iGB Affiliate 17 Oct/Nov 09

OCT/NOV 2009

DIRECT MARKETING EMAIL VS DIRECT MAIL RULES OF WHITE HAT LINK BUILDING AFFILIATE DECISION MAKING THE OPERATOR’S INFLUENCE INTERVIEW: PATRICK MCKAY, FOUNDER, GOBETYA

Tools of the Trade The Affiliate and Operator Toolkit

INFORMATION, INSIGHT AND ANALYSIS FOR THE BUSINESS OF INTERACTIVE GAMING

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CASINO | POKER | BINGO | NETWORK GAMING | MOBILE

CONTENTS 04 Events Calendar 06 Webmaster News 10 White Hat Link Building 12 Conversion Rate Psychology 15 Tools of the Trade 18 Direct Marketing: Email Vs Direct Mail 21 Interview: Lady Hold’em 22 Interview: Patrick McKay, Founder of Gobetya 24 Reaching the Female Player Base 25 Sportsbetting Supplement 34 T&Cs: The Curse of Retroactive Changes 36 Forex and the Poker Player 39 Getting your Niche 40 Open Source Warfare: Google Takes on Microsoft 42 Weeding out Bad Affiliates 44 Affiliate Decision Making: The Operator’s Influence 46 Poker Money Seizures in the US 48 Interview: Patrik Selin, Bodog Network 50 Conference Season – What Have we Learnt?

52 Consolidate, Optimize, Maximize 54 Webinar Best Practices

So, while a few of you commented that I must be getting older, after seeing me out of commission for the four days following the Budapest Affiliate Conference and EIG events, I have to remind you that back in the day, we didn’t host major back to back events. While I used to have to go hard for three days of conferencing, meetings and events with only two and a half hours sleep a night, I’m now required to go for seven days at pace. But now that we’ve cleared that up, you can be sure that I’m strategizing, training and preparing for the myriad of events, socials and parties that accompany the London Affiliate Conference and ICE. But for now, we are all bedding down for winter and getting serious work underway. To make the winter push a little

easier, we have analysed some affiliate and webmaster tools that will shave hours off your week, freeing your time for driving players and making money. We’ve examined the sportsbetting affiliate market, looked at forex, taken a practical view on link building and have gotten an insight into why Bodog thinks it’s a good time to launch a poker network.

Hopefully, I will see some of you at our regional Affiliate show in Madrid. But if not, I will be ready for you at the London Affiliate Conference and Awards in January.

Enjoy this issue of iGB Affiliate, and get back into webmaster mode!

Michael Caselli, Editor in Chief

Editor in Chief: Michael Caselli

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AFFILIATE EVENTS CALENDAR Due to their popularity and wealth of information, analysis and discussion, conferences have become an integral part of the affiliate industry and a key communications bridge between affiliates and affiliate managers. Whether used for networking, education or just an excuse to meet up with friends, the affiliate conferences listed below provide all the tools you need to improve your business.

LONDON AFFILIATE CONFERENCE LONDON, ENGLAND 28 – 31 JANUARY, 2010 Summary: The London Affiliate Conference (LAC) is the flagship event on iGaming Business’ affiliate conference circuit. As ever, the 2010 event directly follows the IGE exhibition and is expected to attract over 2,000 affiliates, operators and vendors.

The third annual iGaming Affiliate Awards (previously known as the CAP Awards) will once again mark the opening of this event and based on last years sell out event this is definitely not one to miss with a bigger venue that will take over 500 guests. www.londonaffiliateconference.com

A4UEXPO LONDON 2009 EXCEL, LONDON, ENGLAND 13-14 OCTOBER, 2009 Summary: a4uexpo London is Europe’s Largest Affiliate Marketing Conference and Exhibition and will be returning to ExCeL London for the third year in October 2009. The two-day conference will boast over thirty sessions including strategies on SEO, Paid Search, Social Media, Affiliate Management, Start-up Strategy and Conversion Optimisation.

There will also be three parties to give affiliates an opportunity to fine tune their networking skills with some of the best in the business. This year’s event is expected to sell out, so advanced booking is suggested. www.a4uexpo.com/london

iGB ESPANA, MADRID, SPAIN 30-31 OCTOBER, 2009 Summary: iGB Espana debuts in Madrid this October as the first Spanishspecific event. Although the event will showcase a compact exhibition, it will concentrate on content and networking, offering a diverse mix of presentations and lively panel discussions all of which will be aimed towards the Spanish markets. In addition, the majority of these sessions will be in Spanish, with live English translation. www.iGBEspana.com

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iGB Affiliate OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2009

WWW.iGBAFFILIATEAWARDS.COM

the 3rd AnnuAl igB AffiliAte AwArds thursdAy 28th JAnuAry 2010 the grAnge st PAul’s hotel, london Every year over 500 people from the iGaming affiliate community come together, dressed to impress and be wined and dined to honour the ongoing success within the industry by announcing the best and brightest stars at an extravagant black tie event. Previously named the CAP Awards, we welcome the ‘iGaming Affiliate Awards’ which is set to be an evening of celebration, glamour and entertainment.

The iGB Affiliate Awards give the affiliate marketing community the power to choose the winner in each of the 23 categories. If you would like to nominate yourself, a colleague or a company visit: www.iGBAffiliateAwards.com

Best AffiliAte ProgrAm • Best igAming AffiliAte network • Best igAming softwAre • Best PAyment system for AffiliAtes • Best AffiliAte mAnAger • Best AffiliAte • CAsino • Poker • Bingo • sPortsBook • skill gAming • overAll

WEBMASTER NEWS

HARRAH’S BEGINS ONLINE MIGRATION

THE MUCH ANTICIPATED online migration of the land based gaming industry’s biggest brands is officially under way following news that Harrah’s has penned a deal with 888’s independent B2B division, Dragonfish, in rolling out the UK launch of its World Series of Poker (WSOP) and Caesars Casino brands.

The long-term agreement with Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment, Inc. (“HIE”), a subsidiary of Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. (“Harrah’s”), will see Dragonfish provide its Total Gaming Services, including poker and casino software, ePayments, CRM, Customer Support and VIP services, in creating a platform to grow the WSOP and Caesars

Casino brands online.

888 CEO, Gigi Levy, explained, “This is a groundbreaking deal for 888 and demonstrates our ability to provide real value to globally renowned, land-based casinos and their leading brands.

“We have the structure in place to realise our B2B division’s full potential over the next 18 months and beyond and today’s announcement of our partnership with an industry giant is further vindication of this strategy.”

Mitch Garber, CEO of Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment and former CEO of PartyGaming, added, “As we develop and roll out our interactive strategy, we have chosen to work with

888, primarily for their world-class technology, scalability and a strong commitment to compliance and responsible gaming.”

With reports of the US land based casino market experiencing bleak financial times, the move by Harrah’s, though heavily predicted, may prove to be the catalyst in forcing more offline brands into the more stable online environment.

DEVILFISH GAMING PLC LAUNCHES B2B ARM

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FROM ONE MYTHICAL fish hybrid to

the following:

another, Devilfish Gaming has announced the launch of a new B2B consultancy operation which will be dedicated to the online gaming industry.

Devilfish Services has enlisted a team of gaming executives with several years of online and offline gaming experience in both the B2B supplier and B2C operator segments. The team arrives with expertise in building businesses from scratch, from the initial funding requirements through business planning, marketing strategy, marketing planning, staff recruitment and supplier selection.

The full consultancy services cover

●● Business ●● Business

iGB Affiliate OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2009

and Financial Planning Analysis and Requirements Specification ●● Online Marketing and Planning ●● Search Engine Marketing ●● Design of Affiliate Programs ●● Market Research ●● Market and Competitor Analysis ●● Customer Promotions and Bonus Programs ●● Website Functional Specification and Design ●● Product and Channel Management ●● Regulatory and Certification Review ●● Supplier Product Reviews and

Selection Paul Barnes, CEO of Devilfish Gaming Plc, said, “We are unique because we both operate an online gaming business and share that know-how with selected businesses in non-competing markets using high-calibre, in-house management consultants. The market environment is changing and we are diversifying to benefit from the new opportunities in B2B alliances.”

BWIN READIES ITSELF FOR ITALIAN JOB AUSTRIAN SPORTSBOOK bwin is reportedly closing in on the acquisition of Italy’s forerunning online gaming operation, Gioco Digitale in an attempt to position itself in the box seat upon the anticipated deregulation of the Italian online gambling market.

Bwin, the world’s largest publically traded online gaming company, said it was in the final stages of negotiations to purchase 100 percent of Gioco Digitale from current shareholders, having previously stated its ambitions to expand its Italian operations.

The acquisition is earmarked to cost bwin the sum of 50 million and 2.3 million bwin shares, with an initial 25 million being paid upon the completion of the transaction. Further, separate

installments of 20 million and 5 million will be paid upon fulfillment of certain terms of the agreement.

Shares in bwin rose 0.7 percent to 27.42 in the first minutes of trading following the announcement. The deal is forecasted for completion by early October (at the time of writing).

The deal continues the recent spate of M&A activity in the industry, with such deals being touted as catalysts for the expected move towards the consolidation of the sector as the economy emerges from one of its darkest hours.

ONLINE GAMING TO BOLSTER US HEALTH CARE REFORM? IF EVER THERE was a time when the US would welcome a previously untapped and undoubtedly significant source of tax revenue, then surely now is that time.

Indeed, the potential revenue from the regulation of the Internet gaming industry has already been earmarked for several causes in need of currently unavailable financial backing.

The latest proposal to land of the desk of the Financial Services Committee, chaired by Congressman Barney Frank, suggests that Internet gambling revenue could be used to offset the costs of health care reform. The amendment offered by Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) would dedicate Internet gambling tax revenue generated through the implementation

of the currently pending Internet Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act (H.R. 2267) to increase low-income subsidies provided through the America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009.

Michael Waxman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, commented, “We applaud Senator Wyden’s proposal to collect and put to good use tens of billions in Internet gambling revenue that would otherwise be lost in the underground marketplace.”

A report by PricewaterhouseCoopers revealed that the US could collect up to $62.7 billion in Internet Gaming taxes over the next decade.

PKR TURNS HAND TO SPORTSBETTING THE INDUSTRY’S FOREMOST 3D online poker room, PKR.com, has rather surprisingly announced its entry into the sportsbetting market in a move that will see the company partner with exchange and sportsbook software provider, Global Betting Exchange (GBE).

GBE will provide PKR with its iBroker sportsbook software, allowing the online poker room to automate all aspects of its sportsbook management from creation and pricing to settlement of events, while providing automated risk

management and dynamic hedging.

Brian O’Sullivan, CEO of GBE, said in a statement: “Global Betting Exchange has leveraged its experience as the developer and operator of one of the Industry’s leading betting exchanges to develop a unique sportsbook platform. The GBE iBroker is a low cost sportsbook platform with sophisticated risk management technology. The selection of iBroker by a company with PKR.com’s reputation for innovation and excellence is a huge endorsement for the iBroker product.”

NORDIC GAMING GROUP LAUNCHES AFFILIATE PROGRAM The Nordic Gaming Group Limited has announced the launch of an aggressive new affiliate program aimed at seizing a large portion of the regional market.

The program will serve the company’s three flagship brands in NordicBet.com, TrioBet.com and ToBet.com through the launch of affiliate sites at NordicBetPartners.com, TrioBetPartners.com and ToBetPartners.com.

“This is a really hot program and the affiliates we’ve been in touch with so far have been signing up like you wouldn’t believe,” said Shaun O’Neill, Affiliate Manager for Nordic Gaming Group.

“To be honest, it’s an easy sell since the affiliates have already been turned on by our top-notch products and services. They especially like the fact that we’ve got such a wide sportsbook offer and can work well in both the global and local markets.”

The Nordic Gaming Group also went on to heap praise on its affiliate manager declaring that after four years in the affiliate sector, O’Neill is considered one of the program’s largest assets after developing extensive contacts and becoming a recognised industry heavyweight.

“We’re lucky to have Shaun on board,” said Per Hellberg, Chief Executive Officer for Nordic Gaming Group.

“He knows this aspect of the industry inside and out and understands exactly what the affiliates want. This program will be a nice complement to our already successful business and we are expecting to get a lot out of it.”

LONDON SET FOR RECORD JANUARY TURNOUT The converged worlds of the offline and online gaming industries are set to descend on London like never before in January, as Clarion Gaming, the organiser of London’s annual International Gaming Expo (IGE) and Amusement Trades Exhibition International (ATEI), reveals that the shows are already at 80 percent capacity with a total of 240 exhibitors from 40 nations already signed up. (Continued p.8)

iGB Affiliate OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2009

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WEBMASTER NEWS

(Continued from p.7) The shows will take place from January 26 to 28 at the Earls Court Exhibition Centre where for consecutive years the annual expo has continued to grow in the numbers of both delegates and exhibitors attending.

“To be 80 percent full at this stage of the marketing cycle and set against the broader trading backdrop is extremely encouraging,” said Julian Graves, Managing Director for Clarion Gaming.

“The amusements offering comprises a buoyant 51 organisations that have an interest in the sector with the dedicated ATEI component comprising some 3,700 square metres of stand space.”

January represents one of the busiest periods for the industry as operators, delegates and affiliates from all over the globe descend on the English capital for a week of conferences and exhibitions, which includes the London Affiliate Conference.

BETFAIR CONSIDERING IPO According to reports, Betfair could be about to launch a $2.5 billion initial public offering in order to help consolidate its position in the event of any positive movement in the US market.

Reports attributed to financial information website MarketWatch. com, say that Betfair’s founders, Bertie Black and Ed Wray, are scheduled to meet with banking advisers over the coming weeks to discuss what would be the UK’s first major listing since the onset of the economic crisis.

The Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported that any floatation would provide Betfair with capital that would enable it to lead a “likely consolidation in the gambling sector”. It added that a lifting of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) prohibition could come as soon as next year, which would spark deals in the industry.

However, current M&A activity in the industry would suggest that such consolidation is already starting to gain momentum.

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iGB Affiliate OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2009

AFFILIATE ‘OSCARS’ OPEN FOR NOMINATIONS IT’S THAT TIME of year again. iGaming Business is busy preparing to host the most prestigious awards ceremony on the affiliate calendar, the iGB Affiliate Awards, and nominations are now open for the 2010 ceremony in London.

The twenty-three awards across six categories have been created to honour the brightest lights in the gaming affiliate community and have become a highly coveted seal of approval in the iGaming industry.

The impartial voting process, for which the awards are famed, are now underway with nominations being accepted at www.iGBAffiliateAwards. com until November 1st, after which all nominees will then be put through a rigorous online voting system. The five with the most votes for each award will be put through to the next phase;

the judging panel. The criteria for the final five is each specific to their category and will be analysed by a panel of distinguished and seasoned industry professionals, whose expertise span the entire iGaming industry, in order to select the final winner.

“We are proud once again to bring you the iGB Affiliate Awards to both launch the London Affiliate Conference (LAC 29th-31st Jan) and celebrate the ongoing success within the iGaming industry”, announced Kiera Goymour, Event Manager for iGaming Business. “We plan on creating another glamorous and exciting, themed night of entertainment and have revised the categories to ensure we take in the whole spectrum of the iGaming industry.”

FINANCIAL RESULTS TAKES SWINE FLU HIT IN REPORTING NEGATIVE financial results for the first six months of the year, gaming company Codere has pinpointed the harsh economic climate in Spain together with the affects of the Swine Flu outbreak in Mexico as principle triggers for the drop in revenue.

The Madrid-based company revealed a 2.2 percent year-on-year decrease in revenues to 492.6 million. It also stated that earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation fell 12.9 percent year-on-year to 105 million while its net income decreased to a loss of 5.7 million from 700,000 last year.

The official line from the company blamed the results on “the slowdown of consumption provoked by the economic crisis in Spain and the impact of the swine flu virus in Mexico alongside the appreciation of the Euro against local currencies”.

Earnings in Mexico fell 13 percent year-on-year to 96.3 million with Codere assigning these figures to the

closure by officials of 71 of its 105 sites in the region for various periods due to fears over Swine Flu.

IVOBANK CLOSES DOORS ONLINE BANKING SERVICE, Ivobank, has finally announced it is to be shut down after its bankers decided it could no longer fund the business any further.

Right from the outset, Ivobank reportedly ran into problems on various levels despite a vocal strategy to establish

itself as the dominant player in online banking for the gaming industry.

Ivobank released a statement to declare that it was no longer accepting new business, although more information would be made available for stakeholders in near future.

TRAFFIC

is also a lot of rather up to date information on link building available.

The problem with outdated information mainly exists because of old 2004 posts in forums and sometimes blogs – and Google loves to rank those old articles higher than new information.

This outdated information is falsely applied in many ways.

LINK BUILDING – HEY 2004 WAS FIVE YEARS AGO!

THE SEVEN GOLDEN RULES OF WHITE HAT LINK BUILDING An Introduction to my link building world…

IN THE WORLD of SEO and Link Building a lot of people still preach incorrect theories about the adequate way of building links. Improving the traffic to your website is important for every business and link building is the way to achieve that organically. No one gets around link building!

Link building is a technique widely used by SEOs that took off when Google introduced its link analysis

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iGB Affiliate OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2009

algorithm PageRank in 1999. That was the time when links were not only built for direct traffic from human visitors but also for search engine robots.

Since then, both the link building practices as well as the ways in which search engines operate have changed inconceivably and keep on changing continuously.

But the web is wide, and so in addition to the outdated stuff, there

A lot of self-proclaimed experts still do link building for their clients as they did in 2004. But they forget that it’s not only time that goes by and changes; search engines change too, continually. And that is why you cannot point a PR8 site-wide link at a threeday-old data feed domain and expect it to have five billion pages indexed within a couple of days and earn a lot of money over Christmas time. Though it was fun back in 2003/04, it simply doesn’t work that way anymore. The only two things that still matter in link building are relevancy and trust!

