a bit easier
for new affiliates to get into the market.
Swedish players’ favorite software is Net
Entertainment and Playtech. The hardest software to promote to Swedes is
Microgaming. The most popular games
are slots from Net Entertainment. I plan
to expand into the Norwegian market.
industry? What drew you to the business? I
started working as an affiliate around 2006
when I launched a no-deposit bonus site.
Since I love to program and work with websites in my spare time, I thought I might as
well start to make a profit from it.
well? I am a full-time gambling affiliate at
the moment.
What do you like about the industry?
Everything! Of course it is very nice to be
your own boss and be able to work whenever you want, but most people in this
business are very nice and helpful.
What don’t you like about the industry? Late payments and payments to
player accounts.
industry? That many people without
skill and with no interest in gambling
think it’s easy to get into the business
and earn money.
online gaming industry? I studied and
worked part time as a computer technician.
In the past, you’ve said you were a strong
believer in purchasing links to improve
site position on Google. Many others believe content becoming increasingly necessary to improve one’s ranking. Where
do you stand on this issue today? Links
are still the most important part, I strongly believe, especially in a competitive and
relatively “old business” (by Internet standards). But nowadays it is also possible to
get links automatically by being included
in Google news. Many sites and blogs have
automatic Google news widgets that link
to your news stories.
sites updated? A few hours every day,
with the rest of the time going to adding new sections, fixing links and adding
new sites.
and how has it helped you so far? The
GPWA helped me to get AffUtd to pay
what they owed me, and for that I am forever grateful.
You’ve been a GPWA member for about
two years, but have recently been more
active on the forums. Have you always
been a “lurker” on the forums? I try to
read the affiliate and gambling forums
as often as possible, but it’s very hard to
find time because I work with my site almost constantly. I try to visit once a week,
though, to keep updated. The key is to see
the forums as a part of the job that is as
important as writing content for my sites,
for example.
webmasters? Never work during the
night if possible. The key to working as an
affiliate is to only work certain hours of
the day, just like any other job. It makes it
easier to structure the day.
people, living or dead, who would they be,
and why? Wow, that’s a very tough one,
almost impossible to decide, but I would
AGE: 29
HOMETOWN: Stockholm, Sweden
Living in:
Stockholm
FAVORITE FOOD: Lobster with saffron rice
MUST READ Book? I belong to the Game
BOOK: Boy generation
SITES: SpelaCasino.se
NoDepositBonus.nu
SvenskaKasinon.se
MacPoker.nu
go with Albert Einstein, Adolf Hitler,
Gustav Vasa, Al Capone and Jesus.
work as possible, where do you go? I love
swimming and swim as often as I can to
forget about work. Other then that I travel about once a year.
How do your family and friends feel
about your work as a gambling webmaster? They find it interesting, especially my
brother, who writes slots and casino reviews for my sites on a regular basis.
What’s your all-time favorite movie,
and why? Storm of the Century, with
a screenplay by Stephen King. I love
how they build up the story at a slow,
steady pace.
BILLY PRENTICE
pokerbanter
Work to live, don’t live to work – and
choose rev share whenever possible
industry? What drew you to the business?
Back in my pool-playing days, my teammates and I used to like a game of poker
but living so far apart made it very hard.
So I haggled a private game online on
Betfred for us. I then set up the forum so
that we could all have a place to brag and
get some banter going about the games.
I then started “recruiting” anyone online
who I had seen was Scottish to join in our
friendly banter. That was back around
2004. The site was called scotbet.com and
in 2008 I sold the domain to a Scottish
bookmaker and bought a new domain,
and pokerbanter.com was born.
I never knew about affiliates or how it
worked when I first began, but I did use
the “refer-a-friend” offer at the time and
was getting £25 per person who signed up.
I got about 10 signups just from friends. I
then noticed that one of them was playing 10/20 NL tables and regularly sitting
with thousands at the table and winning!
I then got alerted about how I could be an
affiliate by the Betfred Affiliate team and
have never looked back since. To this day,
I wish I had signed up that 10/20 player
on a revenue deal rather than a £25 “refera-friend” bonus!
Are you a full-time online gambling affiliate, or do you hold down another job
as well? I am a very part-time affiliate and
see it as more of a luxurious hobby than a
job. I work online as my full-time job and
have six eCommerce sites selling anything
from fancy dress to poker goods.
Your three sites are all dedicated to poker.
One is a .com site and two are .co.uk sites.
Which site draws the most traffic, and
which earns you the most revenue? Yes,
I have my main site, pokerbanter.com,
which is a community-driven site with a
forum and over 1,000 members. This is
the main site and draws in the most traffic
and the most revenue. The .co.uk domain
is hosting my eCommerce store selling
poker goods and equipment. The store
has only been open for just over a year but
earnings are starting to pick up and perhaps this will overtake the main site soon!
As I have a lot of good friends on my forum I put earnings back into the forum as
prizes for members in leagues.
Regarding the eternal CPA vs. rev share
debate, you’ve posted that you’re for rev
share in all cases. Do you feel that this
is a better model for you personally, or
for poker in general? And would there
ever be any circumstances under which
you might consider taking a CPA or hybrid deal? Yes, I always choose rev share
where possible. I love the fact that you
can keep on earning long after you have
signed a player up and the earnings can
be limitless rather than capped. I don’t
only try to get players to sign up at sites,
I try to get them actively contributing to
my forum at pokerbanter.com. This way I
can keep them active on poker sites by organizing poker leagues or tournaments.
How has the traffic on your sites been affected by the Black Friday indictments and
domain seizures in the States? My sites are
mainly focused towards European players
although we do have some U.S. members.
I had never been too focused on the “big”
sites such as PokerStars and promoted
more medium to smaller poker clients,
which has served me well. My traffic has
remained constant and perhaps has seen a
very small rise since Black Friday. In light
of Black Friday I see myself even more focused on small to medium – and mainly
U.K.-based – sites, although recent legislation proposals in the U.K. may change
that soon!
You’ve said that you like to bet on “poker-themed” horses at Cheltenham. How
has that strategy been working out for
you? Oh, don’t talk to me about horses!!!
I hardly ever win betting poker-themed
horses but it’s a great feeling when one
romps home. I don’t bet on horses to
win money, though; I bet for the thrill of
the event and the fun of watching them.
Winning is a nice bonus.
What do you like about the industry? I love
connecting with people with whom you
would normally never have the chance to
connect with, from all corners of the world.
Promoting the poker industry means there
is always a talking point somewhere.
This is an easy answer! Unscrupulous and
rogue affiliate platforms that don’t realize
the value of affiliates!
industry? The one thing I don’t like about
the industry is affiliate teams’ constant
push for new depositors and their seeming lack of drive to retain customers. I
think affiliate teams should be more driven to keeping active players rather than
new signups.
What did you do before you joined the online gaming industry? Before I joined the
gaming industry I worked in a local pool
hall. It was one of the largest venues in
the area and appealed to me perfectly as I
used to play eight-ball pool at the national
level for a number of years. The highlight
of this was winning three world championship team medals playing for Scotland.
can you offer? I always try to answer email as soon as possible, but as I have a
busy home life some things occasionally
have to wait. The best tip I can offer regarding e-mail is to always be courteous,
even if you are annoyed by the conversation or the person!
