Recently the Italian Parliament has approved a new law called “Decreto Dignità,” which has now been passed on to the Senate and will become effective immediately.
This law is composed of 15 articles: one of the most controversial is about gambling advertising. Article 9 of “Decreto Dignità” forbids all media (TV, Internet, Radio) directly and indirectly advertising games in which a player can win money, including casino games, skill games, sports betting, poker, horse racing, lotteries, scratch cards. Italy is the first European country completely forbidding gaming advertising and Luigi Di Maio, the deputy prime minister, expects other European countries to follow Italy’s example.
Currently in Italy no political party or movement is aware of the consequences that this new law will produce.
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Casino2k – Advertising ban places Italy on the brink of huge problems
August 7, 2018
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The steps taken in Italy to introduce a blanket ban on all forms of gambling advertisements have certainly raised a few eyebrows, and formed a crucial part of many a conversation.
Now standing on the bring of introduction, after the reform was approved by the Chamber of Deputies last week and passed on to the Senate, Italian online web gaming guide casino2k details the numerous problems with the Dignity Decree, pitfalls now facing the country and potential solutions.
Recently the Italian Parliament has approved a new law called “Decreto Dignità,” which has now been passed on to the Senate and will become effective immediately.
This law is composed of 15 articles: one of the most controversial is about gambling advertising. Article 9 of “Decreto Dignità” forbids all media (TV, Internet, Radio) directly and indirectly advertising games in which a player can win money, including casino games, skill games, sports betting, poker, horse racing, lotteries, scratch cards. Italy is the first European country completely forbidding gaming advertising and Luigi Di Maio, the deputy prime minister, expects other European countries to follow Italy’s example.
We at casino2k.com, an Italian website which provides information about responsible gambling on regulated casinos, have studied the law and followed the three day discussion about “Decreto Dignità” inside the Italian Parliament. Currently in Italy no political party or movement is aware of the consequences that this new law will produce.
“FORBIDDING EVERY TYPE OF ADVERTISING ON THE INTERNET WILL RESULT IN ILLEGAL GAMING COMING BACK“
Italy is the biggest gaming industry in Europe with 150,000 employees and hundreds of small companies, like ours, whose business will be affected significantly by the prohibition of every kind of advertising. The Italian government doesn’t seem to care about the future of all the other people working in this market.
The Italian market has been strictly regulated since 2011. Illegal activities have significantly decreased since then, with websites like ours helping drive people out of the illegal market into the regulated one. Forbidding every type of advertising on the internet will result in illegal gaming coming back!
Affiliate websites spread knowledge about online gambling and promote a responsible approach to it, playing an important role in the fight against gambling addiction, under age gambling and illegal operators. Those websites will now probably close, since advertising is not allowed anymore.
The aim of this law is noble, fighting gambling addiction, protecting fragile people from wasting all of their money. The main problem is that this law does almost nothing to fight it. In every Italian bar you can play slot machines and lotteries, and in Italy you can even buy scratch cards in supermarkets.
Blocking every type of advertising does nothing to reduce such things, which are often accessed by teenagers. An advertising ban is just propaganda, people will continue spending €20bn per year on slot games in bars and private mini-casinos (called VLTs), because the law doesn’t reduce the number of slots per town, it doesn’t set a minimum distance from public places, it doesn’t stop scratch cards from being sold in supermarkets. It just blocks advertising. And physical slots in bars don’t need any advertising to earn money and to destroy people’s life.
Starting soon, Italian players will not be able to recognise a legal casino from an illegal one. Right now Google AdWords has stopped accepting regulated operators ads, and unregulated ones have already appeared.
Without online advertising it will be very difficult to recognise legal and reliable sites, while the illegal ones will take advantage and gambling addiction will flourish.
Illegal casinos don’t care about the fun and the health of their users, they don’t care about responsible gaming, they don’t do anything against gambling addiction. Furthermore, they don’t pay taxes because their base is often placed in offshore countries.
The law is almost approved, the time for amendments is over, but we want to suggest a proposal. We hope that it will be considered by mass media, national and international newspapers and, in particular, that it will be evaluated by Parliament for a future law.
An alternative to an online gambling advertising ban could be allowing advertising only on specialised websites, magazines and newspapers, with these restrictions:
1. A license for affiliate websites and website owners with strict and specific requirements chosen by government.
2. Every affiliate or affiliate company needs a legal representative who will be personally responsible for every breaking of rules.
3. Every affiliate or affiliate company needs to pay taxes in Italy.
4. 2% of affiliates income to be used against gambling addiction.
5. Slower games to fight fast bets which lead to deep addiction.
6. Government campaigns to increase culture of responsible gaming.
The Government lacks knowledge of the market, they don’t understand how online gaming can be strictly controlled, players can ban themselves from gaming sites, operators can recognise addiction and block players. Artificial intelligence can also play an important role in preventing addiction and problematic players.
