Why speak at iGaming conferences?

why-speak-at-igaming-conferencesWith arguably the biggest week for iGaming conferences less two weeks away, the final preparations are being put into place. Hotels and travel has been booked, exhibitors have finalized the plan for their stands and PRs are preparing marketing materials in advance of a week that brings a significant percentage of the iGaming industry to the same place.

There are several features of this week that you can count on; promo girls wearing clothing that’s far from seasonal (although that is being toned down at LAC this year at least), plenty of predominantly useless freebies and more business card swaps than you could shake a stick at. The generally accepted format for these conferences and exhibitions is that as the hoards of stands showcase their products and attempt to drum up new business, there are actually opportunities to learn a thing or two.

These learning opportunities come in the form of talks, panels, guides, roundtable sessions or whatever you might want to call them. They involve an expert on a particular topic sharing their knowledge with the audience and often casting a look ahead to what might happen in the future of their given niche. While the tangible takeaways from these sessions aren’t always vast, some are particularly informative and for many they are a major attraction of these conferences.

But what of the speakers themselves? It all seems like quite a risky proposition. You’re asked to potentially give away your professional advantage of superior knowledge to an audience that might include your direct competition. This audience may even take exception to what you’re saying and attempt to discredit you.

Regardless, there never appears to be any shortage of willing candidates to speak so there must be reasons for this. Generally touted reasons for speaking at industry conferences include sharing knowledge, effortless networking and increased visibility. But in such a competitive industry as online gambling do they apply?

Lawyers

In the interest of clarity the speakers that we can expect to see in London next month have been split into three groups. The first of which are the lawyers who perhaps have the easiest motive to understand.

There’s obviously a large incentive right now for lawyers who operate within the US or have a strong understanding of US state law. Speaking at conferences provides them with an opportunity to exhibit their knowledge on the subject in the hope of attracting new clients who are looking to break into the regulated American markets.

Given that it came to light this month that lawyers and lobbyists in New Jersey alone reportedly shared $50 million between them you can see why those hoping to grab a share of that amount are so keen to get into the spotlight. And while operators and their larger costs and fees are going to be the territory of the big name law firms, the work of affiliates having to get regulated is still up for the grabs.

The idea of affiliates needing lawyers shouldn’t be in doubt. Anyone who has seen the types of forms required to get an ancillary license in New Jersey will not be rushing to downplay the importance of someone who knows what they’re doing in this area.

Consultants

Similarly to lawyers, consultants have a clear motive to gain exposure in an attempt to draw in new clients. They need to convince those potential clients in the audience that they can provide their business with an edge and that any fees will be negated by added income.

However, as alluded to earlier this is a double edged sword and any comments or theories that are deemed to be controversial could have a negative effect. This is a more significant consideration for consultants than it is for lawyers as consultants are often offering services that affiliates could conceivably do themselves.

In order to present yourself in as much of a favourable light as possible one thing that is extremely important is to be specific about the topic that you talk about. James McMaster of KMI Gaming is on a panel with quite a general title but despite that he’s confident that he’ll be comfortable with the subject matter.

“I will be on a panel discussing the future of affiliates within iGaming and this is the area of the business within which I worked for Operators,” he explains.

“This is certainly where a great deal of my experience and expertise lies and since joining KMi, I have continued to focus on this area with certain clients as part of their acquisition strategies.”

Affiliates

The motives behind affiliates themselves speaking at these conferences are a bit harder to determine. They’re not attempting to drum up new business as most of the affiliate teams are on the conference floor and aside from a rare joint venture or two there are few ways in which affiliates can work together.

Sam Miranda is a senior editor at Right Casino Media who run several casino affiliate sites including Roulette.co.uk and LiveCasinos.co.uk. He’s running a session on link building at LAC and says that even though he may help his company’s competition, it will create benefits in the long run.

He explains: “I actually want my presentation to change the way gaming affiliates approach SEO and content marketing. It makes my job easier in the long term if everyone in the industry is happy to share genuinely good content.”

It’s apparent from Miranda’s comments that when it comes to SEO in particular, which is obviously such a large part of affiliate’s workload, sharing can have benefits for everyone.

He adds: “Personally I’m not fussed if an affiliate is ranking well because they produce awesome content that gets shared. Fair play to them, they’re putting in the effort. What annoys me are one page spam sites that rank because they’ve got 100,000 dodgy backlinks. We need to get away from this black hat culture of spamming and selling links. It’s not helping affiliates who are doing things the right way.”

Despite that, much in the same way as no one will be revealing what revenue share of CPA deal they’re on anytime soon Miranda adds that he won’t be disclosing all of his data. There’s a fine line there between helping others and disadvantaging yourself. However judging by the number of affiliates speaking or at least taking part in panels it’s appears that many seem keen to take the risk.