iGB Affiliate 30 Dec/Jan 2011/2012 by iGaming Business

DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

Interview: Congressman John Campbell New Jersey Votes for sportsbetting Website Conversion Guide

DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

The Future Of Affiliate marketing

Regulation, Convergence, SEO, Social and Mobile

INFORMATION, INSIGHT AND ANALYSIS FOR THE BUSINESS OF INTERACTIVE GAMING

CONTENTS 06 Affiliate Events Calendar 10 Webmaster News 14 Europe by Numbers: Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland 20 Micro-Network Strategy 23 The Affiliate Guide to Web Conversion 27 Serendipitous Search It’s our first edition of iGB Affiliate in 2012, which means that our contributing industry experts have offered their predictions for the forthcoming year. What makes this January’s edition different from every other January edition we’ve published in the past, is that I can’t remember an edition of this or any other iGaming publication that contains so many opposing and mutually exclusive predictions. The topic of dispute, of course, is iGaming legislation in the USA, and while half our contributing experts predict iGaming legislation in the New Year, the other half are equally as certain that iGaming has no chance of legislation in the USA in 2012. Furthermore, of those that are expecting iGaming legislation in the next 12 months, half of them think it’s an incredible opportunity for affiliates, while the other half think that it heralds the death of iGaming affiliates in America. Truth be told, I don’t know if legislation will or won’t pass in 2012. I am sure that it will pass eventually, but I think it’s nearly impossible to say when. 2012 has as good a chance as 2013 and 2014 but, so far, it’s anyone’s guess. I do, however, firmly believe that iGaming affiliates do indeed have a place in the market when legislation is finally enacted. In the land grab that is sure to follow legislation, gaming concerns will need as many registered players as possible, and that means using affiliates. Additionally, iGaming legislation will not be implemented in all states at once. This trickle of implementation means that, even if I’m wrong, the existing iGaming affiliate model will overlap the legislated affiliate market of the future.

Michael Caselli, Editor in Chief

29 Bingo Supplement 39 2012: The Year US Poker Gets Back Online? 40 New Jersey and the Referendum 43 New Jersey Referendum: Land-based Commentary 44 Growing Pains: Emerging Trends of a Maturing Industry 48 Interview: Congressman John Campbell 50 The Changing Face of European Social Media 52 Mobile Gaming: Can Touch This… 55 The Mobile Challenge: Where do we Stand? 56 How to Cater to High Value Players 58 The Art of Negotiating 61 Maximising your Affiliate Earnings During the Holiday Season 65 Interview: Andy Scott, Affiliate Manager, Luxbet 67 The Future for Affiliates… 68 … in a Regulated European Market 71 … in a Regulated US Market 75 … in a Converged Land-based and Online Industry 78 … the Affiliate Perspective 81 … in Online Search 85 … in Social Marketing 86 … in Mobile Marketing 90 Three Proven Solutions to Gain Profitable Keywords 92 Whale Hunting 94 Avoiding Stats Shaving 96 Market Place

Editor in Chief: Michael Caselli michaelc@igamingbusiness.com Editor: James McKeown

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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.

ICE Totally Gaming London, UK January 24 – 26, 2012

London Affiliate Conference London, UK January 26 – 29, 2012

ICE Totally Gaming is the largest B2B gaming exhibition on the industry calendar. With over 400 exhibitors from across the betting, bingo, casino, lottery, mobile, online and high street gaming sectors, ICE provides the industry with its most comprehensive vehicle to showcase its supplier sector for both online and land-based businesses.

The London Affiliate Conference 2011 was the biggest and best event to date, with over 2,500 people in attendance. January 2012 marks the sixth annual LAC and iGB Affiliate is forecasting the attendance break the 2,700 mark this time around. LAC will be opened by the glamorous iGB Affiliate Award ceremony on January 26 and will be followed by three days of conferences, exhibitions and networking events.

iGB Affiliate Awards London, UK January 26, 2012

iGaming Super Show Dublin, Ireland May 22 – 25, 2012

The iGB Affiliate Awards ceremony is the traditional curtain raiser to the London Affiliate Conference and once again returns to the glamorous Brewery London. Over 500 people are expected at this year’s gala event, as the industry joins together to honour some its leading lights and best loved personalities.

The iGaming Super Show is the industry’s largest iGaming specific conference and expo, uniquely bringing together the vast B2B and affiliate sectors of the business. Now in its third year, the Super Show returns to Dublin after a hugely successful 2011 event and promises a comprehensive conference schedule that caters for regulation, finance and business development, as well as a detailed affiliate track encompassing SEO, affiliate marketing and social and mobile strategies.

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webmaster news

New Jersey Public Votes for Sportsbetting Voters in the US state of New Jersey have overwhelmingly passed a state-wide non-binding ballot referendum that could eventually see the ‘Garden State’ legalise sportsbetting at its casinos and racetracks. With over 80 percent of precincts reporting in, the referendum, which was partially the brainchild of State Senator Raymond Lesniak and the only measure to appear on the ballot, has gained approval by a margin of 65 percent to 35 percent. However, the passage of the referendum does not mean that punters in New Jersey will be able to immediately wager on sports as current federal legislation still prohibits this activity in all but four states. Lesniak recently revealed that getting voter approval could help if the issue returns to the courts after he failed last year to have the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports

Promotion Act (PASPA) overturned. If the current federal prohibition on sportsbetting were to change, the jurisdiction now has voter approval to potentially permit its horseracing tracks and casinos to offer wagering on most professional, college and amateur sporting events with the exception of collegiate events taking place in New Jersey or involving teams from the eastern state. “The voters beat the over-under,” Lesniak told the Star-Ledger. “It was a bigger win than we expected. There’s a strong momentum to fight the federal ban in New Jersey. This is on the fast track. I want to get it to the Governor’s desk by the end of the year so by this time next year Monmouth Park, the casinos and Meadowlands will be packed with people enjoying a new form of entertainment.”

Joe Brennan from the Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) was also pleased with the outcome. “We’re very happy that now, after this long and difficult process, the question of legal sportsbetting is at last moving through the proper venues. New Jersey’s citizens have voted to amend their state constitution to permit regulated sports wagering. This referendum was a reflection of the most powerful form of change in our government – a purely democratic, majority decision by popular vote. “Of course, we could avoid all of this – the court battles, the expenditure, the silliness, really – if the Department of Justice would simply acknowledge what it did when PASPA was first enacted almost 20 years ago: that the law is unconstitutional.”

Paddy Power Bolsters Senior Management Paddy Power has announced five senior management appointments in order to facilitate what it termed “the continued delivery of its business and development strategy”. The Dublin-based firm revealed that Breon Corcoran is set to leave as its Chief Operating Officer in order to take up the reins at rival Betfair and stated that these most recent appointments come in addition to the naming of Christian Woolfenden from Bacardi as its new Marketing Director. “Our strong growth in recent years has been driven by a great management team and we continually invest in strengthening that team,” said Patrick Kennedy, Chief Executive Officer for Paddy Power. “These new appointments from within our ranks, allied to the hiring of external expertise from other industries, will enable

us to continue to drive the business forward and sustain our success for many years to come.” The first of these appointments will see Peter O’Donovan assume the post of Online and Technology Managing Director for Paddy Power with overall responsibility for all online and technology operations with the exception of Sportsbet in Australia. O’Donovan joined the Irish firm in 2002 and held several senior management positions before being named as Head of Online in 2009. In addition, Sandra Thorpe has been recruited to handle human resources for Paddy Power’s Online and Corporate divisions as its Online and Corporate Human Resources Director. Thorpe previously held roles that included European Operations Head of Human

Resources for Microsoft and Organisational Development Vice-President for the New York and London branches of Citibank and she was also a partner at a consultancy firm Level 4. A third appointment will see Christopher Coyne become the Head of paddypower.com with responsibility for all of Paddy Power’s online sportsbook and iGaming and operations. Coyne joined the Irish firm in 2008 to work as its Head of iGaming and has past experience as Head of Propositions and Marketing for BT’s Consumer Division and Head of Marketing for the John Lewis Partnership. In North America, Eamonn Toland has been named as President for Paddy Power’s operations and finally, the firm’s Head of Games, Aine Cuddihy, has been named as Head of Investor Relations.

Boylesports Takes Over William Hill Outlets Independent online and land-based bookmaker Boylesports has agreed to take over 15 shops in Ireland from rival operator William Hill in a move that will save some 65 jobs. Dundalk-based Boylesports revealed that the acquired shops are spread from Dublin to Galway and will see its estate grow to 176 while it hopes to have the former William Hill retail locations re-launched with its own branding by mid-December.

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

Boylesports was established in 1989 and it acquired 17 shops from Dublinbased Celtic Bookmakers in January to help avoid 100 redundancies in Ireland. It stated that it will continue to play a “pivotal role in saving retail betting jobs and reinvesting money back into the Irish economy”. “We are delighted to announce that we will be acquiring 15 new shops and saving an additional 65 jobs,” said

John Boyle, Chief Executive Officer for Boylesports. “Times are difficult for everyone in these recessionary times and we at Boylesports are thrilled that we can help save jobs and continue to show our commitment to the Irish retail betting industry. This latest takeover will complement our existing shops and further cement our position as the largest independent bookmaker in Ireland.”

William Hill Ends Talks with Probability After a month of negotiations, William Hill has ended talks to purchase mobile gaming specialist Probability. Probability, which is the operator of the popular LadyLucks.co.uk mobile online casino, stated in September that it had entered into “preliminary discussions” that “may or may not lead to an offer for the company”. William Hill declared last month that it had been granted an extension by the Takeover Panel ‘pursuant to Rule 2.6(c) of the City Code on Takeovers and Mergers of the existing Rule 2.6(a) Code deadline’ that gave it until November 14 to “announce a firm intention to make an offer”.

“Further to its announcement on September 20, 2011 regarding preliminary discussions with Probability, William Hill has today announced that it does not intend to make an offer for Probability,” read a brief statement released by William Hill. William Hill operates 2,364 betting shops across the UK and Ireland and numerous sources have speculated that recent troubles regarding its William Hill Online joint venture with online gambling software developer Playtech Limited are behind its decision to pull out of negotiations with Probability.

OddsFutures.com Clears Route to US Market Online trading exchange, OddsFutures.com, has revealed that it is open for business in the US market. The exchange, which allows derivatives on odds prices within sportsbetting, is comfortable that its operations sit outside of prohibitive state and federal gambling laws as it doesn’t presently meet any definition of ‘gambling’. On the back of this news, the Dublinbased company has announced a series of promotions and tenders for partners in both affiliate and B2B sectors. Marc Butterly, the firm’s CEO, explained, “We’re offering affiliates 30 percent lifetime rev

share and we’re also funding new customer accounts with €20, which will be credited for 30 days,” he said, before confirming that OddsFutures users will only be able to withdraw profits. With regards to its search for commercial partners, Butterly added, “We’re looking for commercial partners that are interested in using our API to trade into or repackage as a white label. Derivatives on odds prices are a new industry vertical we’ve invented and patented. In conjunction, our commercial billing model is 0.01 percent of turnover as opposed to the betting exchange model of two percent of profits.”

Rank Wins UK VAT Claim The Rank Group has triumphed in the European Union Court of Justice with its claim that it overpaid value-added tax (VAT) to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to the tune of over £130 million. Maidenhead-based Rank is the firm behind online brands such as MeccaBingo. com, GrosvenorCasinos.com and GrosvenorPoker.com and brought a claim against the British government in 2008 arguing that it had paid too much VAT on gaming machines and that HMRC should return the overpayments. Before December 2005, certain types of gaming machines were exempt from VAT under UK tax rules while, at the same time, this duty was charged on other similar machines. Rank took HMRC to court concerning the application of this VAT on games of interval bingo at its Mecca Bingo clubs.

In separate judgements, the UK’s High Court and VAT and Duties Tribunal subsequently found that the government’s practices contravened European Union principles on fiscal neutrality, which requires that supplies that are the same or similar should be not be treated differently for VAT purposes. The HMRC appealed this decision to the European Union Court of Justice in March but the body has now confirmed that the UK’s past VAT had been in breach of the principles of fiscal neutrality and that the government must now repay £253.4 million, which includes interest. “Today’s announcement confirms the findings of successive UK courts for Rank’s bingo claims totalling £253.4m including interest,” read a statement from Rank.

Pomeroy Appointed Chairman of RGSB

The Gambling Commission has appointed Brian Pomeroy to serve as Chairman of its independent Responsible Gambling Strategy Board (RGSB) until March 2013. The RGSB was established in 2009 and advises the Gambling Commission and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) on the research, education and treatment components of a national responsible gambling strategy. Pomeroy is replacing Baroness Julia Neuberger, who is leaving to concentrate on a new role as Senior Rabbi for the West London Synagogue following a three-year term at the RGSB, and has agreed to help develop any new arrangements that may be needed to secure authoritative advice following the decision to move away from the existing tripartite system. “I am most grateful to Brian Pomeroy for his willingness to take over the Chairmanship of RGSB from Julia Neuberger,” said Philip Graf, Chairman for the Gambling Commission. “He brings a clear understanding of the history and challenges facing all those who are focused on reducing gambling-related harm and, during a time of change, continuity to build on the achievements of RGSB under Julia. The RGSB will be working closely with GReAT to ensure that projects are clearly evaluated and feedback provided so that strategic advice can be refined accordingly.” Pomeroy worked as a senior partner at Deloitte Consulting until 1999 when he took up a number of public, private and voluntary sector appointments. He is currently a non-executive director of the Financial Services Authority and Deputy Chairman of QBE Insurance Europe Limited. The Gambling Commission also revealed that Professor David Miers has agreed to continue as Deputy Chair for the RGSB.

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

webmaster news

Corcoran Confirmed as new Betfair CEO

The worst kept secret in the iGaming industry has been confirmed with the news that Breon Corcoran has been appointed the new CEO at Betfair. The 40-year-old, who was formerly Chief Operating Officer at Paddy Power, replaces David Yu and will take up his new role on August 1, 2012. “Betfair’s unique technology provides the company with a fantastic position in the online gaming industry and I believe it has a bright future ahead of it. I am very pleased to have the opportunity to lead the company and look forward to working closely with the Betfair teamto grow the business further,” said Corcoran. “We have conducted a very thorough international search process over recent months and I am delighted that Breon will be Betfair’s new CEO,” added Betfair’s Chairman, Edward Wray. “He joins at what is an exciting time for Betfair and brings with him significant industry experience and a track record of success. The combination of his online expertise and gaming sector knowledge makes him ideally suited to the role.”

Paddy Power Acquires Cayetano Bookmaker Paddy Power has agreed a deal to purchase CT Networks Limited, a games and software development firm incorporated in the Isle of Man that trades under the moniker Cayetano, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition follows the signing of a games supply deal between the two in June. Dublin-based Paddy Power stated that consideration for the deal is to be capped with the majority ‘payable subject to performance over the next number of years’. Cayetano, which reported net assets of £160,000 as of October 31, provides online casino software to some of the iGaming industry’s biggest brands including SkyVegas.com and utilises a team of developers and graphic designers based in the Bulgarian capital Sofia. “This is a great step for Cayetano and its team,” said Nick Maughan, Chief Executive Officer for Cayetano, which has been in operation since 2009. “We’re all excited at the prospect of being part of Paddy Power, a business whose success in this market has been built on an exceptional understanding of online customers and product trends.” Paddy Power also released a performance update that showed continued growth in its online business with the amount staked on its website increasing by 31 percent while revenues rose 33 percent. In addition, the

number of customers wagering via mobile devices also climbed last month to now account for 44 percent of the firm’s total online users while revenues from Paddy Power’s Australian division accelerated by 23 percent last month compared to seven percent over the first six months of 2011. Paddy Power declared that its UK retail division also performed strongly with like-for-like sportsbook amounts staked and machine gaming revenues both up eight percent compared to a reduction in average stake per bet from its land-based Irish operations. The operator predicted earnings per share of 15 percent for 2011 and stated that the overall impact of sporting results has been positive despite being below last year’s ‘exceptional’ results. “Cayetano is one of the best developers of its kind in the iGaming sector and its acquisition will provide Paddy Power with a compelling range of online gaming products as well as a new internal source of gaming development expertise,” said Patrick Kennedy, Chief Executive Officer for Paddy Power. “Paddy Power has built strong in-house information technology and product development capability with our proprietary sportsbetting models a great example of that success. Cayetano is a natural extension of this existing capability and reflects Paddy Power’s evolving product mix.”

NYX Interactive Purchases NextGen Gaming

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iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

Gaming software provider NYX Interactive AB has announced the acquisition of Australian online games developer NextGen Gaming Party Limited to create a combined business that will provide titles to over 40 operators around the world. Stockholm-based NYX Interactive provides software solutions for the iGaming industry and stated the new larger organisation now owns a catalogue of over 300 games and is “even better suited to meet the investment requirements of certain strategic regulated markets”. “NYX Interactive and NextGen Gaming are a perfect fit,” said David Flynn, Chief Executive Officer for NYX Interactive, which was established in 2006 and provides platform, bingo, lottery and casino services and technology to some of the largest members of the World Lottery Association in addition to gaming operators throughout Europe. “In addition to a shared set of values between the two organisations, we share a

highly scalable business model and enjoy respected reputations. Our combined entity will be much stronger and our customers will benefit from NextGen Gaming’s leadingedge games studio, which produces some of the industry’s best performing games. We are very excited about our future together.” NYX Interactive revealed that the pair will endeavour to adopt a unified set of software standards to enable the rapid delivery and distribution of content including slots, table, bingo, instant win and scratch card games and place the new combined firm in a strong position to profit from land-based casinos seeking to add an interactive offering to their portfolios. “In light of the regulation of the European gaming markets, this strategic move puts us right in the sweet spot of what operators expect from their technology partners,” said Staffan Lindgren, Strategic Business Development Executive VicePresident for NYX Interactive.

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Europe by Numbers

The latest offering in the Europe by Numbers data series inches east to explore the markets in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. This data is publicly available from Google Insights, Google AdWords and also takes into account information that I come across in my daily activity as an iGaming SEO working across international markets. In the last issue, we looked at France, Italy and the Netherlands. This time we’re going to take a tactical view of a selection of Eastern European markets. While there are many markets to consider in Eastern Europe, I though it would be useful to look at the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. Common to these three markets is one thing I find quite comforting; namely, the Latin alphabet. Hungarian belongs to the Uralic language family while Polish is linguistically a member of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages. OK... so let’s cut to the chase, you’re not reading this for a lesson in linguistics; you’re reading this because you’re primarily interested in making a long-term stable income as an iGaming affiliate.

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

The reason these countries were chosen as part three of this multi-part article is simple: there’s money here, and it’s relatively easy money too, so read this very carefully. As an SEO and an affiliate operating in many international markets, I find myself torn in what I feel I can share and what I feel I should keep close to my chest. In part, I can justify sharing this information because I know that many or most reading this will not take action (and not become my competitor). However, those of you who have taken action and are now or have been operating in these regions for some time should join forces and collaborate.

The one advantage an affiliate holds over an operator is this: an affiliate can collaborate on equal link equity shareholding, whereas an operator cannot. This is a theme you’ll hear me encouraging more and more. Operators will try to lock you out of their brand SERPs. Don’t allow them! Join forces and collaborate fairly and respectfully. Swarm and overwhelm the operator. Share the link love. Note: If every affiliate reading this article stood together in a room, in an organised formation which reflected authority, theme, product and territory, I assure you that within seven to ten days, you would see an immediate financial benefit.

OK… back to the Job in hand!

Poland Poland, while larger than the Czech market, is significantly smaller than the Hungarian gaming market. The local monthly search volume shows ‘poker’ to be the most popular search query with 40,500 local exact match searches. Next largest is ‘Kasyno’ (casino) with 8,100 searches. Polish search behaviour also shows significant usage around the ‘casino’ spelling and there’s a similar level of activity around ‘bingo’. ‘Zakłady’ (betting)

has a low search volume relative to the other core gaming products. The most exciting numbers to reveal themselves were in fact brands. Expekt and Sportingbet appear to be investing significantly in branding in the Polish market. Both these brands are quite poorly protected should you want to piggy back their success. Given the query volumes you’d be well advised to get involved and drive some players. Note the unusual character in ‘Zakłady’ – this diacritical accent on the ‘ł’ is used when searching. Remember to include

Poland

it in your on and off-page SEO. Tip: When buying links in less developed markets, don’t expect to find links which match your quality guideline metrics, particularly in terms of unique linking root domains. The link graphs in each country vary based on size of the market, cultural acceptability of gambling and legislation. Trying to find links which match strict guidelines (which were effectively arbitrary numbers drawn up with the UK market) will not apply to most other markets. Don’t expect to find many PR5 Casino blogs in Poland. If you do find one, check it’s not artificially inflated.

Poland – searches by Keyword

Monthly iGaming searches by Country (poker, bingo, casino and betting). 450000 400000 350000 300000 250000

Keyword

Global Monthly searches

local Monthly searches

[zakłady]

1300

[kasyno]

8100

[casino]

450000

5400

[poker]

1220000

40500

[bingo]

368000

4400

Branding in Poland

200000 150000

Keyword

Global Monthly searches

local Monthly searches (Poland)

[expekt]

135000

60500

[sportingbet]

450000

49500

100000 50000 0 Poland

Hungary

Czech Republic

100 80 60 40 20 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 * The last value prior to the forecast is based on partial data and may change ** Future values are based exclusively on the extrapolation of past values

2008

2009 zaklady

2010 kasyno

2011 casino

2012 poker

bingo

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45:46 PM

hungary The Google search volumes presented by the AdWords tool show the Hungarian market to be much larger than Poland and the Czech Republic. ‘Fogadás’ (betting) and ‘Kaszinó’ (casino) each have monthly exact match local query volumes in excess of 40,000 but this is massively outweighed

by the popularity of ‘Póker’ with a massive 301,000 exact match local searches. Relative to the size of the market, ‘Bingó’ is small with 5,400 monthly searches. However, when you consider this volume in the context of the other markets, bingo remains very appealing as a product. With a market this size, the easy

opportunities are in getting a feel for the brands and understanding which present affiliates with ‘low hanging’ brand query traffic. Spend time researching the popularity of each brand as well as the available deposit methods in each country. Tip: Ensure you use the accents in both the on and off-page SEO.

hungary – searches by Keyword Keyword

Global Monthly searches

local Monthly searches (hungary)

[Fogadás]

49500

40500

[Kaszinó]

60500

49500

[Poker]

3350000

301000

[Bingo]

14800

5400

hungary

100 80 60 40 20 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 * The last value prior to the forecast is based on partial data and may change ** Future values are based exclusively on the extrapolation of past values

2008

2009

2010 fogadás

2011 kaszinó

2012 póker

bingó

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

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Czech Republic

across multiple sites. Cross-territory information allows you to see algorithm changes as they cascade through the various Google indices.

A smaller market than Poland with most of the search activity around ‘Kasino’ – 33,100 exact match local monthly searches. There are only 880 searches for ‘sázky’ (betting) and not enough data available for ‘Poker’ and ‘Bingo’. Sometimes it’s worth balancing low volume with competition levels. Position one gets just over 40 percent of the search traffic in a market which prohibits PPC on Google. As such, 40 percent of a small pie is definitely better than zero percent of huge pie. You should consider competition levels as well as your available SEO budgets when making strategic market decisions. One strategy I recommend for smaller affiliates is to secure traffic from multiple keyword focussed sites and territories, targeting only low volume queries in large numbers. This opens up the whole ‘burn and churn’ approach as the risk is spread

Battleﬁeld summary There are a number of potential battles to be fought. You should always do your own careful due diligence before engaging in any campaign. Only take on the big keywords in big markets if you have the budget to do so. Each of these countries carries its own opportunities and threats, always play to your own strengths and your competitor’s weaknesses and form alliances where possible; collaboration is programmed into all living things on a cellular level. Remember... ● Don’t let your quest for perfection get in the way of progress.

If you see a Guru in the road, turn and run the other way. If you have any specific questions email me directly at paul@mediaskunkworks.com or follow me on http://twitter.com/ paulreilly or stalk me on http:// foursquare.com/user/paulreilly ●

PAUL REILLY has worked in Search Marketing for over 13 years and has earned multiple awards and honours. Today, Paul is regarded by as one of the UK’s most influential SEOs, and is the first port of call for most iGaming brands. He is the founder of mediaskunkworks.com, a new generation service provider which has built its reputation on innovation and optimised methodologies which dissect the traditional agency model, replicating success, building world class, in-house teams and providing outsourced think tank and creative problem solving services.