In conclusion, we think Italy needs better rules, because the ban on advertising would produce serious damages and would bring the market back to the early 2000’s. We hope that the government will try to understand how online gaming works, and why it’s safer than slot games in bars.
Showing posts with label Affiliate. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Affiliate. Show all posts
August 07, 2018
September 25, 2015
Skrill – from Online Payment Processor to Gambling Affiliate
Recently, online payment solution provider Skrill was acquired by Optimal Payments. The €1.1 billion acquisition deal will see two of the most preferred payment processors by online gambling customers – Skrill itself and NETELLER – being managed by one and the same parent company.
It could be said that both providers of payment services rely quite a lot on Internet gambling operations, as a substantial amount of their revenues is contributed by those same operations. Upon the transaction’s completion, executives for Skrill and Optimal Payments said that they intend to further increase proceeds from online gambling, as the market is known to be growing at an extremely rapid pace.
Since it was founded back in 2001, Skrill has undergone a number of changes in order to turn into what it is now. Although the company started as an online payment processor, it gradually became much larger and is now involved in other activities as well. The following paragraphs represent a somewhat brief overview of Skrill’s establishment, development and relations to one particular industry – online gambling, which, as already mentioned, has been gaining a lot of popularity over the past several years and is expected to further increase its influence and to attract the attention of more and more gambling customers of different nationalities and social status.
A Brief History of Skrill
Skrill, or Moneybookers as it was initially named, was founded back in 2001 by Daniel Klein and Benjamin Kullmann. Although registered that year, the online payment and money transfer website moneybookers.com officially commenced operations in April 2002. Over the first year and a half of operations, Moneybookers had about 2 million registered users. In other words, it seems that the company gained popularity and customers’ trust quite quickly.
In 2008, or six years after Moneybookers started offering its services, it reported to be handling more than 6 million customer accounts and to be operating in a total of 200 countries around the globe.
In 2010, the company was ranked UK’s fastest growing private equity business entity based on its profits. In 2011, it announced that its customer base has reached a total of 25 million. As of 2015, Skrill employs more than 560 people from as many as 30 nationalities. Those work in the company’s London-based headquarters as well as in its offices across Europe and the USA.
Skrill currently handles more than 36 million accounts. Its customers are able to both receive and send money to and from 200 different countries and as many as 40 currencies. The website also provides its services to 156,000 businesses around the world.
Customers of Skrill are able to send and receive money, deposit funds on various international gambling sites, own and use Skrill’s prepaid MasterCard in a number of locations around the world, etc. Speaking of online gaming, the e-wallet was given the green light by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement to go live with its services in the state, which is only one of three to offer Internet gambling options. This happened in 2013, when six poker operators were allowed to launch such operations within the state’s borders. Thus, Skrill turned into an indispensable part of the gaming experience of New Jersey-located gambling customers.
As it could be seen, the online payments processor grew quite quickly and became one of the leaders in this constantly expanding niche. Over the course of its development, Skrill or Moneybookers went through a number of alterations and important changes that contributed and are to contribute to the company’s popularization and expansion. Two of those significant changes were the e-wallet’s re-branding announced in 2010 and its acquisition by rival Isle of Man-based online payments company Optimal Payments, which was finalized in August 2015.
Change of Name
As mentioned above, Moneybookers announced its planned re-branding in 2010. Back then, the company explained its move with the fact that everything in life changed and it considered it was the right time for such a major change. Its new name – Skrill – has a number of definitions in different slang dictionaries. However, it seems that it has been gradually coined as another term for money.
Moneybookers explained that it had chosen that particular name as a means to best introduce what it has always strived to offer to its customers – innovative and safe ways to pay for their online purchases and to send/receive money, flexibility, choice, “reliability and peace of mind.”
Back then, some assumed that the re-branding from Moneybookers to Skrill could be seen as the company’s attempt to further expand its services within the online retail sector and to limit its operations related to online gambling. Yet, it turned out that this was not the case at all. At the time of the changeover, Moneybookers was among the preferred payment methods on the websites of some of the world’s biggest gambling operators. Now, five years later, Skrill is among the preferred payment methods listed on the websites of even more online bookmakers and card rooms. What is more, it is generally considered by gambling customers among the most efficient providers of ways to transfer money for the purposes of Internet gambling.
Here it is important to note that being founded and headquartered in London, Skrill is administered through UK’s Financial Services Authority and is subject to the country’s financial laws. It also could be said that over the past several years, the site has been a direct competitor to giant PayPal and NETELLER.
In August 2015, Skrill’s competition with the latter e-wallet provider was put to an end after the completion of a key acquisition deal.