How do you manage your “to-do” lists? Do
you use any special software to help you
out? Ah, to-do lists. This is the list that I
never seem to catch up on and grows faster than I can reduce! I don’t have any specific software but I do have lots of notepad
files scattered around my desktop with the
title “Don’t Forget!”
49
sites updated? My sites don’t take too
much upkeep although the forums need
a lot of attention. I believe if you are running a forum you should be a major participant in the topics and post as much
as possible. I spend most of my time just
chatting on the forums or adding/upgrading features to keep members happy
and coming back. At the moment I am
just about ready to upgrade my HTML
pages to a sleeker CMS-driven site for
pokerbanter.com. That will take up huge
blocks of time in the near future but will
be worth it.
and how has it helped you so far? I found
the GPWA while I was browsing Google,
looking to start increasing affiliate earnings. So far it has opened my eyes to the
realization that although I am only one
affiliate, there are hundreds out there
who will all help you and share their experiences, good and bad!
webmasters? Time management is something which everyone suffers from no
matter what they do in their lives. If you
are looking for advice on time management from me, please understand that I
take a rather relaxed view and my motto
is “Work to Live, Don’t Live to Work.” I
think that serves me well. Private lives
and home happiness always come before
anything else, and I believe if you are happy at a home level then you will be happier in your business life.
be? Great question! If only it were possible! Well, I will start with my wife,
Tahnee. If I end up not liking my other
choices then I know my wife will be there
for me and I’ll have someone to laugh at
my bad jokes! My second choice would
be Stephen Fry. He is funny as hell and
has so many stories the table would never
go quiet. Third I would have to choose
Jesus so that I could prove whether or
not he was the real deal! Fourth would be
Stephen Hawking as he is one of the great
thinkers of our time and I would love to
hear all his theories. My last choice would
be Gordon Ramsay and needless to say he
would be cooking the meal!
work as possible, where do you go? Well,
working from home it isn’t easy to “get away
from it all” but I do like a game of golf or a
few racks of pool. It’s also nice to have a total break and head off on holidays to a great
theme park for some adrenalin rushes!
How do your family and friends feel about
how you make your living? My friends and
family are all very supportive. If they weren’t
then I would show them in more detail and
change their minds. I wouldn’t stop if someone had a hard time accepting it!
about you?
1. I am terrified of moths, butterflies and
generally any flying insects.
2. I don’t like eating any vegetables.
3. I love watching Judge Judy on TV and
could watch it all day.
AGE: 36
HOMETOWN: Dunfermline, Scotland
Living in:
Dunfermline
FAVORITE FOOD: Pepperoni pizza
MUST READ Glue by Irvine Welsh
BOOK:
SITES: PokerBanter.com
PokerBanter.co.uk
RakeBanter.co.uk
What’s your all-time favorite movie?
My favorite movie is The Matrix. It was
groundbreaking at the time and the story
was brilliant. Who knows – it may even
be true!
50
Can’t we all just get along?
The relationship between an affiliate and an affiliate manager can
become testy at times. Here are some steps to take before the
problem gets out of hand.
By Connie Burstin
A
s in any relationship such as friendship or marriage, a business relationship evolves based on the way it is handled by the two parties. I have observed
through the years that the relationship of
the affiliate and an affiliate manager in
our industry has not always been great.
Sure, there are many cases where these
two parties get along just fine and if that’s
the case, it’s more likely that each side will
benefit in many ways. But, unfortunately,
for every good relationship between an affiliate and an affiliate manager, there are
probably many more that are not so rosy.
So, with the hopes of changing this dynamic, I would like to share with you
some of the reasons for the disdain that
sometimes arises. I hope that these observations will help all of us learn how to
improve the connection between the affiliCan’t we all just get along?
ate manager and affiliate so that it can be
more friendly, effective and, most importantly, profitable.
filiates simply take the time to read and
understand the T&C that are presented to
them when they sign up.
Make sure the affiliate under- Communicate changes in the
stands the Terms & Conditions
Terms & Conditions
Some issues between the affiliate manager
and the affiliate begin right at the start
during the enrollment process. What happens more often than not is that the affiliate doesn’t read the terms and conditions
before joining the program. During the
course of promoting the program, affiliates learn things that they would not agree
with, but missed because they didn’t read
the terms and conditions. This is especially true with cost per acquisition programs
(CPA) because many affiliates don’t know
the exact terms as to what constitutes an
acquisition. But this can be avoided if af-
Even though many programs state that
their Terms and Conditions can be
changed at any time, these programs need
to treat their affiliates as working partners
and clearly communicate any changes and
do so in a timely manner. The worst thing
that a program can do is to not only drastically change its T&Cs, but not tell their
affiliates about it. After all, if a program
advertises “Commission for Life,” how can
that be true if the terms change on players
that have already been referred?
“
For every good relationship between
an affiliate and an affiliate
manager, there are probably many
more that are not so rosy.
”
The method of payment
should be clearly stated
The problem here is that some affiliate
programs don’t share their methods
of payment clearly on their website.
Sometimes it can be found in the FAQs,
but many times an affiliate doesn’t
know what method of payment is used
until AFTER it signs up with the program. It is very important that affiliates
learn the method by which they are going to be compensated BEFORE enrolling with a program. The last thing affiliates want is to find out that they live
in a country where the methods of payment for the program they are promoting are not suitable and that they have
wasted their time and money on a site
that won’t be able to pay them.
Reply and respond to
e-mail in a timely manner
One of the biggest complaints from affiliates is the lack of a reply to e-mail or
phone calls. If affiliate managers aren’t
answering questions from their affiliates
in a timely manner, there is a big problem. But sometimes the manager is not
at fault. It seems that some hosting servers will actually block e-mail that has
online gambling content/links and this
can sometimes be the cause of affiliates
not receiving replies from their affiliate
managers. Both the affiliates and affiliate programs should use options other
than just e-mail to ensure that communication is efficient and that e-mail isn’t
getting lost in cyberspace.
Get the facts before reacting
An overreaction about a certain problem
by affiliates before all of the facts are
known can also become a major issue.
Often an affiliate doesn’t know about
certain information on its account, but
it goes ahead and makes assumptions
before trying to resolve the problem directly with the affiliate manager. Like my
doctor always says, “I cannot prescribe if
I don’t see the patient.”
On the other side of the coin, I have also
observed that some affiliate managers
are still learning about what a fast environment our industry is. Often they
haven’t been able to deal with some issues in a timely manner before an issue
grows into a big problem.
It is important to focus on sales but it
is also important to make sure that affiliates are happy at all times. With such
a big number of gambling affiliate programs these days, it is very easy to turn
around and find another one to be replaced with.
Connie Burstin
Connie Burstin started Burstin
Marketing Group Inc. in 2006,
after working for nearly eight
years as an affiliate program
manager. Her company
specializes in affiliate marketing
and affiliate marketing
consulting. Since arriving on
the scene, Burstin Marketing
Group Inc. has grown steadily
to become an online marketing
service provider.