Czech Republic – searches by Keyword Keyword

Global Monthly searches

local Monthly searches

[sázky]

880

[kasino]

33100

[poker]

[bingo]

Czech Republic

100 80 60 40 20 0 2004 2005 2006 2007 * The last value prior to the forecast is based on partial data and may change ** Future values are based exclusively on the extrapolation of past values

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

2008

2009

2010 sázky

2011 kasino

2012 poker

bingo

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MICRO-NETWORK STRATEGY Panda changed a lot for website owners. The idea of content being ‘king’ became a completely new concept. It wasn’t just enough to create content for the sheer purpose of having it. Content now, in order to have value for search, needs to be rich, useful and generate traffic. WITH THE LOCALISATION, personalisation, and recent freshness changes to its algorithm, Google is moving to a place where it values not only high quality content, but how that content is shared, the traffic it generates and the categorical relation to the site. Content mega-mortals with mixed categorisation saw the biggest hits in Panda and that is not without reason. Google wants clear categorisation – it yearns for a social graph as clear as a link graph. Another clear reality is that the social media community does not want to share thin layers of content over monetised intent. Tons of traffic lies out there for the marketers willing to look outside of their normal channels.

Building a micro-network

Step two

Step one Break your concept into topical themes: ●

Bingo

●

Casino

●

Slots

By breaking your topic down you create thematic categories to build a website around. It allows you to focus your content, links, and social outreach and, thus,

Step three

a specific funnel for traffic that you can move (long-term) to conversion. With this method, rather than creating a layer of content over conversion driven monetisation, you are building quality portals users love, and monetising that traffic.

Optimise pages and categories of each site – like you would for a site you were optimising for monetisation. Beyond your high quality content, you want to make sure you optimise your new content portal in a standard fashion.

Organic Search

Social

Organic Search

Focused MicroNetwork Site

Social

Focused MicroNetwork Site

Create sharable high quality content, not keyword stuffed spam content around your topic. Content has taken on a new life in the last few years. Images, video, infographics and ‘mashups’ are all as valuable as written content. The more social signals the engines pull into the algorithm the more weight differing types of content will carry.

Direct Qualified Traffic

Focused MicroNetwork Site

Organic Search

Traffic Focused MicroNetwork Site

Social

Direct Qualified Traffic

Organic Search

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

Direct Qualified Traffic

Focused MicroNetwork Site

Social Direct Qualified Traffic

Organic Search

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“ Heavily shared content is heavily trafficked content, and that traffic can have an impact across campaign verticals.” Categories, ‘about’ pages, and our non-post pages should be optimised for search, and the site should use solid information architecture and internal linking.

content (such as infographics) out to your network of contacts to see what kind of links and traffic you can receive by giving licence to use your high quality content.

Step four Build social promotion capabilities. The key to getting traffic from social media is having the ability to seed your content on social networks and communities in a successful fashion. This boils down to high quality network building. Social seeding can also be done with a strong mix of social advertising, including Facebook advertising, and ads on Reddit and StumbleUpon. Social seeding from a high quality networking approach, with advertising mixed in, can get a fair amount ofvisibility and traffic.

Step six

Step five

Step seven

Reach out to other blogs in the microvertical you have created. Beyond social seeding, you will want to create connections with other content portals in your verticals. You can likely skip over the sites built on a pure monetisation concept, but content platforms look for relationships to build traffic and possible content partnerships. One idea to try is pushing your alternative

Use common sense; don’t go for the quick win, but rather the long-term play. Don’t spam and jam with your content portals. This should be a place to capture and drive traffic from, and not a place to look for conversions. You should be looking at their creation as an investment in an asset. These content portals should pay dividends long-term for you in terms of traffic and monetisation.

Content creation specialists, such as CopyPress.com, can help with build and distribution. The key to great content is a great strategy and great content creation specialists. While it is likely that you can offer some great ideas to build content around, it is always better to do what you do best, and leave others to do the same. Look on websites like CopyPress.com, Elance.com and Odesk.com for writers, videographers, video editors, and other skilled content production workers.

Step eight Build highly trafficked content in terms of ‘sharability’ and use. Boring, keyword stuffed content isn’t going to work in the new micro-network strategy. You need to make sure your content makes its way off your website and into people’s social graphs and emails. Heavily shared content is heavily trafficked content, and that traffic can have an impact across campaign verticals.

DAVE SNYDER is CEO of SteelCast and is a renowned Internet marketing consultant. He has spoken around the world on the topics of search marketing and social media, and has consulted for some of the world’s largest companies on the topics. Dave parlayed his gifts as a former teacher and writer into his role as a thought leader in the arena of search and social media marketing. Recently, Dave’s focus has been on the creation of joint ventures and start-ups in the online space that are looking to leverage the traffic generation power of BlueGlass, where he is a founding partner. Dave’s strengths lie in start-up creation and incubation, as well as both organic and paid search marketing. He excels in utilising social media for brand building and online reputation management. Dave is considered one of the foremost authorities on link marketing.

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THE AFFILIATE GUIDE TO WEBSITE CONVERSION

The word ‘conversion’ in marketing is probably the most important aspect of being a webmaster; a word that encompasses everything that makes a great website – quality of product, quality of content, search engine optimisation, design and user experience. A website that does an excellent job of converting will have all of these areas covered and will have done a better job at this than its competitors. The word conversion can also be completely misunderstood as most people think of it as simply being a call-to-action or just improving click through rates. WHEN IT COMES to online gambling there are a few examples of affiliate and operator websites that do things well with the majority of them having a weakness somewhere. This guide will aim to showcase some of those websites that do an excellent job of conversion and to educate you along the way to help you improve your website. There will be resources listed about the topic of conversion so you can read up on the subject and stay on top of trends.

Here is a quick itinerary of this article:

people I consult when I need opinions with regards to marketing and conversion and I recommend you always ask for opinions on your designs and on your websites to ascertain how can you make it better and how can you improve the conversion. I would like to credit the following people for their help over the years: Josh and Nik from LatestCasinoBonuses.com, Igor from AskGamblers.com, Graeme from AffiliateBible.com and Kay from ksom.es. Now that I got the ass kissing out of the way, let’s get to work!

1.2 Design Anything related to design will be discussed in this section and be broken down into three sections: Call-to-action, User Experience Design, and Design principles.

1.2.1 Call-to-action

●●Analysis

1. Analysis of elements

Before proceeding any further, I would like to state I am not the authority when it comes to the topic of ‘conversion rate optimisation’, but I do believe I can help most websites. I do have my own experience from making mistakes along the way and I have read as much about the subject as I can while staying up-to-date on changes. Most importantly, there are a few

Ignore the fancy name for this section for a moment and understand that when I say ‘elements’ I am referring to all of the components that contribute to making your site and pages optimised for conversion. That is, design and content both need to be optimised if you want to improve your conversion rate. I also want to include SEO as a separate topic even though it is first related to content and now related to design more than ever thanks to Google giving credit to bounce rate. Within design, you’ll

of elements ●●Websites for reference ●●Resources and Tools

hear even more buzz words such as call-toaction (CTA) and User Experience Design (UX Design). For content, there are also many ways of breaking this down both in terms of quality and in presentation which, of course, implies design.

Call-to-action is another buzzword for conversion and is possibly the number one element of this whole article that, for some websites, could mean a 100 percent improvement in performance. Some areas where this is completely neglected on sites is at the top of the page, the middle of the page and the end of the page – in worst case scenarios, some pages have no CTA at all. To put this into perspective, take a 1,000 word article called ‘blackjack bonuses’ – we have a few options on how to present this data.

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

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(a) Completely unformatted (no paragraphing) with no links and no images. (b) Formatted with paragraphs with no links and no images. (c) Formatted with paragraphs and a few links with no images. (d) Formatted with paragraphs and a few links with images and banners. If this was a quiz most people would answer (d) as having the best conversion rate. However, if we started taking samples of websites we would find that most affiliates are either (b) or (c) whereas anything described as (a) would nearly be considered a legal document and most people simply don’t want to read this. A 1,000 word article implies the user will have to scroll below if they want to read all of it. On many articles, the centre of the page it is just a wall of text. At the end of the article, the worst thing you can do is leave the user with nothing to click on; it then becomes easier for them to leave. To improve this, a link would help, a few related links would be better, a banner would be better than nothing and a custom graphic such as a button could be the best. When I critique a website and I am viewing its pages, I am always asking the affiliate “what do you want or expect the user to do on this page?” Most of the callsto-action I see are not that intuitive for the user. Remember that people prefer to scan first before they read.

1.2.2 User Experience Design (UX Design) UX Design is aptly named, however, when it comes to graphic design, there are not many designers that consider themselves UX Designers. The reason is they have never heard of the term before because they had little interest in the needs of the user – they only care about

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

producing an aesthetic design to please the buyer in order to get paid. This means you end up with an attractive design that isn’t tailored for the user and will probably hurt your conversion rate. Likewise, most webmasters have a difficult time thinking like a customer. In 2012 and beyond, you can no longer neglect the user – you must actively assist them. The presentation of content is possibly more important than the graphic design component in UX Design. You can have the best slots article in the world but if the presentation of the content is not optimised then you could have a higher bounce rate and lose your conversion along the way.

1.2.3 Design principles I will keep this section short as for most webmasters the principles seem obvious but in 2012, there are still websites that continue to strive for doing things completely wrong. In short, most people expect certain things when viewing websites or using programs (text links being blue, background is a solid colour and not an image, text is readable and uses a standard font that isn’t too big or too small). Another important but overlooked principle is the use of headers and images to complement the content.

1.3 Content Many webmasters have their own ideas of what they would define as ‘good content’ and how to market that content for conversion. This section will breakdown content to talk about quality, presentation and copywriting. I will finish this section with some discussion of how SEO can be an important factor for conversion.

1.3.1 Quality of content Many webmasters would agree that having quality content is important. Everyone has their own definition of quality content,

but I’ll give you mine: “Quality content is more than just having proper spelling and grammar in an article. Also, having 500 words in an article doesn’t make it better than one with 200 words. If you are writing an article that hundreds of others have previously written about and you haven’t added anything new or different, this is low quality in my book. All of your pages and posts have a purpose, which is to entertain or educate. The top affiliates tend to have higher quality content because they spent more time and money producing it and they know it makes more money.”

1.3.2 Presentation of content The presentation of content is highly underrated and is one of the easiest things to fix with noticeable benefits. Many affiliates don’t take the time to improve the appearance of their content and this is what separates the top affiliates from the rest. Here are some easy tasks that will greatly improve the appearance of your content: ●●Make

use of headers your content down into paragraphs ●●Avoid run-on sentences ●●Use bold to highlight important parts of the article ●●Use italics and underline to complement other parts of your article ●●Make a larger text quote to highlight the most important part of the article ●●Use bullet points to summarise the article ●●Add links to other sections of your website ●●Add icons, logos, pictures, buttons and banners ●●Add videos ●●Break

All of these suggestions to improve your presentation will have two very important benefits. Your conversion rate should increase which will increase more sales and your bounce rate will have decreased which

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is something Google factors into rankings. Having a lower bounce rate is good for SEO.

1.3.3 Copywriting The irony of becoming a webmaster is that not everyone is good at selling and, once again, the top affiliates are either good at this from experience or they have taken the time to learn it. Call-to-action and copywriting go hand in hand. When you are writing content there are certain ways of saying things that can improve conversion. The bottom line is that you have something to sell and you need to choose the right words to get the most sales. Simply saying “click here” is nearly not enough these days. There are other words and phrases you can use near your final call-to-action to complement the sale, such as: ‘call’, ‘buy’, ‘register’, ‘subscribe’, ‘join’. You can add-in more phrases to help the sale such as ‘exclusive offers’, ‘offers that expire’, ‘guarantees’ or ‘testimonials’. For more information about this, see the resources section at the end of this article. Learn the art of selling!

1.3.4 Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) In my books, a good SEO specialist is also a good conversion rate specialist. That is, what good is it to rank for a keyword that gets a lot of visitors but you can’t make good money from it? Your content and design are more connected to SEO than they have ever been and bounce rate is a very important metric that you should pay attention to at all times and on ALL pages. The definition of bounce rate from Wikipedia: “Bounce rate (sometimes confused with exit rate) is an Internet marketing term used in web traffic analysis. It represents the percentage of visitors who enter the site and ‘bounce’ (leave the site) rather than continue viewing other pages within the same site.”

The quality of your content, the presentation and copywriting all contribute to your bounce rate. A high bounce rate implies the content of the website is low quality. Remember, Google knows fairly accurately what the bounce rate of your website is and Google does its best to give higher rankings to websites with quality content. For a good quick read on bounce rate and how it affects your SEO, visit: http://www.seozy.com/bouncerate-howdoes-it-affect-your-seo/

2. Websites for reference It is difficult to find websites that do the best job of design, content, SEO and conversion but the following is a list of websites that I feel implement as much of these conversion elements as possible. ●●LatestCasinobonuses.com ●●AskGamblers.com ●●OnlineGambling.com ●●CasinoAnswers.com

3. Resources and tools Conversion rate and landing page optimisation is something you should stay up-to-date with. The following is a list of the tools and resources to learn more about conversion, stay on top of trends and tools to help improve your conversion.

Google Analytics You have to be using some sort of analytics tool and you want to see your overall bounce rate and the bounce rate on all pages. When you see pages with a high bounce rate then it means you might want to find out the cause and spend more time improving the pages.

Google Website Optimizer This is part of the analytics tools and is a free AB split testing tool. Split testing lets you test out different text or images on some of your pages to see which version performs better.

Conclusion If you want to try to separate yourself from the crowd of affiliate sites, improving the conversion process of your site is a great way to start. You will want to get the most out of your traffic and if you search for case studies, you’ll find some websites have increased their performance anywhere from ten percent to over 400 percent. If you are part of a larger company, you might want to consider hiring an expert. But for most affiliates, you will want to read up on the topic as much as possible and apply the principles to your website. If you have a website and you want a critique from a conversion point of view then email me at john@gaffg.com.

Recommended books Site Tuners by Tim Ash Conversion Optimization by Khalid Saleh Convert!: Designing Web Sites to Increase Traffic and Conversion by Ben Hunt Power Sales Writing by Sue Hershkowitz-Coore

Recommended websites conversion-rate-experts.com unbounce.com conversionroom.blogspot.com

John Wright is an Affiliate Coach. He can be reached at john@gamingaffiliatesguide.com.

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What’s on the Search Horizon? SEO and social media specialist, Nichola Stott, looks into future-proofing your search engine optimisation strategy. As any search professional knows, search engines are not often particularly forthcoming with information. Even working for a search engine, the complex nature of the products and algorithms combined with the obligations that come with the data protection role of ‘data owner’, mean that there are hard walls between teams which govern data access. Trust me. I know this from firsthand experience.

And there’s the rub... Whilst your SEO team should be optimising your site to succeed in search today, they should have one eye on the future to try to ensure that changes and recommendations

are not business-limiting, or going to require a costly overhaul to keep pace with future developments. One such future development that we’re particularly excited about at theMediaFlow is the concept of ‘serendipitous search’ that ‘Googler’ Marissa Mayer has been tasked with delivering.

Serendipitous search I first became aware of this working concept in December 2009, having read a very interesting (Daily) Telegraph article about Marissa Mayer’s vision of an “omnivorous Google”. (Wise change of working-title methinks.)

At this stage, the concept is described as having the ability to present information to users before they know what they want to search for. I later wrote about the possible roadmap for omnivorous search, including Google Instant on the blog ‘SEO-Chicks’, in September 2010. So this is a concept that has been in the public domain, and communicated to media over time via Marissa Mayer. Most recently, at the ‘TechCrunch Disrupt’ event of May this year, Mayer, speaking to Jason Kincaid (TechCrunch reporter) thinks we will see this realised “inside of a two year horizon”. Whilst, of course, we’re not going to get full concept descriptions at this

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

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Developing technologies

Define: serendipitous Ser·en·dip·i·tous lucky in making unexpected and fortunate discoveries stage of development, it’s significant that Mayer moved to be VP of Location and Local Services, and user location certainly seems to be a significant dependency for such a product. In addition, mobile is often mentioned as the delivery mechanism, with social and connectivity data as integral, and participation opt-in. So what might be required to realise serendipitous search? To imagine what Serendipity might look like or how it could be realised, I focused mainly on Google product development and wider developing technologies.

Google product development Google has been pretty open about the significance and potential of the Caffeine infrastructure upgrade and the developmental strides this can facilitate, in terms of much more data, fresher data, returned far quicker – and interestingly, new dimensions to data not previously considered. Search Engine Land’s Vanessa Fox quotes Google’s Head of Webspam thus: “What’s exciting about Caffeine is that it allows easier annotation of the information stored with documents, and subsequently can unlock the potential of better ranking in the future with those additional signals.” Since Caffeine, we’ve seen significant front-end product developments such as Google Instant, which serves results on-the-ﬂy, before the user has finished typing a whole query. Opinion on this product seems to vary from ‘useful’, to ‘mildly annoying’; however, I’d argue that the additional feedback data that Instant provides must be essential to informing (or tuning) more sophisticated propensity modelling,

than can be inferred from search history and CTR data. Following Instant, we’ve seen a number of social and quasi-social search integrations such as Social Circles, Google +1 and Google+ (personal and brand pages). All these products require the user to have a Google Profile and are more effective with the greater the number of primary and secondary connections I connect to my profile (or Google contacts). In the case of Social Circle, I am shown results from connections in other social networks such as Twitter or LinkedIn, which are connected to me using XFN rel attributes, which describe a page’s relationship to me. On my Google Profile page, my social network profiles use the rel=me attribute and on those social networks, people connected to me generally use the rel=contact attribute. So, to re-cap, we now have much more sophisticated preference data, adding Google Instant to personalised search capabilities, plus the capability to add additional dimensions to data thanks to Caffeine. Therefore, isn’t it conceivable that propensity models could be improved using social connectivity data? For example, if my ‘contacts’ who have entered the term ‘world’ into the search box have a higher propensity to go on to click the instant suggestion ‘[world] of warcraft’ as opposed to ‘[world] of leather’ then it may be more useful to display that instant option to me should I begin to search for ‘world…’. Of course, such propensity modelling would require a much broader adoption of Google accounts, and greater numbers of connections to such accounts than is currently the case. However, I’d argue that Google+ is the first stage in bringing true incentive for general users to do so.

“Whilst your SEO team should be optimising your site to succeed in search today, they should have one eye on the future to try to ensure that changes and recommendations are not business-limiting, or going to require a costly overhaul to keep pace with future developments.” 28

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

I’ve used the term ‘developing’ as opposed to ‘emerging’ technologies because, of course, Smartphone devices, location services on Smartphones, and technologies like Augmented Reality have been with us for some time; however, there would still need to be greater development and, most importantly, wider general adoption of such devices and optin location-based services to add another dimension to a serendipitous product. In the aforementioned TechCrunch interview, Mayer speaks about Google product development in location-based services particularly in terms of Google Latitude and improvement to maps; when combined with the check-in facility on Google places, one can imagine how adoption of such takes care of opt-in requirements and circumvents inaccuracies with IP as locator. Imagining a future, I find myself in an unfamiliar city and search each morning for coffee. Might it not be conceivable that by day three (for argument’s sake) before I get a chance to search, ‘serendipity’ sends me an alert to a coffee shop that is near where I am located? (Ascertained by recent check-in, or recent check-in plus last GPS?) Considering my contacts that might be opted-in to the same services, is it conceivable that I could select to be notified when contacts of mine are nearby? If any of my contacts have the same discovery settings, it would also be possible to receive an alert telling me that my contact is having coffee nearby and suggest I join them! Of course, all of the above is imagined steps – in considering what data would be required and what additional dimensions to such data would be required (and at what scale) to make a concept like serendipitous search come to life – however, it seems to me that so many of the more significant developments of late could very well be part of the roadmap to that product. My question to you, therefore, is what is your SEO roadmap for the future?

NIchOLA STOTT is director and founder of theMediaFlow, a UK SEO and social media agency, and co-founder and director of SEO PR Training.

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Natural Search in Online Bingo Search marketing agency, Greenlight, has provided iGB Affiliate with its latest natural search report for the online gaming sector, which allows us to analyse key search patterns for terms relating to online bingo in comparison to the other core gaming verticals of casino, poker and sportsbetting. Searches for gaming-related keywords in October (718,972) are down when compared to Julyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s 798,267. In October, bingo accounted for the largest share of gaming-related searches. It was followed by poker, sportsbetting and casino-related search terms. In July, pokerrelated terms marginally accounted for the majority share of searches made. Bingorelated terms came a very close second. As in July, Wikipedia.org, Ladbrokes.com

and 888.com were the three most visible websites in natural search in October achieving 26%, 24%, 23% share of voice respectively. However, this was marginally down on Julyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shares of 28%, 27% and 24% respectively. In October, Cheeky Bingo was the most visible website for bingo-related search terms with a 58% share of voice, a decrease when compared to its share of 61% in July, when it also led the roost (natural search).

888.com was the most visible website for all casino-related keywords in October, achieving a 48% share of voice, compared to 50% in July (natural search). As in July, Wikipedia was the most visible website for poker-related queries, and maintained its 49% share of voice in October (natural search). Betfair was yet again the most visible website for sportsbetting related terms, and maintaining a 56% share of voice as it did in July.

The most visible websites for all gaming-related keywords in natural search (October 2011) No.

Domain

Monthly Reached Volume

Monthly Missed Volume

Percentage Reached

wikipedia.org

188,460

532,063

26%

ladbrokes.com

175,258

545,265

24%

888.com

162,332

558,191

23%

cheekybingo.com

148,002

572,522

21%

costabingo.com

110,643

609,880

15%

jackpotjoy.com

103,784

616,740

14%

foxybingo.com

88,638

631,885

12%

galabingo.co.uk

87,388

633,135

12%

pokerlistings.com

87,355

633,168

12%

skypoker.com

87,351

633,172

12%

The most visible websites for bingo-related keywords in natural search (October 2011) No.

Domain

Monthly Reached Volume

Monthly Missed Volume

Percentage Reached

cheekybingo.com

148,002

105,490

58%

costabingo.com

110,643

142,849

44%

jackpotjoy.com

100,123

153,369

39%

foxybingo.com

88,638

164,854

35%

galabingo.co.uk

87,388

166,104

34%

winkbingo.com

80,180

173,312

32%

tombola.co.uk

77,318

176,174

31%

bingoport.co.uk

75,176

178,316

30%

ladbrokes.com

72,774

180,718

29%

bestoffersbingo.co.uk

68,355

185,137

27%

sunlight-bingo.co.uk

64,248

189,244

25%

888.com

50,284

203,208

20%

888ladies.com

49,768

203,724

20%

freebingo.co.uk

46,544

206,948

18%

partybingo.com

43,170

210,322

17%

freebingo.net

29,002

224,490

11%

madaboutbingo.co.uk

25,631

227,861

10%

meccabingo.com

20,343

233,149

bingonodeposit.net

19,628

233,864

greatbritishbingo.co.uk

19,419

234,073

Source: Greenlight

iGB Affiliate decemBER/january 2011/12

By comparison, we can also look at search figures for the other core gaming verticals over the relative period. The most visible websites for online casino-related keywords in natural search (October 2011) No.

Domain

Monthly Reached Volume

Monthly Missed Volume

Percentage Reached

888.com

44,529

47,908

48%

intercasino.co.uk

39,395

53,042

43%

32red.com

33,647

58,790

36%

ukcasinoclub.com

32,925

59,512

36%

wikipedia.org

32,505

59,932

35%

ladbrokes.com

29,856

62,581

32%

spinpalace.co.uk

21,536

70,901

23%

imdb.com

20,318

72,118

22%

latestcasinobonuses.com

12,104

80,333

13%

crazyvegas.com

10,214

82,223

11%

casinodeal.com

10,029

82,408

11%

freeslots.com

10,015

82,422

11%

onlinecasinoking.com

9,733

82,704

11%

luckyfreeslots.com

8,226

84,211

paddypower.com

6,702

85,735

slotsofvegas.com

6,613

85,824

casino770.com

5,368

87,069

goldentigercasino.com

5,092

87,345

casinogamesslots.com

4,560

87,877

coolcat-casino.com

4,397

88,040

The most visible websites for online poker-related keywords in natural search (October 2011) No.