WHAT STOPPED WORKING IN LINK BUILDING Precise Anchor Texts – preciously, SEOs were used to optimizing by using the same anchor texts for their links over and over again. Since anchor text filters have been in full effect since 2006, varying your anchor text is essential today.

You should really avoid having the same anchor text over and over again – it’s not natural! Our new public tool, the Backlink and Anchor Text Tool helps you in finding all your backlinks and provides you a breakdown of all anchor texts being used. The results should look like a natural distribution of various phrases related to your main keywords.

Google PageRank – the famous green bar is no longer a metric to gauge the strength of a page. Google returns random PageRank data if and when it feels like it – just because it is fun and it likes to fool us SEOs. This fact was even confirmed by Matt Cutts of Google.¹ Alexa Rank – this metric is skewed towards online marketing people and is, therefore, not an adequate traffic metric to be used.

Google Backlink Data – the number of backlinks reported by Google is only a fraction of what is really there. Furthermore, random samples

‘spammiest’ of all links you have.

The metric was crippled in 2004 and shouldn’t be used for making decisions either.

Google Cache Date – this metric was also crippled as it is heavily used by SEOs. Juicy Pages are often returned as having no cache set. Therefore, you can forget about the cache date too.

THE 7 GOLDEN RULES OF WHITE HAT LINK BUILDING 1. Relevant Pages and in-content Links Link building today is all about relevant pages and in-content links. You need to have the links inside the content of a relevant page; a page talking about your business, products or topics relevant to you. You want links neatly embedded inside a page, not navigational text links.

The practice of using presell pages, a term introduced by Aaron Wall, enables you to get such high-relevance, incontent links easily. You write up a page that talks about your industry, company or products and have links to your site in there. The content on the page looks just like a normal article written by a newspaper or a fan of yours. This method used in link building replaced irrelevant footer links that were crippled in 2005.

2. Domain Trust Domain trust concerns the trust of your domain and the trust of the domain linking to you. What this means is that you need links from trusted sites in order to become trusted. Both the trust of linking from and to a domain is important as well as the domain age, the brand and co-citations. All of these factors make up the trust rank of your website.

What trust rank means is that link quality is relative: if your domain is trusted it will respond differently and more quickly to links and there will be more LSI in effect. What this signifies is that you should not build trust only on links. It is not just about link building – it is more than that!

3. Natural Anchor Text You might ask yourself what really is natural when it comes to Anchor Texts?

A natural link looks like it was built by a user, not an SEO. Normal users don’t care about anchor texts, and so, if all your links look like they were built by an SEO,

you are in trouble. What this means is that you don’t only have high value keywords in your links, but also some links saying “cool site”, “brand name x”, “click here” or even a longer phrase.

Don’t over-optimize.

If you create a breakdown of all anchor texts going to a page or domain using our LinkResearchTools you will instantly understand what I mean. A natural distribution is your goal – not the maximization of equal anchor texts which happen to be your “money keyword”.

4. NoFollow If you build links, do you build NoFollow links on relevant pages as well? Of course you do, because you don’t look at PageRank. If you apply the NoFollow tag PageRank is not passed on – but it does not avoid passing relevancy and trust.

This is why NoFollow tags from very highly trusted sites still have an effect on your rankings.

In addition, normal users don’t care about NoFollow – if you ask the everyday guy what a NoFollow is he will have no clue and won’t care, because he doesn’t have to. All your links should look like they were created by normal users, which means you should also include NoFollow links in your backlink profile.

5. Juicy Pages When a page is juicy this means that the page ranks and that it passes value to you if you place a link on it. Therefore, a webpage that does rank for a phrase or keyword important to you is a page that you want to have a link on regardless of PageRank, cache date and other ‘SEO type’ metrics. Why? Well, if Google thinks the page is important (for the particular search query) so should you.

We have developed our new Juice Tool based on technology we’ve been using for the past three years. This Juice Tool helps you analyze the sub-pages of your domain and identify if they are Juicy along with over 30 other different key SEO indicators. This tool is also perfect to verify deliverables of your link builders or the links acquired through third parties.

6. No-Spam!

You don’t want to have links on duplicate content pages like article directories and article sites – at least for Google (Yahoo!/Bing are a different story). You

don’t want to add links into pages that are years old without changing their content. Don’t try to get a link on a site if the neighborhood consists of 48 very obvious link buyers that have placed their links for different topics even if it is a PR4, PR6 or even PR10! Don’t even think about it! It is not a content page talking about your product, business or industry. The page is only plastered with links because of a little green bar – you are smarter than that, you don’t want a link there!

7. Don’t buy links for PageRank I guess you got the message already, but let me repeat it again: you don’t care about PR, your users don’t care about PR and Google merely uses it to signal that a site has been banned. PR is not important. I’m referring to the visible Toolbar PageRank of course, not some hidden parameters inside the Google algorithm. The webmaster guidelines of Google explicitly state that you shouldn’t buy links for PageRank and in this matter, you should really trust them.

I hope this gave you an insight in the way we at CEMPER.COM think about link building and look at the value of links. ¹ http://www.marketingfan.com/matt-cuttsconfirms-we-return-ed-random-pagerankdata

CHRISTOPH C. CEMPER has been building links and affiliate sites since 2003, the time he founded his very own Link Building Company and worked his way up to become a well-respected guru in the SEO industry, especially when it comes to getting real juicy links on trusted domains.

Before starting his own business, CEMPER.COM, in the online marketing industry, Christoph was building large scale transaction platforms for online betting and other e-commerce ventures for 15 years as a developer and project manager.

With his team Christoph just launched a new powerful toolkit at LinkResearchTools.com a set of tools that the CEMPER.COM team has developed and been using for link building for two years already. Now in late 2009 this toolkit was finally made available to the public but still has limited membership slots to start with to cope with the high demand by fellow SEOs.

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TRAFFIC

THE PSYCHOLOGY BEHIND TURNING VISITORS INTO REAL MONEY PLAYERS ANYONE WITH A WEBSITE that expects to make any money from it can understand the importance in turning casual, everyday visitors into people willing to part with money for whatever your site provides. Be it merchandise, services, handmade crockery or something more on the gambling/gaming side of things, there is ‘something’ that is needed in order to push the window-shopper into a state of mind where he/she has the active desire to partake of what your site is offering.

This is known as conversion rate.

Metaphors and similes aside, a successful gaming website will have a high conversion rate, meaning that non-paying/playing visitors to the site will convert to Real Money Players (or Payers) that spend money on said site at a relatively high ratio when compared to other, less successful websites. Everyone seeks a high conversion rate but many will rarely achieve the lofty heights of conversion rate success mainly due to the fact that people just don’t ‘get it’. So what is there to get? What’s the mystical essence that one must distil from the seemingly arcane practices employed by the successful? The answer itself is a simple one, however, the meaning and understanding behind it is complex and getting it horribly wrong is a facile task indeed.

The answer: psychology. A good example of this were the problems faced

by Debenhams’ online store which was losing hundreds of millions of pounds (GBP) until Google stepped in and helped improve its conversion rate.

Conversion rate psychology involves getting many smaller things right, all at the same time and then maintaining a precarious balance or equilibrium between these things. Too much of something may yield the same negative results as too little of the same thing, which is why someone seeking to accrue a good conversion rate ratio has to be especially careful. Essentially, it’s all about being able to effectively channel visitors into the sales funnel, simultaneously adding value to your

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iGB Affiliate OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2009

site and sufficiently holding the interest of any potential customers/players so that they keep coming back. A few ways in which this can be achieved include website design, site/room atmosphere and interaction with other customers/ players as well as with website/company staff. Ideally, a combination of a number of these factors employed in the right ways will contribute to a positive conversion rate.

WEBSITE LAYOUT When people land on a website, the first thing they notice is the layout. Anyone can see the importance of a good, clean, orderly layout in order to appeal to a visitor – that’s pretty much Web Design 101. However, an important underlying psychological message or response that you want to try and elicit is that your website can be trusted, and this is achieved via trust signs. Trust signs can come in many shapes and forms such as: ●● A

telephone number responded to by actual humans. ●● A physical address based in the real world as opposed to simply an email address or minimal methods of contact. ●● Decent T&Cs and/or privacy policies.

Add to this other trusted logos that’ll reassure the visitor, such as credit card logos, VeriSign, PayPal – any established brand that people will be used to seeing around and will recognise. This inches your site/brand further into their subconscious, making them more prepared to trust and return.

how to proceed with them. You set up the site so that half of your visitors see example A whilst the other half would see example B, letting things progress naturally. After a time, you would then examine which example had the highest rate of conversion and progress accordingly.

Multivariate testing is similar to A/B split testing, but instead of testing one element that has changed (A or B) you’ll be simultaneously testing a multitude of different elements, always trying to discover which tweaks and changes lead to the better conversion rate results.

As you may have already gathered, this specific branch of psychology – much like the whole of psychology itself – is vast. Too vast to be completely covered here, as this is only intended to be a mere pointer or starter guide to the realm of conversion rate psychology. To fully master and be in control of what it takes to become a successful conversion rate expert, takes practice. A cliché it may be, but the old adage of ‘try and try again’ certainly rings true when it comes to conversion rate. Depending on the psychological angle you want to undertake, as well as what area of conversion (customers/subscribers/ gamblers/players) you want to tackle, you will need to experiment. Try out various ideas with the aforementioned tests, make up tests of your own (with psychology, sometimes you never know until you try), do research and eventually, become your own conversion rate expert.

TESTING TIMES A more technical way to advance your ‘psychological warfare’ in the search for conversion is to employ various testing methods, such as A/B Split Testing and Multivariate Testing.

A simple way to explain A/B testing is to say, for example, that you have two titles/headlines/designs that you want to experiment with but have no idea

CHRISTOPHER ANGUS is a respected and renowned Internet marketer and search engine optimiser, having worked for and with some of the biggest names in gambling and finance. He can be reached either via his company’s website at www.seocompanyuk. com or his personal email: chris@ seocompanyuk.com.

WEBMASTER WORLD

TOOLS OF THE TRADE At Budapest Affiliate Conference I gave a seminar on tools for affiliates and affiliate managers.

I would like to thank all the affiliates, managers and friends that contributed to the content of this seminar who truly deserve more credit than I do.

SECURITY I don’t need to explain too much on why security is important but if you ever had a computer virus or have heard of affiliate accounts getting hacked then you might want to read this. Let’s start with keeping track of all your usernames, accounts and passwords. If you are using the same password for everything you do from banking, emails, affiliate accounts and forum accounts you need to stop doing this immediately. Imagine if a forum gets hacked and your username and password get compromised, perhaps you might have the same username and password at all of your affiliate accounts and next month your payments are $0 because someone ‘updated’ them for you. What if someone accessed your domain host and transferred your domain to themselves. For people who make a good living from this business you cannot compromise this any longer.

Thankfully, there are some low cost tools available for Mac and Windows users.

KeepassX (www.keepassx.org) – Mac Users – FREE 1Password (www.1password.com) – Mac Users – $40/user Roboform (www.roboform.com) – Windows Users – $30/user The first program I’ll mention, and is one that I personally use, is KeepassX (www. keepassx.org) for Mac users. With this program I can store all my usernames and create unique random passwords for all accounts. I can make all passwords with letters, number and special characters

so a password that I just generated right now would read like this: 1xJGVy1v. An alternative browser based program exists for Mac and Windows users and they are 1Password and Roboform respectively. They will both store your passwords and will automatically fill out forms for you while generating unique random passwords.

True Crypt (www.truecrypt.org) – Mac/Win/Linux – FREE True Crypt is a beautiful program that will encrypt any hard drive that you want. You can have your entire computer encrypted so that is virtually impossible to crack. If someone were to take your hard drive and to examine its contents, they wouldn’t be able to do anything with it as it would appear as random data. You can create a folder as large as you want, store your sacred, important and valuable files and encrypt them all. The only way to decipher them is with your True Crypt program and your password. When you load your computer you can enter a password to get it to work. If you are the paranoid type and feel you may encounter a situation where someone may force you to enter your password to get into your computer, well there is a solution. Create an extra folder, store some unimportant files and create another password and drive for it. Whenever you enter your incorrect password, upon launch, the computer will show the dummy computer without ever exposing what is really in your computer.

Just don’t make the mistake of forgetting your password because only you will be

able to decrypt your computer. If your computer gets lost or stolen you don’t want confidential files being in the wrong hands, True Crypt should be used by all affiliates and gaming operators.

MESSENGER ENCRYPTION Paranoid that someone might be spying on your messenger or skype conversations?

Just get some of the many plugins that are now appearing for all the various chat programs including MSN messenger, Skype and more. If you need help getting your computer’s setup to encrypt your messages just ask your tech guys, a tech friend or email me. More information for one website that covers many messenger programs is http://www.secway.fr/us/products/ simppro/

PRODUCTIVITY ClickTale (www.rockbet.com/clicktale) – Browser – $100 and up After the seminar, I was asked what is the single most useful tool you would recommend and without hesitation, I said ClickTale. It isn’t easy getting inside the head of your customers but ClickTale will give you visual feedback on your websites to improve your conversions. To use ClickTale you just need to install a few lines of javascript onto your website and the program will record the mouse movements

iGB Affiliate OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2009

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WEBMASTER WORLD

of most of your visitors. You can replay videos of your players clicking on links or hovering over a link before they click on something else. All online marketers should use this tool to get feedback on your websites; knowing where they click is one thing but watching them not click on certain links or ignoring a section of your site is worth knowing.

VMWare (www.vmware.com) – Mac/Win/ Linux – $100 and up VMWare is a program available for all operating systems and gives you a great testing platform. If you are a Mac user and you need to use or test some Windows programs, just install WinXP or Vista on a virtual machine and run your programs.

You can also use these virtual machine operating systems to test out programs especially if you feel there may be malware, spyware or viruses. It is a safe way to test and download files without compromising your true operating system.

ALL IN ONE MESSENGER PROGRAMS If you need to use MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Skype, GTalk, AIM, Jabber and ICQ (yes people still use ICQ) just register your logins into one program and keep all contacts in one place.

Adium (www.adium.im) – Mac – FREE Trillian (www.trillian.cc) – Win – FREE Pidgin (www.pidgin.im) – Win – FREE

TRAINING AND SUPPORT Mikogo (www.mikogo.com) – Mac/Win – FREE Mikogo will allow you to show your whole computer screen and invite many users to view it. Many professional poker coaches will use Mikogo in conjunction with Skype to teach and watch their students in action playing online poker. If you are training a new employee on how to use your backend or to teach them how to use a program, Mikogo is a great tool for this.

Camtasia (www.techsmith.com) – Mac/Win – $100 and up Screen Toaster (www.screentoaster.com) – Mac/Win/Linux – FREE These programs are great for recording videos of your desktop or a specified section of your computer. This tool is also used by professional poker coaches to record themselves playing poker and doing voice over recording to explain what their thought process is while playing. This tool would be great for affiliate managers who want to show how to use their affiliate backend and even better for affiliates if you want to make videos of yourself playing casinos. If you want to make a one minute clip of how to deposit at a poker room just get setup, record and make your deposit with voice over to produce tutorials. The

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possible uses are endless.

SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMZIATION (SEO) AND SPYING SEO Quake (www.seoquake.com) – Mac/Win Firefox plugin – FREE SEO Book & Bar (www.seobook.com) Mac/ Win Firefox plugin – FREE Both of these Firefox plugins work in a similar fashion but I have heard that the SEO Book toolbar is better than SEO Quake, so the choice is yours. Both of these toolbars will allow you to visit a website and the toolbars will show you data about that site such as: Alexa Rank, Google PageRank, Total links on Yahoo/Bing/Google, whois, archive.org to show the history of the site, compete traffic and more. From these tools I can determine how much traffic a website has and do more research on its marketing campaigns to find out what other websites are linking to it. As an affiliate manager, I find this tool important for recognizing affiliates who have a lot of traffic.

SEM Rush (www.semrush.com) – FREE to start If you want to look up a website and see what its top keywords are and how it ranks on google, use this tool to know which affiliate is ranking for the top keywords.

Copy Scape (www.copyscape.com) – FREE If someone is copying your content on your website just type in your domain and find out who has stolen your valuable content. Remember, stolen content is not cool and search engines might not respect your site for not having unique content.

SpyOnWeb (http://spyonweb.com) – FREE Type in an affiliate website and find out how many other sites it owns or manages.

You can even do the same with casino operators.

Google Insights (www.google.com/ insights) – FREE Find out the trends in keyword searches.

Yahoo Site Explorer (https://siteexplorer. search.yahoo.com) – FREE If you think link building campaigns are the key to SEO then this tool will show you all the links any website has pointing to it.

Google Keywords (https://adwords. google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal) – FREE Find out how often keywords are searched and find similar matches.

Wayback Machine (www.archive.org) – FREE Find out what old sites used to look like or get a good idea of how often a website gets updated.

EXTRAS LitmusApp (http://litmusapp.com) – $50 and up This website is great for testing how your newsletters look in many browsers and email clients and to test against spam filters. Test your website in many browsers to make sure they work with the most common ones. dotMobi (http://mtld.mobi/emulator.php) – FREE If you have a mobile site or want to develop one use this program to do some testing on phones.

Stats Remote (www.statsremote.com) – $30 and up Have all your program statistics pulled into one program to let you know your results and, of course, keep track of your earnings. A must have for affiliates!

Block Websites (no website) – FREE I have many websites that distract me from doing work on my computer. Rather than using programs on my browsers to block it I prefer to get to the source and make it difficult for me to unblock them.

Firefox, IE and Safari have features to block this but I find I can easily over-ride the blocks and continue to waste time. On Mac, Windows and Linux you can edit the host page for this.¹ Thanks for taking the time to read this article. I will be making a second part to this article in the future as the tools of the trade continue to change. ¹ For further instructions on how to block websites, and for the full length article, visit www.rockbet.com/budapest-affiliateseminar.