Optimal Payments’ Takeover
In March 2015, Optimal Payments, owner of renowned providers of various payment services, such as NETELLER, NETBANX, Net+, etc., proposed to buy Skrill for the amount of €1.1 billion ($1.2 billion). The deal was not finalized until August, as it has been subject to both shareholder and regulatory approval. The FCA gave the green light to the transaction as it considered Optimal Payments had met all the necessary takeover obligations. CVC Capital Partners, which bought a majority stake in Skrill Group for the total amount of €600 million back in 2013, also gave the nod to the acquisition.
Executives of the two business entities pointed out that the merger marked the beginning of “a global fintech champion” and “a powerful force” in “the fast growing digital payments space.” They also noted that deal is transformational not only because it creates a leader in the digital wallet services but also because it gives Optimal Payments the chance to further expand its presence in the constantly growing online gambling market.
Prior to acquiring Skrill, the company had said that revenue from services related to online gambling operations accounted for almost 46% of its overall revenue. Adding yet another leader in the provision of payment options for this swiftly and constantly growing market to its portfolio means that this figure has every chance to go up in future.
Analysts predicted that the acquisition deal will be quite profitable for Optimal Payments. The combined entity is expected to post annual EBITDA of about £117 million. The figure is expected to increase to £160 million in 2017. In comparison, Optimal Payments’ standalone EBITDA was £58 million.
The Many-Faced Skrill
Apart from the traditional services that every self-respecting e-wallet platform offers, the options offered by Skrill are not just limited to that. Being one of the most preferred providers of payment solutions for the online gambling industry, it is not a surprise that the company has made its foray into the world of gambling affiliate marketing, offering exclusive gaming and betting options and bonuses for some of the world’s biggest gaming sites.
But what exactly is affiliate marketing and how does it work?
Affiliate Marketing in a Nutshell
Generally speaking, affiliate marketing is a rapidly growing market and it is quite a useful means for retailers and other types of businesses to popularize their services and product offering through their affiliates or in other words, companies that advertise them on the Internet by means of various approaches. Those approaches could vary broadly – from the orthodox ones, such as organic SEO, e-mail and content marketing, etc. to less traditional ones.
This particular industry has four main players – the retailer, which offers certain services or products and seeks proper advertising for those, the network, which features a wide variety of affiliates to choose from, the publisher, also known as the affiliate itself, and the customer, whom affiliate marketing addresses. The affiliates’ purpose is to bring visitors to the retailer’s website and typically, they get rewarded for this.
Skrill as a Gambling Affiliate
A quick tour around Skrill’s website makes it quite clear that the company has not been involved only in the provision of payment solutions for individuals and business organizations. Yes, it is true that it gives customers the opportunity to quickly and conveniently send and receive money, pay what they need to pay via a 1-Tap mobile optimized payment solution, and many more. Yet, apparently, the company has also decided to delve into the world of affiliate marketing.
Skrill itself features its own affiliate program, which many consider quite alluring. The company promises money rewards to websites that have brought new customers to its own website. But Skrill’s involvement is not limited to this. Its recently introduced Promotional Centre or Exclusive Offers, as the section has been named after the website’s latest update, is just what a typical affiliate offers to customers.
Skrill’s Exclusive Offers is particularly oriented towards two groups of people – gambling customers and traders. For the purposes of this article, we will pay more attention to the gambling customer and what he or she could find in the section.
As a gambling affiliate, Skrill has resorted to a number of marketing approaches in order to draw the attention of people who are already into online gambling as well as of potential gambling customers. In the first place, the website features banners of some of the world’s biggest and most popular gambling operators that provide their services on the major regulated online gaming markets.
Skrill also provides comprehensive reviews on what they offer. Gambling customers as well as potential ones can choose from several gaming options, including sports betting, casino games, poker, and bingo.
Being an affiliate of some of the major online gambling companies on a global scale is quite indicative of Skrill’s involvement in an industry that is expected to further grow in the years to come. With operators constantly expanding their presence and introducing their services to new regulated markets, it seems that the future of the popular online payment processor and its new parent company Optimal Payments is to be even more closely related to the gambling industry. And as it turns out, this involvement is to be related not only to the provision of reliable payment solutions but also of securing operators with successful affiliate marketing activities.
It could be said that both providers of payment services rely quite a lot on Internet gambling operations, as a substantial amount of their revenues is contributed by those same operations. Upon the transaction’s completion, executives for Skrill and Optimal Payments said that they intend to further increase proceeds from online gambling, as the market is known to be growing at an extremely rapid pace.
