When talking about Google’s Gambling Advertising Overtime, Nir said the company generally focus on three verticals: binary option, gambling and tech (that’s internet start-up companies to help levitate Google as a platform). Giving reasons for its importance, Nir said: “The online gambling industry has evolved over the years with introduction of more and more territories.” He continued that in October 2008 Google Israel started a test to allow online gambling operators and affiliates to start advertising in the UK due to it being legitimate territory with “a very large gambling market.” Looking at metrix – revenues advertisers, publishers, etc – Google extended the test because of its impressive results, eventually adding territories such as Italy and France. Nir added: “We have recognised the opportunity in Germany, Spain and Denmark and hopefully more countries by the end of this year.”

Going into The Current State of The Gambling Industry, Nir highlighted how important branding was to the gambling industry. Using a chart (shown below) made up of how seven major brands with the highest number of Google searches – that’s William Hill, Ladbrokes Betfair, Bet365, BetFred, SkyBet and Paddy Power – he compared the searches in the UK over the last three years.

He affirmed: “There are millions of queries in these brands per week,” which all “show uniformity in how their trends correlate to big sporting events” with their strengths maintaiingn the same position through the three year period.

Although he made it clear there are some exceptions. For example, Paddy Power is usually below Bet365 in the number of searches. However, when looking at each of the major events in the chart, such as the Grand National, Paddy Power managed to put itself up above Bet365, demonstrating that it may be better at advertising events, or could have better odds, PR, for when it comes to major sports games. He wrapped up the topic by stating the graph is an example that the UK gambling market is in fact still growing.

One of the most fascinating points made in the Google Bet talk was on mobile iGaming and advertising. Google’s Industry Manager – eGaming Eli Uzan stated that it’s not “the next big thing – the next big thing is already happening today.” This was proven by comparing the share of general gambling queries on mobile platforms from just two years ago (at 3.5%) to today (at 11.5%). “That’s one out of every nine searches about gambling from a mobile device – an amazing number,” he said – suggesting that mobile iGaming is growing at a substantial rate in the UK.

When talking about Where Opportunities Lie, Nir concluded the seminar by stating that Google Israel’s strategy for the U.S. could be possible by year 2013, but it will “take some time” in order to achieve.

TVShack owner Richard O'Dwyer

A legal expert on the gaming industry warned that legal precedent in the US in terms of Internet-related extraditions could have a small effect on the affiliate industry. A presentation by Peter Wilson, an expert in iGaming litigation, formed the second part of a session at today’s London Affiliate Conference looking at UK Gambling Law.

Wilson looked at the legal side of the table and laid out the two main changes that will occur should the national licensing method be reintroduced. The first is that anyone wanting to carry out transactions with British customers will have to have a licence. The second involves advertising and makes it an offence to advertise non UK-regulated services to UK customers – wherever you’re based.

Wilson had the same lack of optimism as the first speaker Steve Donoghue. The exorbitant tax is their main gripe and one that will put operators off obtaining a licence. There’s also the long-winded testing process and plethora of different licences present that would put licensees off, according to Wilson.

It was the part involving affiliates that will have seen many of those in attendance with pricked up ears. Wilson used the case of Richard O’Dwyer to illustrate just how easy it can be for US authorities to seek extradition. The Englishman ran TVShack.net, which linked through to sites offering pirated content. The US went after the domain as it was owned by Virginia company, Verisign, and as it was a dot.net domain they claimed it came under their jurisdiction. Wilson recognized that something this drastic is unlikely in the gambling or affiliate it’s “worth keeping an eye on.”

Michael Caselli, chair of the session, added that affiliates could be considered too hard to target by US authorities if they’re doing anything wrong as the one thing the DoJ is more often than not after is easy access to funds. In terms of the UK, Caselli ended the session by stating the British market could soon be too saturated and that it could signal a bleak future for a little while at least. Will anything happen at all? It’s too early to say.

The opening of the applications comes after six months when ICANN requested proposals and approved plans to increase the number of gTLDs from the standard 22 such as .com, .co.uk, .org, to allow companies to create their own, giving the possibility of thousands of unique domain names.