JOHN WRIGHT is the marketing manager for Rockbet.com online casino and currently lives in Toronto, Canada. After obtaining a Bachelor of Applied Science in robotics at the University of Toronto he decided a career in gambling would be more fun and exciting. In 2002 he began playing poker, card counting and bonus hunting despite the requests from concerned friends and family members to pursue a real job. In 2003 he began creating his own affiliate sites teaching players the rules and strategies for online gaming. In 2005, he provided marketing services for 400affiliates.com and became the affiliate manager for ThisisVegas in 2007. At the start of this year John helped to launch Rockbet and is not only the marketing manager for the casino but also the casino and affiliate manager. In his spare time John enjoys travelling, reading, surfing and Muay Thai kickboxing.

He can be reached at john@rockbetmarketing.com

INSIGHT

EMAIL MARKETING VS DIRECT MAIL One could think of email marketing as the more tech savvy offspring of direct mail but what is the relationship between the two today where it concerns online gaming? Is direct mail still relevant? How compelling does the call to action have to be in today’s offline campaign to bear fruit, considering that there is no ‘click here’ function on an envelope? The two forms of direct marketing share the same principle, and even have the same pitfalls – unopened junk mail on the doormat/junk mail in your spam folder – but what effectiveness do they share?

In the constantly changing Internet environment, online marketers are always looking for better ways to improve acquisition and retention rates; this can be seen in changes to SEO strategy, advancements in PPC tactics and the fact that overall affiliate marketing practices are changing every day. Yet, there is no marketing medium that can drive results as well as direct marketing practices, as it provides the marketer with the ability to ‘touch’ the consumer in a very personal, direct and quick way as opposed to other marketing channels. So what makes direct marketing so effective?

WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU MEAN

BY DIRECT MARKETING? Direct marketing is different from other marketing methods for two specific reasons.

1. Direct marketing is about sending a streamlined marketing message directly to the consumer without the use of any other sources of media.

2. The main focus of a direct marketing campaign is to get the consumer to react to a specific ‘call to action’.

Generally speaking, this can be tracked and measured more easily than conventional marketing methods regardless of market vertical.

You should also take into consideration that there are three general methods of direct marketing – email, direct mail and telemarketing. This article will discuss the background, history, day to day practices and the impact this extremely strong marketing channel offers both operators and affiliates.

HOW DID DIRECT MARKETING DEVELOP INTO WHAT IT IS TODAY? Direct mail has been around for as long as soldiers have been sending messages

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to loved ones overseas and students sending letters to their parents telling them all is well. Mail has gone through a huge evolution; from running on foot for miles to the recipient, to a double click on the mouse with a cup of coffee in hand and no geographical boundaries – the means of which the message is delivered is constantly evolving.

Direct marketing practices have been around since the 15th Century as the first catalogue was sent out to get young dames to shop ‘til they drop, but it wasn’t until 1954 that modern direct mail marketing methods were used to acquire new potential business – perhaps also trying to get people to shop ‘til they drop. The first use of email as a direct marketing method was in 1993, as it is reported that an email was sent with a marketing message inside – voila! Spam was born.

BENEFITS AND DRAWBACKS OF DIRECT MARKETING Every marketer’s ‘dream’ is to touch the consumer in a personal way, as each consumer will react differently to different marketing methods and different communications; direct marketing allows both marketers and affiliates to deliver a highly concentrated message to our customers/prospects.

By taking a direct marketing approach, you establish a qualified and potential database of consumers as this method encourages loyalty and immediate recognition as well as develops a streamlined feedback system in comparison to other marketing methods. Another benefit is that you can actually gather valid statistical information on your target demographic and consumer base, thus, giving you more information to optimize future direct campaigns.

THE BENEFITS One of the greatest benefits of email marketing is that a marketer can track the funnel of an email campaign relatively easily, as everything from auto-responders, web bugs, bounced messages, unsubscribe requests, read receipts, CTR and actual responses can be measured. This helps with the optimization of the marketing funnel and, ultimately, leads to a greater number of total acquisitions as well as being an excellent tool for retention purposes as it creates loyalty and a better ROI. In addition, the delivery time of an email is relatively short (can be seconds to minutes) and it is a very cheap marketing channel (in comparison to other marketing communications such as TV, print and media buying).

Direct mail can also be an amazingly powerful marketing channel as the consumer receives an offer that is direct yet private at the same time (this also applies to email marketing).

On top of this, direct mail is quite easy to send and can easily target different market segments and verticals. If used with proper database analysis, direct mail marketing can be a very lucrative practice. Another benefit is that when creating direct mail you do not have to worry about your message finding its way into a spam box because you’ve used ‘too many graphical elements’.

THE DRAWBACKS When talking about the drawbacks there are several aspects of direct marketing that can be quite aggravating to your marketing efforts.

DIRECT MAIL Direct mail marketing suffers from several drawbacks such as the fact it costs a fair amount (although is still cheaper than other channels), cannot be tracked as well as email, is also slower than email and due to the vast amounts of junk mail being sent daily, you cannot ensure that your direct mailing message won’t end up in the trash.

EMAIL MARKETING When looking at the disadvantages of email marketing one does not have to look any further than the issue of spam. Due to large amounts of spam emails being sent on a daily basis

PATHS OF RESISTANCE

Direct Mail Resistance

Email Resistance

Post office

ISP

Human filters

Email client filters

Junk mail

Spam

Mail box is full

Soft Bounce

(there is more spam in the world then legitimate emails) many email clients and ISPs incorporate drastic measures to fight illicit email marketing practices.

The bad news about spam filters is that they sometimes filter legitimate messages, thus, potentially preventing your marketing message from reaching the intended consumer. In addition, the design of an email must be bland in comparison to a direct mailing message as emails that are full of images often find themselves in the junk mail folder.

The use of creative and pictures can have a significant effect on the strength of your marketing message in communicating emotions; something that spam filters, in their over zealous reach, are diluting.

IT ALL COMES DOWN TO THE CALL TO ACTION As stated before, direct marketing relies heavily on the use of a call to action in order to get the required results, but how exactly do you get your audience to react?

When creating a call to action in an email marketing campaign, it is extremely important to let your audience know exactly what to do in a manner that is easy to follow. It is very important to control the mixture of content against a clear call to action as the latter needs to be simple and clear enough to get the prospect to react (call, email, download software).

This may mean placing a giant arrow pointing to a ‘click here’ button, or placing a shiny red box with the words ‘play now’ inside, but what is important to remember is that if users don’t react, you miss a sale. Either way you need to guide your audience to the call to action as failing to do so will seriously affect your campaigns statistics.

Direct mail may not have a ‘click here’ button on the envelope but you can still lead them to a call to action by following these four simple rules: 1. Tell your audience what you want them to do.

2. Tell your audience the benefits of acting quickly.

3. Re-assure your audience on how easy it is to give a response.

4. Guide them to where they need to go in order to respond.

This may sound easy, but many direct mail campaigns avoid using the above principles and end up losing valuable acquisitions because the consumer is not exactly sure what to do with the marketing message offered and as a marketer/affiliate you must always test, test and test again. There are many ways to achieve an action (creative or traditional) but it all depends on the prospect/segment you are targeting.

You need to create a tailor-made message in a way that is relevant to the consumers you are targeting.

The most important item when sending any type of marketing, email or direct mail, is to make sure that the message and funnel are all given in a logical, easy to understand way.

THE MANY FACES OF DIRECT MARKETING Whenlooking at direct marketing, there are three main viewpoints for every marketing campaign: 1. The operator 2. The affiliate 3. The user If we take a look at these viewpoints in terms of email marketing we will see that on the one hand, the operator will favor this method because it is easy to analyze the statistics as well as being cheap, but on the other hand, there is always a danger that a percentage of the emails sent may end up in the spam box and in the worse case scenario, the operator’s website could be blacklisted among ISPs. By contrast, the affiliate likes the method of email because when sent, it is quick and generally quite effective. However, the downside is that collecting a proper sized double opt-in email list may take a significant amount of time (both these examples are also true for operators) in addition to the fact that sending emails through an email server can prove to be expensive.

The user will usually open the email according to the subject line and if they like what has been conveyed by the message, they will be more compelled to answer the call to action.

When looking at direct mail marketing the operator needs to prepare all ‘copy’ materials (which can be expensive) as well as make sure it has analyzed the database well enough to target the proper message to the right people.

If done right (maybe a CD campaign with a specific bonus attached), the conversions can be great (many VIPs have been acquired through offline marketing methods). The affiliate’s perspective on direct marketing can be much different as the average affiliate may not have the means to properly distribute direct mail promotions.

Conversely, the user (assuming it is a casino player receiving the promotion) may develop a strong affinity to the brand behind this ‘personal’ promotion since it is actually entering their place of residence.

CONCLUSION Both email and direct mail should be part of any affiliate/operator’s marketing portfolio as using a mixture of marketing channels provides for a stronger acquisition strategy and ultimately, a stronger brand value.

Regardless of whether you place more emphasis on email or direct mail, it is the lead generation of the list itself that will make for better success, with the emphasis placed on the consumer opting in to receive your marketing message. On top of a proper lead generation strategy, you must always take measures to maintain a healthy lead list; this means constantly cleaning and reviewing the list and never overusing it.

Our personal view on this subject is that you must use both email and direct mail as part of an effective market portfolio because if both methods are used properly, they will drive quality traffic to your site, keep your current players loyal and deliver a better ROI.

JOSHUA KRIMBERG is the affiliate director for GaminGang. He has been in the online marketing field for over five years with experience as both an affiliate and operator.

iGB Affiliate OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2009

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INTERVIEW

FEATURED COMMUNITY MEMBER, CATHY “LADYHOLDEM” ROBERTS How and when did you become a gaming affiliate?

I started out in the gambling industry in late 2004. I didn’t really believe people were making money as gambling affiliates… well, some money, but I also believed more of them were grossly exaggerating than telling the truth.

I found a casino affiliate forum looking to set up some private poker freerolls – my profit was to be the winnings from the freerolls. I read every single post within a few weeks – literally. I read many of them to my husband. I followed links in posts, and boy did I learn.

The people in this industry were amazing and truly helpful to one another, I asked questions, and I received invaluable information in response.

Things really snowballed from there.

What were you doing previously?

I have done a lot of things in the past, including driving an ice cream truck, managing call centers, working in the travel field, working for my state, and in the Human Resources department of a popular retail store, and just prior to becoming a full time gambling affiliate, driving a taxi.

That’s quite a selection – would any of these fall into the category of ‘my worst job’?

I enjoy everything I do, or I find something better to do, so I’ve done a lot of things.

I think that driving a taxi, although the most fun I’ve ever had working, was my ‘worst job’.

I was robbed once while I was on shift; that was a super scary experience that I’d prefer never to relive.

The hours were also insane, 12 hours a night, 7 nights a week. I barely knew what my children looked like while they were awake!

Did you manage to lean anything from that experience?

Yes, taxi cab drivers do not get maternity leave.

OK, moving on, what gaming verticals are you currently working across?

In the gambling industry, I’m only promoting the majors right now; poker is my primary focus, followed by casinos and then bingo, where I once worked as a chat host.

Have you seen any shifts in the performance levels in any of these verticals since the fall of the economy?

Actually, my numbers have all gone up, not down.

Have you ventured into any new verticals that you sense potential in?

I have been tinkering a touch with Rummy.

For now though, in the realm of gambling, I think I’m really focusing on the big three (bingo, poker, casinos).

Do you have affiliate commitments outside of the gaming industry?

Yes, I work in a few other affiliate industries, including dating, real estate and travel.

How do these compare with the gaming industry in terms of revenue and stability of business?

Travel is obviously down, however, if you get into the right niches, there’s actually a bit of an increase in profits. I’ve written a lot of content in this industry over the last few years, so I have a lot of insight into what’s going on, where and when. I think that helps me a lot.

On another note though, the gambling forums and the affiliate conferences have all made a big difference in the gambling affiliate markets, so when you do venture out, you find things to be a lot more primitive.

What are your ambitions as an affiliate? Do you look to build a stable and successful business or do you aspire to super-affiliate status to push your business as far as you can take it?

I have accomplished stable affiliate status, in fact, I‘ve grown beyond my own dreams of five years ago, but times change, dreams get bigger, and now, I want so much more than that.

What about those just starting out in the affiliate industry – is the overall gaming market saturated or is there still room for affiliates in certain (if not all) verticals to make a living?

I think that new affiliates have an advantage, if they get right in and get on the right track. What I mean by that is that so many new affiliates get caught up in the things that don’t matter. They design decent looking websites, with nothing to offer.

I was guilty of that myself when I first got into the industry. I poured my heart and soul into two websites, always hearing the cliché ‘content is king’ in the back of my mind… yet I had no real idea what content was.

I didn’t offer anything useful or valuable to my visitors.

Brand new affiliates have a fresh outlook, new ideas, and the eyes of a player more than the eyes of an affiliate. Eventually, as we start to talk more like affiliates and less like players, we’re blind to the things we used to see, like good banner placements for instance.

What would be your advice to them in grasping this advantage?

Learn, and build. When it looks like your site is never going to rank for any useful search engine term, and you’re losing faith in your ability to work in this industry, don’t sell. Let that site simmer if need be, let it age.

Start a new project. Affiliates tend to sell out just before they really would have made it, which is of course great for the veterans.

Would you advise them attend conferences if they can?

Yes, definitely. Affiliate conferences light fires in the souls of affiliates. Affiliates from every sector come back with a new redefined energy, new business contacts, and often very lucrative deals.

How useful are theses conferences, Budapest as an example, to affiliates?

The relationships built at these conferences are invaluable – we as affiliates live in this virtual world with no actual contact.

The conferences, if they did nothing else, change all that and make us real to each other. Networking in any business is an invaluable tool.

Finally, what’s your gut feeling about the industry as we race towards 2010?

I think the US market is getting ready to take a dip, and then, the casinos (the land based casinos) will emerge as online gambling becomes regulated, and the industry will go crazy once again.

iGB Affiliate AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2009

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INTERVIEW

TAMING THE DRAGONS Amongst a number of significant milestones in a rapidly blossoming career, Patrick McKay, founder of mobile gaming platform, Gobetya, can lay claim to being the very first entrepreneur to be offered an investment on the hit BBC TV show, Dragon’s Den. Here, we find out more about the man who was first to tame the Dragons. Questions by Rene Colin Magri.

LET’S START WITH some personal background and on your gaming platform Gobetya.

I am 33 years old and have three kids. In the 1990s, I worked for British Telecom and that’s where the original idea for Gobetya came from. After leaving BT, I started a small industrial services business for which I appeared on the first pilot show of Dragons Den in 2004. I have the honour of being the first person ever to be offered an investment!

In 2005, I started Gobetya Limited, which is based in Glasgow, UK. Over the past four years, Gobetya has been developing a unique and secure multiplayer gaming and gambling platform. This allows both real money multiplayer gaming and standalone gaming for mobile and wireless devices.

The company licenses its platform to brand owners, thus allowing them to monetize their own customer bases via mobile play. Gobetya’s principal USP is its B2B multiplayer poker network that can support multiple partners sharing the same liquidity across a single

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platform. The platform can support up to 10,000 concurrent players, playing at over 1,000 tables, all on mobile devices.

According to Juniper Research the mobile gambling market will reach $16 billion dollars in less than five years. Do you believe that the industry will exclusively shift to mobile?

Absolutely, there has been more progress made in the last two years in relation to mobile gaming than in the past ten combined. I think the speed of change will now really accelerate. An important, yet staggering statistic that will further drive the adoption of mobile play is the prediction that smart phones will out sell PCs by 2011.

I understand that Gobetya has a platform, an assortment of casino games for partners to enhance their offering…

Gobetya’s product offer is based on the V2 platform that was created by the company and for which all IP, design rights and copyrights are registered to Gobetya. The V2 platform has been

built to support a B2B business model and, therefore, was designed from the outset to provide shared liquidity across multiple partners as well as unique branding options for each individual partner.

The V2 platform and unique mobile interface has been designed to be conducive and intuitive to the mobile user. The multiplayer poker user interface has been designed with the online and mobile gambler in mind, with a host of innovative functionality, including table chat and private chat options as well as mood avatars that enable players to show others exactly how they feel. Another unique aspect of the system enables partners to deliver advertising messages, promotions and offers to mobile players through integrated adserving that can be programmed to activate at preset times within the application, such as when a player is leaving a game. These advanced functionalities are aimed at creating the first mobile poker experience equivalent to the quality and security of online play

as well as providing the tools for the operator to cross-sell between online and mobile play. The Gobetya platform has been specifically designed to appeal to the new generation of time constrained, tech-savvy consumers who increasingly demand their entertainment ‘on the go’. With Smartphone sales (with touch screen functionality) to surpass PC sales by 2011, I believe that Gobetya is uniquely positioned to capitalise on delivering industry leading gambling and gaming services to the new iPhone generation.

The Gobetya platform enables multiplayer functionality. How important is this viral element for the business?

I don’t think that being viral or offering viral advertising is one of the cornerstone challenges that mobile gambling faces. There are far bigger issues out there. Mobile gaming is a very tricky business and very complicated.

Mastering mobile multiplayer gaming is by far the most complicated and technically challenging aspect of all mobile gaming.

Is the mobile gambling solutions space a crowded one? Who are your competitors?

I wouldn’t say that it’s any more competitive that any other sector and we welcome competition as it creates awareness for the industry as a whole.

A lot of what you would class as ‘mobile gaming companies’ are doing business with each other, and we welcome that.

Probability, a competitor of yours, has recently launched a new platform called Zaphod. The platform in question has many social features: networking, community features and more. What is your take on Mobile 2.0, and will we see an up-take of community features in the mobile segment?