Growing up in Peru, Burstin
immigrated to Toronto, Canada
in 1992. “Coming to Canada to
do business was a challenge,”
Connie says. “But it was a
priceless learning experience.
I quickly got to know the
problems that arise when
negotiating language and
cultural differences.”
Her experience in dealing with
worldwide customers gave her
the necessary skills to begin
international marketing efforts.
One of her focuses has been on
providing services to companies
looking to enter non-English
markets. She has amassed a
team of marketers, graphic
designers, writers, and other
communicators who specialize
in the international and multilingual spheres.
52
MEET THE
AFFILIATE
MANAGER
It’s usually a long, winding road that carries people into our industry. Our
latest affiliate manager interviewee is a prime example. Sivan Kaspi tells
us that she’s “moved around quite a bit.” Raised in Los Angeles, a student
in Boston and now living in Tel Aviv, Sivan has taken all the experiences
she’s had along the way and skillfully applied them to her job at Rummy
Affiliates – a job she truly loves. She also loves Woody Allen, Beyoncé and
Mark Twain, although she’s totally lost count of how many times she’s
started reading (and failed to finish) The Innocents Abroad.
SIVAN KASPI
Rummy Affiliates
Rummy is a game that a lot of affiliates may not have expertise
in promoting. In terms of demographics, how are rummy customers different from online casino
or online poker players? What’s
their average age? What’s the
male/female breakdown? And if
you know, how do their interests
differ from the typical online casino/online poker customer? The
main difference between rummy
and other games is that rummy
is entirely a skill game. Casino
games rely on luck, and rummy
players cannot depend on “bluffing” to win a game as
poker players do. Rummy is an international
game, one that families
can play together. RummyRoyal offers its new
players the opportunity
to play at beginners’ tables, only against other
beginners, so that they
will gain confidence
before playing against
more experienced players. RummyRoyal has
about a 60/40 male to
female ratio, and our
average age range is
from 25-45 years old,
the median being 32.
“Rummy Affiliates
is very strict about
making payments
on time. . . . Our
affiliates know
exactly when
they will get paid.
This punctuality
builds trust and
is extremely
important in any
partnership. ”
The biggest difference
with our players is that
since rummy is a household game, most people
do not know that they can play
rummy for real money online.
Rummy is a game known around
the world by its local variations,
which RummyRoyal recognizes
by offering 15 brands of the game,
Affiliate Manager Interview Series
including: Remi in Romania,
Okey in Turkey, Burraco in Italy
and Kalooki in the U.K.
What other major differences are
there between promoting online
rummy vs. online casinos? It’s
pretty simple – we are not a casino. Rummy is a different product
in and of itself. Many of our players are poker and casino players,
so there is a nice overlap there.
Same goes for our affiliates. The
great advantage of being a rummy
affiliate is that you gain a popular product to promote to poker
players who can use their skills
at rummy, or a sports better who
may take a break from betting and
play an interactive game.
In terms of lifetime player value,
what can affiliates expect out of
a rummy customer? Affiliates can
expect pretty much the same player value as from a poker player.
What differentiates Rummy Affiliates from other affiliate programs? I like to think of Rummy
Affiliates as a boutique program.
We don’t represent five different
casino brands like other programs do and we employ more
affiliate managers, so the ratio
of affiliate accounts to manager
is really nice for the affiliate.
Our affiliates have more direct
contact with their account managers, especially managers who
speak the affiliate’s native language. Our top three concerns
are customer service, reliable
and timely payments and reports, and having a great product to offer.
What is the biggest challenge facing RummyRoyal in 2011? We are
growing and expanding at a very
fast pace and we are always trying
to keep up. We just added a new
white label with Offside Bet, and
are currently working on others.
We have many projects in process
right now. It’s a really exciting
time for us.
You studied at Brandeis University
in Massachusetts. What experiences have you taken from Brandeis
that have helped you in your job
at Rummy Affiliates? I have moved
around quite a bit. I was raised
in Los Angeles, studied in Boston
and now I am living in Tel Aviv, so
I have learned how to easily adapt
to a new place. At Brandeis, I received a dual degree, both parts of
which were interdisciplinary, so
I have learned how to take many
different experiences and subjects, and combine them to formulate one solution. This technique
comes in handy in marketing, and
has assisted plenty with my job at
Rummy Affiliates.
How did you end up studying at
Brandeis? And how did you end
up moving from Brandeis to Rummy Affiliates in Israel? I applied to
Brandeis as a fluke (Boston is great,
but who would choose Boston over
the sunny beaches of LA??) but I
saw a good opportunity and went
for it. It’s the best fluke I ever took
advantage of, and I am very grateful for my education.
It has always been my dream to
live in Israel. When I arrived in
Israel, I met Udi Abudram, who
53
is now the CMO at Rummy Affiliates. He
knew I had experience in marketing. One
thing led to another and here I am today,
living in Israel and working in a job that
I love.
How much about online gaming did you
know before joining the industry? To be
honest, I did not know too much. I knew it
existed, but I had no idea just how large and
successful the industry was. Now
that I know, I try to stay informed
about all the current news and
changes in the industry. It has
been around for a while, but it’s
always evolving – that’s one of
the qualities I like about it.
have direct contact with each and every
one. Speaking on the phone is ideal,
but since most affiliates spend much of
their day on the computer, it gives us
the opportunity to chat and get to know
each other. This is actually my favorite part of being an affiliate manager
– I really enjoy these personal connections, such as knowing when an affiliate has a baby, speaking about their
If you wish you’d known one
thing about the industry before
you entered it, what would it
be? Truly how big and lucrative
it is, and just how many different opportunities there are for
affiliates. If I knew how to create websites, I would probably
be an affiliate myself.
Now that you’re in the industry,
what do your friends and family think about it? I don’t think
many people are familiar with
affiliate marketing, so it’s easier to say I work in marketing.
But I like to teach and explain
things, so when the opportunity arises, I am happy to explain
what it is.
What advice do you have for
someone just starting in the
industry? To keep up! There is
so much going on and a lot is
changing these days, so people
in this industry really need to
stay in the know; ask good questions and keep informed on industry news.
Most people I know are casual
gamblers, so being from California means they just go to Vegas
or to one of the local casinos on
the Indian reservations.
Affiliates and affiliate program
managers have several things in
common. One of them is their email inboxes are always full. How
long do you give yourself for responding
to e-mail? And what e-mail management
tips can you offer? I definitely spend lots of
time going through e-mail. The first thing
I do each morning (after making coffee, of
course) is to sort through and mark all the
e-mail that needs a response. I will reply to
the time-sensitive e-mail first and work my
way through the rest. I don’t like to leave
anything pending in there. I immediately
get back to affiliates, answering questions,
recommending and supplying them with
materials. I find that grabbing the materials and sending them myself is the most
time-effective thing for both of us.
