The affiliate game can be a tough, especially as the players in the industry seek out untapped markets and navigate some of the same regulatory hurdles that operators have to face. Bryan Bailey, Director of Casinomeister, is doing everything he can to keep his business at the head of the curve, and spoke with our Becky Liggero Fontana.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLpJNu-LxEQ
As legalized gambling is increasingly spreading across America, Bailey is taking the opportunity to ramp up his business. “Well really we do have more content writers now, we’re actually writing news and I think I mentioned earlier that we have Casino Gazette which has been relaunched,” he told us. “And you probably remember Becky, back in the day, early 2000s, we had podcasts. And I had a podcast, Mike Craig had a podcast, podcast for online player’s association. And this was on casinogazette.com.”
Why is Bailey talking about a site from over a decade ago? “I have just now relaunched it after 16 years. And so right now it’s a very viable site. It’s news for the industry folks, its news for affiliates and also news for players themselves. And we’re also redoing the podcast. And we recently uploaded the podcasts I had from 2001 to 2008, so you might even remember some of those. They’re actually pretty funny. I sit there and crack myself up.”
While the spread of legalized U.S. sports betting has created lots of opportunities, Bailey lamented that the restrictions on the industry are cutting off potential supply. “It’s a big mess, it really is,” he said. “I’ve had a vendor’s license since 2013 and we’ve been advertising for the New Jersey casinos for the past 7 years and there’s just not traffic really. I mean it’s tough, 50% of our traffic is from the U.S. coming to the site, and about 4% of that is from New Jersey. And no one lives there. And I think the problem is that these states are set up where they only take bets from people within the state.
Bailey left us with advice he’d offer to other U.S. facing affiliates as the market continues to legalize. “They should just stay with the white markets,” he insisted. “It’s really tough to stay viable if you’re going to be promoting anything offshore like the Caribbean, mainly because there’s a lot of operators who are getting their U.S. licenses and they’re looking and scrutinizing the affiliates now. And if you are advertising for some offshore entity, you may have your affiliate account shut down. Everybody does their own thing, I do my thing. I keep things above board, I’m very transparent. Everybody knows who I am. I got the vendors license and all that stuff.