Since it was founded back in 2001, Skrill has undergone a number of changes in order to turn into what it is now. Although the company started as an online payment processor, it gradually became much larger and is now involved in other activities as well. The following paragraphs represent a somewhat brief overview of Skrill’s establishment, development and relations to one particular industry – online gambling, which, as already mentioned, has been gaining a lot of popularity over the past several years and is expected to further increase its influence and to attract the attention of more and more gambling customers of different nationalities and social status.
A Brief History of Skrill
Skrill, or Moneybookers as it was initially named, was founded back in 2001 by Daniel Klein and Benjamin Kullmann. Although registered that year, the online payment and money transfer website moneybookers.com officially commenced operations in April 2002. Over the first year and a half of operations, Moneybookers had about 2 million registered users. In other words, it seems that the company gained popularity and customers’ trust quite quickly.
In 2008, or six years after Moneybookers started offering its services, it reported to be handling more than 6 million customer accounts and to be operating in a total of 200 countries around the globe.
In 2010, the company was ranked UK’s fastest growing private equity business entity based on its profits. In 2011, it announced that its customer base has reached a total of 25 million. As of 2015, Skrill employs more than 560 people from as many as 30 nationalities. Those work in the company’s London-based headquarters as well as in its offices across Europe and the USA.
Skrill currently handles more than 36 million accounts. Its customers are able to both receive and send money to and from 200 different countries and as many as 40 currencies. The website also provides its services to 156,000 businesses around the world.
Customers of Skrill are able to send and receive money, deposit funds on various international gambling sites, own and use Skrill’s prepaid MasterCard in a number of locations around the world, etc. Speaking of online gaming, the e-wallet was given the green light by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement to go live with its services in the state, which is only one of three to offer Internet gambling options. This happened in 2013, when six poker operators were allowed to launch such operations within the state’s borders. Thus, Skrill turned into an indispensable part of the gaming experience of New Jersey-located gambling customers.
As it could be seen, the online payments processor grew quite quickly and became one of the leaders in this constantly expanding niche. Over the course of its development, Skrill or Moneybookers went through a number of alterations and important changes that contributed and are to contribute to the company’s popularization and expansion. Two of those significant changes were the e-wallet’s re-branding announced in 2010 and its acquisition by rival Isle of Man-based online payments company Optimal Payments, which was finalized in August 2015.
Change of Name
As mentioned above, Moneybookers announced its planned re-branding in 2010. Back then, the company explained its move with the fact that everything in life changed and it considered it was the right time for such a major change. Its new name – Skrill – has a number of definitions in different slang dictionaries. However, it seems that it has been gradually coined as another term for money.
Moneybookers explained that it had chosen that particular name as a means to best introduce what it has always strived to offer to its customers – innovative and safe ways to pay for their online purchases and to send/receive money, flexibility, choice, “reliability and peace of mind.”
Back then, some assumed that the re-branding from Moneybookers to Skrill could be seen as the company’s attempt to further expand its services within the online retail sector and to limit its operations related to online gambling. Yet, it turned out that this was not the case at all. At the time of the changeover, Moneybookers was among the preferred payment methods on the websites of some of the world’s biggest gambling operators. Now, five years later, Skrill is among the preferred payment methods listed on the websites of even more online bookmakers and card rooms. What is more, it is generally considered by gambling customers among the most efficient providers of ways to transfer money for the purposes of Internet gambling.
Here it is important to note that being founded and headquartered in London, Skrill is administered through UK’s Financial Services Authority and is subject to the country’s financial laws. It also could be said that over the past several years, the site has been a direct competitor to giant PayPal and NETELLER.
In August 2015, Skrill’s competition with the latter e-wallet provider was put to an end after the completion of a key acquisition deal.
Optimal Payments’ Takeover
In March 2015, Optimal Payments, owner of renowned providers of various payment services, such as NETELLER, NETBANX, Net+, etc., proposed to buy Skrill for the amount of €1.1 billion ($1.2 billion). The deal was not finalized until August, as it has been subject to both shareholder and regulatory approval. The FCA gave the green light to the transaction as it considered Optimal Payments had met all the necessary takeover obligations. CVC Capital Partners, which bought a majority stake in Skrill Group for the total amount of €600 million back in 2013, also gave the nod to the acquisition.
Executives of the two business entities pointed out that the merger marked the beginning of “a global fintech champion” and “a powerful force” in “the fast growing digital payments space.” They also noted that deal is transformational not only because it creates a leader in the digital wallet services but also because it gives Optimal Payments the chance to further expand its presence in the constantly growing online gambling market.
Prior to acquiring Skrill, the company had said that revenue from services related to online gambling operations accounted for almost 46% of its overall revenue. Adding yet another leader in the provision of payment options for this swiftly and constantly growing market to its portfolio means that this figure has every chance to go up in future.