Domain

Monthly Reached Volume

Monthly Missed Volume

Percentage Reached

wikipedia.org

115,458

119,116

49%

pokerlistings.com

87,343

147,231

37%

skypoker.com

87,329

147,245

37%

freepoker.org

87,127

147,447

37%

888.com

62,307

172,267

27%

pokerstars.com

61,458

173,116

26%

pkr.com

59,698

174,876

25%

partypoker.com

54,565

180,009

23%

miniclip.com

46,983

187,591

20%

fulltiltpoker.com

42,644

191,930

18%

thefreepokerroom.com

37,735

196,839

16%

pokerstars.co.uk

37,693

196,881

16%

pacificpoker.com

36,946

197,628

16%

games.com

36,741

197,833

16%

thepokerpractice.com

36,692

197,882

16%

ladbrokes.com

36,488

198,086

16%

pokerstars.net

33,830

200,744

14%

247freepoker.com

30,266

204,308

13%

freepoker.com

26,488

208,086

11%

youtube.com

25,100

209,474

11%

The most visible websites for online sports betting-related keywords in natural search (October 2011) No.

Domain

Monthly Reached Volume

Monthly Missed Volume

Percentage Reached

betfair.com

78,994

61,026

56%

paddypower.com

77,728

62,292

56%

bet365.com

51,267

88,753

37%

oddschecker.com

46,592

93,428

33%

betfred.com

40,925

99,095

29%

williamhill.com

39,036

100,984

28%

ladbrokes.com

36,140

103,880

26%

skybet.com

35,624

104,396

25%

wikipedia.org

32,684

107,336

23%

coral.co.uk

26,559

113,461

19%

888sport.com

25,561

114,459

18%

bet770.com

24,487

115,533

17%

olbg.com

24,155

115,865

17%

bet.com

22,208

117,812

16%

bettingzone.co.uk

19,470

120,550

14%

bluesq.com

16,377

123,643

12%

tips-free-bets.com

12,506

127,514

easyodds.com

11,697

128,323

boylesports.com

11,107

128,913

Source: Greenlight iGB Affiliate december/january 2011/12

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Is ‘Flexwork’ the Way Forward for Regulated Bingo? David Flynn, CEO at NYX Interactive, provides affiliates with a fascinating insight into the future challenges for bingo networks as the gaming industry anticipates any move from ‘.com’ and state monopoly licensing to ‘.country’ licensing. Whilst the online bingo market is continuing to grow and, indeed, is anticipated to almost double in size between 2010 and 2015, the networks and infrastructure supporting this growth will need to change dramatically if they are to keep pace with the fluctuating needs of the various markets and their technical regulations. As sportsbetting and poker take the lead in newly regulated markets, bingo is tending to follow a close third. Given the lower yields, smaller target segment and, in general, less political pressure being applied in this vertical, it is quite safe to assume that this initial trend will continue. In certain countries, one can also see that bingo may not even be regulated for the foreseeable future. Granted, the majority of gaming operator-derived online bingo business is today either standalone or centralised in .com-style network models, provisioned in a small number of locations, however, over time this will gradually change. As more and more markets take a stand on regulation, there will be many factors affecting the distribution of technology for the production of online bingo solutions.

●●Each

regulated country may have its own RTP percentage, reporting, game and promotional requirements to name but a few. ●●Ultimately, this creates the headache of several bingo networks setting up operations in agreement with each country’s regulations, ensuring that all data feeds (for example, data to AAMS) are completed with no cross-border game play.

‘dip’ into the larger pooled games. This solution would not only support cross-border networked bingo whilst ensuring that each country’s regulations are adhered to but would also give the best possible player experience. Such a solution clears the way for pan-WLA member networks, gaming operator networks across various regulated jurisdictions and, above all, a better offering for the player.

When considering smaller countries, this model will not be viable for many organisations since the returns will not be worth the investment. Hopefully, the regulators will foresee this issue but if not, it will be quite a blow to the .com networks of today. So what solutions are there which would allow for the smaller regulated markets to enjoy the benefits of scale of the larger ones? It can’t be a hosted network outside the country or, indeed, a copied network hosted locally due to the aforementioned costs. I personally envisage a new type of network coming to the forefront of the business, one that I have given the name ‘Flexwork’.

As a ‘side’ thought

What is a Flexwork? ●●First

and foremost, where bingo is not regulated in a country, taking France as an example, at present, it remains with the licensed state operators to operate bingo. In this example, IT systems will be hosted in the jurisdiction of the licensee and all other ‘grey’ bingo traffic would be required to cease by law. This would ultimately have an impact on the .com networks already operating in such a country ●●Where bingo is licensed, as we have seen in Italy, a new network is required and, depending on regulations, hardware as well.

The existing network model which many organisations support today will not be sufficient. A one-system-fits-all approach will not be manageable as regulatory decisions come to the fore. In order for small country licensees to have the benefits of offering large jackpots and prizes, and yet retain control of all areas under the new regulations such as RTPs, responsible gaming rules, regulatory data reporting, game types and, thus, marketing, they need to have the option to manage their own offering whilst also having the ability to

To add to the complexity, the bingo industry is acutely aware of the benefit of side or mini games in their bingo arsenal. Let us consider a possible scenario where a country regulates bingo but does not regulate casino. The commonly repeated statistic that 50 – 60 percent of revenues are generally derived from RNG-based side games would lead to a devastating effect on the business model for most bingo operators and providers in the market today. The solution to this is predrawn batches of tickets as the base for the instant lotteries. Notes: Gross revenues of Online Bingo Operators at USD 1.6 billion in 2010 growing to USD 3.1bn by 2015 (MECN).

David Flynn is CEO of Stockholmbased, NYX Interactive. NYX Interactive has been delivering Internet bingo systems to the B2G and B2B markets since its inception in 2006. NYX specialises in developing gaming solutions for World Lottery Association members, media companies and gaming companies world-wide. Through our award winning bingo software, licensees are offered a truly flexible offering, delivering the best in bingo, lottery, mini game, back office and CRM functionality.

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

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Gambling, stigma, and the rise of online bingo Perceptions and attitudes of what people think about gambling have often been dismissed by academics as being too subjective to be of any value in generating a reliable knowledge base about its place within the leisure industry. However, perceptions of gambling may influence whether people play particular types of game in the first place. Many types of gambling such as sportsbetting, slot machines, and bingo are an established part of the British high street, but bingo appears to have significantly less stigma attached to it than most other forms of gambling. So what implications do people’s attitudes towards offline bingo have for online bingo operators and affiliates? This article briefly looks at some of the evidence and trends. Constance Chapple, a sociologist at the University of Nebraska says, “Although gambling has largely maintained its deviant reputation, bingo, as a form of gambling, remains untainted by labels of deviance.” She strongly argues that society has socially constructed bingo as an acceptable form of gambling that escapes the negative connotations attached to games played at the casino. This has been backed up by the most recent empirical research. For instance, in the latest British Gambling Prevalence Survey (BGPS) published earlier this year, we reported that

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

those surveyed did not think that either the National Lottery or bingo were gambling activities. Furthermore, they did not want to answer questions about these activities when they were phrased using the word ‘gambling’. Bingo’s reputation as a popular gambling activity appears to stem from its perception as a social activity that, in the past, was mainly played by older aged women. The stigma associated with other forms of gambling just doesn’t seem to be apparent with bingo and this may be of great help to online bingo operators in getting people to play the game online.

There may also be other reasons for the decreasing stigma around gambling activity. For instance, I have argued in a number of my research papers that the introduction of the British National Lottery back in 1994 had two major effects. Firstly, it made gambling more socially acceptable, socially condoned and less stigmatic. As a consequence, I believe attitudes towards gambling have softened and have become less negative. Secondly, it helped to demasculinise gambling resulting in the increased feminisation of gambling. To date, there has been surprisingly little research on bingo in the gambling studies

field, and the little that has been carried out tends to be sociological and from a small group (and mainly qualitative) perspective. Before 2000, research showed that the majority of bingo players were working class women who felt the game offered an opportunity to socialise with friends, and was an enjoyable afternoon or night out in a safe environment at relatively little cost. Until the advent of the smoking bans in 2007, there appeared to be a revival in the popularity of bingo in the UK. There were many likely reasons for this, including improved playing environments (bigger purpose built bingo halls), technological advance (computerised screens), improved peripheral building infrastructure (car-parking facilities, air conditioning, comfortable seating, improved eating facilities, licensed bars), and increased opportunities to market and advertise via the mass media. However, the smoking bans across the UK appear to have hit some areas of the bingo industry hard and may have inadvertently led to more people

playing bingo online (as they can smoke in the convenience of their own home). This appears to be backed up by recent research. For instance, the latest BGPS reported that nine percent of the British population had played online and/or offline bingo in last year. Although men were more likely than women to participate in most forms of gambling activity, one of the main exceptions was bingo where twice as many women (12 percent) had played in the last year compared to men (six percent). There also appears to be a new type of bingo player â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the online-only bingo player. Among bingo players, the BGPS reported that 77 percent played offline-only, 19 percent played online-only, and four percent played both online and offline. As might be expected, playing bingo was highest among older people with 11 percent of those over the age of 75 having played bingo in the last year. However, more interesting was the fact that the bingo was almost as popular among the younger demographic with ten percent of those

aged 16 to 24 years having played bingo in the last year. This group was more likely to be playing bingo online, and women were significantly more likely than men to play online bingo at least once a week. Overall, this evidence suggests that the online bingo industry may indeed be getting a direct benefit from the lack of stigma attached to bingo as a gambling activity. Women have traditionally been underrepresented on gambling websites but bingo appears to be changing that. It appears that that the so-called â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;soft-gamblingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; of bingo is opening the doors to a new audience in the shape of online bingo.

Professor Mark Griffiths is Professor of Gambling Studies at the International Gaming Research Unit at Nottingham Trent University. mark.griffiths@ntu.ac.uk

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

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THE STATE OF THE UK ONLINE BINGO INDUSTRY THE ONLINE BINGO industry in the UK has enjoyed a meteoric rise to prominence in the past four years. The latest BingoPort. co.uk Bingo Trends data shows over £300 million in pure UK online bingo turnover in the last quarter coming from over 400,000 unique players. The potential was always there. Trips to traditional bingo halls have been a staple of many UK families over the last century. The national daily newspapers carried bingo games for decades. Understanding this history is only the beginning of explaining this phenomenon. The relaxing of advertising standards and the introduction of the smoking ban created the perfect storm and has brought us to where we are today. When looking at who has the largest share of the UK online bingo market, it’s interesting to note that each operator has worn its own path to market share. Without question, the number one in terms of player numbers is Tombola. Having piggybacked on The Sun newspaper for many years, breaking away from this partnership allowed them to grow their player numbers even more. A strong television presence has contributed to this. Coming from a traditional offline bingo hall background has helped to grow Mecca Bingo and Gala Bingo. These two online

“The relaxing of advertising standards and the introduction of the smoking ban created the perfect storm and has brought us to where we are today.” bingo sites have significant market share due to their strong trustworthy brands around the country. In a similar vein, traditional high street UK bookmakers have used their strong brands to diversify into bingo, creating new lucrative revenue streams. Those that have successfully branched out include Ladbrokes and William Hill. Then come the new kids on the block – those that have built an online presence in a matter of years without the foundations of a high street brand. These include industry heavyweights such as Foxy Bingo, Costa Bingo, Jackpot Joy and Wink Bingo. From a bingo player perspective, our research has shown some interesting trends. Even though the online bingo industry is relatively new, players have managed to find and stay loyal to one or two brands. Our latest research report shows that while the majority of online bingo enthusiasts have joined over five real money sites, over half of all players remain loyal to just one site. Whilst this would seem to suggest that new operators would find it difficult to gain market share, two indicators show

that there is still space for serious entrants. First, our research has shown that ten percent of online bingo players started playing for real money within the last three months. Second, around 50 percent of all players showed a willingness to change their bingo site of choice based on promotions and reactivation campaigns. Overall, the UK online bingo market continues to grow, predominantly thanks to the continuous stream of new bingo sites that launch each month. Our very strong view is that this will slow to a crawl over the next 12 months followed by continuous mergers and acquisitions and even some site closures by smaller ‘skin’ operators.

SCOTT LOGAN is co-founder of BingoPort.co.uk, the largest free online bingo community in the UK. The BingoPort.co.uk Bingo Trends report is a quarterly industry report available by subscription, along with real-time online industry analysis tools. Scott will be presenting more industry findings at LAC in January, along with announcing the winners of the 2011 Players Choice Awards.

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

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2012: The Year US Poker Gets Back Online? Anyone who’s ever played a hand of poker knows that there’s an element of momentum to the game: sometimes you can endure a lengthy cold deck of cards while other times you can go on a hot streak. Indeed, it seems as though online poker itself has been drawing dead ever since Black Friday. From the time the Department of Justice essentially shut down US online poker, there’s been little good news for American fans of the game to celebrate. Recent developments in the private sector and in various legislative bodies indicate, however, that the tide is about to turn in favour of legalising online poker in the United States, possibly as early as 2012. Federal legislation In all likelihood, as far as federal legislation is concerned, the next calendar year will just bring more of the same; case in point, the recent hearings on Capitol Hill prior to Thanksgiving. Both houses of Congress listened to testimony from individuals such as PPA Chairman Alfonse D’Amato and Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass). No observable progress was made, however, with much of the testimony echoing what was debated in previous Congressional hearings on the matter. The fact is that despite the positive attitudes and earnest efforts of online gaming advocates, they’re just not making much headway in their attempts to sway federal lawmakers in their favour. As with most traditionally contentious issues in the US, state governments seem to be far more nimble than their federal counterpart in terms of their ability to move forward and legislate one way or another.

State legislation Nothing in the UIGEA specifically prohibits individual states from offering online gaming within their respective jurisdictions. Thus, while lacking the full effect of making online poker available to every American citizen, states at least have the power to offer it to their own residents (or specifically outlaw it, as with Washington State). Whereas New Jersey was not too long ago just one signature away from being the first state to do this, Governor Chris Christie had other ideas. Lobbyists and lawmakers in other states, such as Iowa, Florida and California, have also spearheaded efforts to legalise intrastate online poker, but these too have not yet borne any fruit. Nevada, on the other had, seems headed in the right direction.

Nevada: America’s online poker frontier The largest gaming hub in the US, Nevada, is the frontrunner to blaze the trail and legalise online poker for its residents. The state’s Gaming Control Board will begin accepting applications from parties seeking licences to run intrastate online poker sites in February 2012. With a population of just under three million people, the potential pool of online poker players in Nevada alone is but a fraction of what it was nationwide in the halcyon pre-Black Friday days. American Gaming Association CEO, Frank Fahrenkopf, cites this issue of liquidity as being “the key to online poker” with a necessity of each state being able “to provide the player pool necessary to make it worthwhile”. Nonetheless, the ability to finally play online poker legally would undoubtedly lure many American fans of the game to pack up and move to the Silver State, likely generating a mini poker boom at the very least.

Online poker market share: to whom? Regardless of its size, a potential new, wide-open legal market for online poker in the US has operators licking their chops and chomping at the proverbial bit. All indicators point towards Caesars Entertainment and the joint MGM/Boyd Gaming contingent having a ‘fast track advantage’ towards securing online poker licences, as they already possess land-based Nevada gaming licences. Caesars intends to use 888 software and WSOP branding to create a new one-of-akind online poker site while MGM/Boyd Gaming, for its part, has latched itself on to the widely successful Trump brand name.

Other big names positioning themselves for eventual legalisation, like bwin.party and even Zynga, are also likely to see some measure of success assuming they play their cards right. Interestingly, the fate of PokerStars remains largely uncertain. While they’ll still be able to claim the moniker of ‘the world’s largest poker site’ and have plenty going for them in the international arena, any potential success in US markets hinges on their ability to actually obtain gaming licences. One has to wonder how willing state gaming commissions would be to grant PokerStars a licence, given the company’s DOJ-documented history of illegal US operations.

Conclusion With 2012 being an election year in the United States, politicians will be eager to show their constituents positive numbers. The windfall benefits of legalising online poker, such as job opportunities and new tax income to help prop up budgets, have far more impact on a state rather than federal level. Nevada politicians have realised that such windfalls can provide invaluable currency in these tough economic times and are, thus, prepared to shuffle up and deal poker online. It is this writer’s hope that other state legislators follow suit.

Robbie Strazynski is the Founder and Chief Content Writer of the Cardplayer Lifestyle poker blog (www.cardplayerlifestyle.com). He is also the Content Manager and Marketing Coordinator at Winner Affiliates.

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

feature

New Jersey: it’s not over until the fat lady sings... November’s referendum on sportsbetting proved the appetite of New Jersey’s people for legalised sportsbetting in the state. Frank Catania, Attorney and Partner at New Jersey law firm, Catania & Ehrlich PC, provides an overview of the fallout form the Garden State’s referendum on sportsbetting. In 1992 after passage of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 (PASPA), New Jersey was given the opportunity to pass legislation that would have allowed it to have sports betting at its casinos in Atlantic City. I was serving as the Deputy Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly at that time. The sportsbetting legislation was introduced, however, the then Speaker of the General Assembly, Chuck Haytaian, was lobbied heavily by New Jersey’s own US Senator Bill Bradley the sponsor of the PASPA, representatives from the National Football League (NFL), other sports leagues and many professional players pressuring the Speaker not to allow the bill to advance. On the opposing side, representatives from the casino industry were doing all they could to have the bill voted out of committee and posted for a vote before the full general Assembly. At that time, the casino industry in Atlantic City was flourishing with new casino openings and no competition from surrounding states (and sportsbetting was not viewed as a necessary economic boost).

Lesniak’s bill Fast forward to 2010 and New Jersey’s casino industry is in a tailspin, facing competition it never previously had and New Jersey’s horseracing industry is increasingly losing money. In an effort to help the race tracks and the casino industry, State Senator Raymond Lesniak (D-Union), himself an attorney, institutes a suit to allow sportsbetting at New Jersey race tracks and in the Atlantic City casinos. The initial suit was dismissed by the Court on grounds that the plaintiff did not have standing to bring the action. Senator Lesniak did not throw his hands up in defeat. He introduced a bill that passed both the New Jersey Senate and General Assembly to have the sportsbetting issue placed as a question on the ballot for the November 2011 General Election. Polling before the election indicated that a majority of New Jersey voters supported sportsbetting and Governor Christie, himself a former United States Attorney for the District of New Jersey,

“ Many legal scholars believe New Jersey will not be successful, however, remember the saying, ‘it’s not over until the fat lady sings’.”

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

also announced his support for passage of the ballot question. On November 8, 2011 New Jersey voters state-wide overwhelmingly approved an amendment to New Jersey’s Constitution to allow sportsbetting in Atlantic City casinos and two racetracks. Lesniak said he planned to immediately draft legislation starting the process to bring sportsbetting to New Jersey and introduce it for fast track the week of November 21, 2011. The current legislative session ends on January 10, 2012; however, that is more than enough time in a Democratic controlled legislature to get Lesniak’s bill approved by both houses and to the Governor for his signature. The Atlantic City casino industry association and leaders of the state’s thoroughbred and standard bred horseracing industries have endorsed the proposal as a way for each struggling sector to attract more patrons.

Pallone’s support Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr (D-NJ-) also made a press statement, after the ballot question was approved, that he plans to introduce a bill in Congress to help New Jersey. Congressman Pallone said he will introduce legislation in Congress that would lift the federal ban on professional sportsbetting at Atlantic City casinos and New Jersey racetracks. He followed by saying, “New Jersey voted for, and deserves a bite of the apple in terms of sportsbetting.” Pallone also said, “Any delay in making this possible is a loss of profits for local businesses which is unacceptable.” Pallone’s introduction of such a bill is more for his political benefit amongst his constituents since the proposed bill would have no chance of a committee vote – much less passage in the Republican controlled House of Representatives. Congress cannot grant just one state to engage in a form of commerce that others, except Nevada, cannot. Because of the economy, many states will be looking for an exception to allow sportsbetting to increase their declining revenues.

The hardest part All of this has been positive, however, now comes the hard part. Once a law is enacted then New Jersey has standing to return to court. However, convincing a judge that

the PASPA should be set aside so that New Jersey has the opportunity to allow sportsbetting in the casinos of Atlantic City and the state’s race tracks will be challenging, to say the least. The Department of Justice (DOJ) will be defending the matter on behalf of the federal government and Lesniak’s team will, I am sure, consider using some of the same arguments presented by the Department of Justice in their opposition to the passage of the PASPA in 1991. Decisions on how to raise taxes have been left to the individual states without Congressional interference. There was an issue of federalism and the DOJ was troubled by permitting not only the United States Attorney General, but also amateur and professional sports organisations, to seek enforcement of PASPA. New Jersey will most likely raise the issue of states’ rights. Since gambling is not mentioned in the United States Constitution, why shouldn’t it be a matter left to the individual states? I can’t bet on whether Senator Lesniak and Governor Christie come out as winners, however, if they do succeed, the big winners will be the citizens of New Jersey, the Atlantic City casinos and New Jersey’s horse race tracks. Many legal scholars believe New Jersey will not be successful, however, remember the saying, “it’s not over until the fat lady sings”.

Frank Catania is President and principal of Catania Gaming Consultants and is an attorney and partner in the New Jersey law firm of Catania & Ehrlich, P.C. Mr Catania’s expertise stems from his years of service as Assistant Attorney General and Director of the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, an internationally recognised gaming regulatory agency responsible for investigating and prosecuting all licensing, civil regulatory and criminal matters involving the New Jersey casino industry. He also served as Vice President and Compliance Officer for Players International, Deputy Speaker of the New Jersey General Assembly, partner in the law firm of Catania and Harrington, and counsel to the Law Offices of Catania & Associates.

“ Convincing a judge that PASPA should be set aside so that New Jersey has the opportunity to allow sportsbetting in the casinos of Atlantic City and the state’s race tracks will be challenging, to say the least.”