I would not say that Probability is a competitor as such. In fact, I would class them as a potential client, as we are a B2B software platform/product provider.

We have built our software so that we can easily plug our multiplayer products into a partner’s backend.

In relation to Mobile 2.0, I believe that the mobile gaming industry has to attract a new breed of consumer. These customers are more casual, social and tend to consume entertainment content ad hoc and on the go. In essence, their

first experience of gambling is likely to come from placing a wager via a mobile or social media site. Therefore, community features that are standard within social media and community based online sites are important for mobile offerings. We have incorporated several of these features into our thoughts in developing our own content.

Is mobile gaming a direct transfer from online gaming?

How do you attract and reach new markets? I believe that the best way is not to reinvent the wheel, but simply to package and deliver it differently; in this case, delivering proven entertaining customer experiences via mobile. In essence, the experiences and products are very similar, but a retail customer may never bet online and the same could be said for an online or mobile customer.

The flip side of that coin is that mobile gaming will open a new incremental market to the entire gaming and gambling sector.

Does mobile gambling compliment the online offering?

Yes, it’s an extension of the retail and online markets. However, I believe by offering content direct to mobiles it can bring new customers to the gambling and gaming sector as a whole. Mobile will lower the cost to acquire players to the whole sector.

A bit of a sociological point: do you think that because the mobile is essentially a personal device, it will augment the uptake of gambling from non-traditional gamblers as this new way of gambling is more private? Thus, expanding the market dramatically?

Mobile will attract a new breed of consumer to the market as a whole. I think that the development of mobile will make it easier to bring new customers to the gambling market but that doesn’t mean that these new customers will solely use mobile. I think that’s what’s being missed by some of the online and retail industry. Mobile is an important way of communicating and enforcing a brand’s whole offering. It is not just a standalone, isolated channel.

future. In terms of gaming experience for the players, the ability to touch and participate in the game is as real as it gets… its almost virtual.

Tied with this, what about the developing nations and the low-end phones available there? Juniper estimates that by 2014 more than 700 million phones in the market will be of low end functionality. Problem or opportunity?

Low end mobiles are limited to what can be done with them. We can push and squeeze them as much as possible but they are simply not designed to offer interactive gaming services. You may be able to connect to the Internet via these devices and that may allow some sort of download or connection, but it’s very limited.

Partnerships with mobile operators are the order of the day it seems.

Probability partnered in the UK with 3, whereby more than two million handsets will have a pre-installed link to an online gambling offering. Do you think mobile operators are warming up to mobile gambling?

I don’t think it’s about gambling, it’s about content as a whole. You must give consumers choice. If they are forced to only buy or play selected mobile networks’ own offerings, the industry will suffer. I think that’s been tried but long-term it doesn’t work. In terms of operators warming up to the idea; they have no choice… they need data usage to increase.

What will be the ultimate driver in taking gaming to mobile?

It’s the iPhone and Smartphone device.

These devices have educated the consumer to trust and believe that buying or playing with content on the go is the same as online. I’m sure that RIM (the blackberry manufacturer) is now the fastest growing company in the world, which tells us about the need for content on the move.

It will mirror online but has taken a bit longer to mature. The iPhone generation will be the generation that makes mobile happen. We all expect and now demand content on the go… what the customer wants, the customer gets.

Where are we going in terms of Handset design?

Touch screen and Smartphones are the

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FEATURE OPINION

How to Approach Women Online IT’S NO SECRET that most online bingo players are women, and for the last few years the marketing behind the various bingo products out there has focussed heavily on bringing women into the market. For most online gambling companies bingo became the star product in this conscious move towards marketing directly to the (previously) untapped female demographic, with significant marketing spend allocated to it. Bingo marketing and the marketing of gambling products in general is now split between targeting the smaller segment of savvy, established female online gamers, and the larger bulk of women and potential gamers that are still out there. So how can affiliates move into this lucrative demographic segment and get a piece of the action?

In the UK, 70% of all online bingo players at MariaBingo are women and range from 18 up to 55-plus years in age, with most of them spending, on average, almost three times as much as men in the bingo rooms on a monthly basis. The success of the game amongst the female audience has largely been attributed to the simple fact that it is an easy and fun game that allows for a high level of social interaction without tying people down for too long, unless they chose to stay themselves.

As has been seen over the years, men tend to gamble for the excitement and adventure it adds to their everyday life while women are more likely to have moved into the online space in search of entertainment, social interaction and last but not least, escapism from their everyday world. This slow but steady online migration of women has, over the last few years, made online gambling companies start to allocate funds as well as specifically develop their marketing campaigns and products to cater for this large segment of potential players.

The fact that this is a demographic with time to spare and substantial purchasing power to go with it has finally started to get the attention it deserves.

For affiliates, this means just the same

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as for the larger gambling companies; there is a whole brave new virtual world with millions of its people, ready to be explored. Working with MariaBingo, we have seen many interesting differences when marketing to women compared to men. Here below, I have listed three things that have helped increase the success of MariaBingo in its approach to advertising gambling products for women.

THE LOOK AND FEEL Firstly, and probably most obviously (for me at least), marketing to women does not just mean slapping lots of pink on your site or adding some gossip features to it. Women bingo or casino players tend to be just as savvy about the product and the promotions as men, so rather than focussing on making a whole new “womanized” site, provide them with relevant information in a well designed user environment. Even novice female players do not want to waste time on a patronising site trying to find information or figure out how to use it.

They value highly developed usability along with great promotions presented in a relevant way.

NOT EVERYONE IS A BINGO PLAYER Secondly, faced with the current economic climate and with the bingo market reaching an unprecedented maturity level in the UK, many online companies are starting to look beyond bingo when targeting women players.

As the female demographic is getting more established online, the demand for a broadened selection of products, rather than just bingo, is increasing. The various successful cross sell campaigns on MariaBingo, promoting our other products to our bingo players, has shown that casino and slot games are particularly well received and deliver high conversion rates. Working closely with the online gaming companies, affiliates can optimise their product mix and increase the appeal of their product selection, both to the experienced and novice player.

AGE IS JUST A NUMBER Thirdly, online gaming seems to have an age aspect to it; women who are playing online tend to be older than their male counterparts. At MariaBingo, the average female bingo player is 37 years old while the male player is about 35 years old. At MariaPoker, the average female poker player is 33 years old, while her male counterpart is three years younger. Age does not make a difference as to who will spend money gambling online, but it becomes interesting when looking at where these people can be found on the Internet as well as how they expect to be treated online; something that can be seen especially well in how a site uses its language. We have continually found that the highest conversion rates are coming from campaigns where items such as editorial, advertorials, articles and other relevant pieces of text have featured, showing that women tend to value information as well as the way they are addressed online more than they do a banner or image.

At the moment, marketing to women seems to be something of a holy grail, with everyone wanting a piece of the action. In the end, when it comes to experienced players in bingo, casino, poker or games, gender is not really relevant at this level. The biggest challenge as well as the largest potential within this demographic group seems to lie more in how the approach to, and introduction of the novice player to the world of online gambling is dealt with.

This is also where gender difference seems to take on its most prominent role, but more on that in my next article.

LINDA NISKANEN is Marketing Manager at MariaBingo, Western Europe. After completing her MA (hons) Economics with Economic history in Edinburgh, Linda moved to Spain and worked in Business process outsourcing for a while before moving into IT consulting. In combination with her move to London, Linda got sucked into the gaming industry and has enjoyed the challenges so much that she is still here.

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in BookmakerS’ meeting rooms up and down the country heads are being scratched, brains are being stormed and ideas are being bounced. The UK betting market is fiercely competitive, close to saturation… the task for industry professionals is to find the next ‘big thing’: the innovation that will allow them to steal a march on the rest.

Sunday racing has not been around for long, however, ‘Sunday driving’ is probably the best way of describing the formative stages of the betting industry. For years, betting firms meandered through country lanes, took a few wrong turns and got stuck behind the odd tractor.

Now, however, the industry has got itself

“ODDS COMPILING IS A SIMPLE CONCEPT. ITS EXECUTION, HOWEVER, ISN’T THAT SIMPLE. THAT LEVEL OF COMPLEXITY WOULD TURN PYTHAGORAS INTO A GIBBERING WRECK.”

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the highway. It’s only matter of time before the ‘next big thing’ comes along and the industry goes after it at full speed.

Initially, we had the backstreet bookie offering singles on the horses. After legislation was introduced in the UK, we had the regulated betting shop, although up until ten years ago, singles on certain football matches were sanctimoniously waved away. ‘Trebles only, sir’ was a regular refrain when canny punters tried to put a fiver on Arbroath to beat Alloa in the lower reaches of the Scottish league.

Gradually, the major players began to open call centres to enable you to bet from the comfort of your front room. Then came the Internet. ‘It’ll never work’, they cried, or, as one well-known senior executive of the gaming world put it, “We’re not concentrating on developing our Internet product because quite frankly, we don’t see it as the future”.

How wrong he was. Online gambling is the future and the only thing holding it back is that imagination can’t keep up with technology. (Or should that be technology can’t keep up with imagination?)

So what is the focus for gaming firms at the minute and where is innovation leading us? Here are my contenders:

LIVE STREAMING Why even leave the website when you can watch the snooker and bet on it without going elsewhere. All good in theory except the technology isn’t quite there yet. The quality is poor and the time delay means the black ball (snooker) will have already been missed before you’ve even thought about placing a bet. But as technology improves this will become a central part of the industry, and it’s likely that major sporting rights holders will hold similar pricing auctions for online as we currently have with TV. American sports are already setting up their own Internet channels to screen live events – it won’t be long before

Europe cottons on.

POKER/CASINO/ SKILL GAMES/BINGO Innovation galore. Live dealing, tournament betting – opening up new market opportunities by appealing to a whole different demographic. It’s going to increase the traffic on your website exponentially, but once you have the poker, the live dealing casino and themed bingo hall, what more can you realistically add before people reach overload? Have we reached a natural plateau, or is there still a product out there which is going to set the world alight? I don’t know but if there is can you give me the nod first please…

So if we are not yet looking to the above, what are we looking at to drive the industry forward, where will the growth come from and what should be the focus for the gaming community? We all lead busy lives, so when we eventually get some leisure time we want an immediate fix. If, like me, your fix happens to be a sneaky bet on football, you don’t want to be constrained by time. You want to sit down in front of Sky, either in the pub or in your front room, log in to your account via laptop or mobile and bet. You don’t want to be told the game has kicked off and you can’t place your bet. There was a gap in the market and it was quickly filled, hence the in-running betting revolution.

When I started in the industry 15 years ago, you could bet in-running on precisely nothing. Once the event started that was it, market closed. Then one firm decided to update a golf tournament ‘in-play’ on the final day. This meant that you could actually watch the leader tee off, decide if he was playing well or not, and bet accordingly. Brilliant stuff, although by all accounts it wasn’t the most technologically advanced of affairs. This lack of technology is probably the reason why it has taken so long for in-running betting to progress beyond the one or two markets updated

Extrabet Statistics Here at extrabet.com it takes us 30 milliseconds to update 200+ prices after a goal is scored. We can display these prices in three different formats: spread bets, traditional fixed-odds and 0-100 binary markets. Oh, and we also allow you to lay, as well as back, any of our markets. If that isn’t enough, we value your bet in real-time throughout the duration of an event allowing you to take a profit or cut a loss at any point.

This is simply the tip of the iceberg. We are currently in the process of developing a multiple trading tool that allows you to choose up to five different markets, from five different events, and have any combination of singles, doubles, trebles, four-folds or accumulators. ‘So what’ you may say. Well the impressive bit is this: you’ll be able to have differing stakes for each bet component, and we’ll value all of the separate markets in real time both during and in between the individual events. In short, we’ll offer inrunning multiples which allow you to take a profit or cut a loss at any point! Difficult, yes; impossible, no. Too much choice? I don’t think so. After all, can you ever have too much choice?

during an event to the current situation where some firms are trading hundreds of markets with prices updated in a flash.

Odds compiling is compellingly simple in its concept. How many outcomes of that event are there? What percentage chance do you think that each component has of winning? Make sure that they add up to 100, add a bit to each component for good luck, convert to a fraction or a decimal, get people to bet equally on every side and take the margin, job done!

Its execution, however, isn’t that simple. You have to account for the stats of the event in question, injury worries, weather, time of year, the importance of the competition and so on (not forgetting your existing and long-term liabilities upon which the outcome of the event will have an affect). Try factoring all of this in and update the outright win, win-draw markets in real time in the middle of a football match when the team who were favourites before the start of the game have gone a goal down and had their star player sent off. Then try updating the 100 plus markets on every live football match. All of this needs to be updated and put back up within a moment so clients can trade. The level of complexity would turn Pythagoras into a gibbering wreck and is the reason why it is only in the last two or three years that firms have started to make such strides.

Today’s market is all about choice: who do you bet with and what do you want from them? Not happy? Go elsewhere.

This is of course what has driven firms to invest so heavily in pricing engines which can compute vast amounts of complex calculations in milliseconds. With the maturing of the Internet and the opening up of the world markets, your service has to be exceptional and any interruption to your prices kept to a minimum or your clients will go elsewhere. Technology is what sets you apart.

NICK BUTCHART is Head of Operations at extrabet.com, the recently re-launched sportsbetting offering from the FTSE 250 listed IG Group, which has incorporated all of its sportsbetting and casino offerings under one roof to allow a truly unique betting experience. Nick has 15 years experience in the sportsbetting world.

iGB Affiliate OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2009

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ROUND TABLE

REVENUE STREAMS BEYOND FOOTBALL Football is the biggest driver for many European-facing sportsbooks, more so now that the consumer has embraced in-play betting. But how is the market outside of football developing? Has the growth of live streaming sufficiently increased the visibility of fringe sports to make a monetary difference? We asked three people in the know…

NICK BUTCHART, HEAD OF OPERATIONS, EXTRABET.COM In terms of its popularity as a betting medium, football has grown steadily year-on-year over the last decade to a point where it now accounts for approximately 50 percent of our revenue and is thus, the single biggest contributor to the business.

Should we be surprised by this? Well in all honesty, no; more people in Europe play, watch or simply absorb the beautiful game than all other sports combined. At the top tier of the game there is almost blanket TV coverage of football, often to the exclusion of other sports. It stands to reason that the more access people have to live sport the more likely they will be to watch it and, if so inclined, have a bet. This increases turnover for bookmakers and hopefully revenue, while also fuelling the desire to offer and develop new areas of interest. This can be most vividly seen in the proliferation of inrunning services currently being developed for football.

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That said, the popularity and development of certain other sports is on the rise – as the access to live sport increases, so does the interest in betting on them. We have, for example, seen a two percent increase in the number of bets struck on golf and tennis over the past four years, indicative of the broadcast coverage now afforded to these sports. Dedicated live coverage on a weekly basis means that interest in the tennis and golf tours no longer solely revolves around each sport’s four major tournaments.

The advent of live streaming is, therefore, of obvious interest to all bookmakers and it is my belief that over the next ten years, it will change the face of sports coverage. This season, the NFL is advertising live streams of games and it cannot be long before the major European sporting bodies launch partnerships with online firms to enable accredited coverage of all their events. The global reach of such technology is far in excess of the current

television-based service and I would envisage that in the near future I will be able to log on and watch whatever sporting event I want from any part of the globe, and the quality will be near perfect. The effects of this can already be seen in the expanded services that many are beginning to offer. The revenue streams are beginning to emerge, the interest is there and as technology catches up with desire, they can only become an increasing part of all sportsbook services.

However, at this stage the quality isn’t quite there. To trade events successfully you need reliable ‘real-time’ pictures, but, for now at least, that isn’t the case. They may be good enough to watch but they aren’t yet good enough to bet on. When they are, and with the inevitable opening up of certain restricted markets, you will see the industry take on a truly global perspective. This will alter the balance of revenue streams as we know them and maybe, just maybe, knock football off its perch.

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ROUND TABLE

JAMES ARNOLD, EUROPEAN AFFILIATE MANAGER, SPORTINGBET Sportingbet generates a substantial proportion of its total revenues from football. It is, however, worth highlighting that the company has always followed a strategy of market localisation, and this applies as much to the type of sports and games that people prefer to gamble on as it does to the way in which they gamble, and the languages in which they do so.

Around the world and across Europe there are substantial differences in the way in which people want to interact with gaming companies and gamble online.

Football continues to be the main revenue driver across European markets accounting for over 60 percent of Sportingbet’s total sports revenue. Tennis and basketball are also showing consistent and sustained growth owing, at least in part, to the popularity and success of live streaming and in-play betting.

There is no doubt that the continuing evolution of in-play betting and live streaming has lead to significant growth in what may have traditionally been viewed by sportsbooks as smaller revenue drivers or ‘fringe’ sports such as darts, volleyball and snooker. This has also mirrored the relative decline of previously popular sports as betting mediums such as golf.

The opportunity for Sportingbet customers to bet in-play on markets such as ‘colour of outshot’ (darts), next point and colour of next ball potted (snooker) has vastly increased the potential revenues that can be derived from these markets, and as such, their significance to the business as a whole.

Basketball is a good example of a market in which Sportingbet has seen strong growth outside of football. Our continued sponsorship of Euro League Basketball, combined with market leading prices and selection of in-play markets, has allowed us to achieve a substantial and growing market share.

We believe that by offering in-play markets and live streaming we are not only changing the way in which people are gambling, but also changing the way in which people view and consume live sport. Traditionally, watching live sport and placing a bet were two separate actions, but with the advent of live streaming and in-play markets the lines are becoming blurred. This has resulted in sportsbetting appealing to a totally new breed of younger, tech savvy customers preferring to watch live sport and gamble via a single medium.