Most of the affiliate managers we talk
to say building trust with their affiliates is critical to success. How do you
go about building trust with your affiliates? The best way to gain trust is
by establishing real and personal relationships with affiliates. I prefer to
Do you gamble yourself? If so, what
games do you like to play? Were you an
online player before getting into the industry? I’m not into gambling myself; I
think it takes some guts. I got into this
industry from the marketing side, and it
opened my eyes to an entire new world
that I didn’t know existed before. The
closest I get to gambling are the poolside
lounge chairs in Las Vegas!
What’s the best movie food?
And why? Peanut M&M’s. Do
you really need to ask why?
weekends and holidays, and knowing
them outside of their affiliate job.
From a technical standpoint, Rummy Affiliates is very strict about making payments on time. We pay by the fifth day
of the following month, and our affiliates
know exactly when they will get paid. This
punctuality builds trust and is extremely
important in any partnership.
Besides trust, what are the keys to building successful relationships between
affiliates and affiliate programs? It’s all
about reliability and being relatable. I try
to be as available as possible for my affiliates via e-mail, phone and messenger.
And again, the most important thing for me
is the actual relationship with the affiliate.
It is a professional relationship, but I try to
be as friendly as possible, and I have made
some really nice friends along the way.
If you could have dinner with
three other people, living or
dead, who would they be? Leonardo da Vinci, since it would be
an honor to meet such a genius; Woody
Allen, because he intrigues me; and Beyoncé. I wonder what that dinner conversation would be like . . .
What is the last book you read? Did you
enjoy it? I tend to start books over and
over again and never find the time to finish them. Currently, it’s The Innocents
Abroad, by Mark Twain. I am sure I will
finish it . . . eventually. The last book I
read that I could not put down was Water
for Elephants, by Sara Gruen. Now I need
to watch the movie.
What is your favorite movie? It’s a tripletie: Forrest Gump, The Shawshank Redemption and Shrek. They explain all of
life’s biggest lessons.
Affiliate Manager Interview Series
54
Online betting in France – a taxing situation
More than a year after regulation, optimism is giving way to frustration
By Vin Narayanan
W
hen France began licensing and
regulating online poker and online sports betting in the summer of 2010, the Internet gaming industry
wasn’t celebrating with wild parties on the
Champs-Élysées.
France’s population (excluding the five
overseas regions) of 62.8 million with a
median age of 39.9 (male median age is
38.4) made it an ideal potential market for
online gambling. But heavy taxes, strict
limits on how much money a player could
win and burdensome player registration
requirements had online gaming executives wondering how they were going to
make a profit in France.
As a result, cautious optimism ruled the
day. Gaming executives were going to take
a shot at making money in France. And if
they couldn’t, they’d try to change the legislation, as they had done in Italy.
More than a year later, France has 2.9 million
active online gaming accounts. And cautious
optimism has been replaced with frustration.
Online sportsbooks have seen a dramatic
decline in the amount of money wagered
in France. Since the market opened up
last summer, €741 million have been wagered at online sportsbooks, according to
ARJEL, which regulates online gaming
in France. But only €293 million have
been wagered in the first half of this year
– which represents a decline in wagers of
nearly 35 percent.
Shortly after the ARJEL data came out,
Chilipoker founder and CEO Alexandre
Dreyfus published his estimates on how
the overall wagers translated into revenue.
And according to his calculations, €293
million represents gross gaming revenue
of €60 million. Gross gaming revenue
represents the money companies will be
taxed on – and the pool of money from
which they have to pay out bonuses.
The sharp six-month decline in wagers
can’t be attributed solely to lack of World
Cup betting this year. World Cup wagering accounted for only 16 percent of the
money wagered on soccer. And as a result,
alarm bells are being sounded.
“Investors are starting to ask questions,”
said Antonio Costanzo, the Director of
Sport Integrity and Regulation at party.
bwin at a June online gambling conference hosted by Groupement des Editeurs
de Services en Ligne (GESTE).
“Business plans do not look good. . . . This
[decrease] is unprecedented in Europe,”
added Costanzo, according to ZDnet, which
first reported his comments. “Taxation is
central to the problem.”
France charges a 7.5 percent tax on every
sports wager.
The story is the same for the online poker
industry. Despite attracting sizable audiences
€423m
€187m
€45m
Football (Soccer)
Tennis
Basketball
€129m
€19m
€10m
Volleyball
Rugby
Handball
€27m
Other sports
SOURCE: ARJEL
55
Other sports 4%
Handball 1%
Rugby 3%
Volleyball 4%
Basketball 6%
Football (Soccer)
Tennis
57%
25%
SOURCE: ARJEL
– PokerStars.fr and Winamax.fr
rank seventh and ninth on
PokerScout’s list of largest
poker networks – online
poker executives say they
are not making money in
Europe’s second-largest
market and will have to
close if major changes are
not made.
“Despite attracting sizable audiences —
PokerStars.fr and Winamax.fr rank seventh
and ninth on PokerScout’s list of largest
poker networks – poker executives say they
are not making money in Europe’s secondlargest market and will have to close if
major changes are not made.”
The amount of money wagered in France on poker
has actually increased in
the first six months of 2011 compared
to the final six months of 2010, according to data provided by ARJEL. In 2010,
€415.706 million were wagered in cash
games and tournament fees. During the
first six months of 2011, that number rose
to €553.774 million.
But even with revenues rising, online poker executives are warning that the cost of
doing business in France is too high.
“The more you recruit new players, the more you lose money,” said
Alexandre Balkany, the general director
of PokerStars.fr, at the GESTE conference, according to ZDnet. “In France,
players lose their money twice as fast
as everywhere else because of taxes and
rake. Half the time we lose money and
high-roller players move to non-licensed
websites. Mathematically, it is impossible
to make money with poker. We will be
able to do whatever we want, [but] if rake
doesn’t change . . . we will have to leave
the market.”
France taxes 2 percent of every pot in
poker – regardless of whether a flop
is seen.
despite significant institutional advantages. 200
Percent Poker was owned
by a consortium of 40 landbased casinos in France.
The consortium, La Société
Française des Jeux sur
Internet (SFJI), elected to
use the joint Microgaming888 French poker network
(Prima) to build liquidity.
SFJI launched 200 Percent
Poker in September 2010.
And less than a year later,
200 Percent Poker – an online poker
room with land-based ties using proven
software in a highly regulated market
– was out of business.
Efforts to reform the tax system for online gambling have failed so far. A June
proposal to switch to taxation of gross
gaming revenue wasn’t considered because it lacked support in the French
National Assembly.
One online poker room has already pulled
the plug. This summer, 200 Percent
Poker closed when it couldn’t succeed
Affiliate Marketing by the Numbers
An Affiliate’s Guide to Benefiting from Statistical Analysis
By Louis Deering
N
owadays, affiliate marketing is a
numbers game. Perhaps long ago,
before the rise of analytics and web
tracking, marketing may have been
a “soft science,” requiring as much
intuition as analytical skill, but this is no
longer the case. In the business world of
today, marketers live and die by minute
percentage-point shifts in conversion
rates or costs-per-acquisition, gained
from carefully studying user data.