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

feature – COMMENT

The Under/Over on Sports Wagering in New Jersey The New Jersey referendum has opened the door for the state to revisit the unconstitutionality of PASPA in court, says Donald Hoover, Vice President of Interactive Gaming at Gomes Gaming Inc. New Jersey is taking centre stage in the fight for legalised sports wagering. On November 8, 2011, New Jersey voters approved, by referendum, to allow sports wagering at Atlantic City casinos and racetracks in New Jersey by nearly a two to one margin. The next step is for New Jersey to continue its fight with the federal government over the restrictions of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA). The National Football League (NFL) and the NCAA may undertake their traditional lobbying efforts aimed at thwarting the proliferation of sportsbetting. However, timing is perfect for supporters of sportsbetting to convince otherwise. Sportsbetting in the United States remains a very controversial topic. It seems that many professional sports teams and the general public are concerned about corruption in the outcome of sports events because of sports wagering. Recently, while reading The Drunkard’s Walk,1 it became obvious to me that gambling was and continues to be a major influence in the field of statistical analysis. The book cites research conducted by Justin Wolfers at The University of Pennsylvania about the prevalence of ‘point shaving’ in college basketball (Wolfers, 2006). Wolfers sampled 44,120 NCAA Division 1 games from 1989 to 2005 and after intense statistical analysis, concluded, “Given that around one-fifth of all games involve a team favoured to win by at least 12 points, this suggests that around one percent of all games (or nearly 500 games through my 16-year sample) involve gambling related corruption.”2

Although later research (Borghesi, Paul, & Weinbach, 2009) disputed Wolfers’ claims of corruption in point shaving, the amount of attention now focused on corruption in sports due to sports wagering is alarming. It is alarming because a majority of the sports wagering action in the United States is illegal and attempts to regulate and control the activity are thwarted by the NCAA, professional sports teams, and heavily lobbied politicians. Nevada, and to some extent, Delaware (parlay sports wagering), are taking the bulk of legal wagers on sports in the United States although Montana and Oregon are also able to accept sports wagers. Nevada sportsbooks account for only one to three percent of all sports gambling conducted in the country. That means that between 97 and 99 percent of sports wagering in the United States is conducted illegally. In addition, the final report from the National Gambling Impact Study Commission (NGIC) in 1999 (1999, p. 2-14) reported, “Estimates of the scope of illegal sports wagering in the United States range anywhere from $80 billion to $380 billion annually, making sports wagering the most widespread and popular form of gambling in America.” The amount of illegal sports wagers annually in the United States is jawdropping. Legalised and regulated sports wagering could be a significant revenue generator and could reduce the potential for corruption in game-fixing. New Jersey is taking the odds again this year with the favourable referendum vote on sports wagering on November 8. But despite the positive referendum vote, the issue must be fought in federal court. New

Jersey filed a federal lawsuit indicating that the ban on New Jersey conducting sports wagering is unconstitutional. In March 2011, Federal District Judge, Garrett Brown, rejected the lawsuit noting that it “puts the cart before the horse” because New Jersey would still have a ban on sportsbetting even if he declared PASPA unconstitutional.3 Now that New Jersey voters approved sports wagering by referendum, it opens the door to re-visit the federal court to determine if PASPA is unconstitutional. I am not a pessimist like many in the gaming sector, and so I believe that New Jersey will prevail in federal court. Sports wagering in the United States (although mostly illegal) is more popular than ever. Even New Jersey’s Governor, who is critical about online gaming, supports sports wagering in New Jersey. I also see other states following the trail blazed by New Jersey. 2012 should prove an exciting year for sports wagering as well as online gaming. I see some serious potential in the future with online sports wagering. I guess I am putting the cart before the horse. Donald Hoover is the Interactive Gaming Strategist at Gomes Gaming Inc (GGI). In this role, he is responsible for all interactive gaming intelligence and strategy at Resorts Casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA and other casino initiatives managed by GGI. He has over 25 years experience in leadership positions at land-based casinos in the United States. Donald is also an instructor at Fairleigh Dickinson University and is currently working on a doctoral degree in Organizational Leadership at Wilmington University. Donald holds a Master’s of Science Degree in Hospitality and Tourism from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

References: Borghesi, R., Paul, R., & Weinbach, A. (2009). TOTALS MARKETS AS EVIDENCE AGAINST NJ.com. (2011). http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2011/03/federal_judge_throws_out_lawsu.html National Gambling Impact study commission. (1999). Sports Wagering (Public Law 104-169). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. WIDESPREAD POINT SHAVING. The Journal of Prediction Markets, 4, 15-22. Retrieved from Wolfers, J. (2006, May). Point Shaving:Corruption in NCAA Basketball. American Economic Review, 96(2), 279-283. The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow (Wolfers, 2006, p. 283.) 3 (NJ.com, 2011, p. 1) 1

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

feature

GROWING PAINS

EMERGING TRENDS OF A MATURING INDUSTRY With the iGaming market entering something of a growth spurt in its adolescence, we assess the current trends that will shape the business landscape of the future. We start with convergence and, particularly, bwin.party’s joint venture with US land-based brands MGM and Boyd Gaming. ONE OF THE offshoots of regulation, the defining driver of growth and change in the gaming sector, is the convergence of industry operators seeking to gain footholds in markets whereby they either lack a presence; or where partnering can become more competitive. This is very much the case with the iGaming industry, and it is apparent on both sides of the Atlantic. In Europe, we have seen the first megamerger between two of the industry’s largest companies, bwin and PartyGaming, to form bwin.party Digital Entertainment. We have also seen M&A activity bring together the likes of Sportingbet and Centrebet, Playtech and Mobenga, IGT and Entraction, and Betsson and Betsafe. We have also seen Ladbrokes fail in attempts to bolster its online division through acquisitions of both 888 and more recently, Sportingbet.

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

However, it is bwin.party’s joint venture with MGM and Boyd Gaming in the United States that could signal the start of a new convergence of online expertise and landbased gaming brands. The abandoned deals between PokerStars and Wynn and Full Tilt and Fertitta predated this deal but fell apart following Black Friday. They do, however, highlight the appetite of the terrestrial industry to gain the expertise of the online sector. For bwin.party, this is a key deal and on the surface, it appears to be a well structured proposition for a market that continues to confuse and frustrate with regards to its regulatory intent. The B2C element of this venture is built to cope with both federal and state-by-state regulatory models and will see the respective establishments of jointly owned companies ‘Federal NewCo’

and/or ‘State NewCo’ depending on the regulatory framework adopted in the US. The share ownership will see bwin.party owning 65 percent, MGM 25 percent, and Boyd Gaming ten percent. The B2C aspect of the JV solely concerns online poker, which reﬂects the likely route to regulation in the US, with both state and federal legislative efforts mainly targeting poker because of the proportion of the game that is reliant on skill rather than chance. Interestingly, as we’ve become accustomed to hearing from US landbased casinos, both MGM and Boyd have shown their hand with regards to their preferred method of regulation. Jim Murren, Chairman and CEO of MGM said, “MGM has long been supportive of federal legislation to strengthen UIGEA and provide the needed regulations and

consumer protections for online poker. MGM is proud to have bwin.party as our partner as they have the assets and experience that, combined with our brands, can ensure a secure, fair and entertaining online poker experience.” Similarly, Keith Smith, President and CEO of Boyd Gaming added, “We believe the right approach to offering legal online poker in the United States is through a federal regulatory structure that ensures the games are conducted with the greatest possible integrity and security. Should Congress enact legislation to legalise Internet poker, this agreement will allow us to partner with the world’s most experienced and prestigious online operator to offer a secure, fair and entertaining experience for players in the United States.” As we can see, both companies are very keen to stress that they believe that the regulation of Internet poker should be a federal issue (or rather, they would prefer it to be), without ever touching on the significant likelihood that any initial opening of the

market will be at the state level. This could be attributed to the land-based industry’s concern as to ‘fair competition’, should the incumbent online powerhouses be allowed in to the market. Indeed, some lobbying efforts have called for any federal regulation to include an exclusion period of five years to allow the terrestrial casinos a head-start over their would-be online competitors. But whilst there is momentum at the federal level, some argue that the political agenda surrounding next year’s presidential elections and the nauseating state of the economy, both domestic (significantly) and internationally, will divert what attention there is on the future of regulated gaming away to more pressing matters. In any case, should the desired federal legislation be enacted, the joint venture would offer online poker to US players via the World Poker Tour and PartyPoker brands with bwin.party providing the software and support. In addition to the B2C element of the deal, bwin.party will

also enter into two separate 15-year B2B agreements with both MGM and Boyd that will allow each to offer real money online poker under their own brands using bwin.party’s technology platform. “Our strategy has been designed to address any and all legislative outcomes, whether federal or state-by-state,” was the jointly released company line from Jim Ryan and Norbert Teufelberger, the coCEOs of bwin.party. “We are particularly excited to be working with MGM and Boyd. Combining their significant assets and regulatory expertise with the strength of our PartyPoker and World Poker Tour brands, all supported by our in-house technology, makes us perfectly positioned for any future opening of the US online poker market.” Indeed it does, and the dual regulatory framework that is built into this JV is likely to prove crucial once the US does, eventually, open its doors. This is a pivotal deal and only time will tell if it triggers similar joint ventures over the coming 12 months. It would be

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

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a significant surprise if it didn’t. 2012 will be just as active as 2011 for M&A, but it is the convergence of online and land-based brands that may yet prove the defining model of the near-term future.

European regulation The defining issue facing the industry at present is that of regulation and nowhere is it evolving faster than in Europe. By the start of 2012, we can expect Spain, Denmark and Hungary to join the likes of France, Italy and the UK in adopting domestic regulation of their online gaming markets, opening varying aspects of their markets to international competition. There is also progress in Germany in the form of Schleswig Holstein, the country’s northernmost state, which intends to open its regional market to international competition on January 1, possibly ploughing a route for Germany’s other Lander to follow, should they abandon (which seems unlikely) their amendments to the State Treaty which could still put them on a collision course with the EU Commission. iGaming Business’ recently released European Legal Outlook, available with the magazine’s November/December issue. What it points to is a European iGaming market that will operate under a fragmented licensing model where companies will need to hold licences in each individual country in which they seek to do business. This will now also apply, it would appear, to the UK where recently announced reforms to the iGaming licensing regime will see the country follow in the footsteps of the markets regulating around it. Should all Member States eventually adopt similar licensing models, then it would require operators with any form of international aspirations to hold 27 different licences just to operate across Europe, as opposed to the single licence they have been hitherto operating under granted by their offshore domiciles (Malta, Gibraltar and the Isle of Man, amongst others). Multiple licensing and the associated application fees, annual fees and, of course, tax required for each country will make European compliance a multi-million pound investment for operators. The implications of the development of this regulatory framework are widespread, and will affect the way that companies

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

operate, market, and their very identities as we see converging gaming assets building for longevity in the market. This all seeps down into the affiliate marketing sector and will impact how affiliates are used in certain markets, and who they market (converged entities or country-specific offshoots/rebrands). These ramifications will only increase as each new European market adopts a regulatory model for remote gaming, and there are no signs of new potential markets wandering too far from this new European blueprint of regulation – the current UK model stands alone in this respect. Yet, despite the burdensome tax thresholds, application and licensing costs and stringent policies affecting competition, products and social responsibility, regulation is, after all, what the industry has been seeking since its outset; to remove the danger that lurks in the unregulated ‘grey’ markets. The modification of regulations and even attitudes to iGaming represents progress and that can only be a good thing for an industry that is keen to mature out of adolescence.

More of the same from the USA While the European landscape is hurriedly developing regulation for the iGaming market, then the US is pedestrian by comparison. That is not to say that progress hasn’t been made, but it seems that efforts at both federal and state levels come to grinding halt when politics becomes judge and jury. Delays to proposed advancements in federal legislation have caused many to disregard the (short-term) chances of a nationwide model, as other concerns such as the economy and a 2012 presidential election will significantly demote the regulation of online gambling down the political agenda. State legislation has been similarly protracted. None of the hope that had accumulated at the end of 2010 carried through into 2011, meaning that we are to no nearer state regulation than we

are federal. Even the one success story, the District of Columbia, which is only a provincial regulation, has encountered delays and is still to ‘go live’, even with its proposed “Internet Demonstration Games” (free play). New Jersey seemed to be the state most likely to pass enabling regulation, until its governor diverted the decision to a public referendum. However, the referendum’s outcome in November saw voters, 64 percent of them, vote in favour of bringing sportsbetting to the state’s racetracks and casinos, should the current federal ban (with the exception of four states) be declared unconstitutional. We continue to hope for positive news on America’s regulation and as Nick Batram, Analyst at independent broking house, Peel Hunt, put it, “UIGEA came as a shock and, ultimately, we expect positive legislation when people least expect it.”

Mobile sportsbetting If 2011 was the year that mobile gaming finally got its act together, then 2012 should be the year when it fully takes off. The culmination of various factors such as Smartphone and tablet technologies, device suitability, functionality and mobile billing have lifted the mobile gaming sector out of its barren spell of underachievement to the point where many now see the platform as the future for sportsbetting. Indeed, the in-play betting phenomenon’s suitability to mobile means that this marriage alone can be attributed to much of the early growth of the sector. Yet, companies still have to better utilise their presence on the mobile web and not transfer desktop strategies to the small screen. The opportunities for tablet betting are obvious for sportsbetting companies who adopt in-play betting markets, and the tablet’s ‘at home in front of the TV’ usage makes it the perfect match-day betting device. We expect to see the onward growth of mobile sportsbetting well into 2012 beyond.

“ 2012 will be just as active as 2011 for M&A, but it is the convergence of online and land-based brands that may yet prove the defining model of the near-term future.”

affiliate_210x297_en.ai 1 17.11.2011 12:58:58

FEATURE

MATTERS OF CONGRESS Minutes after providing testimony in favour of Internet gambling regulation to the Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade, Congressman John Campbell spoke to iGB Affiliate about the push for federal iGaming regulation in the US. You gave testimony this morning to the House Subcommittee on Commerce Manufacturing and Trade. What was the purpose of the hearing? Congressman Joe Barton from Texas has introduced a bill to legalise Internet poker only, it doesn’t go to other things, and the regulator would be the Department of Commerce so that puts it in the jurisdiction of this Subcommittee. This hearing was on that bill and on this subject. If you introduce a bill and you don’t have a hearing it means that no-one is going to be interested in your bill because it’s not going anywhere. Most bills that are introduced here in Congress don’t get a hearing… they just sit there. Thousands are introduced every year but only a few hundred will become

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

law. The fact that the Chairwoman of the Committee, Mary Bono Mack (California), decided to hold a hearing means that she’s interested in perhaps moving the bill. It’s a very good sign as it means the Committee and the Committee Chairs are interested in the subject and are perhaps interested in moving the bill. It’s not a guarantee, but it certainly shows that they’re interested. How was your personal testimony greeted by the Subcommittee? I think it went well, based on their comments and body language. I felt good about the hearing. There were three members of Congress who testified: myself, Barney Frank from Massachusetts who is co-author of my bill, and then Frank Wolf, a Republican who opposes the bill.

There were two for and one against, but I think that the arguments we made with regards to why we need the bill were pretty compelling. I think it went well and it continues to go well. What about Mr Wolf’s testimony? What points did he raise regarding his opposition to the regulation of Internet gambling? His main argument was based on problem gambling. He believes that Internet gambling makes it more accessible to people – basically, a casino in their house 24/7. There will be more people who gamble and more people who have problem gambling, more under-age people and college students and this will lead to a lot of gambling problems. Our counter to that was that we understand

“ I do think we have a chance of something becoming law in 2012, but it’s not a certainty.”

that there is problem gambling just as there is problem drinking. In the 1920s in America, we banned alcohol and it didn’t work very well. There was actually more problem drinking and it turned a lot of law abiding Americans into law breakers when they brewed their own alcohol in their backyards. That’s what’s going on now. Americans are going to gamble, they like to gamble and they’re doing it online with overseas, offshore (and illegal) sites that don’t provide them with protections that a regulated legal site would provide. Our argument was that there is going to be problem gambling whether you make it legal or not, but we can actually deal with it better if we regulate it. In the second panel there was someone who had been a problem gambler who was saying “I have a problem and if you make it legal but keep me from getting on it, if I’m on a list and can’t get on, it’s good, whereas if it’s not legal, there are plenty of places that I can get on where they don’t care whether I’m a problem gambler or not.” We can actually deal with problem gambling better. Mr Frank put it best, he said, “A prerequisite for consumer protection is (making) the activity legal. You have to make it legal in order to provide consumer protection.” Was this something that moved you to get involved in the drive to regulate Internet gambling? That it’s an opportunity to develop a strong consumer protection programme for what is currently an unregulated practice? Yes, although to be frank, that was a secondary reason for me. The main reason for me is that I come from the libertarian wing of the Republican Party and I just believe that adults should be able to engage in practices that they enjoy if they don’t hurt other people. Gambling is one of those practices. I made it clear in the Committee that I don’t personally gamble. Not because I think it’s evil but because it doesn’t hold a lot of fascination for me. But a lot of people do and I think that we should not be banning them from doing that online. Also, we talk a lot here about the Internet and what a free thing it is. There’s a lot

of discussion, not just on gambling but on other things to leave the Internet free. We have to make sure that certain bad things don’t happen. It can’t be completely uncontrolled but let’s not do what we’ve done on so many things and over-regulate the Internet because a lot of its power and a lot of its effect has been the fact that it is a very free marketplace. So, effectively, in America, what we say now is, ‘you can gamble in all these different places but you can’t do so online’. Well that’s not a good policy for online. You can buy alcohol or cigarettes online. We have a number of regulated practices that are allowed online. This is about the only one that we allow you to do in a bricks and mortar facility that we don’t allow you to do online and that just doesn’t make sense.

It’s three and a half years since

The European online gaming market is undergoing rapid regulatory change where single markets are developing within each Member State. Have you been monitoring developments across the pond and, if so, do you feel that there are parallels to be drawn or lessons to be learnt from what’s happening in the EU? Yes, we have been monitoring it. I wouldn’t say on a daily basis but we have been monitoring what’s gone on over there and part of it we are using as an example. Europe has found various ways to regulate online gambling. There are software programmes in place for consumer protection and other things that work and that appear to be working. We use that quite a bit here. Also, the idea that the Internet is the world wide web, not just the US web. If other countries do this sort of thing, it could be another place for Americans to gamble and, by the way, if it’s a safe and secure British site, for example, then that’s more places for Americans to gamble. Why would we want to do that and effectively cede our ability to protect our consumers to the British government? Let’s give our gamblers an option to participate on a US site where they have US regulatory protection.

as being something that kills it other than

Congressman Frank launched the first iteration of his Internet gaming bill. Do you feel that we are any closer to a federal decision on Internet gambling or do you think that the political agenda in 2012, as some have suggested with the presidential election, means that Internet gambling isn’t a priority at the moment? This is bipartisan. There is bipartisan support for it and bipartisan opposition so I don’t see this as a big election issue. It’s not something that Republicans want to promote or Democrats want to kill or vice versa in order to win them the next election. If it passes, it will pass on a bipartisan basis and there will be both Republicans and Democrats voting for and against it. I don’t really see the election year the idea that this is going to be difficult to pass anything given that the wheels of Washington are bogged down right now by the election. That being said, I think we are getting increasing momentum on this subject and what the Subcommittee does with it will be very important. We know we have support from the US Senate for it and if we can show some good bipartisan support in the House, I think we have a chance. I do think we have a chance of something becoming law in 2012, but it’s not a certainty. Do you think the delay in regulating Internet gambling in any form is also delaying the influx of much needed tax revenue and importantly, job creation? Absolutely. I think that there are four reasons why we should support this bill. One, it allows people to do something they enjoy doing that doesn’t hurt anybody else. Two, consumer protection. Three, is tax revenue – we get tax revenue from this that we badly need. Four, is job creation. We need all of those things. Out of those four things, a couple are desirable and a couple are necessary in the environment that we’re in right now.

“ I don’t see this as a big election issue. It’s not something that Republicans want to promote or Democrats want to kill or vice versa in order to win them the next election.” iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

INSIGHT

Social Status The changing face of European social media and its effects on online gaming. As most of you are probably aware, social networks are currently the fastest growing form of online media. Speak to any marketer and they will tell you it is the most effective form of inbound marketing out there. However, the opportunities for business are still largely misunderstood. Many businesses have flooded-in to the social sphere wildly, without proper strategies in place and become lost and disillusioned when they don’t get the sort of ROI that they were expecting. Social media is not the silver bullet that many marketers would have you believe but used strategically to drive key business objectives, it can be an incredibly powerful tool. Businesses looking to create a social media policy to engage with their customer base in Europe face a veritable smorgasbord of different platforms to choose from and it’s difficult to know which ones will still be around in a year’s time. In Europe, the market leader is the US social networking juggernaut Facebook,

having usurped most of the locally-based networks over the past two to three years. With over 200 million users it is now the number one choice of social network for 15 out of 18 European markets, with only Poland, Russia and Latvia holding out against the US site’s irresistible force. Mike Shaw, comScore’s director of marketing solutions, predicts that Facebook will jump ahead of Poland’s ‘Nasza-Klasa’ in user numbers within a month or two. While these markets may have held off Facebook’s dominance due to having fewer international contacts, Shaw also predicts that “in a year’s time, there won’t be a single European country, including Russia, where Facebook is not leading.” French site ‘Skyrock’ has lost about a third of its audience to the US giant. Current figures show that around 25 to 30 percent of its users found Facebook was a better experience for what they wanted. Around 30 percent use both, and 30 percent are not interested in Facebook, staying loyal to the French network.

Facebook.com’s Share of the Market in Europe by Percentage Reach Source: Panel only data, comScore Media Matrix, Dec 2010

% Reach of Social Networking Sites 63.6%

Europe

84.4%

Turkey United Kingdom

Finland

90.4% 81.7%

Norway Sweden

78.5%

92.2% 87.9%

81.2%

86.5%

79.7%

85.6% 83.1%

Italy

78.1%

82.5%

Denmark

77.5%

81.3%

Ireland

Portugal

74.2%

Belgium

74.0%

France

77.0%

69.1%

Austria

68.3%

Switzerland

Germany

Poland

Netherlands

84.2% 85.0% 82.0%

73.5%

Spain

Russian Federation

67.3%

80.6% 84.6% 74.5% 75.2%

58.1%

79.4%

55.5%

90.6%

48.0%

85.1% 83.4%

18.8% 0%

% Reach of Facebook.com

20%

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

40%

60%

80%

100%

Skyrock is not alone in its battle against Facebook. Sites such as StudiVZ in Germany, Tuenti in Spain and Hyves in the Netherlands, were undisputed leaders in their domestic markets. Published in their home languages, the sites were limited in international expansion, but had deep roots in their home countries. Despite fleeting popularity in the UK and US, MySpace could not compete against these locally-based networks, only gaining popularity in a handful of nations, most notably Italy and the former Yugoslavia. Facebook, which in 2007 began its efforts to translate the site into local languages, made a much more concerted assault on local social networks and has enjoyed substantial successes. In 2009, Skyrock and Facebook were equal in terms of popularity in France, but the US behemoth now far outstrips all rivals. It has 20.3 million users in France, about twice the number of Skyrock, according to comScore, the market research company. The same picture endures elsewhere. In Spain, Facebook overtook Tuenti in 2009, and now has 12 million users compared with the Spanish site’s 6.8 million. In Germany, the VZ Netzwerke group of three websites are still collectively the market leader with 17 million users, but Facebook is closing in fast with 14.2 million. In a year, Facebook’s user numbers have more than tripled, while growth in VZ Netzwerke user numbers is flat. Amongst the thousands of apps and features that Facebook offers, online gaming has proven to be one of the most popular. Over half of Facebook’s 800 million users worldwide use their accounts for gaming and in 2010, Social Gaming passed email to become the second leading activity online, taking up over ten percent of the average user’s time online. Companies such as Zynga, Playdom and EA’s Playfish are dominating the industry at this current juncture – Zynga’s games which include Farmville and Mafia Wars are particularly popular having over 58 million active users per day. Zynga’s ‘Texas Hold’em Poker’ app is the most popular Facebook

app of all time with nearly 84 million active users. Poker games are also some of the most popular titles for both Playdom and Playfish, however, in all of these games players earn chips or â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Facebook Creditsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; that allow them to purchase virtual items, instead of actual currency. However, times are changing fast. In August 2011, Facebook changed its advertising guidelines to allow ads for online gambling after a long-standing period of prohibition. The whole online gaming gamut will be allowed to advertise on the network including online poker sites, casinos and sportsbooks, but targeting US users will be prohibited.

top facebook Apps Developer

App

Active users

Zynga

Texas Holdem Poker

83,763,917

Facebook

Mobile

77,058,724

Zynga

Cafe World

76,318,218

Facebook

iPhone App

46,467,418

Facebook

Static FBML

62,290,206

Zynga

FarmVille

61,071,479

This means that these ads can be served to the 150 million-plus users in Europe and if you have a minimum of $30,000 to spare then you can reach all of these potential gamers. Facebook is yet to allow

Interest over time 100 80 60 40

the exchange of real currency in its games; since the site is based in the US it would be near impossible for it to allow any third-party developer to create a gambling system within their product. However, with the rising demand from Facebook users for casino games and gambling and the need for publishers and developers of social games to raise revenue, it could only be a matter of time before Facebook works out a way round the legal issues to cash in on the popularity of online gaming.

20 0 2004

2005

2006

2007

*The last value prior to the forecast is based on partial data and may change. **Forecast values are based exclusively on the extrapolation of past values.

2008

2009

2010

2011

Source: Google Insights

DAN BLOOMFIELD is an International SEO and Social Media Expert at OBAN Multilingual. www.obanmultilingual.com

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

INSIGHT

Can Touch This Pierrick Leveque, Head of Acquisition at Virgin Games, runs the rule over the much heralded and now thriving mobile channel in the iGaming industry. It wakes me up. It connects me. It informs me. It entertains me. It fulfils a somehow inexplicable urge to catapult birds onto pigs. If you’re like me, your life is increasingly ruled by mobile phone consumption. It’s our media snack: we use it for tasks, urgency and to help us through countless and fleeting instants of boredom. It’s always there, always on, ever ready to serve our exponential hunger for information and entertainment for little more reward than a daily charge and a weekly polish. To celebrate Virgin Games launching its mobile casino, let’s have a look at our pocket friend in the context of online gaming.