In an announcement by ICANN just a few days ago, the company said its community members have “laboured diligently” to ensure that the program includes “financial and non-financial forms of assistance to deserving applicants that intend to serve the public interest.” So, if a big company feels it deserves its own top-level domain but cannot afford it, ICANN have said “qualified organisations have the opportunity to apply for financial aid”, addign that its board has “set aside $2,000,000 to assist needy applicants, a seed fund to which other organizations can donate.” How thoughtful of them!

ICANN has also made an effort to include everyone in the world in the application period, extending it globally and having awareness-raising events in countries the World Bank defines as “developing economies” such as diverse places as Fiji, India, Kenya, Mauritania, Senegal.

What iGaming sites, if any, do you predict may take part in the gTLD application process? Would you like to see a change – news.calvinayre for example?

A Wall Street head of technology investment banking said: “They [RIM] have had approaches from folks who have wanted to have discussions,” said one head of technology investment banking at a Wall Street bank. “The issue is it is hard to find a value that makes sense with a falling knife.”

BlackBerry’s shunning of Amazon’s approach is a situation everyone can link back to that time you really, really wanted to go out with that girl and everything you did they spurned. Or they’ve just settled for the booby prize (delete as appropriate). Amazon is still looking to expand its ties with RIM and should its woes continue the firm is one of the best placed to take advantage of a possible takeover. The same article mentioned that other firms have looked at RIM with Wall Street bankers putting feelers out to HTC and Samsung asking whether they’d be interested in the firm.

Problems for RIM have been escalating over the past year and it just goes to show that they should have stayed focused on the business market. Their strength was always in the fact they were able to offer reliable and quick email to the business world. By focusing more and more on smart phones and tablets and not developing their email service the company has suffered by not being able to compete against Apple, Samsung, HTC and a host of other firms.

It’s all a shame. Blamazon would have made a catchy moniker.

Marketing

While the emergence of search engines has meant that websites can simply be released into the online world, if they are going to attract high volumes of traffic then marketing is going to have to be done.

Across the board, iGaming is undoubtedly a very large but crowded market. In order to grab your own share of this market, you have to raise the profile of your business.

As Simon Burridge, CEO of Virgin Games, said when he spoke to Becky Liggero earlier this month: “You need to market in this business.”

Having watched the interviews by Becky with Burridge and Andan Maslo of ComeOn! it becomes apparent that both global and local marketing strategies have their advantages and disadvantages. A large proportion of their potential to succeed depends on the operators themselves – somewhat of a horses for courses situation.

So once you’ve decided on whether you want to go global or stay local where do you go from there? What tactics will best fit into your grander plans?

In the iGaming industry, we’re blessed to have a vast array of marketing options available to us. So many that it’s not always clear which will be most effective, especially when they aren’t so easy to measure.

With this in mind, below is a quick run-down of four of the most commonly used marketing tactics in iGaming and whether they suit global or local strategies.

Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is an area that has prospered within the iGaming arena as it fits the framework of the industry perfectly. As a result there are many thousands of affiliates around the world be they small, medium or even super affiliates.

As well as coming in different sizes, affiliates also come from different locations and as a result can fit effectively into a local marketing strategy. By being featured on affiliate sites that target more specific geographic audiences are able to target specific geographic locations as well as niche audiences easily.

On the subject of targeted marketing, Maslow said: “Targeted marketing allows us to reach our target groups in specific ways and specific channels where we know they are.”

For an online casino for example, affiliate sites focusing on casino games in general and specific casino games can be an effective way of targeting your market.

Global or local? Local.

Sponsorship

For the purposes of this article, the marketing methods in question are being dealt with fairly broadly and few are broader than sponsorship. Because of this, sponsorship could be classed as a global or local method depending on what you’re sponsoring.

As is evident in the Premier League, some iGaming brands are able to sponsor to a global market. Asian operators such as 188Bet, 12Bet and Bodog have and do sponsor in the league despite having little presence in the country in which the league is played.

On the other hand, small territories for which operators have a license for can be targeted using sponsorship. As mentioned above, the effect of some marketing strategies can be hard to measure and nowhere is this truer than with sponsorship.

The most common reason for sponsorship is to raise awareness of your brand while it is also commonly accepted that you need to pay more to sponsor more high profile events.

Global or local? Both but perhaps more suitable for global.