This data is more readily and affordably
available than ever before. Free services
like Google Analytics or Stats Remote
continue to enter the market, while paid
services like Syntryx or SEOmoz continue
to increase their value, providing everimproving data tracking, organization
and analysis. Access to valuable data
that was previously limited to top firms
with large budgets is now available to any
independent marketer. This levels the
playing field and allows the scrupulous
analyst to get ahead. However, with so
much data available, it can be difficult to
know where to look. Marketers can suffer
from “information overload” (or as more
recently proposed, “filter failure”) if they
do not have a proper structure to their
data analysis.
What statistics should you be paying
particular attention to? What tools
are available to help you analyze
these statistics? And how should you
conduct your evaluation to yield the
best results?
57
What stats should
affiliate programs be
providing affiliates?
In the iGaming sphere, an
affiliate program is incomplete
without
robust
reporting
of sales and revenue data
throughout the player life cycle,
in addition to basic stats such as
impressions, clicks, downloads
and commissions. Regardless
of vertical or commission
structure,
having
player
deposit, wagering and revenue
activity is critical. Simply put,
affiliates and operators should
both be thinking about longterm profitability; after all,
without quality data on topics
like average player values and
wagering amounts, how can
they expect to optimize their
relationship to ensure ROI?
If programs have multiple products,
it’s beneficial for them to report results
on each product separately. This
way, affiliates can recognize where
they generate their commissions and
optimize promotions based on this
information. If a brand’s data is even
more comprehensive, such as revenue
or conversion rates per game (or per
betting market in the case of sports
betting), affiliates benefit further.
Additionally, affiliates should be given
the option to NOT earn commissions on
a given product if they feel it will affect
them negatively rather than positively.
For example, poker affiliates often
choose to not earn revshare on casino,
as a large win could wipe out their
monthly poker earnings.
Finally, in the interest of transparency,
but also long-term profitability, it’s
crucial that programs provide as much
data as possible on the variable costs
factored into the net revenue calculation.
At a bare minimum, this means showing
both gross and net revenue for each
product being reported so affiliates can
see the costs. Ideally, programs should
show bonus costs as a separate column,
so affiliates can see to what extent bonus
costs affect their earnings. This way,
affiliates promoting bespoke bonuses,
such as no-deposit bonuses, may choose
“
An affiliate program
is incomplete without
robust reporting of
sales and revenue
data throughout the
player life cycle.
”
to revert back to the default offer if their
bonus costs are unreasonably high.
As an affiliate, it is within your power
to promote only brands with sufficient
transparency in all of the aforementioned
areas. If a program you are promoting
does not provide sufficient data, pass this
feedback on to the operator or affiliate
manager, and don’t hesitate to explain
why this data is crucial. Your feedback is
uniquely valuable in getting changes like
this implemented, and hopefully, with
the right impetus, the program can be
brought into compliance.
What stats should you focus
on as an affiliate?
There are many variations on the
iGaming affiliate business model, and
as such, different affiliates may focus
on different stats when reviewing the
performance of the various affiliate
programs they promote. Some may
focus on converting as many players as
possible with the hope of converting at
least one high roller to generate the bulk
of their earnings. Others might focus
on earnings per player, looking for the
operator with the best player lifetime
values. Furthermore, some affiliates
may focus on EPC (earnings per click),
CPM (cost per thousand impressions) or
other metrics incorporating both the rate
of conversion (from impression to click,
click to download, download
to deposit or any combination
thereof) and earnings per player.
In fact, all of these metrics are
important, and regardless of
your affiliate business model,
you should at least be aware
of how each of your programs
benchmarks in each category.
For example, a brand which
converts players extremely well
but does not retain them would
not be a good brand to promote
for an affiliate seeking to catch
a high roller. While you might
be more likely to convert a high
roller due to greater volume of
signups, it is less likely that such
a player would continue to play,
as high rollers are generally
pickier about brands they play
in comparison to casual players.
Similarly, if a brand has a high average
player value but very low conversion
rates, the brand may be saturated in
the marketplace. Saturation means
that a majority of players already have
an account, and may cause you to
miss out on potential earnings from
your traffic. In addition, if a brand has
multiple products, you should be aware
of the performance differences between
products, and not necessarily promote
every product of every brand. If a brand
performs well in sports betting, but not
casino, nothing states that you must
promote both their casino and their
betting products.
Common mistakes/
misconceptions in stats analysis
Far and away the most common mistake
that affiliates make with respect to stats
is not doing enough analysis. More often
than not, this is because they are busy
running their sites, working on SEO,
social media, coding, or handling the
many other webmaster tasks that help
keep their traffic levels growing. Busy
affiliates will log in, quickly check their
earnings or number of new players,
and log out, without taking the time to
evaluate conversion rates, earnings per
click or other crucial metrics discussed
above. By not analyzing your stats,
it is easy to miss out on a very real
58
opportunity to increase your earnings
in the immediate future. Variations in
conversion rates between brands can be
as high as two to three times for the same
traffic, so by diverting traffic from a lowperforming brand to a high-performing
brand, you could double or triple your
daily earnings overnight. It’s doubtful
that you could generate that kind of
immediate impact through SEO or social
media activities.
Aside from insufficient analysis, another
common mistake that affiliates make
is jumping to conclusions without
statistically significant data. For example,
they might see a drop in conversions
over a few days and think something has
gone wrong with the tracking. Perhaps
they might refer one player, see a lower
than average value and assume that the
operator does not have a good CRM team.
While it never hurts to be cautious, it’s
important not to take drastic decisions
based on insufficient data. If you think
tracking may not be working, run tests
rather than immediately removing a
brand from your site. If you think a brand
may not be performing well, ask other
affiliates about their experiences with
the brand (forums such as GPWA are a
great place to present such a question). If
you’re unsure how to determine statistical
significance, there are numerous free
sources of information on the topic
available online. Once you have a general
idea of how statistical significance is
determined, you’ll be able to intuit if
the results you are seeing are significant
without performing a complicated math
equation each time.
Stats tools for affiliates
Possibly the most impactful tool
available to affiliates is Google Analytics.
While its existence may not be news to
most affiliates, a great many misuse or
underuse this powerful and free service.
When combined with Google Website
Optimizer, Google Analytics allows you
to work in a methodical and scientific
manner toward greatly improved
conversion rates and overall website
function. Moreover, by studying your
source data, or the breakdown of where
visitors come from, in combination with
conversion data, you can determine what
traffic is most valuable to you and direct
your traffic-building efforts accordingly.
Another incredibly useful stats tool that
affiliates can use is a custom tracking
variable for each link on your site. Most
programs have a function allowing you
to append your own unique variable to
the tracking link and sort your reporting
by these variables. By keeping track of
the conversions of each banner or each
link, you can learn which pages, and
which particular spots on each page,
have the best conversion rates and place
your highest value brands in the best
converting spots.
Finally, since saving time on stats
analysis is vital to affiliates, there are a
number of tools which help you export
your stats automatically so you don’t
have to log in to each individual program
to review stats. This can be a lifesaver if,
like many affiliates, you promote over
50 different brands. Many programs
have a stats API or XML option which
allows you to export the stats to your
own database, assuming you know how
to build such a database. If you’re not so
keen on building your own stats center,
Stats Remote (www.statsremote.com)
– for about $300 per year – provides a
potent single stats center that is already
compatible with most major brands.