Why mobile? Why now? In the early ‘noughties’, in the serene setting of a Canadian golf resort, I attended Microgaming’s unveiling of the Spin3 mobile casino product. Every year since then, I’ve heard rallying shouts about mobile being the next big thing in gaming – “Next year I tell you… this time next year, we’ll be millionaires!” In retrospect, it couldn’t have become an industry changer until some important boxes were ticked: handset market

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

consolidation, network speed, m-commerce maturity, to name but a few. It’s now 2011, and the boom is well underway. According to comScore, a leading recorder of data on mobile device usage worldwide, 42 percent of UK mobile consumers used a Smartphone in May 2011 compared to 27 percent a year ago. As recent reports show, Smartphone use has accelerated even through the recession, prompting comScore to refer to Smartphone use as an “addiction” for the first time. On the device/OS front, new data is showing the tipping point where half of UK users will have Smartphones is only a year away, June 2012 to be precise. Google’s Android has grown its user base adding nearly 4.7 million new users over the past year – a staggering 634 percent rise yearon-year. Since April 2010, 2.5 percent of UK feature phone owners have upgraded to Smartphones every month. Noticeably, Android’s growth is being driven by non-Smartphone owners upgrading, rather than people switching from other platforms. 74.3 percent of new Android sales come from feature phone owners and only 1.4 percent from former iPhone owners.

Native apps/web apps Nowadays, mobile gambling predominantly comes in two flavours: native apps or web apps. Native apps are available on app stores while web apps are served via the device’s browser. While there are distinct advantages to each approach, the gap between native and web apps is starting to blur: they can now offer more or less the same functionalities and each can provide a rewarding user experience in their own way. Native apps can use built-in device functionalities, run faster (but this gap is closing too) and generally provide a more uniform user experience. Since gyroscope/accelerometer functionalities are of very little relevance when playing mobile slots, I’ll argue that the main benefit for an operator lies in the app store channels, the Tesco/Wall-Mart version of digital distribution. From a commercial perspective, this is no more than a digital content affiliate deal, where Apple – in the case of iPhone apps – gets 30 percent on every app sold, in-app purchase or in-app subscription. This is avoided by operators ensuring any deposits take place in a mobile web environment, where Apple does not take a share of revenue.

“ Mobile gaming has, historically, been treated as a side product… it cannot be treated as such anymore, and must be considered a primary access point for customer acquisition.” In the other corner, web apps are webbased services created using a common set of standard technologies; HTML (and increasingly HTML 5), CSS and JavaScript. They’re multi-platform (developed once for every mobile browser) and can be updated instantly – no app store review and approval needed. Most importantly to you, being web-based makes them affiliate tracking friendly. Tracked sales may be made from anywhere on the web, which is not the case for native apps. At Virgin, we’ve decided to kick-start our mobile strategy with a casino web app for most of the reasons above, and also because this route allows us to attach our single wallet system to our new mobile product more easily. Our players use the same account to play at Virgin Casino, Virgin Bingo, Virgin Poker and now our new mobile casino. They can register, manage their account, play, deposit and withdraw seamlessly, whether they’re on the web or on the move. Built by mobile agency Somo and currently home to five Microgaming slot games – including Thunderstruck and Tomb Raider – our mobile casino was specifically engineered to accommodate multiple game providers – just like our web casino does with games from IGT, Microgaming, Cryptologic, Ash Gaming, NextGen, Virtue Fusion, Electracade, etc… Our affiliate partners benefit from our web app approach by earning automatic commissions on mobile game play, just as they do with our other products, regardless of how and where their players originally signed up from.

Mobile advertising While the channels remain similar, advertising on mobile is altogether a different ball game than web marketing. Historically a side product, mobile gaming

cannot be treated as such anymore and, rather, must be considered a primary access point for customer acquisition. If you’re thinking about entering and marketing your services in the mobile market as an affiliate, a few key facts are worth noting:

Mobile site ●●Create

a mobile site. Your conversion rates will drop dramatically if your site doesn’t cater for the mobile visitors it attracts. On the SEO front, Google has a very light touch approach at this stage, but it will change. You can expect mobile SEO to take off in its own right with future algorithm updates. ●●Use device/browser sniffing scripts to serve relevant content on your site. ●●Clearly signpost that mobile and web versions of your site are available. ●●If your mobile traffic increases, consider a subscription system and plan SMS campaigns.

Mobile PPC Driven by betting, mobile gaming PPC currently accounts for ten percent of total clicks, more than for any other sector. Google is king, processing more than 90 percent of mobile searches. ●●Unlike web PPC where more prime estate is available, only the top two PPC positions for any specific keywords are likely to have an impact. ●●Depending on keywords, CPC can be more costly on mobile, driven by the need to appear in the top two spots to gain visibility on mobile devices. ●●Unlike web search, mobile search tends to increase slowly during the day and peak in the evening. Plan your campaigns accordingly. ●●Create a new Google AdWords account for your mobile activities. This will enable you to separate web from mobile and

serve the right content to the right user/ device. Furthermore, it will allow you to experiment with larger budgets, ad copy, landing pages, and bidding strategies catered specifically to mobile visitors. ●●Target your PPC campaigns by device. Serve Android focused ads to Android users, for example. To that effect, Google provides device type dynamic keyword insertion functionalities. On the display side, mobile site banner ads and in-app banner ads show much better CTR (click-through rates) than web banners. Whichever way you decide to enter the mobile marketing world, remember one thing: the territory remains reasonably wild, and there is a lot of room for creativity.

Go mobile! The first mobile telephone call ever made happened in Missouri, USA (from a car), in 1946, using a 36kg device and a $30/month ($337.33 today) AT&T line. This product – clearly aimed at wealthy bodybuilders – was never going to catch on. Today’s Smartphones are cheaper, thankfully lighter, immeasurably entertaining and, most importantly, everyone either owns or wants one. If ever there was a time to catch a wave, the time is now.

Pierrick Leveque is Head of Acquisition at Virgin Games, managing the home grown affiliate program as part of the overall customer acquisition strategy. “Affiliate Program of the Year” EGR Awards 2010 and 2009 “Best Casino/Gaming Affiliate Program” A4U Awards 2008 “Best Bingo Affiliate Manager” CAP/IGB Awards 2009 W: www.virgingames.com/affiliates E: affiliates@virgingames.com B: www.pierrickprk.wordpress.com T: (+44) 208 237 1563

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

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INSIGHT

OPERATOR INSIGHT

The Mobile Challenge: Where do we Stand? As traditional online markets become more saturated with the largest iGaming companies establishing a solid market share in most of these countries, everyone is in search for the next best innovation that will unleash more growth opportunities. To date, growth was possible by trying to reinvent products and mounting better campaigns, but all this meant that one would need to devote significant budgets to offer apparently better products and try to poach customers from competitors. Such a strategy calls for a high cost of player acquisition that will inevitably affect the bottom line.

What can companies do to reignite growth? I would say to go back to the marketing basics, study the market and the evolution of the customer and their consumption patterns: what products they use, how and where they prefer to consume your products. Sometimes, marketers have the problem of falling into the trap of continuous improvement. They believe that customers want a better product and miss the changes in usage patterns and customer evolution. By analysing the online consumption patterns of Internet users in most countries, one will find that compared to previous years, more and more pages are being viewed via mobile devices and that this growth has been exponential. The growth is such that firms like IDC and Cisco are predicting that by 2015, Internet users (and hence data traffic) accessing the web via mobile devices will closely equal that of PCs or other wire-line channels. This growth in mobile data traffic has been accentuated by the increased adoption of versatile and powerful Smartphones. The two most popular Smartphones (iPhone and Android) in traditional European markets, according to comScore, have a combined market share of 42 percent and reach close to 70 percent of the Smartphone market in the US.

Is mobile the next best thing? This is the question that many companies asked a few years back when mobile was becoming ubiquitous as it seemed only natural to imagine that mobile would become a necessity and would change

the way we do many things. However, the infrastructure in general was lacking and was not up-to-speed with pioneer thinking at the time. Today, however, things are different – everything is matching up, mobile devices have become very powerful, they can deliver excellent user experience and Internet infrastructure can support adequate connectivity. Moreover, companies that have pioneered this medium are seeing impressive growth results in mobile gaming revenue. Companies such as William Hill and Ladbrokes, for example, have, this year, triple digit growth rates in mobile revenue when compared to 2010.

What strategies should companies adopt? Target the right customers Companies should not look at this medium as yet another promotional channel targeting their same customer base. It’s true that in the short-term, companies might earn more as their current customers try the innovation; however, such attraction will soon wear off, leaving the company with no additional revenue streams. The focus of this medium should be new customer acquisition as this is the key that drives long-term growth. Companies have to look at market data and profile mobile users, as a stark difference exists between traditional online customers and mobile users. Getting this right is essential as it defines the company’s marketing effort and the alliances it should build. Take, as an example, just one market that was previously very difficult to reach: cash-rich, time-poor people whose only free time might be their daily commute. By identifying their habits and consumption patterns it is now possible to reach these customers and to offer them options other than just listening to music or reading while commuting. Through the right marketing drive, this target market is just a few touches away.

Enlist help from your affiliate base Mobile affiliates, as traditional affiliates, can help companies to reach markets in which they do not hold significant expertise. This is especially important for companies who are starting out in mobile gaming. Specialised mobile websites and mobile affiliate networks provide the ideal starting place for reaching a diversified customer base; I would suggest that you start off by identifying and ranking mobile websites whose customer profile matches yours. Adopt the 80:20 rule and dedicate most of your efforts in getting onboard those 20 percent of affiliates who will drive 80 percent of your mobile business. Design special deals with these affiliates and monitor their performance closely as they could have an immediate impact on your profitability. It is also suggested that you develop a standard commission plan for the other 80 percent of your potential mobile affiliates and to keep a watchful eye on their developments. In time, some of these affiliates may become your best. Remember: if you don’t look after your affiliates, your competitors sure will! In conclusion, you can look at the developments in mobile gaming in the same way as the developments in traditional iGaming back at the start of this millennium. The only difference is that this is happening much faster and that you should now have some experience of the market. So, leverage on the experience and lessons learnt in the past to drive your company into the next generation of iGaming.

Matthew Castillo is an iGaming and Affiliate Marketing specialist who has experience working for a leading affiliate software provider, providing affiliate marketing consultancy services to a number of leading iGaming operators. Matthew can be contacted on matthew@actifusion.com

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

INSIGHT

How to Cater to High Value Players “But what’s this long face about, Mr Starbuck; wilt thou not chase the white whale? Art thou not game for Moby Dick?” Herman Melville, Moby-Dick. The VIP or ‘high-roller’ player is the goal of every affiliate, or rather, the goal of every affiliate that knows how to aim for longterm revenues. In reality, however, a player that has the capacity to play hundreds of thousands of dollars a hand is far more likely to jet to Vegas or Macau for an immersive experience. This is simply because many casinos cannot rival an experience that is offered at the Bellagio. Promoting an enormous bonus may be ‘just’ enough to entice a VIP through the doors, but, it is a whole sensation that has to be replicated by us as an operator to rival the floors of some of the world’s most exotic and established institutions enticing their loyalty Many casinos are catered towards the ‘casual’ player, with far lower lifetime value for the casino, but generate large sums of revenue due to the volume of people using their platform. From an affiliate’s point of view, this kind of traffic, although generally rewarding and necessary for revenue stability, can be problematic due to the relatively high costs of bonuses applied to recently acquired players. It is important to choose operators that will carry over true costs and keep their programs transparent. Lower retention and rates of revenue mean that affiliates may see a lot of customer turnover without garnering decent commission for their efforts to secure the traffic. This not only affects revenue share partners; affiliates who work on a

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

CPA model may see their conversion rates affected by players who may join a casino, but not meet the wagering requirements to trigger a payment. Taking all into consideration and with the market for online casinos somewhat saturated, affiliates targeting more niche markets are more likely to find success, and the VIP market is a very lucrative angle to aim for. Hook one whale with your high-roller site and word-of-mouth can spread fast, potentially bringing in similar players. Optimising a site with high-quality content, catering for a more ‘discerning’ demographic and promoting only the appropriate brands with welldeveloped relationships with both their players and affiliates alike can be a lucrative move if done correctly. That being said, it is important to note that over-reliance on one or two players is a dangerous game, as not only can you not guarantee their loyalty to any one casino, but a winning streak by a high level player can be devastating. That kind of volatility needs to be managed by the casino and although in fewer numbers, many fair operators still employ a no-negative carryover policy in order to help their affiliates. VIPs are shrewd players and if they feel they are not getting the right levels of service, or have been offered something better from another operator, they may well decide to take their business elsewhere. When choosing which casino to play with,

a VIP’s decision is dictated by a casino’s bonus structure and VIP reward program, while their long-term loyalties are earned the same as in any land-based operation. Only a few online casinos remain that are uniquely prepared to attract and retain high-value players with a ‘concierge’ service, an increased, flexible bonus selection, higher table limits, fast payments and withdrawals and customer service always on hand. Once a high-roller is brought in by an affiliate, what then? Ultimately, the player is now out of your hands and is entrusted to the casino and their retention team to keep them happy and playing at their casino. Casinos that specialise in catering to the ‘high-roller’ players will have an on-site VIP team who are managed by them on a one-to-one basis. This could include daily contact, preferential treatment with prizes and a direct line to their own contacts 24/7. The most essential thing for affiliates looking for these players is to promote a casino that ticks all these boxes to help you catch, and keep, your whale.

Thomas Rhys Jones is Acquisition Manager for Bet-at and its affiliate program ‘bringit’, an innovative casino that specialises in catering for high-value players. He can be contacted on +356 2015 6651 or via email at: thomas.jones@bet-at.eu.

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INSIGHT

The Art of Negotiating How to earn what you’re worth, by Louis Deering, Senior Affiliate Manager at Income Access. One thing that being an affiliate has in common with other professions is the desire for greater success. Ask any affiliate if they would like to achieve and earn more for their efforts, and they will undoubtedly say ‘yes’. Successful efforts and results merit strong compensation. So how do you know when you deserve more from an affiliate program? More importantly, how do you go about getting it? The following is a brief guide to earning what you’re worth.

Communication When it comes to getting the most out of your efforts and results, the importance of communicating with your affiliate manager cannot be stressed enough. Your affiliate manager is there to build and maintain a strong, lasting, and mutually profitable business relationship with you to ensure a healthy partnership and program success. By communicating with your manager regularly, you will develop a genuine relationship with them, and when a manager knows you and understands your business model, he or she will be able to support you in a much more effective manner. By building and maintaining a strong

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

relationship, you will also be able to increase your accomplishments through access to your manager’s in-depth program knowledge. One area that is good to monitor is the geo-accessibility limitations pertaining to specific programs. In certain cases, quality traffic might actually be incongruent with an affiliate program due to restrictions on traffic by country and region. As an affiliate, this may mislead you to think that the program has low conversion rates when, in fact, your traffic may simply not be accepted. By having this conversation, you will be able to succeed by channelling the traffic you impact most to the right programs, thereby increasing conversions and earnings. Affiliate marketing on the whole is about the strength of relationships, and a strong relationship through transparent communication with your manager will only help you in the long run. By being open and direct with your manager, you will help them understand your needs as an affiliate beyond a business model. Affiliates often have different personal approaches to their work and by letting your manager know just what makes you tick, you allow them to find programs and strategies most suited to your needs.

Transparency is a major element in affiliate marketing and telling the truth about your business practices and capacity to produce will enhance your negotiations on adequate compensation packages.

Data Make sure that when negotiating your worth, you have compelling data to support your position. When it comes to remuneration, numbers can often be more convincing than words in illustrating your merit. With rigid regulations and taxation, operators are often working on a limited profit margin. By collecting strong data, your merit as an affiliate becomes much less subjective. Saying you bring added revenue to the operator is one thing, but having data concretely showing that you have strong traffic sources, rising sales, rates of conversion as well as data on your average player values referred to similar programmes, is a much better attention grabber. At its core, iGaming is a very mathematical industry with volume of referrals, conversion, lifetime customer values, profit margins, and other similar KPIs used as a direct barometer of a mutually beneficial partnership.

“Make sure that when negotiating your worth, you have compelling data to support your position.” The best thing about using data in negotiations is that you should already have all the necessary statistics readily available. Using comprehensive reports that show the performance of your campaigns, traffic data to your site(s), conversion rates, and revenues generated from your referrals will be essential. By collecting intelligent data, you will be able to custom-tailor your marketing efforts in a way that maximises efficiency and profit, precisely the sort of traits that would encourage greater compensation. If for whatever reason you feel that you are not receiving the amount of information necessary for optimised performance, do not hesitate to contact your manager. Managers are more than aware of the importance of reporting and will gladly provide you with as much information as possible. Data means more than just knowing your own value to a program. It means

doing proper research on prevailing compensation models. Not knowing industry standards regarding rev share, CPA, or bonuses could lead to unrealistic expectations. In turn, this could undermine the legitimacy of your enquiry. If you were negotiating your salary at any other job, you would have to know what the average wages were, and affiliate marketing is no different. Regardless of how great an affiliate you are, no one will take your request for an 80 percent rev share seriously since it is entirely out of the realm of standard remuneration. So, know what you’re worth, but keep it in perspective of what is sustainable for the operator, and what is realistic.

In summary Just as with your affiliate efforts, negotiations are most effective when based on strong, genuine communication and concise information. If you have

a strong, open relationship with your manager, and are able to demonstrate the value you bring to the program, the chances of you achieving a compensation package that is attractive and mutually suitable will be elevated. Affiliate managers are there to help and support you; however, unless you present your case with effective dialogue and information, you run the risk of being the only one aware of your real worth.

Louis Deering is the Senior Affiliate Manager at Income Access and has worked in online marketing since 2005. His knowledge of the iGaming industry and experience working with affiliates and operators make him ideally suited to manage and build successful affiliate programs. Louis is in the running for Best Affiliate Manager at the upcoming 2012 iGB Affiliate Awards, after taking home this award in 2010.

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DASH THROUGH THE iGAMING SEASON How affiliates can maximise their earnings during the holidays. WITH THE HOLIDAY season just around the corner, iGaming affiliates are preparing for the time of the year associated with the ringing of yuletide bells and the potential for increased consumer spending. Many affiliate programs are already planning holiday-themed specials, bonuses and promotions. Affiliates who want to leverage this key earning period to reach and convert an increased number of players need to start planning now. Here are several seasonal tips to help you earn more from your affiliate business during the holiday period.

Pre-holiday planning One of the best ways to maximise your earning potential during the holidays is to plan early. November is the perfect time of the year to create a concrete marketing strategy. Starting early will allow you the time you need to plan your promotional strategy, build your search engine optimisation and focus on ideallysuited affiliate program partners. When affiliates wait until mid-December to climb on board with the seasonal buzz, the competition is often fierce, making it more challenging to earn more in this coveted Q4 period.

review the programs you regularly promote throughout the year, and hone your offers with holiday-themed games, promotions, bonuses and tournaments. It is also an opportune time to seek out new partners, especially ones that have embodied the holiday spirit in their offerings.

Find loyal ‘elves’ Father Christmas ensures that gifts are always delivered on time – no questions asked! This would not be possible without his brand ambassadors – his ‘loyal elves’. Players have the potential to be brand ambassadors or loyal elves. Often, you may focus on acquiring new players for the holiday season, however, it’s important to recognise that you could already have a goldmine of brand ambassadors. If you happen to have an existing database with contact details for past players from an email campaign or special contest you ran, you can refer to this data to start re-building relationships and invite those former partners to come back this season and take advantage of your offers. They can help spread the word to other players about your special promotions in player communities. Connect with these existing loyal fans and offer something exclusive or provide them with first dibs on your special holiday gifts.

Find the ‘holiday spirit’ During the holidays, many people chase that ubiquitous ‘holiday spirit’. Make sure that you are providing players with that same holiday cheer by promoting the right affiliate programs. This is a good time to

Decorate! When you walk into a bricks-and-mortar store, you are instantly enveloped in holiday decorations, carols, ribbons and merriment. Your affiliate website is really no different.

If holiday entertainment is what your players are looking for, then make sure when they land on your website that it’s obvious they have come to the right place. Now is a great time to talk to your affiliate program managers and ask for holidaythemed banners. Then you will be set with the right kind of seasonal marketing creative to give your website that fresh holiday cheer. If you use text links on your website, update these as well so that you are promoting the most appealing holiday games and programs.

Optimise your website cheer Once you know which programs/ promotions you will be focusing on during the holiday season, you can begin to research keywords to incorporate within your content. Holiday search terms tend to be very competitive, so it is often recommended to focus on long-tail keywords as opposed to short-tail ones. Try to be as specialised as possible to minimise competition. To get the most out of the keywords that you’re using, they should be used in several places. First, use them in your meta description and the title of your page. If you have a blog, you can often download plug-ins (depending on the type of blog software you are using) that help you accomplish this easily. Second, they must be used in the text of your copy. Use unique keywords or keyword phrases once every 60 to 80 words for best results. However, the prerequisite to both these steps is research. To find

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

INSIGHT

“ Once you know which programs and promotions you will be focusing on during the holiday season, you can begin to research keywords to incorporate within your content.” out what people are searching for, relative to your niche, you can use a tool like the Google AdWords Keyword Tool.

Maximise your holiday merriment The holidays can be an auspicious time to invest in (or increase) marketing campaigns. People are often looking for deals, promotions, free deposits, bonuses and the like during the holidays, so they are generally more open to receiving this kind of promotional information. A great PPC campaign (using your keyword research, of course) or email campaign can be the perfect way to announce what you have in store for the season to potential players. If you want to take it a step further, create a special landing page designed specifically for your holiday promotions. One quick tip for your landing page is to make sure the visitor finds exactly what they are looking for, and quickly. For example, if you have a

PPC ad and are promoting Holiday Poker Promotions, make sure that your landing page delivers exactly that. Also, be sure to include a prominent call-to-action, so it is evident what action your visitor has to take in order to achieve the end goal.

Find your best reindeer Your marketing campaigns are a bit like Father Christmas’ reindeers – they should be working in harmony to fly your sleigh around the world in one night, which for affiliates means the driving and conversion of traffic. Naturally, you will want to promote several iGaming offers simultaneously and combine those with the best marketing channels to generate the most profit. The key to achieving this objective is to monitor those ‘reindeers’ and see which are your strongest. Based on the performance of those offers, you will have evidence as to which offer has driven

“ Holiday search terms tend to be very competitive, so it is often recommended to focus on long-tail keywords as opposed to short-tail ones.” 62

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

the most players to you. More importantly, you will discover which of those offers have converted the best and provided you with the most profit. Just as Rudolph is head of the reindeer pack, think of which one of your offers should take the lead in terms of receiving the most investment of time and optimisation. The holiday season is a competitive time for reaping iGaming rewards. If you plan to dash through the period as a top earner, you must separate yourself from the competition. Ensure that your holiday campaigns have unique bells and whistles that set you apart from the rest of the crowd. And remember; just like eggnog, your holiday earnings are only as strong as the ingredients you put into it.