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“IF WE WERE TO DO THIS ROUND TABLE AGAIN IN A YEAR’S TIME, I THINK WE WILL SEE THAT TENNIS IS TAKING AN EVEN BIGGER PIECE OF THE ACTION IN-PLAY.” As the evolution of online gambling continues the significance of in-play markets and live streaming will increase with customers demanding more choice, instant engagement and the ability to view the games, matches and races they choose to, 24 hours a day. As is its tradition, Sportingbet will continue to increase the development of smaller sports and markets in order to offer its customers more choice and flexibility in the way in which they choose to gamble on, and view live sport.

LLOYD PURSER, HEAD OF ONLINE MARKETING, EXPEKT At Expekt, football has been the main driver of turnover across Europe in both fixed odds and in-play betting since our inception ten years ago. As mentioned in the question, football is very well suited to in-play but there are also other lower profile sports with a steady fixed odds turnover that have grown in stature within in-play.

If we take Europe as a whole, we have seen sports like tennis proliferate in terms of in-play betting. It has been to such a degree that recently, tennis in-play has been catching up with football in terms of money placed. This has led us to further develop the product adding more live streamed matches and increasing the in-play portfolio to not only Grand Slams, ATP and WTA events, but now to Challenger tournaments.

There are other sports which are growing in terms of in-play but they tend to be more localised. For example, our customers are very active on ice hockey in Scandinavia, basketball in Southern and Eastern Europe and handball in Central Europe. Although the sports do maintain a decent percentage in terms of fixed odds, there is still a long way to go in terms of them competing with football and tennis where in-play is concerned.

Outside of Europe, US sports have always been good revenue generators.

Fixed odds can maintain the turnover on NFL and Baseball but in-play is more challenging due to the time difference for European customers.

With regards to whether live streaming has had a monetary impact for Expekt in sports outside of football; it is still very early in our product lifecycle. We launched our live streaming package across Europe to coincide with the kick off of major European football leagues back in August.

We have one of the most complete packages on the market, especially in Scandinavia and the product has proven to be an excellent extension to the portfolio both in terms of acquisition and retention.

We are focusing on the major sports and events for our live streamed offering and undoubtedly, showing the best live matches in less popular sports than football (basketball, handball, etc) will have a positive effect on the revenue we generate, especially in-play. If we were to do this round table again in a year’s time, I think we will see that tennis is taking an even bigger piece of the action in-play, especially having had the opportunity to live stream the majority of the majors and ATP events.

There is no doubt that the future is in “live” and Expekt will continue to add further sports and events to its live streaming package and continue to develop further in-play opportunities for its customers. This will allow us to deliver more value to our customers and in turn, deliver more revenue to our affiliates.

NICK BUTCHART is Head of Operations at extrabet.com, the recently re-launched sportsbetting offering from the FTSE 250 listed IG Group, which has incorporated all of its sportsbetting and casino offerings under one roof to allow a truly unique betting experience. Nick has 15 years experience in the sportsbetting world.

JAMES ARNOLD is the European Affiliate Manager for Sportingbet PLC. Prior to joining Sportingbet in February 2009 James spent two and a half years at Gaming Media Group where he progressed to Head of Affiliate Marketing promoting a range of brands including PokerHeaven.com. James cut his teeth at IMG in the Sponsorship & Advertising department of Trans World International, and has worked in the online affiliate sector since 2003. James.arnold@ sportingbet.com, +44 (0)20 7184 1678.

LLOYD PURSER is Head of Online Marketing at Expekt. With over ten years experience in both traditional and online marketing Lloyd has been managing the team at Expekt since 2007. In his role, Lloyd has responsibility for the affiliate program, media performance and tracking, social media marketing, offsite SEO, campaign management, global media planning/ buying and business development.

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Some ThingS are Forever…

From the same guy that said phone cards would never work…

The way iT really goes is that yours truly, head of one of the most respected and advanced technological groups within the communications and content industry, delivering world-wide sports information in real-time 24 hours a day, seven days a week all year, does not even use an ATM. Need cash? That is why my pants have pockets and I have a wallet which, by the way, is used only on special occasions. At other times, a simple rubber band with a sterling silver clip and engraved initials. And, yes, I buy my cars “with everything included”, no listings or discussions concerning same necessary.

PoinT? I never had much faith in affiliate relationships, in all honesty, and envisioned those sites as simply anyone and anything, located anywhere on the planet with sites that depicted not much of anything but always had room for another banner and whatever KFC monies trickled in every month.

wrong!

Whether this applies to you or not, there are affiliate sites, very focused on the gaming industry, that are getting high five figure checks (USD) monthly and many doing even better than that. Impressive – very much so. Do the smaller ones still exist?

Of course. It is the nature of that which is available and the alliances achieved over the years.

Sports are here to stay and billion dollar venues, like that of the Dallas Cowboys’ Cowboy Stadium, are starting to dot the landscape. Others like that one? Not likely right now. Close, but not quite as ostentatious or Texas style… not even the Tokyo Dome in Japan. Been there, done that. Yet to visit the Cowboys.

Along with sports comes wagering. It is what fans do besides cheering, rooting, painting their bodies in their team’s colors, wearing somewhat ridiculous outfits (and not so ridiculous team attire), leaving the wives who could not care less to fend for themselves on weekends, brain-washing children and investing a few hard-earned Dollars, Quid, Euros, Pounds, Yen, Francs, Pesos, Rubles in the eventual outcome of a given event.

Directing these devoted enthusiasts and self-styled aficionados to the source where they can place their wagers is a business

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unto itself and it has grown greater than Topsy ever imagined… or I. There will always be zealots that preach the evils of gaming, how it will ruin lives, destroy families, cause more gun sales than the NRA, disrupt the integrity of the sport… any sport, and be the antithesis to a wonderful life and picture perfect societal existence. Such is not the reality. It is the way to disparage, frighten and separate and distinct from the norm.

Excuse me! It is the norm! It is what people do. A government, for example, cannot conscionably encourage the populace to go to the cookie jar, the bank or the trust fund to wager on a lottery daily, weekly, monthly in an attempt to win a prize that ranks right up there with any one of them suddenly having the ability to soar across the skies with eagles and without a plane. It is not going to happen.

Yet, that is good, purchasing lottery tickets, and wagering a slightly larger amount on Manchester United, the New York Yankees or Dallas Cowboys is bad.

It is hypocrisy by its very utterance The engine is the world of gaming and the affiliates, coupled with the players and punters, are the freight cars behind it. The tracks have been laid for miles around the globe and the trip has no end with room for limitless numbers of passengers. If the economy, the recession, has caused a bit of a lull at present it is only temporary.

If the governments that object and create the unenforceable rules that emanate from parliamentary and congressional gatherings create hurdles, the bettors and bookmakers will find their way around and over them. Whether it is due to that which takes place offshore or the advances in communications that allow contact between two human beings from anywhere at any time, on phones to computer. The facts and resolve, when in place, are that gaming is here to stay and affiliates that promote it to their multiple audiences will continue to expand, create more and more alliances, improve their sites and start looking for summer homes in Cannes with a Ferrari in the driveway.

There are levels, as there are with any business. Some among those that go to affiliate conventions from Amsterdam to Budapest have created incredibly productive and financially rewarding alliances. Others are looking for their opportunities. And, the bookmakers are willing to speak with

“There are a few Things ThaT are forever, regardless of all else… one is wagering on sporTs.” anyone that will promote their efforts.

It now becomes a buyers’ market. ●● How

much are you giving, what percentage? Based upon play or winnings?

Do you send details on revenue, ●● substantiated and factual? How do I know?

What can I expect to earn? ●● ●● How often do I get paid? ●● Will you include reconciliations for all payments?

Will you take care of expenses for me ●● to attend the affiliate conference(s)?

Will you furnish all the ads, banner ●● or otherwise?

And so it goes, one after the other, and rightfully so. There are a few things that are forever, regardless of all else… one is wagering on sports and the other is sexual to satisfy the presumed needs of those whose appetites are not satiated elsewhere.

Affiliate relationships are one more ingredient in the mix. They work. I am not going “oh for two” after questioning the viability of phone cards.

The waters in which one swims as an affiliate may not be the safest from time to time but those particular bodies… oceans, seas, any portion of the briny deep… are forever and, since God Himself (or Herself) started it all by gambling on Adam, then Eve, who can question its credibility and intention to be part and parcel of the human experience?

MiCKey CharleS An attorney by training, Mickey’s background includes newspaper syndication, talk show host, panellist/moderator and chairperson at conferences worldwide. He is a pioneer in the audiotex industry, sports wire services and sports displayed on the Internet. He is President and CEO of The Sports Network, an international real-time sports wire service with customers throughout North America and Europe.

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INSIGHT NOTES FROM THE FORUM FLOOR

THE TERMS OF THE CONTRACT Regular columnist and founder of GamesandCasino.com, Dominique, heads to the forums to uncover the unified stance taken by affiliates against recent contract breaches in the form of retroactive amends to terms and conditions.

AS OF LATE there has been a very unpleasant trend in the industry. More and more affiliate programs have tried to retroactively change the terms of their contracts with affiliates.

The terms and conditions set forth by affiliate programs are regarded as a binding contract. Affiliates are expected to abide by the rules or face expulsion from the program.

Somehow, some affiliate programs view this as a one way street – they consider themselves immune to the contract. This is not the case. Two parties in a contract both have to adhere to the terms unless both parties agree to change them.

Yes, most programs have a “catch-all clause” that states they are not bound by the contract and can change it at will, at anytime.

Now, this type of clause has been accepted online in certain types of “terms of usage” of various types of software.

However, there is a precedent of courts tossing this clause aside when it comes to contracts involving the payment of money. Payment of money for services already performed (players sent) is an even stronger case against these catchall clauses.

Think about it – I could create a site selling televisions for $100. After you send the money, I could just change my mind and ask for $200 or you don’t get the TV, and on top of that I get to keep the $100 you already paid.

Of course, business cannot be conducted on such a basis. No court in the world would determine that I have a right to add new conditions to a sale after it has been made.

Affiliate contracts work the same way.

Assume I enter into a contract with program ‘X’ and commence to send players on the basis that I will be paid Y% for the life of the player. Program ‘X’ can’t suddenly change its mind without my consent and stop paying on players that were sent under the contract, or change the payment amount or anything

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else we agreed on in our contract. This is called breach of contract and a serious matter in any court.

Beyond the legal ramifications, there is the very basic matter of trust. Are you going to trust that website selling TVs ever again? Of course not. Then how are affiliates supposed to trust a program that arbitrarily alters their contract? Who knows when it will seem advantageous to the program to change the contract again?

Affiliates are real people living in the real world and running real businesses.

A contract between an affiliate program and an affiliate is a business to business binding agreement. Once the players are delivered, the program needs to pay as agreed – period.

Changing the contract going forward is another story; of course, that is not an issue. New affiliates will sign up under the new contract and will be fully informed about what the conditions are. They can plan their business model accordingly.

The worst example of an affiliate program breaching contract was Grand Prive – it just closed the affiliate program altogether and established a new one for one of its brands. While this happened quite some time ago, the issue has not yet died down, the affiliate forums still regularly talk about it and there will still be further repercussions for Grand Prive.

Affiliates are not going to let this drop; it sets a terrible precedent and just cannot be tolerated.

Other affiliate programs should also be upset about this. This breach by Grand Prive has substantially reduced trust in all Microgaming powered programs – Microgaming always used to be presumed to take care of its licensee’s obligations. Here, the ball was dropped for what I estimate to be millions of dollars owed to affiliates over time.

When Microgaming tries to re-enter the US market and get licensing, past debts will have to be cleared up. At the very least, Grand Prive will come to

regret this action – by then a very goodly sum will be owed to affiliates for their player bases.

In a working environment where you cannot trust that the contracts agreed on are actually kept, tolerance for minor issues (like payments being late for unforeseen causes) will likely be blown out of proportion and all programs will suffer. Affiliates become nervous and keep looking over their shoulder to see if another program is trying to pull a fast one. Lately, there have been a lot of terms and conditions changes and some of them quite unpalatable. So far, the last word has not been spoken on any of these, so I won’t name them here... yet.

This industry may be operating in a grey area but within the industry, proper business practices need to be established and enforced. It is impossible to sustain an industry where a contract is not a contract and a handshake is not a handshake. Without that, no trade is possible.

All the affiliate communities feel the same way about this and lately, there has been talk about forming an affiliate Union to take care of matters such as breach of contract. Here are some quotes from the owners of some of the major forums catering to affiliates and their positions in this, in no particular order, all are equally important: (see opposite page) So you see, while affiliates are not unified (yet?!) and splintered into many groups, they all agree on this issue. In my opinion, any program that decides to breach its contract is stepping into a hornet’s nest. I sure wouldn’t want all these communities angry at me....

Additionally, any casino planning to apply for certification in the US once the laws have changed (and it sure looks like this will happen) will have to contend with charges levied against them by affiliates who are owed money according to contract law. I would imagine that this would have more consequences than just being told to pay up.

AFFILIATEGUARDDOG.COM constantly monitors changes to T&Cs and alerts us when these occur. It also has a list of programs and ratings for the T&Cs, from rogue to predatory to having somewhat unpalatable T&Cs such as negative carry-over.

Andrew from the Affiliate Guard Dog (AGD) states: “Many affiliate programs have begun breaching their own contracts to increase profitability at the expense of affiliates in the industry. AGD, with help from GPWA, the APCW, Casinomeister and especially players and affiliates has begun to affect some change in regards to retroactively applied terms (i.e., Contract Breach).

With the continued support of players, affiliates and organizations in the industry, our voice will be heard and programs will respond. It’s a testament to the collective efforts to see such success in this industry.”

CASINOMEISTER.COM is well known for its mediation efforts between players and casinos, but there also is an affiliate section, a newsletter for affiliates and it accepts complaints in its famous ‘pitch a bitch’ section.

Bryan from Casinomeister asserts: “Like I have explained before, making retroactive changes should not be done at the expense of their business partners – the affiliates. I think it would be fair for programs to introduce new terms as a proposal to their current affiliates, and come to a mutual agreement. Any new affiliates coming on board would have to accept whatever the program dictates, but current affiliates should be given a choice. That’s my opinion on the whole subject.”

THE GPWA.ORG and its subsidiary, the APCW.org have published several YouTube segments ousting programs that breached contracts with their affiliates.

Michael from GPWA says: “Revenue share arrangements between affiliate programs and affiliates have been marketed and

positioned by most programs as representing an annuity for the lifetime of referred players. When a program adopts this positioning then any unilateral change by the program that decreases the value of that annuity can be seen as breaching the trust the affiliate placed in the affiliate program. Successful business relationships depend on trust, and shattering trust shatters business relationships.”

CASINOAFFILIATEPROGRAMS.COM has been mediating individual cases and plans more informative program listings in the near future.

Warren from Casino Affiliate Programs (CAP) states: “CAP strongly advises operators not to change terms and conditions on existing affiliate deals as this is the quickest way to lose competitive ground in a market where you must fight harder than ever to earn the business of a good affiliate.

We’ve seen time and time again how this action spreads across the industry like wildfire and can create huge repercussions for operators, regardless of their size or stature.

CAP plans to label such operators in the near future so affiliates can make informed decisions of where they should send their business.”

POKERAFFLIATELISTINGS.COM is home to an outspoken community of poker affiliates and also caters to casino, sports, bingo and forex affiliates.

Jeremy from Poker Affiliate Listings explains: “Would it be unethical and completely unacceptable if a mortgage company broke their agreements and arbitrarily changed the terms and interest rates of their clients?

You better believe it would be! Then I wonder why lately a few casino and poker affiliate programs have taken it upon themselves to retroactively change the terms and conditions affiliates initially agreed upon. We affiliates need to take note of the

programs doing this and protect the integrity of our role in the industry by refusing to promote these shady operators.”

THE GAMBLINGINDUSTRYASSOCIATION. COM aims to bring together the Gambling Industry Stakeholders, one and all, and to create an environment of honesty and co-operation.

Nick from the Gambling Industry Association comments: “Affiliates in general understand that changes need to be made occasionally, and as a whole, we have no desire to expect or inflict unfair terms on our partner programs.

Changes going forward are fine, however, inflicting retroactive terms changes on the folks that helped get you to where you are after years of promotion is DEAD WRONG! “If declining profits are driving your program to cut affiliate expenses, then make them going forward and bite the bullet in support of your existing affiliates. It’s been a rough few years since UIEGA for us too.

“When the worm turns, and everyone is fighting for ‘top spots’ again, do you really want your program on the shit list?” (The entire statement is posted in the forum.)

THE GAMBLINGAFFILIATEPLACE. COM is a fairly new community that has grown very quickly in a short time.

Steve from the Gambling Affiliate Place comments: “Retro changing T&Cs is about the dumbest thing I can think of a program doing because it immediately creates a loss of trust – what guarantee do we affiliates have that tomorrow they won’t change things again? And I don’t think I need to point out that the chances of them changing things so to give their partners more money is about the same as these programs getting a 100% effort promoting their establishments after they’ve proven they are capable and willing to change a deal that they’ve already given their word to honour.”

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article in no way reflect those of the publisher.

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THE POKER PLAYER – WHY FOREX MAKES SENSE As the choice of gaming verticals broadens for players, so too do the opportunities for affiliates. Recently, the forex market has been illuminating industry conversation and here, we look at the target demographic of this vibrant trading market.

THE FOREX MIGRATION It is no secret that the forex industry has been gaining massive momentum ever since its migration online. More recently still, the global financial crisis has been particularly pivotal for forex trading both because of the exposure given to the financial markets and because the forex market remained the only market to provide consistent profit opportunities throughout the crisis.

The big surprise, however, came from the gaming industry of all places, with huge numbers of consumers switching from online gaming to forex trading.

Curiously enough, a large portion of these consumers turned out to be poker players. This may sound somewhat strange at first, since poker is a huge and flourishing online industry with legions of loyal followers. However, if we take a closer look at the similarities between poker and forex trading, we will discover that this move makes perfect sense.