Either way, by making stats analysis a
quicker and more centralized process,
you will help ensure that you don’t let
this important task fall by the wayside.
Louis Deering
Louis Deering has worked in
online marketing since 2005.
Beginning as a marketing
manager for an online clothing
retailer, Louis later began
specializing in affiliate marketing,
working as a network rep for
Income Access, in Montreal. Voted
Best Non-Traditional Affiliate
Manager at the 2010 iGB Affiliate
Awards, Louis currently works
remotely as a Senior Affiliate
Manager with Income Access
from Medellín, Colombia.
60
Black Friday: bad for some, better for others
By Aaron Todd
S
ince April 15, 2011, the online gambling landscape has
changed dramatically. Millions of
Americans, who previously played online poker and gambled at Internet casinos and sportsbooks, saw their favorite
brands leave the U.S. market. The exit
of major brands like PokerStars and
Bodog came either as a result of direct
pressure applied in indictments from
the U.S. Department of Justice or out
of self-preservation as sites that previously served the U.S. market decided it
was no longer worth the risk.
PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and
Absolute Poker/UB.com left the U.S.
market shortly after its founders were
named in the April 15 “Black Friday” indictments. Bonne Chance casinos (e.g.,
Cocoa Casino, Paradise 8 and This Is
Vegas) blocked Americans from signing up for new accounts. Sportsbook.
com and others soon followed.
Some sites, however, reaped the benefits of the lost American market. While
PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker saw their
numbers shrink in the three weeks following Black Friday by 25 and 50 percent respectively, the Merge Poker
Network saw a 77 percent increase in
player liquidity and the Cake Poker
Network saw a 28 percent increase in
liquidity. Compared to the relatively
small starting points of the smaller
sites, the increases were significant, but
the vast majority of Americans who lost
their favorite sites on Black Friday have
yet to reappear on sites continuing to
serve U.S. markets.
Several sites that continued to
serve the U.S. took measures to
ensure that their domains could
not be seized. Sportsbook.com,
for instance, changed its home
page to Sportsbook.ag. Bodog.com
initially changed to Bodog.eu, but
has since announced that because
Black Friday: bad for some, better for others
it has received a U.K. license, the
Bodog Brand will shift out of the U.S.
market completely by the end of the
year. The Morris Mohawk Gaming
Group, which had been licensing the
Bodog Brand, will continue to serve
U.S. players with a new site.
“Other than a name change it should
be business as usual for U.S. punters,”
reads a release on CalvinAyre.com.
“
“The vast majority of
Americans who lost
their favorite sites on
Black Friday have yet
to reappear on sites
continuing to serve U.S.
markets.”
”
Bodog wasn’t the only site to change
its domain name. Sites taking similar measures include: doylesroom.
ag, betus.com.pa, and bmaker.ag
(from bookmaker.com). Others,
such as the Casino Coins online casino brands, simply could not survive and closed completely.
PokerStars, meanwhile, offered players
a 50 percent reload bonus, the largest
such bonus in its 10-year history, in an
effort to quell fears about the site’s liquidity and to keep the games running.
Full Tilt Poker simply melted down after the Black Friday indictments, and
had its license revoked by the Alderney
Gambling Control Commission at the
end of June. (For more on the mess at
Full Tilt, see Vin Narayanan’s story on
page 62.)
Competing online poker sites have
reaped the rewards of Full Tilt’s demise. PokerScout.com’s Dan Stewart
says that only 10 percent of Americans
lost in the market after Black Friday
have resurfaced at new sites. But 60
percent of the customers Full Tilt had
been serving after it shut down its U.S.
operations have turned up elsewhere.
PokerStars has reaped the greatest rewards, netting nearly 3,000 more players than it had prior to the shutdown,
while PartyPoker has jumped by more
than 1,600 players, or 46 percent.
In an effort to capitalize on Full Tilt’s
problems, PartyPoker introduced a promotion offering players rake-free tournaments in the month of July. And they
weren’t the only room attempting to take
advantage of the turmoil at Full Tilt. The
iPoker Network doubled its first-deposit
bonus to $2,000, and allowed players to
clear that bonus twice as fast.
Perhaps the most remarkable situation
in this shifting marketplace, however,
is that business at PokerStars stands
nearly in the same place it did a year
ago, despite losing access to the U.S.
market. As of August 1, year-over-year
traffic at the world’s largest online
poker room was down just 4 percent,
while worldwide, traffic has decreased
24 percent (excluding France and
Italy) in the last year.
“[PokerStars] had seen a fair amount
of gain, year-over-year, before Black
Friday hit,” said Stewart. “And then
they captured a good number of Full
Tilt players, so they are nearly back
to even. A lot of people assumed they
were a little more dependent on the
U.S. than they really were. They had
been really successful in broadening
their player base to be a majority of
non-U.S. players.”
Twitter myth dispelled, and how to energize your tweets for SEO
62
Judgment Day
delayed for Full Tilt
By Vin Narayanan
T
he last four months have not
been kind to Full Tilt Poker – or
its players. On April 14, 2011,
Full Tilt Poker was the world’s secondlargest online poker room, trailing
only PokerStars. As of press time, Full
Tilt was no longer operating anywhere.
The online poker room went into hibernation when the Alderney Gambling
Control Commission suspended the
online poker room’s eGambling.
Full Tilt’s problems began on April
15, when the Department of Justice
indicted Full Tilt founder and CEO
Raymond Bitar, along with the founders of PokerStars and Absolute Poker,
on charges of money laundering, wire
fraud and operating an illegal gambling business. As part of the legal action, the DOJ seized 76 bank accounts
in 14 countries, seized the domains of
PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com,
AbsolutePoker.com and UB.com and
sought $3 billion in civil money-laundering penalties.
Full Tilt and PokerStars quickly
reached agreements with the DOJ in
which the poker companies exited
the U.S. market and agreed to refund
American players in return for the domains that had been seized. Absolute
Poker reached a similar agreement
that did not involve the return of its
domain names. But as of press time,
only PokerStars had returned money
to its American players – and that’s
where Full Tilt’s nightmare began.
Like the other online poker rooms, Full
Tilt remained open to players outside
the United States. And those players
continued to play at Full Tilt. In the
weeks following the April 15 indictments, Full Tilt was still the secondlargest online poker room, according
to PokerScout.com. But issues regarding payment to players outside
the U.S. started cropping up sporadically. At first, the problems were dismissed as temporary hiccups caused
by the indictments.
“Initial investigations indicate no reason to believe that player fund transactions are fundamentally threatened by
any consequence of the U.S. authorities’ actions,” wrote the AGCC in midMay. “Delays caused by these actions
are in the process of resolution, with
normal service now being restored
for non-U.S. players. We understand
that progress in respect of U.S. player
fund repatriation is anticipated and
will be the subject of a separate statement from Full Tilt in due course. The
Commission will remain engaged in
this process.”