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

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INTERVIEW

Going After the Gold Rush The Australian online gambling market is progressing rapidly and is a key region of opportunity for affiliates says Luxbet’s Affiliate Manager, Andy Scott. Firstly, describe the general Australian appetite for online gambling and how consumers are currently betting on sports (online, mobile, etc…) and which sports they are betting on? Across all forms, annual wagering sales in Australia total around $24 billion. Online gambling accounts for approximately 27 percent of this while the majority remains with the traditional retail TABs, in dedicated outlets and in pubs and clubs. The online share, however, has seen steady growth year-on-year and it is a trend that looks set to continue. This is reflected by the growing number of licensed corporate bookmakers in operation. The number of bets taken on mobile at Luxbet is growing exponentially. Apps for the respective mobile devices have become an essential part of the marketing mix and I’m sure that this is replicated across our competitors. This trend is supported by a recent study showing Australia to have the second highest Smartphone usage by population density anywhere in the world. Horseracing is the biggest draw for online gambling and having recently moved from the UK to follow the beach and BBQ lifestyle, I was given a massive wake-up call when the Spring Racing calendar commenced. Culminating in the Melbourne Cup, this two-month period also incorporates the finals series for both the Aussie Rules and the NRL (National Rugby League) seasons. It really is an exciting time to be involved in this industry. Are there specific localised exceptions to the rule? For example, are punters likely to bet differently or have specific sporting preferences in different parts of this vast country? The most obvious regional difference at state level is seen in the two major sports:

Aussie Rules and NRL. The latter is far more popular in New South Wales and Queensland while it’s the remaining states, especially Victoria, that traditionally participates in and follows Australian Rules Football. The Spring Racing Carnival in Melbourne (primarily) and Sydney is the biggest betting event of the year irrespective of where you may reside. Outside of this, you may find that punters from Western Australia are less inclined to bet on meetings in Brisbane, but, to make a generalisation, Australians all over the country ‘love the punt’. For new entrants (affiliates) to the Australian market, what’s the key to driving quality sportsbetting traffic via their affiliate sites? As an established affiliate looking to move into the Australian market, many of the standard practices and tactics stand true. I’m not saying anything profound when talking about fresh, relevant content and pages optimised for the Australian reader and their search habits. I’ve been savagely mocked for some of the British slang that has been introduced to some of our promotions but it’s fair comment and getting basic terminology and offers correct will keep a reader engaged. Consider the services of an Australian-based content writer and, where possible, integrate social media into your strategy, an avenue that is still relatively untouched in this market. Once you are driving quality Australian traffic, what strategies can be implemented to turn potential customers into converting ones? As a nation that has been cautiously shifting its gambling practices from retail-based TABs to online corporate bookmakers, educating punters as to the multitude of online gambling products

will add a level of trust and value to your site and ease that transition away from the offline space. First deposit bonuses are very competitive in Australia and offers of up to $1,000 are enticing the growing number of punters to make that initial transaction. To stand out from the crowd, additional affiliate-led benefits such as ‘free form’, tips or subscriptions can be used, especially during key seasonal acquisition periods. It’s also worth pointing out that while online sportsbetting in Australia is legal, each state has its own rules as to what is and isn’t acceptable in terms of marketing. Getting to grips with the legislation is important as it will directly impact upon your acquisition efforts. Finally, for those affiliates contemplating international expansion in terms of the markets they operate in, what is the current appeal of the Australian sportsbetting sector? Estimates suggest that over 70 percent of the adult population will have a bet at some point during the year and with an increasing share taking the online route, there are so many opportunities for affiliates to bring something new and interesting to the table. Comparing the affiliate space with that of the UK, I would agree that it is relatively young in its development but from my short time over here, it appears to be moving quickly. What I’ve grown to appreciate is that the average Australian sports fan is interested in a wide base of sports both local and international and their betting habits follow suit. Betting is a cultural norm and would be highlighted best by the Melbourne Cup. In Victoria, there is a Public Holiday while everybody else will down tools at lunch for an office party or trip to the pub. It’s a fascinating market and not a bad place to live either!

“ You need to consider the services of an Australian-based content writer and, where possible, integrate social media into your strategy – an avenue that is relatively untouched in this market.” iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

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FEATURE – THE FUTURE OF AFFILIATE MARKETING

THE FUTURE OF AFFILIATE MARKETING AS THIS ISSUE straddles two years that may prove defining for the fortunes of affiliates doing business in the regulating European market, we open discussion on just what the future will hold for affiliates in regulated markets, not just here in Europe but also in a theoretical US market – although this still seems some way from fulfilment. We also explore an offshoot of regulating markets – convergence – and in this case, a converged terrestrial and online landscape that will imply as much challenge as it will opportunity for affiliate partners. In addition, we play soothsayer to desktop SEO, social and mobile marketing as well as hearing from the affiliates themselves on the trends likely to affect their specific product verticals. For affiliates and their traditional business practices, these are clouds gathering on the horizon, and amongst them, preparation needs to be made to navigate with the evolving tide, rather than allowing strategic opportunities to become obstacles.

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

feature – The Future OF AFFILIATE MARKETING

The Future for Affiliates: in a Regulated European Market As the remote gambling industry continues to face up to the challenges posed by the newly regulated European environment, Stephen Ketteley of DLA Piper discusses how affiliates, similarly, need to adapt. The extraordinary success of the remote gambling industry and, by proxy, the various affiliate marketing networks that service it, owes as much to basic online marketing capabilities as to affiliates’ open willingness to provide on-the-ground assistance in jurisdictions where operators would themselves fear to tread. It is an established principle that where a particular jurisdiction takes issue with the supply of remote gambling services to its citizens, then it follows that the marketing of such services within a jurisdiction is likely to constitute an offence. But as the industry faces up to multi-jurisdictional regulation, the comfort that remoteness of supply provides continues to be eroded. This article considers the consequences to affiliates of the march towards European regulation.

The on-going conflict between lawyers and ‘marketeers’ Leading up to the implementation, in Great Britain, of the Gambling Act in September 2007, the authorities made it clear that certain marketing messages aimed at drawing attention to certain remote gambling businesses were prohibited if they contained explicit references to money or money’s worth. As such, any mention of bonuses, jackpots and the like were off limits until the law finally came into force. Always remembering that the remote gambling industry is comfortable with a myriad of local laws and the challenges of applying such laws to their activities offshore, many sought to ignore the

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

aforementioned prohibitions and continued regardless. However, at the time, the mainstream media became quickly aware they may be publishing prohibited advertisements and committing an offence themselves. I recall being asked to attend a meeting by a client, a mainstream media company, where its in-house lawyer and its marketing director where at loggerheads with respect to whether they could service an offshore operator who was looking to use their services to undertake what was, in my view at the time, prohibited advertising. The operator was happy to pass the ‘local’ risk onto the media company and offered them an annual retainer worth ten times what they would commit to spend if the marketing company insisted on abiding by the content-related rules. Needless to say, the lawyers won the argument and, with far more at stake, the media company wisely decided to take the ten percent and sleep easy. This story illustrates an interesting dilemma that the industry faces – namely, reconciling the strict legal position with the commercial reality. It can be difficult for operators to successfully compete against one another when they have dramatically different attitudes to compliance with local laws. Some operators wilfully ignore marketing regulations or restrictions in order to get their message across. Indeed, it was arguably unrealistic for lawyers to demand unwavering compliance with all relating marketing restrictions by the remote gambling

industry when to do so could simply make them uncompetitive. However, it may be that things are set to change.

The advent of national licensing regimes Any participant in the remote gambling market is being forced to assess the impact of the rapidly regulating European market on their involvement. Hitherto, many of these stakeholders have been able to create risk rationales based upon the remoteness of supply and the lack of enforcement appetite or ability. But with regulation, such rationales are becoming defunct and the advent of regulation will have a direct effect on the way operators and their affiliates interact with the public. The application of advertising codes of practice in the UK to the gambling industry has continued to cause operators problems and it is the behaviour of many operators’ affiliates that can be considered to be the root of such problems. The advertising codes do, in theory, apply to all ‘advertising’ (and you can construe that term very widely). The reality is that the Advertising Standards Authority (the ASA, the UK’s advertising regulator) has limited ability to pursue any third-party who is supplying marketing communications into the United Kingdom from offshore. Some remote operators, however, may have local presence within the jurisdiction enabling enforcement risk to bite (e.g. those with retail estates within the UK). They cannot ignore advertising rules and have, by and large, tried to abide by them

“ With regulation of gaming could come the ultimate challenge for affiliates – being regulated themselves. Junket operators already require licensing in a number of places – is it really beyond possibility for such a burden to extend into the online arena?” (weak sanctions aside). Thus, a number of multi-national operators are already geared up to cope with the marketing restrictions similar to those new, local laws that will apply to them in other jurisdictions. As European nations continue to introduce regulation, operators will need to analyse and understand the jurisdictional nuances between them, as failing to do so can lead to reputational damage or regulatory censure. Affiliates will need to be kept closer than ever before.

Regulation is catching up with technology (again) In March 2011, the ASA’s remit was extended into the online environment. At the time, I attended a fascinating session at the ASA in which operators in attendance expressed some dismay at the suggestion that they should be responsible for the content of marketing communications published by their affiliates as they claimed that their policing such communications was literally impossible. It was somewhat predictable that the ASA’s response to this was, “hard luck, it is your responsibility to police your marketing affiliates”. Regulation will have limited scope to accommodate commercial convenience, particularly where such emotive topics such as social responsibility are involved. Such issues were again highlighted by the ASA successfully banning an advert run through Facebook by an 888 affiliate. Whilst the content of that advert (Addicted to slots? 888promos.com) was fairly extraordinary, more so was the way in which an advertising regulator successfully took extra-territorial action to effect the removal of a marketing communication within an international social network. Facebook tried to distance itself from the issue by blaming the operator who, in turn, blamed its agency. In reality, both the operator and Facebook fell short. Shortly after this, the social network clarified its position on gambling ads.

The adaption of affiliates to the regulatory market The challenge for affiliates to remain commercial and yet abide by any policies put in place by their paymaster operators

will become an interesting one to observe. The passage of new local laws that specifically apply to affiliate activities will cause a number of them to reflect long and hard where such laws are passed in their home nation. For example, some affiliates in the soon-to-be regulated Spanish market are dismayed at their apparent joint and several liabilities for any unlicensed operators’ actions where said affiliates provide local marketing support. Indeed, the Italian system provides a further, interesting insight into how things may develop elsewhere as operators need to clear much of their marketing literature with AAMS before publication (this includes banner ads). One wonders how this will develop and whether the days where an affiliate was supplied tools and materials by the operator and then left to its own devices are numbered. Local laws aside, it is also likely that the compliance will be imposed upon affiliates by operators through the installation of affiliate management policies. As local regulation continues to develop, the marketing teams will again find themselves having to relent to the lawyers’ views. As operators seek and obtain licences throughout European jurisdictions, they need to be clear on any conditions that may be attached to their licences that may prescribe the type of marketing that can and cannot be undertaken. Furthermore, social responsibility remains a key component of many licensing initiatives and the consequences of breaching licence conditions through failure to scrutinise the behaviour of affiliates could be considerable. The associated compliance represents yet another expense of regulation for operators as they may need, on a jurisdiction-byjurisdiction basis, to assess local marketing laws (which often sit in legal frameworks entirely independent of gambling regulations) and be prescriptive about what affiliates can and can’t do, have clear terms and conditions in place and make sure they actually monitor what affiliates do. The application of such data protection laws will become more pertinent as they become easier to enforce at a local level. Again,

the behaviour of affiliates will need to be closely monitored by operators that, as regulated entities, have a heightened sense of responsibility when it comes to their use of personal data. Finally, with regulation of gaming could come the ultimate challenge for affiliates – being regulated themselves. Junket operators already require licensing in a number of places – is it really beyond possibility for such a burden to extend into the online arena?

Self-regulation – the industry must take the lead The gambling industry continues to be challenged on a political and/or moral level and can help itself by policing the content of marketing communications published in its name. Any advert that can even be remotely considered as ‘socially irresponsible’ must be avoided at all costs as, whilst there may be a short-term gain, there will almost certainly be a long-term loss. Various regulators are clear that the industry must control its affiliates and will hold operators responsible if they don’t. There will always be those that assess the lack of meaningful sanctions available to advertising regulators and take their chance. But as compliance with advertising restrictions becomes an integral part of on-going licensing obligations, the need to comply becomes all the more important for all involved.

Stephen Ketteley is a partner at DLA Piper, a leading international law firm with offices in 30 countries. He is part of the firm’s global gaming practice. He acts for operators and suppliers on a number of regulatory issues and on matters of intellectual property, software licensing and development, white-labelling and affiliate deals. He advises on the commercial and regulatory aspects of corporate transactions and the corresponding issues affecting investors, lenders and intermediaries. He is noted in the Legal 500 as a “real expert in online gambling” and manages the Gambling UK LinkedIn Group. If you wish to know more about how DLA Piper can work with your business, please contact gambling@dlapiper.com.

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

FEATURE – THE FUTURE OF AFFILIATE MARKETING

THE FUTURE FOR AFFILIATES: IN A REGULATED US MARKET ‘Steady as she goes’: will there be a place for affiliates in the new American iGaming landscape? WHAT THE AFFILIATES are principally concerned about, of course, is not arrest or prosecution. Somebody who is only relaying a few links and carrying a few advertisements doesn’t make a politically worthwhile target, and gambling law prosecutions are often politically inspired, particularly in the USA. No, the threat to US-facing affiliates is that once Internet gambling is in the hands of the state, they will be squeezed out of the marketing structure. If, for example, a given state should choose to put its licensed Internet poker operations under the control of the existing state lottery, then it will be assumed the lottery authorities don’t need help with advertising or distribution of gaming aids. After all, there are lottery outlets in practically every gas station and liquor store across the country. The good news is there’s plenty of time to consider that question: with one or two exceptions, Internet gambling (except for horseracing, of course) hasn’t got here yet, and doesn’t look like arriving any time soon. Which means that the affiliates’ privileged position will probably continue for the immediate future.

Washington – the national picture Because Internet gambling is a global market, there are strong arguments for installing a national licensing regime. Differences in local gambling laws did

not matter when everyone in a particular game had to be in the same place. But in a time when it is possible to offer poker online to people all over the world, it makes less and less sense to subject operators (and advertisers) to conflicting legal requirements at the local level. But the drive to establish nationally licensed Internet gambling, especially poker, has never really caught fire in the US Congress. For one thing, Congress is operating in virtual deadlock; it’s practically impossible to get a normal budget passed, never mind something as controversial as gambling legislation. For another, American gambling law is based on state laws, not federal. In fact, as a general proposition, prosecution for a federal anti-gambling law relies on an underlying violation of state gambling law. This means that the states will not welcome sharing either the power over gambling or the revenue it produces, and may very well urge their respective Congressional delegations to resist national licensing. Lastly, gambling, online or off, is just not that important to the nation these days. There are genuinely urgent matters to attend to first: the world financial malaise, the flagging American economy, the political upheaval in the Middle East, a nuclear-armed Iran. And 2012 will also be the most bitterly fought national election in decades. Anything that Congress doesn’t

pass by about June will probably not even be considered, as the national party conventions are held that summer and the politicians have to fight for their jobs.

In this corner... At the state level, the future of US Internet gambling continues to be a three cornered stand-off. In one corner are state legislators, in the second, the vested, state-licensed gaming interests already existing in the USA, and in the third, the online gaming operators, mostly based abroad. Each needs to do more to advance the expansion of Internet gambling in the USA. But so far, their respective efforts have not nearly matched the challenge. The legislators, for the most part, do not understand how Internet gambling works. Truth be told, many of them don’t particularly wish to know. The official bias against gambling in any form remains strong, particularly in socially conservative districts. Outside of Nevada there are very few politicians who can say “I owe my job to the pro-gambling lobby, I mustn’t offend them.” Quite the contrary, a pro-gambling stance can be a political liability. So, one way or the other, legislators don’t think it’s in their best interest to pay too much attention, absent of approval from on high. To give but one example, the California State Senate held informational hearings on Internet poker for six weeks at the

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

FEATURE – THE FUTURE OF AFFILIATE MARKETING

“The threat to US-facing affiliates is that once Internet gambling is in the hands of the state, they will be squeezed out of the marketing structure.” beginning of 2011. Of the dozen senators on the oversight committee, only one, the chairman, showed up regularly. And as with the US Congress, the coming election bids fair to ‘suck all the air out of the room’ if action for approval is not undertaken fairly early in the year. Many of the state legislators, after all, will be delegates to the national convention themselves. All in all, there is little chance that anything will be enacted on the state level either. The vested interests, already-licensed forms of gambling such as Indian casinos, card rooms, horse tracks, and lotteries, often seem more interested in preventing each other from profiting by the new opportunity than in gaining any advantage themselves. In many places, the suspicion still lingers that Internet gambling will rob the vested interests of their existing customer base (so-called ‘cannibalisation’). In point of fact, Internet and interactive media are the future for gambling, as they are for many other things. They are the link to the new generation of customers which every gambling format must reach in order to survive. Rather than wasting time in a futile effort to suppress them, the existing interests need to exert a concerted effort to master their possibilities. But to date, there hasn’t been much of that, either.The online gambling operators,

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

though they are mostly foreign firms, are also AWOL here. They are the natural choices to take the states into Internet and interactive gambling, albeit in the form of partnerships with the state-licensed vested interests. But it will take much more outreach and education to build up support at the state level. It is understandable that many of them would tend to shy away from the expense and effort involved, especially across multiple jurisdictions. But there really is no other way to reach the goal.

The course to steer Right now, most affiliates dealing with the USA market have little to fear. They do not generally make a worthwhile political target, to justify arrest or prosecution. While there is the longrange possibility that the expansion of legalised Internet gambling, run by either a state bureaucracy or a state licensee, may squeeze them out of the market, this possibility depends on the actual enactment of broad-based licensing legislation, either at the national or the state level. And right now – though there could be some surprises – that is not a realistic possibility. Even so, it is poor security, and poor planning for the future, to rely on the notion that the powers-that-be won’t get

around to destroying your business model. But there is an alternative to waiting for the end. Most of the states which are considering the licensing of expanded Internet gambling are also in the process of drawing up regulations whereby the vendors of the products and services needed to run the actual systems will be licensed, too. It might be a good idea for the affiliates who wish to continue in the American market, in the future, to investigate securing such official approval. In fact, the affiliates’ long association with the unofficial market may be very attractive to the state iGaming systems when these arrive. Officially approved online gambling will have the same goal as the unofficial: to make money, as quickly and efficiently as possible. And who better to help, than the folks who know exactly where the customers are?

MARTIN OWENS is a California attorney specializing in the law of Internet and interactive gaming since 1998. Co-author of INTERNET GAMING LAW with Professor Nelson Rose, (Mary Ann Liebert Publishers 2005); Editorial board, Gaming Law Review. Comments/inquiries welcome at mowens@trade-attorney.com.

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FEATURE – THE FUTURE OF AFFILIATE MARKETING

THE FUTURE FOR AFFILIATES IN A CONVERGED INDUSTRY The regulation of markets in Europe and, more specifically, the US is pointing to a period of convergence that will see US land-based gaming brands integrating with the expertise of the European online operators. Marcos Charif, Associate at Harris Hagan, explores the future role for affiliates in a converged industry. Converting affiliates So now we have it: the ‘new beginning’. Black Friday heralded the prospect of regulating US online gambling, and we didn’t have to wait very long for the first major deals to be signed, sealed and announced between US land-based giants MGM and Boyd Gaming and European online operator, bwin.party. This ménage à trois is the first step towards an integration of European online expertise and US brand recognition, as well as a huge potential client database to go after, once online gambling has been regulated in the US. Rich pickings for some… This development is not only long overdue, but also sees a way out for what some might regard as the narrow-minded EU approach of having tiny unprofitable national licensing regimes: who cares what the EU Parliament decides once the US market is open? Do people honestly care if Poland is banning online gambling? Do

people really care if the German Länder might finally get a grip on reality if the US market is ripe? The answer is clear and the writing is on the wall: go west and leave the highly regulated and fragmented EU landscape behind… welcome to online gambling in Nevada! But what do these developments mean for affiliates? How will affiliate marketers deal in a highly regulated iGaming industry? And how can affiliates prepare for the convergence of online and land-based gaming brands? Don’t yawn and roll your eyes – it concerns you. Yes, you! It is going to happen you know, (trust me, I’m a lawyer).

Uncertainty The simple question of ‘language’ becomes an issue: offering affiliate sites in various languages to increase exposure and establish a brand in a particular jurisdiction raises the financial value and attractiveness of these affiliates. But some European

countries already regard the use of their local language on websites as targeted advertising, leading to heavy fines and criminal penalties, regardless of where the affiliate is located. It is no longer just the online gambling operator who is at risk, but also those who advertise gambling products. In this context, some might say that affiliates today are where gambling operators used to be: in a constant state of uncertainty, having to remain consistently vigilant to avoid falling foul of any regulations. Staying away from these jurisdictions, however, is not the answer, because others will go the extra mile and become an invaluable asset to online gambling operators in these countries. Confused? Frustrated? Perhaps it’s time to leave Europe behind and see what the US has to offer… Whether we like it or not, developments in the US, including land-based brands going online, means that casino affiliates

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

feature – The Future of Affiliate marketing

“ Some might say that affiliates today are where gambling operators used to be: in a constant state of uncertainty, having to remain consistently vigilant to avoid falling foul of any regulations.” must become a bit less ‘spamisticated’. Needless to say, affiliate marketing for betting products has come a long way, but it is time for its casino counterpart to follow suit. But before we go down the path of no return, it is worthwhile considering how important reputation, land-based marketing skills and conversion of land-based and online clients are for the future of online gambling. This is also evident in Europe, where several land-based casinos, supported by non-EU compliance legislation, are the only ones who can go online (did I say Belgium?). The main issue for all land-based operators is reputation and discretion. Some of them have been around for more than 100 years, totally missing the introduction of universal suffrage or indeed the creation of the EU. However, their client base, an increasingly international set, want to be entertained 24/7. So what’s the problem? Hook them online and let the party begin? Well, unfortunately, life is a bit more complicated than that.

Personal data Advertising online is an art in itself and the successful affiliates already know everything there is to know about this. Land-based marketing is also nothing new, neither are the ideas of converting landbased clients into online clients. In fact, the subject is as old as mobile gambling, neither of which has kicked off. And this article is not even pretending to predict the new wave of land-based conversions – because it is going to happen! What affiliates need to know, however, is that land-based operators may not feel comfortable at all in sharing their precious customer data with online operators and their affiliates to market to the existing casino customers. No casino in Mayfair would want to be associated with website advertising of what might be perceived by some as a dodgy low class entertainment (they’re not desperate enough yet…). Neither is MGM interested in sharing its enormous customer data with that type of casino. With all these new developments and buzz words like ‘trafficking’ and ‘sourcing’ and ‘targeting’ and ‘social media’, one can easily forget that it is (or should be) all about the consumer (or more accurately,

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

about the consumer’s personal data). Until now, ‘traditional affiliates’ managed to stay far, far away from Personal Data, simply promoting online operators and leaving the headache of what can and cannot be done with this data to the operator instead. The scary concept of Data Protection comes to mind, with all its associated rules and obstacles – an ugly and boring concept for some, but essential and valuable for many. The Information Commissioner now has extensive powers to fine Data Protection breaches and did not hesitate in imposing a fine of £100,000 on a UK company for loss of customer data. Data Protection has not stopped online gambling operators from generating profits, nor has it stopped their customers from using their sites. The same principle applies to social media networks and, to a lesser extent, blogs as well. If, therefore, the future or part of the future lies in exploring social media further, affiliates will have to get used to the idea that Data Protection matters. In fact, gambling affiliates, with their expertise of online affiliate marketing for a niche gambling sector, are perfectly placed to lead these social media sites and create their own distinctive brand and customer following, incentivising interested visitors to register with them and retain a customer following that will undoubtedly make them more of an equal partner to online gambling operators. However, the tricky part is getting established land-based operators to part with their customer data – some of which has not even been computerised yet! Therefore, data processor and data controller agreements will be part of any conversion package to ensure the safety of existing customers in the future. One of the most valuable assets in online gambling is access to player data and it is therefore no surprise that online gambling operators guard this data jealously, often refusing to share information with their affiliates, who generated these users for them in the first place. Land-based operators are not much better and the data they hold may not even be worth converting, however, it’s all about brand image and about increasing the existing offering to the online community.

With the correct legal and regulatory understanding of advertising rules and data protection guidelines, affiliates should be in a most favourable position to conquer social media, blogs and expand their offerings to other jurisdictions as well. It is a small step for man, but a big step for affiliates. In this modern world, gambling operators might consider that it is better to have an affiliate as a friend than to have been ‘de-friended’ by one.

In summary The increasing presence of US land-based operators in online gambling highlights the importance of ‘branding’ and customer locality. Existing customers of land-based operators will expect a VIP treatment when going online and it is this VIP treatment that must be communicated by affiliates to existing land-based customers in accordance with the brand image and reputation. Nevada Regulators already request for affiliates to be ‘certified’ and it is as yet unknown what this certification entails. In other words: the increased regulatory and legal requirements (data protection and certification to name a few) and the presence of US land-based operators in online gambling not only means that conversion will have to take place, but also that it will only take place in a highly regulated (and potentially licensable) environment. Affiliates need to play their cards right and prepare to ‘convert’.

Marcos Charif is an associate solicitor at Harris Hagan and specialises in e-commerce and information technology for the online gambling industry. Marcos is a dually qualified German and English lawyer. He has also studied European Union Law and Politics and holds a Ph.D. in International Relations. Marcos has advised betting and gaming companies, software developers and various online businesses on general contractual issues and regulatory matters, as well as outsourcing, licensing and system integration agreements.