Digital Advertising

It goes without saying that an industry that operates online will primarily market online as well. Online marketing and social media marketing within that provide great opportunities to target customers. As Malso mentioned, this is a key factor and therefore allows digital advertising to lend itself very well to local marketing.

Having said that, the fact that any web page can be viewed anywhere in the world (within reason) means that there is plenty there for global marketing. This is where the selection of where you advertise and whether you set restrictions as to where your ads are delivered to come into play.

Google Adsense, for example, permits gambling ads to be shown only in regulated markets. However, within this you can target your ads more specifically so that they only reach a certain territory, the browser language being used, the browser and even the operating system being used by the viewer.

Obviously social media marketing is playing an ever increasing role in digital advertising but it doesn’t appear to be changing too much in terms of the possibilities for global and local marketing.

Global or local? Both.

Traditional Media Advertising

Advertising on television is something that many operators with considerable budgets have taken advantage of. It can of course be quite expensive but not only creates brand awareness but can have a direct effect on acquisitions when used with promotional offers.

However, given the nature of traditional media markets you would be very hard pushed to market on a global scale through one outlet. Print adverts, TV adverts and many others are likely to only circulate within one territory and sometimes don’t even reach that far.

Global or local? Local

These are by no means the only ways to market in the online gambling industry but are the ones that first sprung to mind. As is always the case, their potential for success and the methods themselves are completely open to individual interpretation.

The sites added: “We support the bills’ stated goals – providing additional enforcement tools to combat foreign ‘rogue’ websites that are dedicated to copyright infringement or counterfeiting,” but their concerns over certain aspects are enough for them to raise alarm.

A main worry is the legislation undermining what have become known as “safe harbour” protections granted to ISPs. It means firms offering blogs and other services don’t live in fear of copyright action being taken by rights holders. Under the new act they’d have no protection against this.

When you talk about stifling innovation, it’s hard not to bring up patent trolls that blight any industry they like the look of. It can stunt innovation and goes to explain why a number of the companies in Silicon Valley are building up a “nuclear arsenal” of patents to fight lawsuits. The online gaming industry has seen off a number of these trolls over the years. Righthaven, the latest company to look at gaming, has been declared bankrupt with the bailiffs already moving in. Don’t even get us started on Scott Lewis.

Debates over the best way to tackle online piracy have been raging on ever since Napster upset the balance in the late 90s and doesn’t look like ending as soon as those in the entertainment industry had hoped. It won’t be long until they start up the age-old argument about it not being ok to steal CDs from your local record store and vice versa. Britain’s Digital Economy Act is a similar bill and has failed to make any widespread progress in the battle against piracy and it remains to be seen whether the US version has better luck – if it ever sees the light of day.

Watch the first part here.

Watch the second part here.

Matthew Froggatt, Chief Development Officer at TNS, said: “Winning and keeping customers is harder than ever. The online world undoubtedly presents massive opportunities for brands, however it is only through deploying precisely tailored marketing strategies that they will be able to realise this potential.”

It’s an important development for the online gambling industry after Facebook relaxed rules pertaining to the gambling industry. Their terms now state: “Adverts that promote or facilitate online gambling, games of skill or lotteries, including online casinos, sports books, bingo or poker, are only allowed in specific countries with prior authorisation from Facebook.”

With over half of the users ignoring adverts, the effect of the changes to terms will have on the gambling industry is lessened. Still, half of 800million users worldwide are still some number to be able to target on a daily basis. That’s just in the developed world as well

In emerging markets, such as those in Latin America, the number bothered by ads dropped to around 37% and these are markets where the online gambling market is already starting to tentatively expand. Overall, the ad revenue on Facebook will see the site rake in $2.8billion in 2012. Hearing that ads piss people off is nothing new and this news won’t worry many. It’ll just force some companies to change tack and develop better-targeted marketing when using social networks as a platform.

Gambling Ads on Facebook... Probably...

The chances are that if you’re an operator then the update should have grabbed your attention already. But for those who need a reminder or anyone who managed to remain blissfully unaware, here it is:

“Adverts that promote or facilitate online gambling, games of skill or lotteries, including online casinos, sports books, bingo or poker, are only allowed in specific countries with prior authorisation from Facebook.”