WHAT MAKES A POKER PLAYER? The game of poker is delicious mix of skill and luck that provides its enthusiasts with food for thought as well as a healthy dose of adrenaline to satisfy any risk appetite.

Like forex trading, poker is simple to learn and difficult to perfect. The apparent simplicity of the game attracts many players simply looking for a quick profit.

Those who stick around, however, are the players who have a head for odds, the patience to calculate risk and profit ratios, and the discipline to carry out long term strategy despite a few inevitable losses.

If you had listed the above qualities to a forex buff he would tell you that you must be talking about a forex trader.

WHAT IS FOREX TRADING? As I’ve mentioned earlier, like the game of poker, the mechanics of the forex market are quite simple. The market revolves around eight major currencies which are bought and sold against each other.

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“SOON ENOUGH THERE WILL BE NO SELF RESPECTING POKER PLAYER WITHOUT A FOREX TRADING ACCOUNT.” To make a profit all a trader has to figure out is which currency will go up or down relatively to which other currencies, and then buy or sell the currency accordingly.

Sounds like a piece of cake, which would explain why forex trading is so popular.

As you may have guessed already, it’s the figuring out part that turns out to be rather tricky. There are various market forces to consider, micro and macro trends to spot, odds to calculate, risk and profit ratios to estimate, strategies to adhere to, and what do you know – sounds like we’re back to talking about poker!

A QUESTION OF PRESTIGE Let’s not get carried away however, poker and forex are anything but synonymous.

This is where the difference between being an online gamer and being a financial trader comes in. Mainly, it’s a question of prestige, and in this aspect, forex trading comes out on top hands down. As a whole, the online gaming industry suffers from terrible image problems, namely that it’s shady and full of scammers. That wouldn’t be so bad if this image remained at the superficial level, but as things stand today, it does have some very practical ramifications.

These include major difficulties in funding online gaming accounts and legal issues all over the world. Forex trading on the other hand is a perfectly legal and legitimate form of financial trading with easily fundable accounts. In other words, being a poker player is not something you’d brag to your parents about whereas being a forex trader is something anyone would be happy to put on their resume.

No wonder so many poker players are considering a career change.

WHY SWITCH NOW? The career change seems particularly appealing when it is so easy to make.

Forex platforms like eToro now offer

guidance for forex beginners with visual trading interfaces and educational tools such as forex guides, video tutorials and demo modes with live market rates.

Traditional forex platforms tend to crowd their interfaces with complex data flows and charts, which is why for a long time, forex trading seemed intimidating to novices who were thus reluctant to give it a try. With the new wave of forex technology, not only has the forex market been simplified to accommodate newcomers from the gaming industry, but it also doesn’t cost an arm and a leg to get a forex account. If we take www. eToro.com, for example, it only takes $50 to set up an account.

WE’VE ONLY JUST BEGUN As you can see, the opportunities that the forex market presents to poker players are often too good to pass up. Switching from poker to forex is not just a step up, but an easy step up, and taking advantage of that is just good sense. For an affiliate, referring a poker player to a forex provider is something of a dream come true, since not only is the poker player likely to be interested in forex, he’s also likely to be good at it which means that he will continue generating long term revenues.

I personally believe that we’re only seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to poker players turning into forex traders, and that soon enough there will be no self respecting poker player without a forex trading account.

JOHNATHAN ASSIA is the CEO and founder of eToro – the leading Forex trading platform that has managed to overcome the technological barrier preventing novice traders from entering the Forex market. Since its establishment, eToro has revolutionized the Forex industry and today it also holds the biggest Forex affiliates program: www.eToroPartners.com.

INSIGHT

“A PESSIMIST”, Winston Churchill once noted, “sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” In gaming affiliate promotions, this can be taken as a truism.

With gaming affiliates beset on all sides by direct competition, seemingly baffling regulatory frameworks and the age-old series of contradictory “experts” giving you advice on getting SEO, it can be daunting to start out as an affiliate, and can be especially troublesome trying to refresh your existing promotions to increase the value of an established site.

So, what should affiliates do to find their space, and where should you invest your time and effort to get your site where it needs to be: making money?

THE VERTICAL CLIMB Before you identify your niche and open up your shiny new website, it seems to make sense that you should think about what your site is actually going to do. It doesn’t take an astrophysicist to realise that this boils down to earning hard cash. So, choose a niche you are happy with from the start. If you like horses, go with sportsbetting, if you have specialist casino experience, run a casino site, if you know bingo inside out, run a bingo site. Again, not rocket science.

Your site visitors are trawling through your site to get value, whether that be valuable information on why they should play on genericbingo.com, or what the pot sizes are like on anotherpokersite. com. If you’re not able to give them key information on your product, then they’re going to bounce off the site very quickly. Make sure you have a good grasp of the subject first.

So, then, what verticals are open to gaming affiliates, and which ones look interesting for the future? There are affiliate programs opening up every day, in a multiplicity of languages, product types, and with a whole host of payout types. Putting it a little over-simply, this boils down to bingo, casino, poker, sportsbooks, and then a range of slightly less mainstream gaming products like backgammon, soft gaming or lotto sites.

GETTING IN WITH THE BIG BOYS Casino, poker and bingo products are often run by sites with huge brand equity. As a general rule of thumb, you can assume that people are going to be more prepared to sign up to brands they read about in the papers and see on the telly than those they know nothing about, especially when you consider that, ultimately, you’re asking them to spend real money. These higherconverting brands also tend to produce good player values because they have the staff to up-sell products once you’ve produced the sale. With some of the monolithic brands, though, you may have trouble finding a good contact in their 20-person affiliate team who is prepared to just talk to you about how things work. Ask other affiliates what their experiences with the operators have been, and make your decision based on the brand’s reputation for customer service to their affiliates.

DOWNSIZING: PROS AND CONS Smaller brands offering tried-and-tested products like poker or bingo are an interesting proposition for both new and old affiliates. They may offer you sizeable commissions, but, when you look closely, they may require your players to deposit a certain amount before paying you, or your visitors may have less trust in their products. If trust is a factor, the too-goodto-be-true CPA/rev share is probably that. If you haven’t heard of the brand before, and have a few doubts about the commissions you may or may not earn, then imagine how your players feel!

REGULATION Although it makes for very, very dry reading, the 2005 Gambling Act is surprisingly clear on whether or not you can advertise a certain brand or product: “A person commits an offence if he advertises unlawful gambling”, if “arrangements for a licence, notice, permit or registration” as required under the Act “have not been completed”. In short, if you are a UK affiliate wishing to advertise an unlicensed brand, you are breaking the law.

Loosely speaking, if a site’s license is not from an ‘EEA State’, then you need to ask further questions from the merchant before launching your ads. Check the licensing details of the brand that you are choosing to run with.

The likelihood is if it’s not proudly on display at the bottom of the homepage, there is some doubt. If you have doubts, then the likelihood is that that your site visitors will share them. Because your traffic (and, of course, liberty) is precious, run due diligence checks if you’re working with a brand you’ve never heard of before, and run research on the major brands if you are new to that vertical.

THE BIG TICK-LIST Putting the heavy subject of licensing back into its very orderly box, we need to conclude by looking at what’s out there, and why you want to work in your vertical. Because I work in the bingo vertical, naturally, I would recommend this. However, on the general level, it’s sensible to run with what you feel most comfortable with.

If you have knowledge gaps in your chosen verticals, ring the affiliate managers at the sites you’re thinking of – they are experts in the field and will help you make your decision. If they don’t want to talk to you, they don’t want your business. Someone else will! When you have chosen your vertical, and the right brands, decide what you will do to provide best value to your players. This is, of course, totally up to you.

Whatever approach you take, you can be sure that in an increasingly regulated market, dominated by brands rich in history, and with affiliate programmes that are recognised and respected, you will find the right fit for your niche.

Keep your focus simple and keep your eyes on the prize and your hard work will hopefully be rewarded in sustainable commissions.

JONATHAN MANN is Affiliate Account Manager at Market Ace. affiliates@market-ace.com, www.market-ace.com.

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INSIGHT

Google’s plans for world domination moved up a gear in July when it was officially announced that the search giant would begin work on a new open-source operating system built on top of Linux.

GOOGLE CHROME OS, as it will officially be called, is due for release some time in 2010 and will be aimed initially at netbooks with a view to moving on to desktop systems shortly after.

Instead of merely defending its top position in the world of search, Google is now totally on the offensive, striking what could be an extremely well aimed blow at Microsoft right where it hurts – its core product. There’s a huge difference between trying to gain a foothold in a new market and not really succeeding, to suddenly having to defend your core services from a company arguably as powerful (or potentially as powerful) as yourself, and this is the dilemma in which Microsoft now finds itself.

Since the mid 90s, Microsoft has dominated the desktop world with its flagship operating systems and a plethora of accompanying applications including everything from browsers and games to productivity and office applications.

Microsoft owns a bigger share of almost every market it is involved in than all of its competitors combined. So pervasive and consuming is its mere presence that when it enters a market, it’s usually time for everyone else to leave.

But there’s one area in which it has failed to dominate; the world of search. Despite its best efforts, it has been unable to take even second place.

Following a recent re-branding with the release of Bing, its new search engine, it also recently announced a partnership with Yahoo! in an attempt to expand its search platform.

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Microsoft has certainly had an interest in Yahoo! for some time, as previous, unsuccessful acquisition attempts would testify, so it’s unlikely that the new deal is simply a knee-jerk reaction to Google’s announcement despite how it may appear on the surface.

As part of the Microsoft-Yahoo! deal, Bing will power Yahoo! search; Yahoo! will retain control of how the search UI is presented, but it will be Bing that provides the results. Yahoo!’s share of the deal will involve selling search advertising, via the Microsoft AdCentre, for both firms. Additionally, Microsoft will recompense Yahoo! for traffic generated by Yahoo!’s advertiser sites and affiliate network.

FROM BROWSER TO OS Google’s new OS will be built on the foundation of the three Ss – speed, simplicity and security; developers are aiming to create an operating system that loads and is ready to use in seconds.

The interface will be designed to be very minimal and uncluttered so that it remains functional without interfering with usability.

However, the biggest innovation could be its security architecture, which is going to be a complete rewrite in terms of how other operating systems deal with viruses and malware. If these three principles sound familiar, it’s because they’re the same three principles that underpinned Google’s browser Chrome which was released at the tail-end of 2008.

The Chrome browser was created by

Google under the guise that the web had moved forward so far and so quickly since its early days that browsers had been playing a game of catch-up ever since it became mainstream. Google Chrome was to be a new browser, written from scratch that addressed the problems of the web today, not the problems of the web yesterday. It was a browser built from the opposite perspective of other browsers.

The release of Google Chrome was an exciting time; a brand new browser from a brand new browser vendor hit the scene amidst a maelstrom of hype and publicity and personally, I think Google did a great job; the browser is fast due to improvements in the way in which its JavaScript engine executes scripts, it’s secure thanks to its incognito mode and sand-boxed plug-in architecture, and it offers a clean and minimalist interface that is both friendly and intuitive. Some of these features have since been duplicated in other browsers, which I always believe to be a key marker of success.

Some people criticised Google because its Chrome browser didn’t instantly sweep aside all of its competitors as soon as it was launched. I’m not sure what the dissenters expected, but I think that the Chrome browser has been, and will continue to be, a resounding success.

Let’s take a moment to review some browser usage statistics; the stats for July 2009 on the W3Schools site (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/ browsers_stats.asp), show Chrome to have a market penetration of 6.5%, which sounds pretty low, but it’s double

“GOOGLE IS NOW TOTALLY ON THE OFFENSIVE, STRIKING WHAT COULD BE AN EXTREMELY WELL AIMED BLOW AT MICROSOFT RIGHT WHERE IT HURTS – ITS CORE PRODUCT.” the market share enjoyed by Apple’s Safari browser, a browser that comes preinstalled with Apple computers (and is, therefore, likely to be used by anyone that buys an Apple) and is already pretty well established. It’s also only a few percent behind Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) – Microsoft’s latest and greatest offering.

In under a year, Chrome has managed to do what Safari has been unable to do in approximately five, and has almost caught up with the latest version of Microsoft’s browser. Remember that at one point in time, Microsoft enjoyed a 90% share of the browser market.

Month by month, usage with Chrome is increasing, and the browser market is already heavily saturated with well established players.

THE OS OF THE FUTURE Like the Chrome browser, the Chrome OS will be written from the ground up.

Google’s philosophy here is remarkably similar to that of the Chrome browser and is along the following lines: modern operating systems were designed and written in a world before the Internet existed. Solutions to the problems posed by the Internet have, therefore, all been bolt-on additions as opposed to built-in designs. Google is redesigning the OS from scratch and is building it with the Internet in mind. It’ll be the first OS created in this way and it’ll be interesting to see if it works as well as the Chrome browser has.

First and foremost, the netbooks that will hit the stores with Google Chrome OS installed on them will be cheaper than those that come with Windows installed on them; Google Chrome will be free, Windows is not. It’s that simple. But also, as Google already provides online versions of office software that rivals Microsoft office, kitting out a netbook with productivity and ‘work-based’ software will also be much cheaper.

Speed is sure to play a big part in the success of the new OS and Google is already talking about start-up times of just seconds instead of the minutes that we expect from our Microsoftbased computers. Partly what has made Windows so popular is that it is all things

to all people. But this is also its downfall – many background applications and services are loaded when Windows starts, many of them are probably not needed by the average computer user so loading them during booting adds unnecessary waiting time.

This can be frustrating for the average user that doesn’t know how to disable the software and services that they don’t need, and as anyone that’s used Windows for longer than a couple of months can confirm, the problem only gets worse as time passes. Chrome OS will be aimed at web users and as most Google software is web-based it doesn’t need to be all things to all people and shouldn’t need hundreds of services running. The whole architecture is bound to be different.

Perhaps the most important features could be those of security; it seems that every day brings a new exploit or a new virus targeting Windows. This results in an almost endless stream of updates, fixes and patches which only adds to an already bloated system. If Chrome can overcome the modern challenges of security in a connected world, and given the Chrome browser’s successful security sandboxing architecture there’s no reason to suspect it won’t, this will also be a huge benefit to consumers and, therefore, a massively enticing selling point.

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Since Google’s OS bombshell, and aside from the partnership with Yahoo!, Microsoft has retaliated with the announcement that it will be web-enabling its Office range so that customers can use Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents directly in their browser, with full online storage and collaboration facilities.

This will compete directly with Google Docs, and appears to be a total tit-for-tat strike back at Google. Whether it will be successful or not remains to be seen; certainly Google, which lifted the beta status from both Google Docs and Google Mail several months ago, is already years ahead of Microsoft in this respect.

There are also rumours of the imminent release of Bing 2.0 circulating,

news that leaked after excited Microsoft employees twittered messages about it during a recent Microsoft meeting. Bing 2.0 is supposedly an impressive update that brings Microsoft search to the same level as Google search. How true the rumours are and whether the new Bing will increase Microsoft’s slice of the search pie remains to be seen.

Weakening Google’s search dominance is not going to stop Google taking on Microsoft at the OS level, but it could be a good opportunity for Microsoft to prosper while Google is focused elsewhere.

A THIRD CONTENDER As well as its obvious target of taking down Microsoft, is there anyone else that could potentially be in Google’s line of fire? Apple, of course, already offer an alternative to Windows that is marketed as more secure, easier to use and more attractive than Windows. But it offers all of this at a price; Apple Macs tend to be a good deal more expensive than an identically ‘specced’ Windows machine and while some people are prepared to pay more for a superior product, the fact that more people don’t choose Apple is surely a sign that most people aren’t. With Google promising a secure, attractive and easy to use alternative to Windows that is free, Apple could have almost as much to worry about as Microsoft.

Until now, relations between Google and Apple have been clement, with Google products (Gmail) being installed by default on Apple’s iPhone, for example. Yet, the recent resignation of Eric Schmidt from Apple’s board of directors could potentially signal the beginnings of a distancing between two companies that are already in increasing competition.

An extremely popular recent spoof article on BBSpot which claimed Google had pulled Apple’s listing from its search results is indicative that the same tit-for-tat is expected between the two companies. What would more surprising would be if Apple and Microsoft teamed up against Google.

DAN WELLMAN is a freelance writer and IT professional that lives and works in a thriving city on the south coast of England.

He insists that he has other interests besides computers, and vows one day to prove this somehow.

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AFFILIATE RETENTION

Rewarding good affiliates while weeding out the bad ones. by Matthew Castillo, Key Client Account Manager, NetRefer.

MY PREVIOUS ARTICLE – Affiliate Marketing Retention Vs Acquisition Strategies (which you can find on http:// www.igbaffiliate.com) – focused on the importance of strategically choosing your affiliates using the Affiliate Value Model.

This model enables affiliate managers to classify affiliates according to their potential and helps them to focus their energies on acquiring, growing and retaining valuable affiliates. This article will deal with the practical ways of categorizing affiliates and suggest ways of incentivizing good affiliates and weeding out the bad ones.

more relevant today as “No Negative Carry Over” has become an industry standard and hence, there is no recovery mechanism for affiliates.

You also need to review CPA deals and see whether these are based on stringent criteria that result from the company earning revenue from players. Ideally, CPA deals should be based on Positive Revenues from players and should be proportionate to the Net Revenue Criteria.

As an example: 125 CPA for players generating 75 Net Revenue in one month.

ANALYSE EXISTING AFFILIATES SET YOUR OBJECTIVES Before starting to take an active role in proper affiliate management it is important to set clear SMART objectives.

To be successful, objectives should be: ● Specific – should specify what you want to achieve. ● Measurable – You should be able to measure how you’re progressing in meeting the objectives. ● Achievable – The objectives that are set must be achievable and attainable. ● Realistic – Consider the resources at hand and think whether you can realistically achieve goals. ● Time-Specific – Set a deadline for meeting objectives and review dates to monitor progress.