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FEATURE – THE FUTURE OF AFFILIATE MARKETING

IN THEIR OWN WORDS: THE FUTURE FOR AFFILIATES Jeremy Enke, founder of Poker Affiliate Listings, leads the debate on future forecasts for a regulated US market from the affiliate perspective. Jeremy There has never been such uncertainty amongst gambling affiliates and operators as there is now – after the US Department of Justice shut down and seized the domains of the world’s top four online poker companies. There is a great deal of speculation about what the landscape of online gambling will look like in a highly regulated and technologically advancing iGaming industry. This uncertainty is especially concerning to both poker and casino affiliates trying to plan a long-term strategy moving into the New Year. Many of these affiliates have spent years building their affiliate businesses and rely on the revenues they earn through the various poker and casino affiliate programs in question. There is no question that US regulation would undoubtedly legitimise the online gambling industry. However, the potential impact on affiliates remains unknown. Most affiliates believe that in a regulated environment, US land-based casinos will play a much more significant role. In fact, several US casinos have already begun positioning themselves for a future regulated online gambling market and,

more specifically, online poker. For example, South Point Casino has launched an online poker room, however, only for play-money at this point. Likewise, we are starting to see more alliances between the powerhouses in the online gambling space and the larger landbased casino companies. Recently, casino operators MGM Resorts International and Boyd Gaming also unveiled a plan to partner with online gaming company bwin. party (Digital Entertainment). With the inevitable emergence of bricks and mortar casinos entering the online gaming space, there is no doubt that the role affiliates play in the industry will be significantly changing. Unlike many startup online brands in the past, these newly regulated online gambling destinations backed by the world largest casino operators will have powerful marketing departments supporting them. Not to mention, most will have an existing robust customer database to market to both online and ofﬂine. With that said, there will always be a need for affiliate marketers. Nevertheless, most affiliates agree that the changing landscape and regulation will more than likely result in lower commission rates.

Personally, I don’t think it is conceivable that an online poker room owned by MGM, for example, would allow poker affiliates to offer rakeback. Instead, you will probably see a greater emphasis from the rooms themselves on VIP programmes and incentives to players. You can also expect a more traditional and retail approach from the new breed of gambling brands that are entering the online space. Similar to my thoughts on rakeback, I don’t think the prevalence of revenue sharing models will be popular amongst regulated online gambling sites. Instead, affiliates will more than likely be compensated through CPA models, and at a lower rate than gambling affiliates have been accustomed to in the past. The good news, however, is that in a newly regulated market, the amount of potential new players will greatly increase. The trust and accountability that has been lacking with respect to online gambling in the US will now become a cornerstone for any successful gambling operation. Although, without knowing exactly what will transpire in the US market with respect to regulation in the future, all of this is pure speculation. For several years,

“I don’t think it is conceivable that an online poker room owned by MGM, for example, would allow poker afﬁliates to offer rakeback.” 78

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

“ When discussing future regulation in the US, three things are certain: politics will be involved, Las Vegas will be involved, and online gambling will continue to be one of the most lucrative Internet industries in the world.” affiliates have worked very closely with the online gambling operators. This has given affiliates a unique insight not only into how the industry works, but also what value individual operators place on their affiliate programs. So we reached out to several successful gambling affiliates and got their perspectives on the likely role for affiliate marketers in a highly regulated and technologically advanced iGaming industry of the future. Here is what they had to say:

Kurt “I don’t believe that this will be the death of the poker affiliate but there will be a severe adverse effect on our income. There might be a small boost at the beginning while Caesars, Wynn and MGM pretend to be competition for each other. After all the dust clears and Caesars and Wynn have their complete online and bricks and mortar casino monopoly, you will see a huge cut back in affiliate departments comparable to, but worse than when Full Tilt Poker started all its fee taking and 60 day policy, etc. “Affiliates will be subject to income like Amazon associates and will, essentially, be working for less than minimum wage. Unrelated to Caesars/Wynn, Google will

continue to pound us with algorithm changes that sniff out link sales and banner sales. Basically, for affiliates, it’s going to be like ‘survivor’ episodes where unless you bring something to the table (something that makes them dependent on you), you will be voted off the island, so to speak. I suspect that data mining sites will be shot down because IGT has developed sophisticated bots that will probably be operating on the monopoly sites. I also suspect that the taxes taken from online poker will not help the American people, but rather be used for more control measures. Next, we spoke with a casino affiliate who wished to remain anonymous, but has been successfully promoting online casinos as an affiliate since 2004. “The online gambling industry is long overdue for legislation in the United States. I believe online poker will be the first form of online gambling to be regulated and will be followed shortly thereafter by casino and possibly sports (betting). Las Vegas will be heavily involved in any legislation and will be given the golden key to the online markets before the existing offshore operators. “Online casinos will still heavily rely on affiliates to drive new players and traffic.

Bricks and mortar casinos will be able to significantly increase their revenues by opening up an entirely new gaming channel in the online world. With the incredible amount of competition, these casinos will hopefully be competing for the super affiliates’ traffic and be willing to pay accordingly.” Next up, we spoke with a prominent sportsbetting affiliate to get his perspective on what US regulation would mean to the overall sportsbetting affiliate market as well as his individual business.

Kev “US regulation of online gambling isn’t likely to affect sportsbetting affiliates. Most of the existing sportsbooks that service US action are based out of Costa Rica. I don’t think any would have a legitimate chance of receiving a US licence. My guess is that since sportsbetting is somewhat more taboo than online poker and casino gambling, we may not ever see ‘legal’ online sportsbooks. “As a sportsbetting affiliate, I wouldn’t expect my business to drastically change if the US does decide to regulate online gambling. I don’t think anyone expects that sportsbetting will be included in any US regulation. If, somehow, the land-based sportsbooks were to be allowed to take wagers online in the future, I don’t foresee them working with affiliates at all.” Other quotes from the various affiliate forums are as follows:

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

FEATURE – THE FUTURE OF AFFILIATE MARKETING

Mr-AJ “I think it’s all about competition. With two or three rooms, affiliates won’t play a big role. But if there are ten or more of them and all want to become the leading brand they better work with the largest affiliates and pay at least decent CPAs (I doubt revenue share will survive then).”

PTP “It’s not just a matter of competition, etc. I feel very confident that regulation will make it very difficult for rooms to have open affiliate programs because their licences will restrict it. I also believe it will limit player tracking substantially. “You don’t have to look any further than Stars and FTP to realise that once a online operator has a strong brand, their need for affiliates nearly vanishes (and their rates reﬂect that). Everyone licensed in the US will already have that brand. Not only that, they have decades of experience in direct player marketing

“Regulation will make it very difﬁcult for rooms to have open afﬁliate programs because their licences will restrict it. I also believe it will limit player tracking substantially.” and a customer list light years long and in at least one case, the top-ranking poker content property on the web. “If licensing somehow ends up being very loose and allows competition, then it might be a different story, but I still think all the money that comes in will go to producing TV shows and their own premium content properties. Some of the top-tier sites, like 2p2 and PN, could get paid placement advertising.”

affiliates have begun diversifying into new niches and markets. Throughout the last ten years, the gambling affiliate market has grown to be one of the most competitive and lucrative affiliate markets in the world. This has produced a wealth of talented Internet marketers across the globe that specialise in online gambling traffic. While the role of affiliates in a regulated marketplace may change, the importance for operators tapping into this resource cannot be denied. Only time will tell what the exact role of affiliates will be in a regulated US online gambling market. But when discussing future regulation in the US, three things are certain: politics will be involved, Las Vegas will be involved, and online gambling will continue to be one of the most lucrative Internet industries in the world.

Summary As you can see, there are mixed opinions amongst the affiliate community of exactly what a regulated US landscape would look like. The general consensus amongst gambling affiliates is that there will still be a need for them in a regulated market. With that said, however, many successful

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feature – The Future of Affiliate marketing

The Future for Affiliates in Online Search The path of the Panda: what Google wants, by Dave Naylor. Okay, so lots of people have been hammered by Panda, and nobody is feeling it more than affiliates. Combating the drops in rankings is simple in principle, but depending on what your site is like currently, it could mean a lot of work and time for you. The reason I say it’s simple in principle is because all of you know how to tell the difference between spam and quality. You all know how to look at a website and know if it’s made to target search engines for rankings, or visitors for their user experience. Google has been saying it for a long time and now with the Panda updates it’s really coming into effect. One thing any decent SEO will agree on, whether they’re white hat, black hat, purple hat or multi-coloured hat, is that Google wants quality and if you feed it anything but, then you’re on a short-term strategy only. Basically, you can’t just have a bunch of meaningless text pages

with a few keywords in it anymore. You need actual value.This is where some people are getting stuck; they’re thinking “Okay, so my content isn’t good enough, so I’ll get it rewritten” but that’s not just what it’s about. What makes your content any different from your competitor’s content? What makes your review of an online gambling site different to another one? If you and another site have both got good copy then why should yours rank above theirs? You need to do more than just have good copy; you need a good user experience. Think social media, think what will get people clicking on that share button because they think their friends or colleagues might be interested in it too. If you have a blog, what do you put on it? Industry news? Who shares that? Who even reads that? The only people interested in that stuff is other people in the industry – the punters don’t care, and they don’t want to see it.

So now you say to yourself “What do they want to see?” Well, the same as everybody else; they either want some form of entertainment or they want useful content on, say, how to win… not the same old churned content you get on every website out there but something original, something new. This is where you start to get creative. Here are some examples of what you could do. I’d use them only as examples; if you do these and everybody else is doing it then it won’t work as you’ll all be the same again. You need to think of something different to what the others are doing and not take the easy route here (who ever said SEO was easy?).

Blog authority Why does my blog, DavidNaylor.co.uk/ blog do so well in the rankings? Because it’s seen as an authority blog. I don’t just reword other existing material, I talk about new stuff and give my own ideas and

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feature – The Future OF Affiliate marketing

opinions on the current issues. So my blog isn’t just another platform for announcements, it’s somewhere that can teach a few things and generate some discussion. That’s what needs to be done. Your blogs should have an authority that gives out tips on a regular basis. Sharing strategies and having discussions with others.

Character I mean that heading literally. What’s the character involvement with your website? Are there multiple personas, or is there even one persona? Make a character up if you have to, give him a back story and get him to report on his week. ‘BlackJack Eddie used to be a baker but he started winning playing online casinos so he gave up his day job and became semi-pro. Every Friday, BlackJack Eddie will give us an update on his week. What games he’s played, whether he’s up or down on winnings, and how he did it, what he learnt from a loss or a win.’ Make sure that BlackJack Eddie answers questions he might be asked, maintains regular and consistent postings, incorporates a bit of humour and personality (so not too formal) and, above all, stay original. A bit of banter mixed in with some great advice is all you really need.

UGC (user generated content) through building a community It isn’t just you or your character that can help by sharing knowledge, let your users do it too. Set-up an area on your site where users can contribute their own views and ideas. This new content and the users themselves can be given votes by other users on the advice they give, allowing them to increase their community ‘rank’. They can win something if they get enough points for quality contributions too. Allow people to give their own ratings on the offerings within the site – not only does this create new content but you get feedback on what your visitors like and don’t like, allowing you to do more of the former and less of the latter. Basically, build a community and encourage people to get involved, to write their own reviews and content (which can be modified as long as declared on the site). Ask questions, get controversial (within reason) and challenge things… i.e. the law against online gambling in America, run a poll and have a “What do you think?” thread.

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

Non-textual content This, of course, includes images but let’s get different with our use of them. Instead of just generic pictures of dice, cards, roulette machines and logos, have some funny pictures that tell a story. Commission an interesting and colourful infographic with surprising stats, or a brief cartoon which visitors will relate to. Todd Malicoat over at StuntDubl is well known for his use of linkbait ‘hooks’. Now, these are called ‘linkbait’ and ‘hooks’ for a reason. People link to and share stuff they like so linkbait is essentially good content. Here are Todd’s hooks for you to have a think about: ●●News Hook – being the first, or one of the first with an interesting story. ●●Contrary Hook – challenging ideas and ideals, encouraging a bit of debate. ●●Attack Hook – this is a dangerous one and shouldn’t be used without good reason, but it’s basically having a pop at somebody or something to stir up a bit of buzz. ●●Resource Hook – something useful for people, whether information, tools, tips, etc. ●●Humour Hook – something funny, of course. A lot of what gets liked, shared and linked to is funny stuff so it stands to reason that as content alone it will be enjoyable to your users. ●●Ego Hook – complements and honourable mentions. This gets links but don’t do it for that reason… do it for content’s sake. Give out some complements to worthy people for whatever reason. ●●Incentive Hook – this is where you incentivise people to link to you but, again, it doesn’t have to end in links to be worth doing. If you want good content then do this anyway. Run a competition, give stuff away for free, have an awards ceremony as voted for by users. I’m not suggesting you use these for linkbait, I’m saying use them for what they actually are: good content. (If they attract links too then it’s a bonus!) Aside from that, use a bit of Flash. As you know, it’s not a good idea to build a site from Flash due to it being more difficult for the search engines to crawl but you can still have Flash content. Animations and games, fun stuff that attracts people’s attention and keeps them interested. Then there are videos. Videos are a must. Have interviews with industry pros, have a weekly or monthly video giving tips, use videos to teach people how to play (include

transcripts under all videos for those that don’t have sound) and take some time to make sure the videos are good quality… if it’s too amateur it won’t be well received. Obviously, this stuff doesn’t actually feature in algorithm factors of where you rank in a singular sense, but it’s the drip-drip effect of decent content. If you look solely at each item, it’s meaningless; look at the whole bigger picture (the site) and what it contains in general (boring articles Vs funny stuff, news, etc) and you’ll see the visitors find value in the site, and if the visitors find value then so will Google regardless of whether there is a mathematical equation to tell it what’s in the site.

Comparisons Some of you will already have comparison tables but those of you who haven’t need to get them. Make sure they are well put together. Spruce them up a bit, and I don’t mean stuff as much as you can into them and make them over-complicated, but consider it as a standalone feature that needs to sell itself as something worth visiting the site for alone. This is somewhere else that you could have UGC ratings and maybe a button for people to click and see some reviews.

Linking with social media sites Again, this is something some of you will already have covered. Some of you will have it half covered. But I’ll put money on it that the majority of site owners aren’t doing it right, even if they think they are. It’s no good just setting up a Facebook and Twitter account then broadcasting your company news or rewriting some industry news on it. It’s for social media marketing, not a news announcement platform. Use social media properly, engage with your audience and be consistent, don’t use it as a sales tool shoving offers down everybody’s throats every five minutes, but build a community by chatting and sharing. You can do a bit of promotion but make sure it’s not too much – remember why people are there in the first place. Once you’ve got your social platforms sorted, link them into your site. Use the widgets Facebook and Twitter provide, put them on your site, and make sure there’s always something good going on in that display window.

Design We all know that website architecture is important (internal pages and linking structure) but before now it didn’t matter

so much what a website actually looked like. That is to say that it did for conversions and user experience, but not so much for ranking. Well, now it does matter. If your site looks old-hat and tatty, like it was put together in the 90s with HTML tables and text-only links, then it looks poor, right? Does your site look like it was made by a web designer (a good one) or by an amateur who has just learnt the basics of MS FrontPage and decided to make his first site? Remember what Panda is – it’s a learning algorithm. When it started off, way before being released, it just watched website visitors manually reviewing sites… seeing what they liked and what they didn’t, so it thinks like a user. If you landed on your site as a user, what would you think of it? What would be your first impressions? Would you stick around because the design makes you believe there is something of value there?

Your website in general Now, step back and look at your site as a whole. How is your text currently formatted? Is it digestible in small chunks broken up by images with bullet points and different relevant sections with suitable headers, or is it just a big block of text? What about ads? Have you got loads of ads on your site? Where are these ads – at the top of the page before you even reach any content? Even if you’re managing to rank right now without content that’s any good, you eventually won’t. Just think about Google’s long-term goals, think about what it wants to provide its users with, then forget about links for the moment and just ask yourself, based on the content of your site alone, ‘would you put your site at the top if it wasn’t yours?’ Are there other sites that would provide a better user experience than yours? Stop worrying about getting tons of content through news and reviews that nobody looks at and is only targeting search engines; spend that time on making your site better for the users with worthy, rich content. Keep it simple and user friendly but also well themed with plenty to keep your visitors interested. It’s widely believed (and for good reason) that usage data is used in the algorithm. The more people that land on your website and leave straight away spending no time on the site, the worse your rankings will be. And that was BEFORE Panda! Now

it’s much more important to keep people around. With usage data like ‘time on site’ likely to be used as a ranking factor, the last thing you want is for a visitor to land on your page and click straight off through an affiliate link. That might be the goal overall, but you want to keep them on the site for a while first and you want them to click through to other internal pages too so that your bounce rate isn’t too high. Now, put yourself in the mind of a visitor; if you landed on a site and saw large chunks of text from reviews, would you sit there and read it? It’s not exactly the excitement you were looking for when you performed the search is it? Think about this. You know that links are important, you still definitely need them to rank… but does your content have value of a kind that people will link to naturally? That’s the trick here, not having something generic that everybody else has but something different that is of worth, something unique that will generate links by its very existence without the need to build links to it. What would you link to? With all of this in mind, there is something very important to consider, which is the actual direction Google is taking; what path is the Panda on? As Panda will continue down this path in the same general direction for the foreseeable future, the things we’ve discussed in this article are going to become more and more apparent, and more and more of a reflection of what’s ranking in the SERPs.

Let’s rewind a bit! Many of you will already know how Panda came about. It’s named after the engineer who put together the learning algorithm from data collected on answers (by humans) to 23 questions. The whole list of questions can be seen at http://bro.gs/gwc but I’m going to point out just a few right now, not that they’re of higher importance but they relate very much to what I’ve been saying in this article and they are what I have found myself often explaining to people. In other words, in my experience, since Panda, these are the most common issues I’ve been coming across. ●●Question 2: Is this article written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it shallower in nature? ●●Question 3: Does the site have duplicate, overlapping, or redundant articles on the same or similar topics with slightly different keyword variations? ●●Question 7: Does the article provide original content or information,

original reporting, original research, or original analysis? ●●Question 13: Was the article edited well, or does it appear sloppy or hastily produced? ●●Question 17: Does this article contain insightful analysis or interesting information that is beyond obvious? ●●Question 18: Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend? ●●Question 19: Does this article have an excessive amount of ads that distract from or interfere with the main content? ●●Question 20: Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopaedia or book? Now go and look at your website and ask yourself those questions above, because if you’re not ranking well the answers could be why. It doesn’t mean you’ve got away with it if you do rank; as stated, Panda is learning and evolving and those questions are going to become more and more important, so even if you rank now… will you after the next update, or the one after that? Even if the Panda updates stop rolling out, what do you think it will be replaced with? Google’s goals of quality for users remain the same so any replacement to Panda, whether it be called Hippo or Squirrel (if there are any engineers called that to name it after over at the ‘Googleplex’), it’s still going to be heading the same way with the same objectives – it will just be more effective at getting there. Once Panda or its successor perfects its process of slapping sites that fail these questions (and any new questions that are added by then) in whatever timescale that might be, where will you rank with your current content then? This is the future of the search engines; if you want to rank in that future you need to understand their vision and ensure your website fits in with it. It’s as simple and/or difficult as that.

David Naylor, is an industry leader in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and Online Search Marketing.

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feature – The Future OF Affiliate marketing

The Future for Affiliates in Social Media Marketing “Almost overnight, the Internet’s gone from a technical wonder to a business must.” The evolution of social media has been slow, but forceful – from a handful of communities to where it stands now, as a multi-billion dollar industry. It has consumed the market, fuelled by advancements in technology. Social media has become a mainstream channel for business communication and market interaction. It facilitates the customisation of marketing personas for targeted audiences on a more effective social media platform.

Affiliate marketing Ecommerce binds affiliate marketing and social media. Affiliate marketing through social media has facilitated the expanse of marketing reach to an altogether different stratum, where applied science combines with commercialisation with a dash of social media tactics to advertise on a global scale. Social media marketing is becoming an important medium for brands to communicate and build relationships with consumers. There are certain things that you, as an affiliate, should keep in mind when it comes to social media marketing: ●●People talk about products or services they like. If something is not worth talking about, it’s not worth market time. ●●A product gets recommended by a friend on a social networking site and people start following suit. This is when Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter comes into the picture. ●●As opined by an insightful businessman, “LinkedIn is for people you know. Facebook is for people you used to know. Twitter is for people you want to know.” They help in brand engagement and market productivity. ●●Targeting the right audience is important. Customers constitute the marketing team. Aim for customer satisfaction, and landing among the stars is guaranteed.

●●Content

management is crucial for marketing. Content drives conversations. Engage through conversations to market a brand or increase visibility. Content and the distribution of content is a key step in brand promotions.

Promoting a brand on a social media site proves that the brand has a strong personality and is open to customers’ reviews and demands. It is a sensation and everyone you know or want to know is there. The question here is how can one use social media effectively? To start with, set-up a fan page for your blogging site and attract readers. Facebook has its fan pages, groups, news feeds, applications, and a direct advertising option and now, it has the subscriptions feature too. Utilise any of these to divert web traffic from Facebook to your website using affiliate links. The more traffic you can divert to affiliate links, the more sales it will generate and thus, money will automatically pour in. Affiliate marketers can even add blog RSS to Facebook and every time you post something, it reaches your Facebook fans. If they have been sufficiently motivated, they will come back to check the post. This further increases the chances of buying an affiliate product from your blog. Twitter, again, is about the numbers. The more people you know, the more your potential profit. Start with building a strong network of followers who you can directly tweet the affiliate link to. It is about segmenting and understanding the target audience, and figuring out the best ways to get a message across about a super-compelling proposition. The aim is to create brand awareness with articles or campaigns and provide inbound links to the pages thus channelling flow of traffic while maintaining market engagement.

Future outlook If we now contemplate the future of social media marketing, the first adage that strikes us is that, “Nothing lasts forever”. The intense relationship between social media and affiliate marketing is a slippery subject. The best that you can do is to recognise the changing market landscape and adapt. Monetising a website is appealing, but then knowing where to draw the line is what you should keep in mind. Too much of anything wreaks havoc, and the same applies to affiliate marketing. Cluttering your site with innumerable ads flashing from every angle will only drive away traffic. Choose ads which cater to your customers while offering the products and services that you want. Make sure you know your legal rights as an affiliate and talk to affiliate managers when in doubt. Like everything else, affiliate marketing is trial and error method based on a game of well placed ads strung on tuned keywords. It takes time and patience, but it pays back huge dividends too. So, all said and done, evolve, diversify and play fair for a productive and profitable tomorrow.

Jaydeep Chakravartty is Business Development Manager at Cozy Games. Jaydeep is responsible for undertaking new business initiatives, maintaining and developing relationships with Cozy Games existing partners. Jaydeep brings nine years of product and marketing experience and has a proven track record of identifying new revenue streams and launching Cozy Games products into both the Mobile and Social Gaming sectors.

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

feature – The Future OF Affiliate marketing

The Future for Affiliates in Mobile Marketing Why mobile marketing is a growing trend. The ongoing growth of the mobile Internet market has been fuelled by the spread of tablet computers. Indeed, the mobile market is expanding every day. More and more tablets are in use and we are becoming accustomed to using our mobiles as portable gateways to the Internet. It cannot be denied that the use of the mobile or Smartphone is increasing and is used for more complex things than before, especially with the new possibilities created by faster Internet connections and a better user experience on mobile devices. Despite the fast market growth, many companies still fail to pay sufficient attention to their mobile users. Therefore, there are still great opportunities for affiliates and operators to position themselves as a specialised portal or website.

The two perspectives on mobile SEO There are two basic trains of thought in how to carry out mobile SEO which divide the approach fundamentally:

The one sub-domain SEO camp The followers of this camp believe that one URL should be served to mobile and desktop users equally. The visible design will differ between devices through the use of stylesheets to improve the experience of the user, but the content will remain the same. This approach is obviously easier to develop than two separate sites. One of the main arguments in favour of this version is that link building only has to be done for one URL instead of splitting it up.

The mobile sub-domain or domain SEO camp The followers of this camp believe that a separate URL will serve mobile users best. Probably one of the biggest myths about this approach is that if you feed Google two

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

different versions of your webpage, the mobile page for mobile visitors and the normal page for normal visitors, it will believe that you are cloaking. If you are consistent in what you are doing, you will not have any problems: Mobile visitor  mobile webpage m.mydomain.com Google mobile bot  mobile webpage m.mydomain.com … and Normal visitor  normal webpage mydomain.com Google bot  normal webpage mydomain.com The followers of this camp also believe that there is no evidence of a reduced ranking of mobile websites as a result of the splitting up of the link building. If you do none of the above, your website still will be shown on mobile devices but in a way that you have not influenced – in fact, your code will be ‘transcoded’ to serve the individual device. In this ‘transcoding’ process, your design is likely to be changed in a way that might worsen the user experience which obviously results in higher bounce rates and shorter visiting times, which have an influence on your rankings.