Analysts predicted that the acquisition deal will be quite profitable for Optimal Payments. The combined entity is expected to post annual EBITDA of about £117 million. The figure is expected to increase to £160 million in 2017. In comparison, Optimal Payments’ standalone EBITDA was £58 million.
The Many-Faced Skrill
Apart from the traditional services that every self-respecting e-wallet platform offers, the options offered by Skrill are not just limited to that. Being one of the most preferred providers of payment solutions for the online gambling industry, it is not a surprise that the company has made its foray into the world of gambling affiliate marketing, offering exclusive gaming and betting options and bonuses for some of the world’s biggest gaming sites.
But what exactly is affiliate marketing and how does it work?
Affiliate Marketing in a Nutshell
Generally speaking, affiliate marketing is a rapidly growing market and it is quite a useful means for retailers and other types of businesses to popularize their services and product offering through their affiliates or in other words, companies that advertise them on the Internet by means of various approaches. Those approaches could vary broadly – from the orthodox ones, such as organic SEO, e-mail and content marketing, etc. to less traditional ones.
This particular industry has four main players – the retailer, which offers certain services or products and seeks proper advertising for those, the network, which features a wide variety of affiliates to choose from, the publisher, also known as the affiliate itself, and the customer, whom affiliate marketing addresses. The affiliates’ purpose is to bring visitors to the retailer’s website and typically, they get rewarded for this.
Skrill as a Gambling Affiliate
A quick tour around Skrill’s website makes it quite clear that the company has not been involved only in the provision of payment solutions for individuals and business organizations. Yes, it is true that it gives customers the opportunity to quickly and conveniently send and receive money, pay what they need to pay via a 1-Tap mobile optimized payment solution, and many more. Yet, apparently, the company has also decided to delve into the world of affiliate marketing.
Skrill itself features its own affiliate program, which many consider quite alluring. The company promises money rewards to websites that have brought new customers to its own website. But Skrill’s involvement is not limited to this. Its recently introduced Promotional Centre or Exclusive Offers, as the section has been named after the website’s latest update, is just what a typical affiliate offers to customers.
Skrill’s Exclusive Offers is particularly oriented towards two groups of people – gambling customers and traders. For the purposes of this article, we will pay more attention to the gambling customer and what he or she could find in the section.
As a gambling affiliate, Skrill has resorted to a number of marketing approaches in order to draw the attention of people who are already into online gambling as well as of potential gambling customers. In the first place, the website features banners of some of the world’s biggest and most popular gambling operators that provide their services on the major regulated online gaming markets.
Skrill also provides comprehensive reviews on what they offer. Gambling customers as well as potential ones can choose from several gaming options, including sports betting, casino games, poker, and bingo.
Being an affiliate of some of the major online gambling companies on a global scale is quite indicative of Skrill’s involvement in an industry that is expected to further grow in the years to come. With operators constantly expanding their presence and introducing their services to new regulated markets, it seems that the future of the popular online payment processor and its new parent company Optimal Payments is to be even more closely related to the gambling industry. And as it turns out, this involvement is to be related not only to the provision of reliable payment solutions but also of securing operators with successful affiliate marketing activities.
November 10, 2009
Affiliates hit back with Gambling Affiliates Union
An affiliate organisation has been formed that is prepared to take legal action against affiliate programmes that repeatedly fail to stick to deals agreed with affiliates over pay.
The Gambling Affiliates Union (GAU), formed just three days ago, already has more than 100 affiliate members despite not having received publicity except in discussions on the Gambling Portal Webmasters Assocation (GPWA) forum, and aims to have 1000 members within six months.
It is led by affiliates ‘Chalkie’, real name Paul White, an English affiliate focussed on the poker vertical and based in the UK's West Midlands, and ‘Mojo’, or Paula Bliss, an affiliate focussing on casino and based in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on America's east coast.
White said: “I get extremely annoyed at times about how affiliates are treated and how they get walked over by some affiliate programmes. That is really the principle behind this: to make sure that affiliates get a fair deal from affiliate programmes. United, we have a stronger voice.”
White continued that the GAU was intended as an arbitration service and did not intend to organise boycotts of affiliate programmes, but that it is willing to take legal action against affiliate programmes that repeatedly fail to pay affiliates or enter into negotiation.
White said: “We’re not here to police affiliates and make demands that nobody works with certain programmes, because that would be counter-productive by making it hard to talk to the affiliate programmes. But we are willing to take legal action to protect members if absolutely necessary. If a contract contains a clause that says that allows people to change that contract at any time, then it can’t be seen as legally binding and stand up in court.”
The GAU plans to recruit 50-60% of all gambling affiliates, including the ‘super affiliates’ that White defines as “the 10% of affiliates that make 905 of industry money.” White predicted that it would have 1000 members within six months, and said it plans to have 5000 members within 12 months.