This is the Facebook policy change that now allows iGaming companies to use the social networking site more freely. But it won’t all be plain sailing as it also came to light that online gambling industry companies will require prior authorisation from Facebook before putting their campaigns live. However, this is a small price to pay for access to the 800 million strong Facebook community and a significant loosening on the restrictions that had governed iGaming companies.

Before the changes, those that were determined to have a Facebook page were able to do so, but they were restricted to four posts a week. Not only this but all of these posts had to be approved by Facebook.

If anyone happened to be questioning why this was a big deal, simply take a look at the numbers. Online gambling companies are now able to target the 800 million Facebook users that log on across the world. In doing so they will be contributing to the $5.5 billion figure which is expected to make up the total social media advertising revenue this year – a total which is expected to rise to $8.2 billion in 2012.

The targeting opportunities available are another reason that Facebook’s policy changes could be very good news for iGaming companies. Knowledge of user location, education, age, gender, friends and interests means that you’re able to specify the exact type of person that you wish to target and then reach them.

The more observant among you may have noticed the impressive relevance of ads that are served. Some even leave you wondering how on earth they knew you were interested in the topic concerned.

There’s also no doubt that there’s a target market on Facebook for iGaming companies. For one, Zynga Poker has 33 million active users and has used this success to build non-gambling social games. But it’s not just poker that has the ability to succeed on Facebook, Double Down Casino has an impressive 3 million active users while many other applications are starting out.

Simon Spaull is the Chief Development Officer at TBG Digital, an online advertising agency that focuses specifically on Facebook. He reveals that evidence has already shown that gambling companies can do well on Facebook.

He says: “Bingo works well – it has an inherent social aspect to it already, so converts easily to Facebook. However, we may begin to see other gambling sectors coming through to the fore as regulations relax.”

So, it’s safe to say that Facebook advertising is an opportunity that iGaming companies should relish. But as very little iGaming advertising has previously been permitted on the social network, few gambling professionals will know where to start.

Spaull confirms that even though Facebook advertising has been running for some time, it’s still very unpredictable.

He adds: “We wait with interest to see how Facebook’s recent relaxing of regulations concerning gambling companies affects the range of options available, but currently, gaming apps offer good opportunities for advertisers.”

Regardless of whether you’re running a Facebook campaign directly or not, you should be aware of the four options open to Facebook advertisers. The first of these is the only previous form of Facebook advertising that iGaming companies were able to indulge in – pages.

Next up are ads, a technique that most iGaming professionals should be familiar with already. These operate in very similar ways to other online ads with the added benefit of being able to target very specifically (as explained above). As a result of this targeting, advertisers can expect high click through rates and therefore greater effectiveness of campaigns.

Spaull adds that TBG Digital have found this format to be particularly effective, he says: “Marketplace is currently the most effective option as it enables advertisers to deliver the right message to the right people at the right time, and through a higher volume of impressions.”

Sponsored stories are similar to ads but impressions are generated on a different basis. They use the holy grail of marketing, word of mouth, and are extremely effective in doing so. Basically, when your page or application is used or liked by a Facebook user, this information will appear as a post on that user’s friends’ news feeds. Also possible is for users to check in at one of your locations – although this is less likely to be relevant to online companies unless a user turns up at your offices.

As with ads, you’re able to streamline this aspect of your Facebook advertising by ensuring that your stories only appear to people whose information corresponds with your target market. Thus creating what every online advertiser wants in the high click through rates mentioned above.

Potentially, the most exciting prospect of the Facebook advertising is platforms. A number of different features fall under this category but it mainly consists of creating social plugins on your own site and the most exciting of all – creating your own application.

Facebook recommends that the key to a successful application is all about engagement. This is something that should come fairly easily to iGaming companies as gambling-style apps are already proving to be some of the most engaging around. Six of the 20 most engaging Facebook applications according to AllFacebook.com are gambling based.

This leaves iGaming companies with two options, build your own app, or buy or sponsor one that’s already made. Sponsoring or buying a gambling-style app would appear the preferable option. This provides you with a potentially new group of people that you can be sure are interested in gambling and with a brand behind it, virality and word of mouth may begin to do your work for you.