An example of such a goal could be: “to increase affiliate program profitability by ten percent within six months from implementation with bi-monthly review”.

ANALYSE REWARD PLANS AND COMPOSITION OF NET REVENUE At this stage it is important to benchmark your offer with that of your competitors.

How do standard revenue share deals and CPA rewards compare with other competitors within the industry? Are the player promotions being offered to affiliates attracting the right players or are you mostly attracting bonus hunters?

This information is essential as one often realizes that due to high bonus payouts, Positive Revenues are turned into Negative Net Revenue as players do not carry on playing when their bonus runs out. This problem is especially

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Before devising any strategy aimed at improving the resource allocation and guaranteeing the best return on investment, one must be able to analyse the existing affiliates that the company already has. It is suggested that affiliates are split according to their current profitability; high, medium, low (and even negative). The Pareto rule is usually adopted to select the top affiliates, however, in this industry, the 80:20 rule hasn’t yet proved to be so reliable. It is overoptimistic to say that 80% of profits are being generated by 20% of affiliates – it is rather more realistic to say that 95% of the profits are generated by 5% of affiliates.

This creates a supplier dominated scenario, and the operator should pay extra attention to these top affiliates as losing one of them would have a large effect on the profitability of the affiliate program.

upon achieving and surpassing goals.

When it comes to middle tier affiliates, it is recommended that progressive deals are created, basing these on the average player profitability. The higher the average profitability, the higher the revenue percentage should be. Once the overall profitability reaches a certain pre-agreed amount, affiliates should be moved to top tier status. It is important to note that certain middle tier affiliates will produce a constant return with no growth potential. These affiliates should be retained as cash cows.

In the case of low tier affiliates, these should be analysed in the same way as middle tier affiliates, hence creating revenue share percentages based on the average player profitability. However, in the case of negative revenue generating affiliates, negative carry over plans should be considered. As an operator, you should retain the right to use such plans where affiliates deliver negative net revenues for a period of, for example, three consecutive months. Moreover, in cases where negative net revenues are prolonged, affiliate managers should consider closing off the affiliate account. Affiliates producing negative revenue not only reduce the overall profitability of the program but also consume internal resources that add to overall costs – weeding out these affiliates would enable the affiliate manager to concentrate on more valuable affiliates.

CONCLUSION CATERING FOR AFFILIATES IN DIFFERENT TIERS After splitting affiliates into different tiers, it is important to start planning strategies that aim to grow and retain good affiliates while at the same time improve or weed out bad ones. It is ideal to think of each tier as independent but it is just as important to devise strategies that help affiliates to move from one tier to the next.

Starting with the top tier affiliates, it is advisable that specific reward plans, which are agreed by both parties, are set up for the VIP affiliates. As with any business deal, it is essential that revenue targets are agreed in advance, in the same way that business targets are agreed internally, and special bonuses awarded

Knowing your affiliates well is essential in enabling operators to develop different strategies to create more value for both the operator and those positively performing affiliates. Although painful, weeding out bad affiliates is essential for the long term success of the program.

One might say that the main aim of an affiliate program is to grow the affiliate base; weeding out affiliates will not help achieve this goal as these affiliates will sign up with other operators. This is exactly what you want. You don’t want affiliates who bring players who deliver constant negative net revenues so you should be more than happy to weed these out and even more happy to see them going to a competitor.

CakePoker Affiliates earn a piece of the action

INSIGHT

Developing Influence A closer look at the influence and relationship between operator and software provider in the affiliate decision making process.

The influence an operator has on its software provider is usually determined by the strength of its brand presence – the bigger the operation (‘presence’) the more influence the operator will have.

Unfortunately for affiliates, however, this situation can be confusing and sometimes affiliates mistakenly consider the operator and the software provider as a single company when most of the time this is not the case.

Nevertheless, in some cases the software provider has no licensees and only powers its own brands.

Software providers operating on this model should be viewed as the same entity. When a software provider’s main focus is to distribute and license its games then usually its licensees are completely different companies.

OperaTOrs’ respOnsibiliTies Operators usually have full control over all operational tasks of their business.

Such tasks entail customer support, retention, transactions management, marketing and more. Some software providers do offer turnkey solutions to operators that include services that would usually be handled by the operator, however, most of the operators will still be completely responsible for their own marketing and affiliate programs. It is necessary for affiliates to understand the difference between the operator and software provider in order to properly evaluate their future/existing business partner.

This evaluation is crucial especially when an issue occurs. In some cases, one operator’s negative actions can affect other operators using the same software provider even though there

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is no link between the two operators.

It is important to be able to make the distinction if there is no direct link.

Nonetheless, it is a fact that both operators and software providers affect each other even if they are separate entities. The operators are generally in daily communication with their software providers. Typically, issues that affiliates send through to the operators relating to games or statistics are communicated directly to the software provider. On the other hand, issues with payments, creatives and commission are addressed directly by the operator.

The parameTers affiliaTes shOuld cOnsider when prOmOTing a brand (See figure 1) Affiliates should consider the following when deciding to promote any brand: 1. The Reputation of the operation – it is recommended to do some research on the brand and its history.

2. The Credibility of the brand.

3. Affiliate Program – have you worked with this program in the past?

Do they pay on time? Do they respond in a timely manner? Are the stats real time?

4. Conversion – what is the conversion rate? Compare it to other brands you promote to evaluate which brands are the most worthwhile sending your traffic to.

5. Player Value – very important to keep in mind that although conversion is crucial to an affiliate’s cause, it is worth less if the operations retention is lacking. It is essential to check your stats religiously to ensure that the operations you promote are maximizing the revenue on every player you send.

6. The Software – which software are

they using? It is important to know the product offering, however, it is the operators that are responsible for the credibility and integrity of their operations regardless of the software platforms they choose to use.

influence On The sOfTware prOvider An operator is responsible in ensuring that the players and affiliates are treated properly. It is essential to understand the brand/operation has the strength and ability to maximize the software it uses.

Currently, we find that more operations have integrated several casino/bingo/poker software platforms into one unique brand in order to optimize their operation in providing variety to both their affiliates and players.

For example: Winward Casino has taken a license from three different casino software providers: ●● TopGame ●● Parlay ●● NetEnt The intention is to maximize its brand and to ensure a variety of up-to-date games. Currently, it licenses its games from two of those providers.

It can be argued as to who is responsible for the conversion of the brand; the operator or the software provider?

Personally, I believe that conversion is primarily related to the operation.

However, the software platform – its games, functionalities and frequent upgrades – will play a large part in determining whether the player will stay with a brand or not.

affiliate programme software

brand reputation

player value

commission

brand credibility

conversion

Figure 1

As an operator you can provide the best service, however, if the software is not attractive enough or not up-to-date and ‘bug free’, then players will inevitably drop off. Having said that, all operators will experience glitches and bugs from time to

“From an aFFiliate’s point oF view, the critical relationship is with the operation and not the soFtware provider For this is where the reputation oF the operation and their aFFiliate program is taking place.”

time but it is the way a software provider handles these so called ‘bugs’ that makes a difference in the eyes of the industry.

The professional manner and clarity that the software platform utilizes when dealing with such issues will draw the

In order to gain some insight into the perspective of the software platforms, I have interviewed James King of the Business Development team, TopGame platform.

What influence do operators have on TopGame software development?

“The operator has a significant influence on TopGame software especially because it is relatively new. We are eager for and encourage feedback from all our operators. We view this relationship as vital to our success as a software provider. We continually upgrade our systems in any way that will benefit our operators to optimize their businesses. Our goal is to become one of the greatest casino software providers and we know that the only way to do this is by listening to the customers, i.e. our operators.”

What should affiliates do when they have concerns with one of your operators?

“It depends on the issue and level of concern. Most of the issues that affiliates have should be easily solved by the operator. We do not have control over how the operators handle their issues. It is the operator’s full responsibility to ensure that its affiliates are treated fairly. The operator is responsible for paying its affiliates, deciding on the commission structure and providing creatives. TopGame is responsible for delivering the statistics and ensuring an excellent gaming experience for players that choose their operators, but if an issue cannot be solved with an operator we encourage the affiliate to contact us directly so we can take the matter further.” if affiliates were unhappy with one TopGame brand should, would that negativity transfer through to the other brands?

“I would certainly advise affiliates to work with operators that honour their deals and provide a good service to their affiliates. That said, each operator is a competitor. Thus, I can clearly say that if affiliates are not happy with one of our operators, then this does not necessarily mean they will have the same bad experience with another and vice versa.”

line between the top software providers in the market and the rest.

Affiliates must make their decision to promote an operation based on many factors besides the software platform it uses alone. The operator is the one who will/will not honour the affiliate’s commission/deals. It is the operator’s responsibility to convert, retain and provide good customer service to its clientele. And it is the software provider’s responsibility to provide the operator with the necessary tools to ensure an excellent gaming experience for its customers.

conclusion In today’s world, operators have the choice to select particular, appropriate software or to run multi-software platforms along their brands. However, as far as the affiliate’s decision making process is concerned on which brands to market, the affiliate needs to make an educated decision on the operator involved by having a crystal clear understanding of the difference between an operator and a software provider as well as being able to distinguish the key parameters that will make one operation a greater success than another, even though they use the exact same software platform.

Malci is Affiliates and Marketing Director at Revenue Giants. Malci@revenuegiants.com, www.revenuegiants.com.

iGB Affiliate october/november 2009

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feature opinion

Gaming law expert and renowned industry commentator, professor i nelson rose, reports on online poker’s continuing battle against the US Department of Justice, to provide some valuable insight for those of you waiting on the reopening of the US market with baited breath.

The US DeparTmenT of JUSTice (“DoJ”) recently made an astonishingly bad bet of $34 million.

The size of the cash involved isn’t the issue – $34 million is peanuts for the federal government. The stakes are much bigger: the DoJ is trying to kill Internet poker.

The problem for prosecutors is that they are betting everything on a very weak hand. The DoJ expects to win, and scare Americans out of playing poker online. But the US Attorneys responsible for the recent seizure of poker players’ money don’t seem to realize that they will probably lose this bet. And when they do, the decision will be interpreted by players as declaring that Internet poker is legal.

The action was brought by the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York – New York City. Rumors in the legal community say the DoJ in Washington DC did not approve or even know that this was going to happen.

Perhaps even the US Attorney himself did not realize the significance of what an assistant in his office was about to do. That seems logical, since the legal theories behind the action are so weak, and the Obama Administration has a lot more important legal concerns than going after online poker players.

For that is exactly what the DoJ has done: it seized more than $34 million of payments belonging to about

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27,000 poker players held at banks like Citygroup and Wells Fargo, primarily in California and New York.

It’s important to understand just how horribly weak the DoJ’s case is. The major federal statute normally used against online betting operators is the Wire Act. The DoJ believes it covers all forms of gambling. But some courts have held that the Wire Act only applies to bets on sports events and races. So the government did not mention the Wire Act in its seizure documents or Grand Jury Subpoena. It gave up its major weapon.

Instead, the DoJ cited as authority for the seizure 18 USC section 1955, the Illegal Gambling Business Act (“IGBA”), added as part of the Organized Crime Control Act, and 18 USC section 1956, Money Laundering. Just looking at the names of the statutes gives you an idea of the problem.

Every federal anti-gambling law is limited on its face to people who are in the business of gambling. There is no federal law making it a crime to merely make bets.

Some states do outlaw betting. But half the states do not. In New York itself, for example, a person can make a bet by

phone with an illegal bookie in that state or another and would not be breaking the law. The bookie would be, of course.

But here it was the players’ money that was seized.

The IGBA makes it a federal felony for a group of people to violate state anti-gambling laws. Here’s the heart of the statute: “Whoever conducts, finances, manages, supervises, directs or owns all or part of an illegal gambling business shall be fined… or imprisoned… or both.”

The statute clearly does not apply to players. And there is no way to try and make it do so, by, for example, claiming the players were aiding and abetting the operators. Such a theory would make every buyer of illegal drugs guilty of selling. In the law, this is called “bootstrapping”, as in trying to pick yourself up by your own bootstraps, and it has been thoroughly rejected. Congress carefully made it a crime to be in the gambling business, and chose not to make it a crime to merely make a bet.

It is even hard to see how the IGBA could apply to owners of the bank accounts seized, who were neither players nor operators. They were payment processors. They were not in the business of gambling.

“Why go after the one group involved in internet gambling this is not violating any laW – poker players in neW york?”

“such a theory (the statute) Would make every buyer of illegal drugs guilty of selling.”

But perhaps prosecutors can stretch the law a little and say the payment processors were aiding and abetting the operators.

The problem is the money clearly did not belong to the operators, only to the players. And the players were not violating this federal law, because they were not violating New York state law.

The IGBA defines “illegal gambling business” as “a gambling business which is a violation of the law of a State or political subdivision in which it is conducted…”

Criminal law in New York, as in virtually all the states of the US, requires that there be a statute passed by the State Legislature and signed by the Governor.

New York simply does not have any such law making it a crime to make bets at poker.

One of the payment processors, Account Services Corporation, has gone even further. It filed a Motion for Return of Property in federal court in Los Angeles on July 10, claiming that poker is not illegal – because it is not gambling. This attacks both the idea that there was a violation of state antigambling laws, and argues that Congress simply did not intend to cover games of skill, like poker.

The IGBA defines “gambling” as

“including but not limited to poolselling, bookmaking, maintaining slot machines, roulette wheels or dice tables, and conducting lotteries, policy, bolita or numbers games or selling chances therein.”

The payment processor says the list includes only forms of gambling that are almost all banking games, where players bet against the house, and all are predominantly chance. Poker does not fit on that list.

The hearing is set for August 14, 2009, but it is very doubtful that a judge is going to decide such a major question as to whether poker is predominantly a game of skill without a full trial.

In fact, it is more likely that he or she will throw out at least part of the prosecutors’ seizures for failing to follow the most basic rules of criminal procedure: some of the money was seized without the DoJ even trying first to get a warrant from a court. And no civil or criminal charges have been filed against anyone.

What was the rush? Is the DoJ going to argue that the payment processors and thousands of players, most of whom had been playing for years, were going to run off with their money and hide?

What was the emergency? In fact, exactly what law justifies the federal government

seizing money from people who are not violating any federal or state law?

Why go after the one group involved in Internet gambling this is not violating any law – poker players in New York?

Perhaps it was just a rogue prosecutor.

Or maybe the New York office wanted to send a message, to counter rumors that it had disbanded its Internet gambling task-force.

It is even remotely possible that the DoJ knew how silly it was to seize the money of poker players. And it wanted to send the message to Congress to pass the pending bills that would set up a federal licensing system for Internet poker.

© Copyright 2009. Professor I Nelson Rose is recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on gambling law and is a consultant and expert witness for governments and industry. His latest books, INTERNET GAMING LAW (2nd edition just published), BLACKJACK AND THE LAW and GAMING LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS, are available through his website, www.GAMBLINGANDTHELAW. com. © Copyright 8-09, all rights reserved worldwide. Gambling and the Law® is a registered trademark of Professor I. Nelson Rose, www.

GAMBLINGANDTHELAW.com

iGB Affiliate october/november 2009

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INTERVIEW

THE NETWORK CONNECTOR Bob Rains Meets Patrik Selin, the man charged with heading up the new Bodog Network.

PATRIK SELIN IS no rookie to poker. In addition to several impressive tournament finishes, winning the UK Open and two WSOP cashes, he has been the man behind the success of more than one poker network. It should come as no surprise that he has been selected to head up Bodog’s newest initiative, the Bodog Network. I got a chance to sit down with Patrik in Budapest to ask a few questions about the network, and why this is the direction for Bodog now. As a guy who’s both worked for operators and been an affiliate, I have mixed feelings about networks, but found Patrik’s take on the network poker space refreshing and well thought out.

Bob Rains (BR): Firstly, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Patrik Selin (PS): I have been in the Internet industry for ten years and in the online gaming industry for seven.

I was CEO and President for Ongame, when Ongame ran Pokerroom.com and launched Ongame Network, which at the time was the world’s largest poker network. After that, I ran Gnuf and Betway for three years, so I also have experience from the operator side of a poker network. On a private note, I have a genuine interest in playing poker, both online and live.

BR: When were you first approached by Bodog to start the Bodog Network?

PS: It was the other way around: I saw the opportunity and approached Calvin Ayre and BodogBrand with the idea. If you look at our current poker product and the player liquidity level of the three existing Bodog brand licensees and add my expertise in running a poker network, and some unique solutions, we have a strong combination.

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BR: What makes the Bodog Network different from other popular poker networks?

PS: We have a unique rake distribution formula which will make depositing players much more valuable for operators than today. This has a number of advantages for all, both players and operators. First of all, this will incentivize operators to bring in this group of players, and for the players the entertainment factor will play a greater roll.

We will also allow our operators to protect their customer databases in a unique way.

BR: Why now, especially considering all of the consolidation going on in online poker?

PS: Everyone talks about consolidation, but we are not seeing so much of it. Ten years ago, Paradise Poker had over 80 percent market share, some years ago Party Poker had over 50 percent market share and today, PokerStars has around 35 percent market share. So the trend is actually opposite. Today there are 37 poker software providers/companies. In the long run we believe that there will be consolidation but this is still a young industry. Also, consolidation is not necessarily a good thing for all operators on the other poker networks. I definitely see a window of opportunity for Bodog Network.

BR: What did the audiences in Budapest and Copenhagen think about the announcement?

PS: The reaction was overwhelming.

I am now even more convinced that the strength of the Bodog brand is applicable not only to B2C, but to a B2B business like Bodog Network. We have been approached by a large number of potential poker operators for the network.

BR: What in your opinion are the most important factors to consider for someone interested in getting into the white label game at this point in time?

PS: You need a lot of things: expertise, experience, a good product, credibility, and so on but the most important thing is a big load of cash. I wouldn’t say it’s easy to enter this growing market but opportunities do exist.