“Once we have enough members we will have a little bit of power that we can put into action,” he said, adding that the organisation has the support of GPWA founder Michael Corfman and the Association of Players Casinos and Webmasters (ACPW) founders known in the industry only as ‘J.Todd’ and ‘Anthony’.
“The GPWA, APCW and Affiliate Guard Dog all have their part of play, and our role is simply to help artbitrate between affiliates and programmes,” White said.
The GAU emerged from the ashes of the Affiliate Union, a similar organisation that was cancelled ahead of launch due to infighting between its founder members, who include White and Bliss, as well as David Nikkelson, or ‘Aussie Dave’, Robin Kendrick (‘GamTrack’) and an affiliate named Peter whose surname is unconfirmed (Greek 39).
It will not take sponsorship, but will be funded via a monthly membership fee of US$3 a month. However the first 100 members have not been charged subscription fees, and the GAU will not charge subscription fees for the up to six months in which it might take to become established.
The Gambling Affiliates Union (GAU), formed just three days ago, already has more than 100 affiliate members despite not having received publicity except in discussions on the Gambling Portal Webmasters Assocation (GPWA) forum, and aims to have 1000 members within six months.
It is led by affiliates ‘Chalkie’, real name Paul White, an English affiliate focussed on the poker vertical and based in the UK's West Midlands, and ‘Mojo’, or Paula Bliss, an affiliate focussing on casino and based in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on America's east coast.
White said: “I get extremely annoyed at times about how affiliates are treated and how they get walked over by some affiliate programmes. That is really the principle behind this: to make sure that affiliates get a fair deal from affiliate programmes. United, we have a stronger voice.”
White continued that the GAU was intended as an arbitration service and did not intend to organise boycotts of affiliate programmes, but that it is willing to take legal action against affiliate programmes that repeatedly fail to pay affiliates or enter into negotiation.
White said: “We’re not here to police affiliates and make demands that nobody works with certain programmes, because that would be counter-productive by making it hard to talk to the affiliate programmes. But we are willing to take legal action to protect members if absolutely necessary. If a contract contains a clause that says that allows people to change that contract at any time, then it can’t be seen as legally binding and stand up in court.”
The GAU plans to recruit 50-60% of all gambling affiliates, including the ‘super affiliates’ that White defines as “the 10% of affiliates that make 905 of industry money.” White predicted that it would have 1000 members within six months, and said it plans to have 5000 members within 12 months.
“Once we have enough members we will have a little bit of power that we can put into action,” he said, adding that the organisation has the support of GPWA founder Michael Corfman and the Association of Players Casinos and Webmasters (ACPW) founders known in the industry only as ‘J.Todd’ and ‘Anthony’.
“The GPWA, APCW and Affiliate Guard Dog all have their part of play, and our role is simply to help artbitrate between affiliates and programmes,” White said.
The GAU emerged from the ashes of the Affiliate Union, a similar organisation that was cancelled ahead of launch due to infighting between its founder members, who include White and Bliss, as well as David Nikkelson, or ‘Aussie Dave’, Robin Kendrick (‘GamTrack’) and an affiliate named Peter whose surname is unconfirmed (Greek 39).
It will not take sponsorship, but will be funded via a monthly membership fee of US$3 a month. However the first 100 members have not been charged subscription fees, and the GAU will not charge subscription fees for the up to six months in which it might take to become established.
August 07, 2009
Victor Chandler launches multi-lingual affiliate program
VictorChandler.com and Income Access have strengthened their partnership by announcing the launch of VictorAffilaites.com's new global affiliate program. With a range of new features, the relaunched program will feature all the tools available from the Income Access affiliate marketing software. Victor Chandler and its affiliates will now enjoy advanced PPC tracking tools, new graphical reports, a multi-lingual software platform and an advanced advertising banner solution.
The latest release of the Income Access affiliate marketing software features custom language settings and advanced graphical reporting. Through the custom language settings, Victor Chandler will offer a customized user experience to their affiliates, helping Victor Chandler better engage affiliates in different regional markets. Victor Chandler and its affiliates will enjoy graphical reports, providing them with advanced intelligence on campaign performance at a glance, as well as more in-depth tracking reports.
Victor Chandler has also recently invested in a new media banner deployment. The Dynamic Advertising Reporting and Targeting system, or DART, is able to hyper-target banners according to 22 criteria, such as IP, location, browser language, and other cookie information. This breakthrough in ad-serving technology will help affiliates increase conversions by showing their users the most relevant promotions.