Before the recent policy changes, the challenge was monetising these apps. However, the newfound ability that players have to click through from apps directly to iGaming sits means that this issue should now have been conquered. As a result it appears as if all pieces are now in place for iGaming companies to finally take advantage of a market that has evaded them for so long.

The Don is getting into a strictly business partnership with New York hedge-fun manager Marc Lasry to take advantage of the date that online poker legislation hatches in the USA. They don’t care whether it’s intra-state or federal, they’re having a piece of that pie (we’ve got our dollars on it being intra-state). Anything that casts our eyes away from the balding ginger skunk on Trump’s head is just okay in our books. The venture is between Avenue Capital Group and Trump Entertainment that is owned already by Avenue. Trump Entertainment would own 10% and supply the licenses with the remaining split between Avenue and Donald himself. It’s quite the tag team if you ask us. That’s tag team as in there’s two people working together to get something done. Shit we’re digging a hole here aren’t we!

THE TRUMPSTER GETS YOUR ATTENTION

As with most things, the Trumpster attaches his name to this is getting a lot of media attention – something that can only be good for the gaming industry at large. Anyone that gives the online gaming industry so much media attention and therefore legitimizes it in the eyes of US media is good in our books. With the Full Tilt Poker “ponzi” scandal still smoking at the embers, the help that Trump’s media exposure give the industry is something of more value than a hair transplant or razor would be to him. During his failed run for the White House, Der Donald garnered 893,424 online mentions through April. Obviously some of the publicity will be bad and HIS brand will be damaged. The fact remains that the gaming industry will gain legitimacy from the exposure that he gives us.

That’s not to say there are question marks surrounding Trump’s involvement with the industry. You don’t have to be eagle-eyed to work out this technical Luddite has made a real pigs-ear of much of his time spent in the land-based gaming industry. He was one of Atlantic City’s pioneers and look where that’s heading. Trump thinking that he can run an online gambling company is like giving the keys of the Starship Enterprise to a 17-year-old boy-racer that just passed his driving test. Trump’s generation is land-based casinos and the job he made of that we don’t think he should be trusted at the helm of an online gaming company – with or without his pal’s money.

MORE JUICE THAN A PWIN PUNCH BOWL

Conversely if he does end up seizing control of something that means his knocking around in the online gaming industry we will be yodeling from the top of the Matterhorn. Granted we already have Pwin to give us all the content that we need. If Mr Combover makes his way into the arena just think how much fun we could have here on the tablog. We’d expect to have a story at least once a day on the Don as he makes his haphazard journey around our industry. If he thought he could get away with shagging a porn star on the outside just wait until he gets into iGaming! Donald, if you’re listening we’ll embrace any of the misdemeanors that you find yourself in. If you can’t laugh at yourself though you haven’t got a chance mate!

But this year has seen the importance of selecting an appropriate domain name increase even more. This is thanks to the supposed targeting of .com websites open to US players and Verisign’s well documented ties with the US government.

However these threats have failed to discourage many domain buyers as .com’s continuing to sell and sell well. Whether this was due to an assumption that the US government would not act quite as swiftly as it has done or whether it’s simply a sign of the continual success of the industry was unclear.

Hugo Dalrymple-Smith of Sedo, the leading online domain marketplace, confirms that they’re yet to see a slump in the appetite for gambling related domains.

He says: “Unlike a lot of other domains, the price of gambling ones remain high. This is because people continue to place a high premium on key terms and even though some of the market has gone they still are some the most expensive domains available.”

It’s hard to argue about the popularity of key terms as we’ve seen countless occasions where the best names sell big. Few examples are more notable than the BodogBrand’s May 2010 purchase of slots.com for more $5.8 million from Snapnames. Sedo has also got in on the act with the sale of casino.com for $5.5 million and gambling.com for $2.5 million. Dalrymple-Smith adds that these terms are the very cream of the crop: “Gambling names have always done very well. There have obviously been some very large private sales but public ones like slots.com and gambling.com came about thanks to increased efforts across the whole domain market.”

But now the US government’s pursuit of anyone and everyone whose website doesn’t adhere to their high moral, ethical and legal standards has stepped up a notch. If Black Friday still left you with any doubt that they’re still not really enforcing their online rules then just ask Richard O’Dwyer. UK resident O’Dwyer, as explained on CalvinAyre.com, is awaiting a hearing which will determine whether he’s to be extradited to the US following his website TVShack.net being seized.