Twitter myth
Judgment
Daydispelled,
delayed and
for Full
howTiltto energize your tweets for SEO
As May drew to a close, Full Tilt still
had not refunded American players
their money, while PokerStars had
already returned $100 million. And
even Full Tilt’s most ardent backers
were seeing red.
Phil Ivey, one of the best poker players
in the world, has been sponsored by
Full Tilt since it opened for business.
He announced that he was suing the
poker room in June.
“I am deeply disappointed and embarrassed that Full Tilt players have
not been paid money they are owed,”
read a statement on Ivey’s webpage.
“I am equally embarrassed that as a
result many players cannot compete
in tournaments and have suffered
economic harm. I am not playing in
the World Series of Poker as I do not
believe it is fair that I compete when
others cannot. I am doing everything
I can to seek a solution to the problem
as quickly as possible.”
63
From left to right: Ho
ward Lederer, Phil Ive
Ivey later withdrew his lawsuit, but it
was clear this was going to be an unhappy summer for Full Tilt.
The two other professional poker players most associated with Full Tilt,
Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson,
also did not play in any World Series of
Poker events.
On June 29, the AGCC suspended Full
Tilt’s online gaming license and set a
regulatory hearing for the end of July.
“The decision to suspend these licenses follows a special investigation
prompted by the indictments unsealed by the U.S. Attorney General’s
Office in the Southern District of New
York on 15 April 2011, during which
grounds were found to indicate that
these licensees and their business
associates were operating contrary
to Alderney legislation,” wrote the
AGCC. “The nature of the findings
necessitated the taking of immediate
action in the public interest.”
y and Chris Ferguson
(file photos)
The AGCC has not publicly revealed
what triggered the license suspension.
Full Tilt immediately halted its global
operations. And Full Tilt’s players
headed to other online poker rooms.
“What’s really going to be fascinating
is, assuming that Full Tilt is actually
successful in completing some kind of
transaction and they get their license
back and they open their doors back
up, how much are they going to then
recapture from all the other sites that
have gobbled up all their traffic?” said
PokerScout’s Dan Stewart.
While the competition was gobbling up
Full Tilt’s players, Full Tilt was looking
for investors to either infuse cash into
the company or buy it outright. And
when the AGCC’s license hearing convened in late July, the company sought
to protect its chances of finding a buyer
or investor. Instead of publicly addressing the problems it was facing, Full Tilt
asked the AGCC if the hearing could be
delayed, and requested that the reasons
for the delay be discussed in private.
The AGCC granted Full Tilt’s request
for a private discussion. And at the end
of the discussion, the AGCC agreed to
delay the license hearing to a date no
later than September 15.
“As a result of the arguments on behalf of FTP during the pre-hearing application the Commissioners decided
to adjourn the hearing as they felt
it was in the best interests of FTP’s
customers,” wrote the AGCC. “A key
consideration . . . was to allow FTP
licensees to further pursue advanced
commercial negotiations which could
lead to a more beneficial outcome for
player interests.”
So the search for an investor is on. As
of press time, Full Tilt had not found
someone to buy the company or infuse
it with cash. And until Full Tilt does,
players might be out of luck.
Judgment Day delayed for Full Tilt
Strategies for U.S. poker affiliates moving forward
By Jeremy Enke
O
n Friday, April 15, 2011, the landscape of poker affiliate marketing in
the United States of America was forever
changed. With the indictments and confiscation of the domains from the top four
U.S. online poker sites by the U.S. Department of Justice, many poker affiliates
were left facing a very uncertain future.
Before the infamous “Black Friday,” online
poker in the United States was one of the
most lucrative markets in the world for affiliates and Internet marketers. With this
sudden and unexpected development in
the industry, however, many poker affiliates who relied on that market have been
left wondering what their strategy should
be moving forward.
There is no question that moving forward
in the poker affiliate industry is going to
be a challenge. But this challenge also
presents opportunities for poker affiliates
to think outside the box while trying new
marketing strategies and techniques.
Should you continue promoting online poker and targeting U.S. players? This seems to
be the million-dollar question lately. If you
have studied the indictments from Black
Friday, then you already know that the operators’ sites were seized by U.S. authorities because of their banking and payment
processing practices, and not solely because
they provided an online poker platform
where U.S. players could play.
With that said, there are still a handful of
operators accepting U.S. poker and casino
players. This presents affiliates with the
opportunity to promote to a much wider
audience and attract players who were
regulars at one of the big four rooms before Black Friday. Similar to how Americans continued to drink after alcohol prohibition began in 1920, Americans will
undoubtedly continue to gamble and play
online poker.
Continuing to promote online poker to
U.S. players is truly a risk vs. reward proposition at this time. After speaking with
several legal scholars, I don’t personally
Strategies for U.S. poker affiliates moving forward
believe there are any legal risks for traditional poker affiliate marketers inside the
U.S. I do think, however, there are risks.
The remaining operators could choose
to abruptly exit the U.S. market with no
warning. Depending on the circumstances,
operators may not be able to pay affiliates
their earned commissions. The rewards,
however, if these operators remain in the
U.S. and can effectively process payments,
will certainly be plentiful.
Most agree that at some point in the future we will indeed see regulated online
gambling in the United States. When this
emerges, we will once again see a fundamental change in the landscape of online
poker. The implications for poker affiliates will once again likely be significant.
In my opinion the poker affiliates that
choose to remain in the industry through
these turbulent and uncertain times will
surely be the ones that benefit most when
the market does open back up.
So let’s discuss a few specific strategies for
poker affiliates moving forward.
65
“
Should you continue
promoting online
poker and targeting
U.S. players? This
seems to be the
million-dollar
question lately.
”
Begin driving and converting
non-U.S. traffic
Easier said than done, I know. However, if you have a site that has historically
ranked well and driven a great deal of
traffic, you may as well build upon this
existing platform versus starting from
scratch. The easiest way to begin driving
non-U.S. traffic and revenues is through
translation. I would suggest choosing a
few languages in emerging markets and
have your existing top 10 converting
pages professionally translated. Certainly
you can do more, but starting with just 10
pages will allow you to experiment and
see which languages are converting better
for you. When doing this you’ll also want
to place these newly translated pages in
separate language-specific folders or subdomains on your site.
If you are going to target English-speaking
European traffic, there are also some considerations to keep in mind with this as
well. You will need to familiarize yourself
with the proper dialect of the region you
are targeting. For example, when writing
about “friends” in the U.K., you would use
the term “mates.” Or when writing European news or articles about how many
players played in a poker tournament,
you would refer to players as “runners.”
When trying to convert non-U.S. traffic,
it’s the subtle things like dialect in your
content that will make a world of difference in your conversion rates.
Diversify into new niches
While I do think it makes sense to remain
in the poker affiliate industry, I think it’s
imperative for poker affiliates to diversify
and not continue to have all their eggs in
one basket. Poker affiliate marketing is
recognized as one of the most competitive affiliate industries. If individuals can
have success as poker affiliates, there is
no question they should be able to parlay
their skills into several different niches.