"The roll-out of a new affiliate program is an exciting development for both Victor Chandler and their affiliates worldwide," said Nicky Senyard, CEO of Income Access. "We have been working closely with Victor Chandler for years, and over the last couple of months have helped them consolidate their affiliate marketing program under a single, comprehensive platform. This new system will allow Victor Chandler to easily monitor and manage their different campaigns through one interface, helping them to better maximize the return of their affiliate marketing efforts."
Affiliates in the Victors Affiliates program will also continue to benefit from the lucrative commission structures. Victors Affiliates up to 35% of each referred player's net losses, every month, for the lifetime of that referred player. Alternatively, affiliates can opt for a CPA commission for each new real/active account they bring in.
"We're glad to have launched a robust new platform that will make it easy and quick to grow our affiliate programme and give affiliates the quality support that they need. Its new quick link features, multi-territory targeting and enhanced reporting systems allows affiliates to easily manage their own campaigns from start to finish with the best results possible"
Victor Chandler offers affiliates a variety of verticals to promote, and a range of sports betting, ranging from UFC to Greyhound Racing and American Football. Victor Chandler also features a casino and live casino portal, with various player promotions, along with a poker, gaming and a mobile gaming section for affiliates to promote.
Completely brandable and customizable, the Income Access affiliate marketing software provides iGaming operators with the ability to extend their brand experience to affiliates. In a constant state of development and updated regularly, it features a variety of in-depth tracking reports and marketing tools that help both operators maximize their online marketing campaigns.
The latest release of the Income Access affiliate marketing software features custom language settings and advanced graphical reporting. Through the custom language settings, Victor Chandler will offer a customized user experience to their affiliates, helping Victor Chandler better engage affiliates in different regional markets. Victor Chandler and its affiliates will enjoy graphical reports, providing them with advanced intelligence on campaign performance at a glance, as well as more in-depth tracking reports.
Victor Chandler has also recently invested in a new media banner deployment. The Dynamic Advertising Reporting and Targeting system, or DART, is able to hyper-target banners according to 22 criteria, such as IP, location, browser language, and other cookie information. This breakthrough in ad-serving technology will help affiliates increase conversions by showing their users the most relevant promotions.
"The roll-out of a new affiliate program is an exciting development for both Victor Chandler and their affiliates worldwide," said Nicky Senyard, CEO of Income Access. "We have been working closely with Victor Chandler for years, and over the last couple of months have helped them consolidate their affiliate marketing program under a single, comprehensive platform. This new system will allow Victor Chandler to easily monitor and manage their different campaigns through one interface, helping them to better maximize the return of their affiliate marketing efforts."
Affiliates in the Victors Affiliates program will also continue to benefit from the lucrative commission structures. Victors Affiliates up to 35% of each referred player's net losses, every month, for the lifetime of that referred player. Alternatively, affiliates can opt for a CPA commission for each new real/active account they bring in.
"We're glad to have launched a robust new platform that will make it easy and quick to grow our affiliate programme and give affiliates the quality support that they need. Its new quick link features, multi-territory targeting and enhanced reporting systems allows affiliates to easily manage their own campaigns from start to finish with the best results possible"
Victor Chandler offers affiliates a variety of verticals to promote, and a range of sports betting, ranging from UFC to Greyhound Racing and American Football. Victor Chandler also features a casino and live casino portal, with various player promotions, along with a poker, gaming and a mobile gaming section for affiliates to promote.
Completely brandable and customizable, the Income Access affiliate marketing software provides iGaming operators with the ability to extend their brand experience to affiliates. In a constant state of development and updated regularly, it features a variety of in-depth tracking reports and marketing tools that help both operators maximize their online marketing campaigns.
February 04, 2008
Party signs-up to Envisional for affiliate monitoring
PartyGaming has adopted and refined a new method for affiliate monitoring, after introducing experimental systems using artificial intelligence.
The system, created by Envisional, aims to toe the line between managing risk from affiliates, preventing security lapses, and encouraging entrepreneurialism, according to Ian Shircore, marketing director at Envisional.
Shircore: “Maintaining security with affiliates is not just an anti-fraud measure, there is a wider issue. That is: no country will think to regulate online gaming while companies cannot keep track of their affiliates.”
The issue of violations committed through affiliates is one which was highlighted at last week’s Combating Cybercrime conference. Examples of money laundering through affiliates were given by speakers including representatives from PartyGaming and Unibet, as well as the UK’s Serious Fraud Office. One attendee said that the industry had been “dragging its feet” in terms of affiliates, and that greater security was needed if the sector was to show its maturity.
However, it was also noted that the importance of affiliates for operators should not be underestimated, and that minor “offences” from what were termed “over-enthusiastic” affiliates, are dealt with most effectively by operators.
Shircore said: “If you think of how affiliate networks work, they are the very essence of entrepreneurial spirit. Nobody wants to crush that, and it will save time for the companies to just have to recognise what’s going on, and say, please don’t step over the line.