So, it’s safe to say that .com’s are effectively dead for those looking to operate anything more risqué than a flower arranging site. Other domain extensions continue to come and go with none really standing out to the extent that .com’s have done.

But Dalrymple-Smith argues that there certainly isn’t a shortage of domain extension possibilities. Sedo are actually in the process of selling a package deal including casino.net, poker.net and sports.net for a “significant amount” and sold poker.org for $1 million last year. So there is beginning to be definite movements away from .com.

He says: “If you’re looking at running an international business there are a few options. I would say .co could be a good option as that’s an emerging one and Google has placed that on a global status. There’s the other thing that if you’re looking at a specific country then go for the Country Code Level Domain such as .co.uk.”

Unsurprisingly the largest gambling market, Asia, requires special attention. Having only recently come to the fore, Asia is demanding more and more of iGaming companies attention – although this isn’t without its rewards. Speaking about the Asian market, Dalrymple-Smith reveals: “Our view is that Asia is the only area where extensions will grow in relevance to domains that include characters.”

Of course there is another option, one that’s only recently become available but will no doubt have a massive impact on domain names across all industries. This is the advent of new top-level domains (TLDs) that will provide companies with a chance to create their own domain extension – a very exciting prospect.

So far, this has only taken place with the creation of .xxx, a domain extension used to allow people determine sites which – to say the least – may not be for everyone. These domains are being administered by the International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) who felt that the use of .xxx would help protect underage internet users and perhaps the more prudish among us from stumbling onto something they don’t want to see.

However, Dalrymple-Smith says that it’s unlikely we’ll see anything of that sort for the gambling industry. He adds: “There’s simply no desire or need in the market for a .gamble or .poker.”

His reasons behind this are mainly financial. ICANN are asking for $180,000 just to complete an application for a registry and that’s just the beginning. There’s also the need to prove your ability to run a registry as well as the costs that go hand in hand with doing so.

“We’ve been told that it can cost up to $1 million a year to run a registry so I don’t think there will be much of a return on an investment like that,” he reveals.

So the chance of a .gamble appears unlikely, does that render the new TLD system useless for the gambling industry?

Not necessarily claims Dalrymple-Smith as there is a small chance that companies may see it worthwhile to create their own .something.

“For larger gambling companies it may happen, you might see a .party or .888 (his examples, not ours!). They may see value in doing their own extension but they’d still have to use a .com to protect their brand.”

The potential trend of .anything could open up a whole new world on the internet. Just imagine www.casino.bodog, www.news.32red or perhaps something slightly less practical such as www.shareprices.betfair or www.intergity.pscout. As they say, the possibilities are endless.

AllthingsD reported that head of Microsoft Phones section, Andy Lees, said 4G-ready, dual-core phones were on their way once they found a decent balance between performance and battery life.

4G, for those of you unaware, refers to a speedier mobile data network that allows us to download our cheeky picture messages at a much faster rate. Even so, 4G won’t be available for some time yet until phone operators get their act together. Expected to arrive in the US in 2012, the UK won’t be ready until at least a year after that. Networks in the UK are in a legal battle, fighting over who’ll have the biggest data share of the 4G pie.

Windows promising that 4G will be a feature of future models still isn’t ground-breaking stuff.  Android has had 4G-ready dual-core Android phones kicking around for quite some time. The new iPhone 4S will too support it and Lees insisted that people should be aware that Windows’ current single-core processor models hold up well even against rivals dual-core machines. Is he in denial? Should Windows just accept defeat?

While Windows is crawling their way through the muddy trenches of smartphone warfare, Samsung stands proud waving a victory flag from the top of a mobile phone mast. Winning an award at the fifth annual T3 awards show, their Galaxy S2 device was voted as smartphone of the year.

The T3 awards show acknowledges the best gadgets across a wide variety of categories, and is recognised as one of the most prestigious awards gigs in the consumer electronics industry.

Such news probably comes as quite a shock to Apple, who with the record breaking iPhone pre-order sales, were the favourites to win. Perhaps this was the lord’s almighty way of thanking Samsung, who delayed their next smart phone release to allow the tech world paid tribute to the death of Apple founder Steve Jobs.