Mobile user expectations Mobile users search differently; the typed searches are shorter and differ significantly from desktop searches. Besides the search queries, the user expects mobile optimised content (some analysis speaks of a 75 percent higher rate of engagement per visit). By serving the users’ needs, you also help your rankings and your conversions. Both approaches might serve your users’ needs and it has to be decided individually for each website which approach is the most appropriate.

Outlook Mobilise your content or get separate content for your mobile users now to be prepared for future developments. Use the basic principals of desktop SEO to build your mobile website as they are fundamentally the same. By starting now, you will gather important data to develop future strategies and open future markets. In some countries, there are more mobile Internet users than desktop Internet users, due mainly to problems with infrastructure. Mobile payment solutions are developing rapidly and should be monitored closely. The development of HTML5 websites to provide dynamic content such as games is becoming more and more important, especially as Adobe recently stated that the development of Flash for mobile will be halted. As Flash, naturally, is not the most prudent platform to be search engine optimised, HTML5 will provide developers a lot more possibilities to do so. If you need help finding the right strategies to optimise your website for mobile, contact me at kay.schaefer@ksom.es.

Kay Schaefer is Founder of KSOM.es. Kay studied business administration and marketing before he settled on Internet marketing and SEO in 2004. His main specialty is improving a company’s search engine visibility using creative and unique link building strategies. His client portfolio includes companies in online gaming and other industries outside of gaming. In 2007, he started building his own SEO company and currently resides in Barcelona, Spain. http://en.ksom.es

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INSIGHT

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Search engines such as Google have revolutionised the way the Internet is used to the point where it is hard to image browsing without them. However, for most users, little thought goes into what determines the order of search results and even the more technology-savvy might find their knowledge on search engines somewhat lacking. Most large companies have experts in charge of their digital marketing to ensure they appear at the top of all relevant search queries. This is particularly important in the gaming sector where competition is high and new online technologies are adopted rapidly. To a new or even experienced affiliate marketer, the world of keywords might at times seem a little confusing. In order to attract relevant traffic and conversions, it is crucial to understand how Google match types pair keywords to search queries.

example, the below graphs demonstrate the correlation between the search queries and whether an ad will show up in the results.

Broad match Search query

Will my ad show?

online casino

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online casino games

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online casino uk

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casino online

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uk casino online

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Keywords and search queries

online uk casino

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A search query is commonly understood to mean any potential phrases a user types into a search box. The term ‘keyword’ is used in relation to phrases that are placed in a Google AdWords account to match a search query. It might seem obvious, but understanding the difference between these two is the starting point for every affiliate marketer. Google’s keyword match types are divided into three categories: a broad match, a phrase match and an exact match. Using the phrase ‘online casino’ as an

online uk casino games



iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

The broad match category is the most popular and most widely used. A broad match allows the ad to appear if the query contains the keyword in any order. The ad might also show when searching for synonyms of keywords, singular or plural forms and other relevant variations. Using broad match allows the user to easily be matched to a high volume of search queries that might be relevant to the website. Broad

matches are great as a starting point for an inexperienced affiliate marketer, however, it is important to use phrase matches and exact match keyword types alongside broad matches in order to fully benefit from a keyword strategy.

Phrase match Using phrase match will enable those search queries that contain the keywords in the same order as they are placed in the AdWords account to appear in the results. Below you can see which search queries will yield ad results using the keyword ‘online casino’. Search query

Will my ad show?

online casino



online casino games



online casino uk



casino online uk casino online online uk casino online uk casino games

Exact match When using exact matches, an ad will only show when the keyword matches the search query exactly. As seen below, when using the keyword ‘online casino’, the ad will only show up when the phrase online casino alone is typed into the search box. Search query

Will my ad show?

online casino



online casino games online casino uk casino online uk casino online online uk casino online uk casino games

Keyword research and tips Keyword research is essential for building a good PPC campaign. This step should not be ignored as understanding which words will yield accurate results and the costs related to these keywords will allow the user to select those that work best for their website. There are a variety of tools available for affiliate marketers to help them gain profitable keywords, however, here at Latitude, we recommend using Google’s own Keyword Tool. There are several benefits to using the Keyword Tool, one of them being the ability to use the search volume tool as a guide to compare the results for each individual match type. It is important this should be used as a guide only, as the results are gathered from a period of 12 months which will, in most cases, include seasonal changes. When thinking about which keywords to use, initially, it is good to go with your intuition, albeit bearing in mind that what might seem obvious to you might not be so obvious to other people. After deciding on a number of keywords, it is important to think about lettering and phrasing. Google’s AdWords platform does not recognise non-letter characters in general when they appear in keywords.

Two exceptions to this rule are accent marks and ampersands, so remember those two symbols as being distinctive but in general, you’ll just see an error or your punctuation marks will be ignored. Phrasing is also extremely important. For example, the phrase ‘car insurance’ is most often used in its exact form – it’s rare a user would type in the phrase ‘insurance car’ in order to find the best deals. However, in the case of the phrase ‘online casino’, it is not uncommon for a user to also type in ‘casino online’.

Advanced keywords Using Google AdWords Broad Match Modifier is an another fantastic feature to achieve more clicks and conversions, as it ensures the user will be able to have greater reach than using phrase match, and more control than through broad match. This solution is particularly effective when using a keyword that might have several search variations. According to Google: “Each word preceded by a + must appear in the user’s search exactly or as a close variant. Depending on the language, close variants will include misspellings, singular/ plural forms, abbreviations and acronyms, and stemmings (like ‘floor’ and ‘flooring’). Synonyms (like ‘quick’ and ‘fast’) and related searches (like ‘flowers’ and ‘tulips’) are not considered close variants.” After nailing down the keywords, the next logical next step is to look at negative keywords. The purpose of negative keywords is to ensure that your ad doesn’t show up for any search that includes this term. Using the phrase ‘online casino’ as an example, some words to avoid might include ‘advice’, ‘addict’, ‘illegal’, ‘halls’, etc. The use of long-tail keywords – common words used with the main phrase or common misspells – is another way to ensure your keywords are performing to the best of their ability. Some suggestions when thinking about long-tail keywords are including keywords with missed letters and missed spacing on brand names, and

looking at the reordering of the keywords. Both negative keywords and long-tail keywords can be found by paying close attention to Search Query Reports and using the keyword tool.

What to look out for There are a couple of common mistakes that might crop up for even the most experienced affiliate marketers. Too many keywords on a broad match type will result in irrelevant searches and extensive negative lists and, eventually, poor bid managements. Another common problem is to place too many keywords into an exact match which will result in missed opportunities, as statistically 25 percent of searches are new. Finally, keywords shouldn’t been seen as good keywords or bad keywords. We should be looking at the search queries we appear for and decide whether they are relevant or not and, as a result, whether they convert or not and, therefore, use our keywords and their match types to solely appear for the search queries we want.

Mark Johnson is Digital Insight Consultant at Latitude Digital Marketing. Mark is a true expert and specialist in the digital marketing industry. He began his career in 2006 as a Search Executive, and has since managed PPC accounts in a senior capacity across multiple sectors including gambling, finance, travel and retail for clients such as Bet365, Sportech and Gala Coral. More recently, Mark has worked as a vertical strategist, during which he looked at online trends and insights primarily in the gambling, retail and travel verticals across PPC, SEO and Display. In his current role as a Digital Insight Consultant, Mark provides consultancy and training in all aspects of digital marketing. He is a frequent commentator in various industry publications and he also publishes leading online marketing industry reports on a quarterly basis.

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

webmaster world

To Whale or Not to Whale? The Cost of Hunting Big Bettors Michaela McNamara, Editor at Affiliate Media, Inc, explains why affiliates should consider the pros and cons of marketing to high depositors before casting a net to catch big-betting whales. “To whale or not to whale?” is a question that many affiliates face when it comes to the topic of marketing to highrolling depositors. These big bettors, more commonly referred to as whales, can bring in some serious revenue but their oftenunpredictable behaviour can come at a price. If you’re undecided about the topic of whales, there are some factors that affiliates may want to weigh before throwing a line to high rollers.

Is a whale just a big fish in a small pond? Depending on what niche of the gaming industry you target, just exactly who qualifies as a whale can vary greatly. To some affiliates, a whale is a player who gambles four or five figure hands in a poker room while to others, he can be a casino player who makes three $100 deposits a week.

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

Affiliates should manage their expectations before trying to catch a whale or two. It’s unlikely that high rollers at the Bellagio are playing online slots at home in their boxers. The whales do exist online, but affiliates should ask themselves how much effort they want to put into capturing these big bettors.

Marketing to whales If turning whales into depositors is important, high-quality content is crucial to capturing this demographic. The key is targeting these big bettors by their preferred gaming niches. Affiliates in the sportsbook niche, for instance, should get acquainted with the demographics of various fan bases. Fans of national soccer teams from Dubai and United Arab Emirates are going to have much different social and economic demographics than say, fans for the University of Idaho’s football team. Being

attuned to the interests of these different demographics can make or break what sort of content is presented. With a bit of research, affiliates should be able to geo-target what types of sports, teams and games attract high-worth players. Keep in mind that radical site or content changes could alienate the player base you’ve developed over time – and the base that could end up making more deposits in the long run. Your Kuwaiti soccer information may not appeal to your loyal American football bettors.

The pros and cons of high depositors Before an affiliate makes the marketing plunge to high depositors, he or she should know that there can be unpleasant consequences. The pros? Obviously, big depositors are likely to lose large amounts of money;

“ It’s unlikely that high rollers at the Bellagio are playing online slots at home in their boxers. Affiliates should manage their expectations before trying to catch a whale.” it’s as simple as that. With bigger bank accounts than the average player, they’re more likely to keep playing and depositing. Like real whales, these bettors tend to swim in packs. If a site is whale-friendly, more of them may start showing up. It all sounds great, but there are some negative side effects to whale hunting. Whales have the same capability of losing large amounts just as they are to winning them, which can put an affiliate’s revenue stream in dire straits. Whales also have inconsistent behaviour patterns. A high roller who deposited $1,000 this morning may pack up and never come back. Also, marketing your site to the preferences of whales may come at the expense of regular, more reliable customers who may not need all the bells and whistles. Dealing with whales when working with a program with negative carryover can be even more disastrous. Negative carryover can dramatically affect current and potential earnings with big-betting whales. If a whale

wins $25,000, he could potentially leave a casino with all those earnings. You’ll have to deal with the casino and beg them to remove that whale and his losses from your account. Why bother with that hassle? If you’re trying to catch whales, definitely ditch plans with negative carryover.

Consider the long-tail Affiliates contemplating whale hunting may want to take the business concept of the long-tail into consideration. The long-tail theory states that businesses will have more success catering to a large number of customers who make small but consistent purchases over time rather than a few customers that make large purchases sporadically. There’s something to be said about players who consistently deposit $100 every few months rather than one person who deposits $1,000 every so often. Still, appealing to big bettors can be worthwhile if an affiliate knows what

he or she is doing. For most affiliates, it’s best to cast a wider net and capture the broadest possible audience. To really determine whether to ‘whale or not to whale’, an affiliate should ask “What kind of player am I most like?” Affiliates who play to their own strengths may have the most success appealing to players with similar interests. CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com (CAP) is the world’s largest online gaming affiliate marketing community. With more than 11,000 members, CAP is the Internet’s primary location for online gaming brands and affiliate marketers to come together and do business. CAP is owned by Affiliate Media, Inc., an independent online publishing company focused solely on affiliate marketing. Our experts gather, create, and publish information about affiliate marketing and share it with the larger worldwide community to help affiliates better promote leading Internet brands (and profit by doing so).

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

WEBMASTER WORLD

AVOID THE UGLY REALITIES OF STATS SHAVING

With stats shaving becoming an increasingly problematic affiliate issue, it’s important to implement key strategies to avoid missed payments from less-than-reputable operators, says Arjun Jolly, VP of Product at Affiliate Media Inc. THE LIVELIHOOD OF any affiliate’s business relies on his or her ability to make a sale and earn a commission. The ugly truth is that some operators purposely don’t pay accurate commissions in an effort to keep those profits for themselves. The occurrence of some operators depriving affiliates from their rightful commissions to minimise their own expenses is known as ‘shaving’. Shaving can be done in a number of ways, from removing an affiliate’s stats and hiding various player deposits to changing lifetime commission policies and moving players to different casinos on the same network. By shaving away the player in question, the affiliate is denied his or her rightful affiliate commissions on an ongoing basis. Stats shaving has made it difficult for affiliates to earn their rightful profits and

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

as any affiliate could imagine, it’s a massive challenge. With careful planning, however, this problem can be avoided.

Be aware of your operators’ reputations This might sound like common sense, but affiliates must perform proper and extensive research before signing on with any new program. Just because an operator says it’s offering unbelievable deals doesn’t mean the company really is. If it sounds too good to be true, chances are it probably is. Check out reviews, visit forums and ask other trusted affiliates for their perspectives and recommendations. The key is to work with an operator that has a longstanding reputation for paying their affiliates and operates with a sound, proven business model.

Another important element is understanding the company’s infrastructure. Is there an affiliate manager that will be assigned to your account? An affiliate manager can be helpful if something goes awry. If an operator does not have an affiliate manager, know who the point of contact is that can help affiliates solve payment issues. Ongoing communication is key to maximising the effectiveness of a program in order to better understand it, as well as catch any changes to existing agreements.

Track each and every detail – on your own An operator could be paying affiliates for conversions, but the statistics on those conversions might not always be correct. That’s why it’s crucial that

affiliates choose a safe, sound technology that assists with stats tracking. Tracking may not be the sexiest part of the job, but that doesn’t mean monitoring statistics shouldn’t be important. With constant scrutiny, affiliates should be able to notice any irregularities that could signal shaving. After all, affiliates have earned those commissions and rightfully deserve them. Reliable stat tracking software and analytics tools help with creating and tracking elements, from the time visitors land on your website to when they click through to an affiliate offer. Also, keep in mind how the operator is tracking statistics. This is something important to ask an affiliate manager. Is the company offering cookies and tracking in real-time, or is it siphoning players onto a list and voiding your transaction at a later date? Never completely bank on an operator’s stats, even if its reputation is reliable. Affiliates should always have their own tracking and analytics tools in place to triple check how many players are actually making those conversions.

The power of payment processing A reliable payment processor can be as important as a good affiliate manager and reliable tracking software. The chances are fairly likely that gaming affiliates work with overseas companies, for either legal, economic or market conditions. These companies may use different payment processors to pay their affiliates, and it’s critical to understand the terms and services of these to ensure that profits aren’t being shaved when it comes time to get paid. Affiliates should stick with trusted payment processing options like PayPal, Click2Pay, direct deposit or even a cheque. If possible, request an invoice with each processed payment to save for your records. Compare your own records with those of the operator to ensure that nothing needs to be disputed. It’s worth noting that shaving isn’t always performed by an affiliate program. Sometimes it could be performed by an online casino and not reported to the affiliate program. Many programs operate

separately on the gaming rooms they promote, which increases the chances of shaving occurring.

The bottom line The sad truth is that shaving does occur in this business. However, it can and should be avoided with these strategies. The key to ensuring affiliates are paid for each conversion is to stay educated, on top of statistics and protect your assets. CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com (CAP) is the world’s largest online gaming affiliate marketing community. With more than 11,000 members, CAP is the Internet’s primary location for online gaming brands and affiliate marketers to come together and do business. CAP is owned by Affiliate Media, Inc., an independent online publishing company focused solely on affiliate marketing. Our experts gather, create, and publish information about affiliate marketing and share it with the larger worldwide community to help affiliates better promote leading Internet brands (and profit by doing so).

earls court, london 24 - 26 january 2012

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iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

marketplace 7314 bet365 affiliates (148x52+3mm). 24/11/2011 15:38 Page 1

Welcome to the Market Place listings section of iGB Affiliate magazine. All listings are taken from the 2012 version of our iGB Affiliate Directory; a 150 page guide to the affiliate programs and service providers who are currently active within the iGaming sector. To request a free copy of this publication or to have your company listed please contact Richard W on E: Richard@iGamingBusiness.com or T: +44 (0) 207 954 3437 advertising & PR

Market Ace

Game On

www.market-ace.com

www.gameon-marketing.com

Star Games

Global Gaming Events

www.stargames.com

www.globalgamingevents.com

Virgin

Media Skunk Works

www.virgingaming.com

www.mediaskunkworks.com

Casino Affiliate Programs

Omni-lInx

888

www.gamb-linx.com

AFFILIATE NETWORK Bet365 www.bet365.com Betsson www.betsson.com CAP www.casinoaffiliateprograms.com CPA Industry www.cpaindustry.com Game On www.gameon-marketing.com

ALTERNATIVE GAMING Affstars

www.888.com 32Red www.32red.com Aff Europe www.affeurope.com

bet365affiliates.com www.gambleaware.co.uk

Commission Lounge www.commissionlounge.com Europartners www.europartners.com Everest Poker www.everestpoker.com/en Fortune Affiliates www.fortuneaffiliates.eu Gala Coral www.galacoral.co.uk Gambling Affiliation www.gambling-affiliation.com GURU www.guru-gaming.org iGame www.igamefamily.com Intertops

Affiliate Club

www.intertops.eu

www.affiliateclub.com

Live Partners

Affiliate Lions

www.livepartners.com

www.wgmg.co.cr

Logispin

Affiliates United

www.logispin.com

www.affutd.com

Mr Green

Asian Logic

www.mrgreen.com

www.asianlogic.com

MyBet

Bet-at-home

www.mybet.com/en/

www.bet-at-home.com

Paddypower

www.affstars.com

Bet365

Bingo Affiliate Programs

www.bet365.com

Affiliates United

Betfair

www.affutd.com

Officially sponsored by

www.betfair.com

www.paddypower.com Referback www.referback.com Roxy

Bet365

Betsson

www.bet365.com

www.betsson.com

Betsson

Brightshare

www.betsson.com

www.brightshare.com

CAP

www.casinoaffiliateprograms.com

www.stanjames.com

Gala Coral

Casino City/GPWA

Star Games

www.galacoral.co.uk

www.casinocity.com/cy/

www.stargames.com

Live Partners

Commission 365

Victor Chandler

www.livepartners.com

www.commission365.com

www.victorchandler.com

www.roxypalace.com Slotland www.slotland.com Stan James

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www.gambleaware.co.uk

Virgin

Guru

Betfair

www.virgingaming.com

www.guru-gaming.org

www.betfair.com

Vuetec/Dublin

iGame

Betsson

www.dublinbet.com

www.igamefamily.com

www.betsson.com

Financial Solutions

InterPartners

Brightshare

Aff Europe

www.interpartners.com

www.affeurope.com

Intertops

Bet365

www.intertops.eu

www.bet365.com

Live Partners

CAP

www.livepartners.com

www.casinoaffiliateprograms.com

MyBet

Easy Forex

www.mybet.com/en

www.easy-forex.com

Paddypower

LCG

www.paddypower.com

International All Sports

www.londoncapitalgroup.com

PKR

www.iasbetaffiliates.com

Plus500

www.pkr.com

Intertops

www.plus500.co.uk

Poker Tracker

www.intertops.eu

24option

www.pokertracker.com

Ladbrokes

www.24option.com

Stan James

www.ladbrokes.com

Aff Europe

www.stanjames.com

Live Partners

www.affeurope.com

Star Games

www.livepartners.com

Payment Solutions

www.stargames.com

Intercash www.intercashuk.com

sKIll gaming affiliate Programs

Wire Card

Affiliates United

www.wirecard.com

www.affutd.com

Algocharge

Bet365

MyBet

www.algocharge.com

www.bet365.com

www.mybet.com/en

EMS

Betsson

Oddsfutures

www.emspaymentsolutions.com

www.betsson.com

www.oddsfutures.com

Netteller

Gala Coral

Paddypower

www.neteller.com

www.galacoral.co.uk

www.paddypower.com

poker affiliate programs

Live Partners

Redbet

Affiliates United

www.livepartners.com

www.redbet.com

www.affutd.com

Paddypower

Asian Logic

www.paddypower.com

www.asianlogic.com

Star Games

Bet365

www.stargames.com

www.bet365.com

sports betting

Betfair

Affiliates United

www.betfair.com

www.affutd.com

Betsson

Asian Logic

www.betsson.com

www.asianlogic.com

www.stanjames.com

Commission Lounge

Bet365

Vbet

www.commissionlounge.com

www.bet365.com

www.vbet.com

Everest Poker

BetDaq

Victor Chandler

www.everestpoker.com/en

www.betdaq.com

www.victorchandler.com

www.brightshare.com CAP www.casinoaffiliateprograms.com Gala Coral www.galacoral.co.uk iGame www.igamefamily.com

Logispin www.logispin.com Lux bet www.luxbet.com

RGS Malta Ltd www.starlottosport.com SportingBet www.sportingbet.com Sportsbet.com.au www.sportsbet.com.au Stan James

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iGB Affiliate december/january 2011/12

webmaster world

Usability Test

To investigate the user experience of the promotions that affiliates market to their databases, Ian Sims explores The X Factor Jackpot Slots Game from the player’s perspective. FremantleMedia Enterprises (FME), the brand extension arm of FremantleMedia has teamed up with games supplier Ash Gaming to develop, in partnership, a re-modelling of FME’s ever popular The X Factor Jackpot slots game. In fact, re-modelling doesn’t really do the game justice – ‘re-crafting’ would be a better expression and if you go by first impressions then this one looks the business. The game launched in early October and the new graphics provide players with a strong link to the actual TV show format with the use of extended assets and IPs. The new version introduces plenty of video of the contenders from previous series of The X Factor and features music and voiceovers from the show including the familiar voice of Peter Dickson. In addition, the slot is designed so that every year, new footage and contestants can be shifted in to replace the previous year’s repertoire meaning it always remains current. In fact, I can see a sense of irony in that it reflects the music business perfectly: out with the old, in with the new. But that’s the reality I guess. As any slots player will know, it’s all well and good having great eye-candy but unless the game-play measures up, a slot game can get boring and fast. The new X Factor Jackpot slot has three bonus features to keep the player interested including the all-important free spins bonus, this time

iGB Affiliate DECEMBER/JANUARY 2011/12

with sticky wilds. Plus, there is a three tier progressive jackpot for players to aim at. But the main event is the bonus feature – It’s Time... To Face... The Music. It is, however, the latter bonus feature where the action is: lots of TV video footage, phone votes (not actual phone votes, obviously), music and audience-overs make this a pretty entertaining sit-back-andwatch event as it takes you, week-by-week, through The X Factor judging process. I’m not sure how many times you could sit through this before it starts to wear thin but with over seventy contestants to get through, I suspect it might take some time. There is also the bonus feature where – with a certain number of phone votes – you could win one of the progressive jackpots. However, even if you don’t get lucky with those, there are plenty of winning opportunities as you progress through each week of the show, with win multipliers increasing week by week. The Microphone Bonus is the weakest link in my opinion. It’s reminiscent of the Rabbit Hole feature in another popular Ash Gaming slot, Alice’s Wonderland. Essentially, it just awards a small cash prize. But the free spin feature is definitely the one for me, triggered by getting the ‘free spins’ logo on reels two, four and five. The clincher here is the addition of sticky wild symbols. When you get the free spin bonus, you are awarded a random number of spins (the most I hit was twenty) and

before they start, several symbols are turned ‘wild’ and pinned there for the duration. Although the regular wild symbols are removed from the reels during this feature, with well placed sticky wilds, the rewards do start to stack up. Overall, you have to say that the new X Factor slot is a big step forward. It looks and sounds beautiful and the game-play certainly had me gripped during my testing. There are a couple of minor tweaks which I feel could be made to speed up certain elements of game play for us faster players – like clicking to skip count-ups and videos – but to be honest, you’d lose some of the experience in doing so. I’m also not convinced the Microphone Bonus really adds anything to the game to be honest but that’s a really minor gripe in the grand scheme of things. So to conclude, I have absolutely no doubt that FME and Ash Gaming’s partnership to develop The X Factor Jackpot slots game will prove very popular among online slot players.

Ian Sims is a slots affiliate and player who looks after the Slotjunkies affiliate network. He has several years experience playing slots online and is also known as a Moderator of the industry’s leading player forum at Casinomeister.