“In terms of affiliate monitoring, people desperately need to know what’s going on. The enforcement is pretty simple. The relationship between the operator and the affiliate is not necessarily damaged.”
Shircore added that the collaboration with Party had resulted in a product that was unusual for its use of artificial intelligence.
He said: “We are pushing the limits of artificial intelligence, and we have now a system with greater flexibility for the operator. The artificial intelligence follows links like a human, and uses human-like logic. It also searches images. We produced prototype systems which we worked on for PartyGaming. It’s been remodelled and refined slightly ‘in reality’ but it is basically the same concept.
“What they get is a pyramid of results – and the pyramid will show violations which at the top of the pyramid, are very serious, while at the bottom, are ones which they may choose to ignore.”
The system, created by Envisional, aims to toe the line between managing risk from affiliates, preventing security lapses, and encouraging entrepreneurialism, according to Ian Shircore, marketing director at Envisional.
Shircore: “Maintaining security with affiliates is not just an anti-fraud measure, there is a wider issue. That is: no country will think to regulate online gaming while companies cannot keep track of their affiliates.”
The issue of violations committed through affiliates is one which was highlighted at last week’s Combating Cybercrime conference. Examples of money laundering through affiliates were given by speakers including representatives from PartyGaming and Unibet, as well as the UK’s Serious Fraud Office. One attendee said that the industry had been “dragging its feet” in terms of affiliates, and that greater security was needed if the sector was to show its maturity.
However, it was also noted that the importance of affiliates for operators should not be underestimated, and that minor “offences” from what were termed “over-enthusiastic” affiliates, are dealt with most effectively by operators.
Shircore said: “If you think of how affiliate networks work, they are the very essence of entrepreneurial spirit. Nobody wants to crush that, and it will save time for the companies to just have to recognise what’s going on, and say, please don’t step over the line.
“In terms of affiliate monitoring, people desperately need to know what’s going on. The enforcement is pretty simple. The relationship between the operator and the affiliate is not necessarily damaged.”
Shircore added that the collaboration with Party had resulted in a product that was unusual for its use of artificial intelligence.
He said: “We are pushing the limits of artificial intelligence, and we have now a system with greater flexibility for the operator. The artificial intelligence follows links like a human, and uses human-like logic. It also searches images. We produced prototype systems which we worked on for PartyGaming. It’s been remodelled and refined slightly ‘in reality’ but it is basically the same concept.
“What they get is a pyramid of results – and the pyramid will show violations which at the top of the pyramid, are very serious, while at the bottom, are ones which they may choose to ignore.”
October 17, 2007
Affiliates Say Intertops.com has the Fastest Paying Affiliate Program
October 16, 2007 (St. John’s, Antigua) – 'The First' online betting site is the first to pay its affiliates according to a report in the October issue of CAP Magazine. The world’s leading publication for gambling affiliates has listed Intertops.com as the fastest paying casino affiliate program. The magazine, published by CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com, reports that a webmaster poll showed 'getting paid quickly and reliably' is affiliates' number one criteria for judging affiliate programs. The same story reported that Intertops paid their affiliates faster than nineteen other programs mentioned.
'This recognition from CAP Magazine shows that 'Trust the First' isn’t just a slogan, but something we really mean,' said Michl Posch of Intertops.com.
Back in 1996, Intertops was the first sportsbook ever to offer online betting. It wasn’t long before they offered online casino games and online poker as well. The Intertops affiliate partner program has been renowned in the industry since 1999 and established its reputation for quick payment from the beginning. The program pays lifetime commission for all products that are offered by Intertops.com: sportsbook, casino, poker and games.
'Intertops sets the bar very high,' said Posch. 'In a business where partners rarely meet, trust is a key to success. We’re happy about the outstanding reputation that Intertops has earned among affiliates.'
In January, Casino Affiliate Programs will again recognize leaders in the online gambling business when they present the 'Cappy Awards' at a glamorous awards night during January’s CAP Euro conference in London. Intertops has been nominated by affiliates in the 'Best Sportsbetting Affiliate Program' category. Webmasters can vote for Intertops at www.capawards.com.
'The nomination of Intertops for Sports Betting Affiliate Program of the Year and being named the fastest paying program in this issue of CAP Magazine comes as no surprise. These guys are great,' said Lou Fabiano, founder of Casino Affiliate Programs. 'Affiliates love cash flow and fast payments as they allow them to buy more domains, build more sites and run more ads. This means more players and more income each month! Hats off to Intertops for helping affiliates to maximize their revenues.'
The CAP Magazine article '10 Things Webmasters Want' is available here: www.lyceummedia.com/intertops/capmag-oct07.pdf
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