BR: Everyone knows Bodog understands marketing – will potential buyers in the Bodog network be able to benefit from Bodog’s years of experience?

PS: Yes, they will benefit from a great poker product, and from some backend tools that we will provide to be able to do really cool internal marketing. But for the external B2C marketing, they will have to find their own way of doing marketing. We are only interested in medium to large sized operators who are willing to invest in marketing themselves.

BR: Lastly, who should be worried about Bodog’s entrance into this market?

PS: Our goal is to reach top-three for player liquidity – anyone sharing the same goal should be worried, and that includes a couple of pure B2C poker sites…

CLOSING THOUGHTS… I think we can really look forward to a new player in the white label space mixing it up and keeping the big networks in check.

Bodog has a long history of fantastic branding, and a keen understanding of marketing that, in my opinion, is really missing in this space. I hope we see some big improvements in utility and functionality of network software as a result of the increased competition from the Bodog Network.

webmaster world BUDAPEST

Talk of The Town Jason Duke reflects on the end of summer conference season and the topics charging the conversations in and around the floor sessions, and those that were curious by their absence.

So here I am, sitting down and thinking that many of us have had a conference fuelled few weeks. Hungary for the Budapest Affiliate Conference, Denmark with the European iGaming Expo in Copenhagen and then onto London for Adtech.

Two gaming specific conferences, one tailored for affiliates and their relationships with operators, one targeted at the operators and consultants and one that is dedicated to the lifeblood of both – traffic!

All the conferences were different but similar in many ways. Every one declared that “times were tough” but in all honesty no matter what the marketplace is like, who has ever said, “yes, business is great and we want to pay you more because of it”? When it comes to negotiation times are, and have always been, tougher than tough.

But what were the key topics spoken about on the floor, in the pub and over dinner?

Of course, industry consolidation was still the buzzword buoyed by the bidding frenzy won by PartyGaming for Cashcade and both 888 and Party telling the market that there will be more M&A action to come.

So the operators are buying each other which must surely mean less choice for the affiliates, if not the punters, do you think affiliates will consolidate, thereby giving them more negotiating power with the operators?

Don’t forget, the elephant in the room had to be the world’s largest land based casino, Harrah’s, entering into an agreement with 888’s independent B2B arm, Dragonfish. When someone as large and influential in American gambling circles as Harrah’s finally signs a deal for online gaming, you have to sit up and take notice.

Can we take this as the strongest indicator yet that America truly is moving on from the dark days since that fateful Friday night when “that law” was sold on the basis of ship safety?

‘CEO1’ says media is the future. ‘CEO2’ agrees. ‘CEO3’ says the others are talking rubbish, but what can’t be ignored is that

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the large media businesses are out there and whether they decide to use their brand to build or partner in a gaming product doesn’t really matter. What does matter is that for them, gaming definitely equals revenue. Whether it be brand licences for poker or advertising bucks for casino, the media players are going to earn a fortune. Take a look at the vast sums Google has earned since it re-launched gambling advertising in select countries.

We know Google isn’t just taking on Microsoft in the desktop space on two fronts with an operating system and core office applications, but also Apple in the phone wars.

Who do YOU think would win if Google turned their attention to 888, Party or Stars in their launch of ‘GoogPoker’?

So what do we know? ●● Operators are buying each other. ●● The American market is changing…

AGAIN! ●● Media businesses may (or may not be)

the new Bush Administration for our industry. ●● And no matter where you turn, every traffic broker, marketing organisation or potential deliverer of business has the highest quality, lowest cost, best converting offering since bread was first sliced… at least if you pay in advance and accept no guarantees. That’s not to say that the operators are any better, as their products are “honestly” the best in the market, convert a hundred percent better than their competitors and you truly will earn more with them if you undertake a revenue share deal and promise to always give them top billing!

So to summarise what WAS spoken about; not much has changed. It’s the same old news with the same old people telling it!

What did strike me though was what WASN’T spoken about. ●● Where are the new and innovative ways of driving traffic? ●● What are the new and innovative ways

of increasing conversions? ●● Who will be the aggregator that the small

to medium affiliates partner with to give them a voice let alone more money in their pocket?

So what are the answers to these burning questions? Who will deliver the answer for affiliates in our industry? Who will stop our business having the lowest level of unique visitor to customer conversion percentage compared to every other industry out there?

Who will help in acquiring targeted traffic in affordable, sensible and scalable ways?

Let me just suggest to you that if you want gaming SEO yet don’t have a gaming SEO budget, or if you have had enough of that terrible conversion rate and yearn for a whole percentage point instead of the points therein, or you realise that for you to run your business effectively that it isn’t search engines, it isn’t conversion, it isn’t the CPA or Rev Share deal that you need but the combination between them all to put more bucks in YOUR pocket, then watch this space – Strange Logic might just have something interesting happening soon…

Jason Duke, Director, Strange Logic, is a leader obsessed with search engines and the algorithms that power them. His enquiring and exploring mind linked with a drive to see things down creates a culture that constantly asks, “What if?”, “Where to next?” and “I know how!” He is focused at managing a business, with an emphasis on marketing in a holistic manner to deliver the pinnacle of rewards on and offline. He is very well known and respected within the blogosphere and the search communities as a worldwide search leader and is regularly quoted in public, private, print, radio, TV and the web, as well as being a public speaker regarding search matters. Organisations including the BBC, Forbes, News International, multiple gaming and gambling businesses as well as the British Government have all been advised by him.

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GETTING EVERY LAST DROP OUT OF YOUR AFFILIATE SOFTWARE AFFILIATES AND MERCHANTS have one thing in common when it comes to affiliate marketing and that is ROI. Affiliates want to make sure they optimize their campaigns to maximize their return and merchants want to secure the best placement and maintain a low acquisition cost. What makes these transactions transparent is their affiliate software.

Affiliate software is capable of tracking the entire life cycle of a player from their first click to their last wager.

Tension can often result on both sides of the affiliate-merchant relationship about the true value of affiliate marketing.

Affiliates who can secure quality players for merchants want to negotiate better rates and merchants sometimes feel that they can obtain better results from other forms of marketing and media buying. These different perceptions about the worth of affiliate marketing are often created because results are not compared in the same way and as a consequence, both parties may end up comparing ‘apples’ to ‘oranges’.

Affiliate software is in a unique position to allow the comparison of ‘apples with apples’ and ‘oranges with oranges’. This is made possible because affiliate software is capable of consolidating campaigns from across different channels as it monitors the entire acquisition process.

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Through supporting and tracking different campaigns and offering comparative reports, the right affiliate software will provide the intelligence needed to consolidate and optimize campaigns across different channels, maximize their return and determine their true value.

CONSOLIDATE Consolidating campaigns is a marketer’s dream come true; under one platform, a user gets comprehensive analytics on the performance of campaigns across different marketing channels and gains time on campaign administration. A flexible affiliate platform can accommodate the consolidation of multiple campaigns by supporting different marketing models and reporting on campaign KPIs. This flexibility will extend to tracking online and offline campaigns, supporting different commission structures (CPC, Rev Share, CPA and hybrid structures), and custom language settings for targeting industries and language markets.

CAMPAIGN CLUSTERING FOR MERCHANTS Clustering campaigns under a single platform can provide comprehensive insight into which acquisition channels are most suited for different products/

promotions. Two essential features affiliate software must have to effectively manage clustered campaigns are campaign groups and automated group management.

Campaign groups allow proactive management of campaigns by assigning affiliates and media buys to groups with preset commission structures and then monitor the results of these specific groups that are created. Automated management of these groups then takes the guess work out of managing multiple campaigns by (1) expiring campaigns alongside their promotions, (2) automatically applying replacement campaigns to all affiliates in that group, and (3) identifying which campaigns are working because they are compared through the same metrics and make decisions accordingly.

CAMPAIGN CLUSTERING FOR AFFILIATES Affiliates who have different campaigns running for one merchant can also consolidate their marketing efforts through the affiliate program by setting up custom tracking for all the places that they promote a particular brand. In this case, affiliates have two choices: setting up site IDs or using the ACID feature. For affiliates who use the site ID, the software automatically sets up an ID for each

“AFFILIATE SOFTWARE IS IN A UNIQUE POSITION TO ALLOW THE COMPARISON OF ‘APPLES WITH APPLES’ AND ‘ORANGES WITH ORANGES’.” campaign – this ID then becomes available when affiliates obtain their creative for that campaign. Affiliates who need additional customization for their tracking can set up their tracking using the ACID tool – this tool is ideally suited for PPC. As a result, affiliates can (1) see how the merchant is converting across their network of sites and/or (2) compare how their email, PPC or media placement is converting and against their websites, and (3) use this data to communicate and negotiate with their affiliate manager on the resources needed to manage their campaign through the affiliate’s sites and promotional methods.

CUSTOM LANGUAGE SETTINGS FOR MERCHANTS AND AFFILIATES With many merchants and affiliates operating in different regions of the world it becomes essential to divide the responsibility of markets across an operator’s team. As such, affiliate software can be utilized to divide regions and responsibilities across teams. As a result, campaigns from the Spanish market can then be established and compared with English market campaigns or vice versa or with any other regions merchants may be working with.

In addition, affiliates targeting specific markets like the Spanish market should be supported by a Spanish language interface.

This then assists regional managers in promoting the product to affiliates and developing successful relationships on a regional basis. Furthermore, affiliates can take advantage of this customization established by the merchant to manage the different creatives available for each language they promote and track that performance. Affiliates can also look to target their conversions in specific regions by taking advantage of geo-targeting banners available in the banner manager.

Therefore, the ability to customize the language settings of an affiliate program is essential to monitoring campaigns that target different markets and allows the performance to be identified.

OPTIMIZE Consolidating campaigns under a single

platform allows optimization of campaigns by testing them in controlled environments before rolling them out across other channels. For example, campaigns can be tested in a controlled, performance-based environment (e.g. pay only for results), allowing traffic and conversions to be monitored. As a result, the best performing promotions can be identified for a brand’s products in target markets.

There are four kinds of intelligence reporting that affiliate software should provide in order to optimize your campaigns: traffic, earnings, creatives and period comparison. Together, these reports provide invaluable metrics on acquisition and ROI. Traffic and earning reports provide metrics to scrutinize and timeframes to monitor the two influences on KPIs – such as creatives and landing pages. With this information comparisons can be made to compare the conversion success at the click, registration, and conversion level.

This depth of intelligence gives insight into the full cycle of a customer acquisition.

Therefore, results can be analyzed to identify the strengths and weaknesses in the acquisition process.

If your software allows you to filter data by creative it will provide insight into what actually resonates with the target market – i.e. what banners users actually click on. By comparing banners that convert to those that don’t, users gain intelligence on what banners to drop and keep respectively, and what elements to incorporate into the development of future creatives.

Consequently, when those creatives are rolled out across other channels, affiliates will be maximizing an operator’s chance of getting not just impressions and clicks, but actual conversions.

conversions increased or decreased in response to a change in variable. This ratio can be compared against other marketing channels and performance within a channel to determine whether the change in conversions was spurious or, in fact, caused by a change in banner or landing page.

Comparative data is the most powerful data for monitoring campaign performance – it allows users to make informed decisions. This all comes to naught if it becomes cumbersome for the user to obtain. As a result, merchants and affiliates can maximize the time they spend on obtaining and managing this data by customizing their data experience. This can be done in two ways: reviewing data provided by login dashboards and utilizing API reporting for their preferred reports.

CREATE YOUR SOFTWARE EXPERIENCE By managing all marketing campaigns through a single platform you can save administration time and the ROI of your campaigns can be maximized. This maximization is created by accessing comprehensive analytics on crosschannel campaigns and optimizing them accordingly. Affiliate software is uniquely positioned to consolidate campaigns from across different channels because it can track the entire acquisition process. By supporting and tracking different performance criteria and offering comparative reports, the right affiliate software will provide the intelligence needed to communicate with and manage cross-channel partners (advertisers, affiliates, etc) allowing ‘apples to be compared with apples’ and ‘oranges with oranges’.

MAXIMIZE Once individual campaigns have been optimized, the right affiliate software can also help maximize the return of all your campaigns on an ongoing basis. A period comparison overview will provide a snapshot of how campaign performance fluctuates by showing you the ratio of change – i.e. by what percentage

NICKY SENYARD is CEO of Income Access, overseeing their independent iGaming affiliate network, market-leading affiliate software and expert affiliate management services.

iGB Affiliate OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2009

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WEBMASTER WORLD

GET REAL RESULTS FROM VIRTUAL EVENTS The latest round of affiliate conferences in Budapest in September and in London in October has once again highlighted the benefit live, educational and networking events have for affiliates and operators in this industry. But what about small scale versions of these educational talks and seminars in an online capacity as a supplement, rather than replacement, to the distribution of knowledge in the industry? Is there room for more operator/affiliate and consultant/webmaster education via the use of webinars? In opening the debate, we asked Denise Persson, CMO of ON24, a virtual events and webcasting company to give us her top tips in getting the most out of webinars.

IT IS WELL KNOWN that most people would rather visit the dentist or pay taxes than speak publicly. Perhaps this fear of public embarrassment is why so many business professionals are nervous about hosting a webinar.

In overcoming this ‘webinar worry’, companies will be embracing something that has emerged as an effective communication tool. Webinars provide a unique opportunity to engage clients on a one-to-one basis, regardless of audience size. Using the right materials and presentation techniques, you can interact with each individual participant, instead of addressing a large, faceless group of strangers.

Here are a few tips that can help you stop worrying and run a successful webinar.

PRE-EVENT STAGE 1. Timing Plan on hosting your webinar at least twice to accommodate different time zones.

Avoid Mondays and Fridays, as these are peak meetings days and webinar attendance is, therefore, often lower. The best times are 10am and 2pm, to make sure your guests are at their desks and available before or after lunch.

Send a reminder of the webinar and time one week prior to the event and a second reminder the day before.

2. Planning The initial planning stage should start about four weeks before the actual event.

At this point focus on these primary activities: development of a compelling topic, identification of the presenters and target audience, and the promotional outreach campaign.

3. Content Develop interesting, engaging and educational content. This is probably the most important key to your webinar’s success. If your material is boring or

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doesn’t bring relevant value, you’ll lose your guests – and their sales.

Invite an industry expert, customer or partner to present a case study or conduct an interview during your webinar. This will stimulate more interest and drive participation. A well-known subject matter expert can double or even triple your attendance.

Finally, prepare a Q&A session to encourage your guests’ participation.

4. Rehearsal Practice makes the difference. Webinars aren’t difficult, but they are different from running a meeting or a conference call. Take a couple of test runs of your presentation, especially if you’ve never previously hosted one.

This gives you the opportunity to fine tune your material and catch any potential problems with the webcasting solution you’re using.

5. Develop survey questions Prepare questions to ask during registration. This gives you great insight into your audience. Use this information to tailor your presentation to your audience’s needs and to score the qualification level of your participants. In addition, as people exit the webinar ask them a short series of additional follow-up questions to further qualify them. Here are a few suggestions: What did you like most about this presentation?

How likely are you to use this service or product?

Would you like a sales rep to contact you?

THE DAY OF THE WEBINAR 6. Technology Make sure you’re in a quiet place and use the telephone handset. Handsets normally have good quality microphones, and the near-field effect of the microphone means that background noises are kept

to a minimum. Using the “hands free” option or conference phones can result in low-volume voices that sound compressed, picking up background noise or an echo from the room.

And don’t forget to turn off your IM, cell phone, PDAs, email and other possible distractions.

7. Join early Join your webinar early and verify that all links and presentations are working.

Show a “welcome” slide that says your meeting will be starting shortly. Before your meeting begins, provide a quick review of housekeeping items, such as how to use the chat feature or how the Q&A session will be handled. Have speakers identify themselves when speaking, and be sure to add a photo and bio of the speakers.

8. Record your seminar Post the webinar on your website for future viewing. Build a reference library of past webinars for your customers and prospects to view when they have time – webinar content and Q&As can also be useful for training employees.

9. Send follow-up emails to all registrants Build the relationship with those viewing your content by sending them a summary of the Q&A session, additional information, a link to the archived webinar or just a simple email thanking them for participating.

To sum up, the best way to prevent ‘webinar worry’ is to prepare and rehearse.

Webinar technology itself is easy to use, convenient and hassle-free. And, it is very reliable – with leading virtual events solutions providers, the chance of a performance glitch is less than one percent.

So, you can rest easy, knowing that there is no downside to hosting webinars.

They are low-cost, efficient and effective communication and marketing tools.

As the Chief Marketing Officer for ON24, DENISE PERSSON is responsible for the company’s strategic and tactical marketing efforts. Persson’s experience includes a variety of marketing management and product management positions. Prior to joining ON24, she was executive vice president of global marketing for Genesys, where her responsibilities included marketing, global sales coordination, strategic partnerships and the company’s product development roadmap. Persson holds an MBA from Georgetown University.

TES AFFILIA E GO FRE

• Strategic Conference Programme: Hear insights from the leading experts in the industry, our panels and presentations will keep you informed about current industry trends and market updates.

• Exhibition: With an expected 80+ exhibitors this will be the biggest iGaming exhibition, offering more exhibitors for you to meet, engage with and maximise your business.

WWW.LONDONAFFILIATECONFERENCE.COM

London Affiliate Conference 28th – 30th January 2010 Old Billingsgate - London

• Networking: The relaxed atmosphere of our events encourages the open exchange of ideas and experiences. Return to the office armed with increased understanding and top industry tips.

• ASOP: The Affiliate Series of Poker is now open for all attendees to compete. Play with the chance to win big, big prizes.

• Party!

Clinch your daily deals with an evening drink or two at one of our many exclusive networking parties.

‘As always, the event was great. Good meetings, networking and socialising, increased commission deals and interesting concepts to develop for the future. Looking forward to next one already’ (AAC attendee 2009)

Get on-board www.LondonAffiliateConference.com