I often get asked by affiliates, “What are
the best niches to get into outside of gambling?” The answer is the same as the answer a poker expert will give you if you
ask what you should do when you’re dealt
a specific starting hand: It depends. The
most important aspect to consider when
exploring new niches is to pick an industry or product that interests you or that
you have passion for. Your success rate in
a new affiliate market will be greatly increased if you choose a niche that you’re
already knowledgeable about or enjoy
working within.
first page of Google for some keywords
may take several months and hours of
effort. However, like recent news articles or press releases, oftentimes keyword-rich videos will rank very well in
a short period of time. These are just a
few different outside-the-box marketing
platforms that affiliates should start experimenting with.
Bottom line is that there are a wealth of
opportunities and innovative ways to
grow your affiliate business other than by
simply creating content and optimizing
for search engines.
Most poker affiliates would agree that
what transpired on Black Friday was truly
a “game changer” for the online poker industry. The closing and seizure of the four
largest U.S.-facing online poker sites by
the DOJ is by far the most significant bad
beat this industry has ever been dealt.
While I expect many affiliates will simply
leave the industry, I also expect there will
be affiliates who use this turbulent period
in the online poker industry to learn new
marketing strategies and innovative ways
to grow their affiliate businesses.
Explore new marketing
platforms
Over the past few years it has been easy
for poker affiliates to get stuck in the same
routine when it comes to driving new players and conversions. While many of these
traditional marketing efforts such as SEO
have helped affiliates build solid revenue
streams, it may be time to branch out and
try new things. For those affiliates whose
primary focus was the U.S. market, trying
to quickly regain their revenue through
SEO alone is going to be a challenge.
Now would be a great time to experiment
with marketing strategies that maybe you
haven’t worked with for a while or always
wanted to try. For example, press release
marketing seems to have lost some popularity over the past few years. However,
did you know that many press releases
written with your keywords in mind will
often show up in the top five results of
Google for a few days?
Another example is video marketing.
Ranking organically and getting on the
Jeremy Enke
Jeremy Enke is the CEO of Poker
Affliate Listings (PokerAffiliateListings.
com). Jeremy has dedicated over seven
years to the poker affiliate market,
with an overall mission throughout
this time of helping affiliate marketers
reach their full potential and become
more successful in this terrific industry.
Jeremy has been involved in the poker
affiliate industry since 2003. Founding
the world’s largest poker affiliate
community, followed by the world’s
largest poker affiliate network, Jeremy
likes to refer to himself as a selfproclaimed Certified Baller. Jeremy’s
sense of humor and entrepreneurial
spirit are second to none.
67
2011-2012 EVENT CALENDAR
JUST
LAUNCHED!
Introducing GamingMeets.com
– your guide to over 600
industry events including trade
shows, conferences, seminars,
networking events, and awards
ceremonies. Visit this brandnew site for complete details
on each of the upcoming
iGaming affiliate events listed
on this page plus a wide variety
of other industry events. For
up-to-the-minute info on where
gaming industry professionals
around the world will be
getting together, get yourself
over to GamingMeets.com!
September 2011
2-3 September
Poker in the Park 2011
Hanover Square
London, England
8-11 September
Barcelona Affiliate Conference
(BAC)
Fira de Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain
16 September
Lyceum End of Summer
iGaming Social
Kensington Roof Gardens
London, England
20-22 September
European iGaming Congress
& Expo (EiG)
MIC - Milano Convention Centre
Milan, Italy
OCTOBER 2011
3 October
G2E Welcome Reception
Poolside at The Venetian
Las Vegas, Nevada
3-6 October
G2E iGaming Congress and iGaming Zone
Las Vegas Sands Expo &
Convention Center
Las Vegas, Nevada
4 October
GPWA Cocktail Party
Stratosphere Tower
Las Vegas, Nevada
10-12 October
Monaco iGaming Exchanges
Grimaldi Forum
Monaco
18-19 October
A4U Expo London
Hilton Metropole
London, England
26-27 October
Euro-Asian iGaming Forum
(EAiG)
Moscow, Russian Federation
NOVEMBER 2011
7-8 November
The 5th Annual Power
LatAm Event
Windsor Atlântica Hotel
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
12 November
Finance for Online Gambling
Grand Hotel
Stockholm, Sweden
18-19 November
iGB Espana 2011
Hotel Melia Avenida America
Madrid, Spain
23 November
Sport and iGaming 2011
Office of Pinsent Masons LLP
London, England
30 November
EGR Operator Awards
Gala 2011
Honourable Artillary Company
London, England
December 2011
1-2 December
Lyceum Holiday 2011
iGaming Social
London, England
January 2012
8-10 January
Affiliate Summit West
Caesars Palace Las Vegas
Las Vegas, Nevada
24-26 January
ICE Affiliate Zone
Earls Court Exhibition Center
London, England
25 January
Lyceum Fire & ICE Party
London, England
26 January
iGB Affiliate Awards
The Brewery
London, England
For full details, visit GamingMeets.com
26-29 January
London Affiliate Conference
(LAC)
Old Billingsgate Market
London, England
May 2012
22-25 May
The iGaming Super Show
RMS
Dublin, Ireland
2011-2012 Event Calendar
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WALL OF SHAME
by J. Todd,
Executive Director, APCW
I
magine hearing that your favorite online casino, poker room or sportsbook
was recently hacked, with account
information possibly jeopardized. You’d
be understandably upset and concerned.
You’d want to know when and how this
breach occurred. And you’d want
to know if you could ever trust
this property again.
occurred, they weren’t aware that customer data was stolen.
And you know what’s truly pathetic about
this story? They might be right. The revelation of Bet24’s stolen data only came
In order for a player to place a
deposit at an online gambling
site, he or she must be confident
of three things: The games will be
fair. There will not be any problems processing payments. And
account information will remain
safe. If you fail in any of these
three things, you will rightly earn
a spot on the Wall of Shame.
Now imagine that you heard your
account was hacked 19 months
ago, and you’re only learning
about it now.
Welcome to the dilemma facing
customers at Bet24. On July 25,
Bet24 posted a notice on their
main site titled “Important Security Information.” The notice
said that “BET24 customer information was stolen from BET24
by means of illegal electronic
access to our database, which is
believed to have taken place in
December 2009.”
You heard that right. The breach
took place more than a year and
a half ago, and Bet24 is only now
informing customers. The stolen
information included customer names,
addresses, e-mails, user account IDs, account passwords and encrypted payment
card numbers.
This is, quite simply, unacceptable. In
fact, in no reality is this acceptable. The
officials asshats at Bet24 claim that despite knowing about the breach when it
APCW’s Wall of Shame
breached, you needed to send out a
warning to players IMMEDIATELY.
Not the next week. Not later in the
year. And certainly not 19 months after
the fact.
So let’s all give a warm hand to
Bet24. Your ineptitude and overall
shadiness allowed you to join such
scumbags as Russ Hamilton and
Grand Privé. Congratulations.
out after police arrested the hackers and
saw they had Bet24’s customer information in their possession.
Nope, that doesn’t cut it. And it doesn’t
matter that you refunded money to accounts that may have been affected if
they reported suspicious activity. If
you knew that your security had been

1% - GPWA Times

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