There’s no denying the fact that online casinos are becoming increasingly popular. If you have a facebook account you are sure to have more than a few friends talking about it. Or sitting around the card table on poker night with your friends the topic came up.

Let’s face it that risk you take every time you place a bet on anyone of the card games is a rush – blackjack, roulette, craps and you can even play slots online.

Online casino’s offer you many choices of games other than the most popular that are found in just about any casino on the strip.  This is part of the excitement, but it’s certainly not the only reason. There’s just something great about having the ability to gamble at any time of the day and any day of the week. There’s no planning and spending thousands just to go to Las Vegas or any other casino.

Playing online doesn’t mean you won’t plan a yearly trip to Las Vegas, but it gives you the ability to play until you get there.

You’ll find that there are many different choices of online casinos’ that offer many great benefits for joining their casino – free money into your account, matching your deposit amount and much more. Choosing the first one that you find isn’t the best thing to do. And if you remember that old saying, “if it seems too good to be true than it probably is”. Keep this in mind, it will prevent you from making a mistake.

Take a little bit of time to learn more about the casino before you deposit any amount of money into the account. Asking a friend is always the best method to finding a good online casino to join and begin playing some of your favorite cards games.

Tags: Blackjack, craps, online casinos, Poker, Roulette

The well regarded MansionPoker.com expanded its base of players by joining up with iPoker and now has significantly better liquidity. Mansion Poker is at the top of the online poker market with its many guaranteed tournaments, fantastic and impressive range of new offers and rewards.

Mansion Poker featuress the full range of poker games including Texas Hold’em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, 5 Card Draw, 7 Card Stud and 7 Card Stud Hi-Lo.

Four thrilling Sit ‘n’ Go tournaments with a top jackpot of $ 50,000), there is Happy Hour every week, “Free Gifts” for Tottenham Hotspur fans … the list goes on.

From a traditional Hold’em and Omaha to a wide range of freerolls, ring games and Sit ‘n Go. Whatever type of poker game at whatever level, MansionPoker.com has the game for you.

Tags: Mansion, Mansion Poker, Poker

Devilfish Poker – home of the Devilfish himself Dave Ulliot – has just released its new website.  That’s not all – a new casino is also on the way.

This is without doubt one of the best “smaller” rooms on the net – well worth a visit.

Tags: Dave "Devilfish" Ulliot, Dave Ulliot, devilfish, Poker

I wrote this post to help you clearly identify your goals and use my free tips to reach them. And if you don’t work in eGaming it’s relevant for you too as the skills are transferable and will update your social media marketing knowledge.

Tip 1- Define Your Goals

How much money do you want to make? How much do you want to make a year?A month? A week? A day? An hour? A minute? According to their shareholder reports betting businesses like Party Gaming make $1.279M a day*, how would you like to make that in your business?

http://www.partygaming.com/pg/uploads/press/InterimManagementStatement,Q3KPIsandTradingUpdate191108.pdf

The good news is that where you are now is exactly the right place to start from! Once you know where you are you can overcome any shortfalls with solutions. Ask yourself, what is my primary outcome? Make this outcome is so big and exciting that once you achieve it, it will be the most exciting thing you have ever done! Then figure out what resources you have right now to achieve it and how you will know when you have achieved it.

Tip 2 – Picture it

Use your Imagination to see and feel what your business will be like in 12 months. Visualisation is a very powerful tool and not just for NLP students. Here is a generic example, then create your own!

“It is now Christmas 2009 and you are up in the Top 10 of gambling sites. Annual yield is up, player accounts are up, daily actives are riding high, daily take is growing, actual player deposits are climbing, the player & affiliate forums are full of praises, lifecycles are getting longer and lifetime player value has rocketed up.‘Dead’ accounts have been re activated and your players feel like winners!”  

Tip 3- Go Guerrilla!

This methodology is what allowed Bowmans Poker http://www.kerb.co.uk/Viral-Games-Chart/?contentId=524 increase their Poker accounts by 127% and Sportsbook accounts by 72% with a fun sexy viral and under- the- net guerrilla campaign. Once you have your stand out creative, you need to let the people know. You can use social media and low cost direct marketing techniques to spread the word. Try these low cost techniques to compliment your media buying:

• Blogs & blog comments
• Social Networks (Facebook)
• Microblogging (Twitter)
• Your own network (Ning)
• Business networks (Linkedin)
• Article Marketing
• Free Press release marketing
• Videos (Use Camtasia, Mash it up then Youtube it)
• Landing Pages / Squeeze Pages
• Social Bookmarks (Digg)
• Forums
• Affiliates
• eZines
• Podcasts
• Forums
• Wikis, Knols
• Teleseminars
• Squidoo Lens
• Yahoo Answers

For example, lets take Twitter. Want to get your gaming brand in the papers PR folk? Get it infront of an influencer via microblogging, see here http://www.rainierpr.co.uk/blog/2008/11/top-50-uk-pr-people-by-twitter.html

Tip 4- Focus on Player Marketing

Got huge acquisition costs and players that fly out the door as quick as they come in? Get back to basics with some analysis of the behavioral and demographic characteristics the players share and differ in. CRM virgin?Study up here http://www.jimnovo.com/on:Recency Frequency , drop off rates, re activation patterns, bet triggers, player attitudes,lifecycles, hurdle rates and feedback loops. Once you’ve done that here are the types of marketing content you can offer your players in the ‘Player Marketing Funnel’

And here are the types of player segmentations you´ll be opening a dialogue with in the ‘Player Funnel’ . 

80% of revenue will come from 20% of players. Segmentation optimizes results and eliminates wastage.

Tip 5. Get Affiliates Quick!

If you are entering new markets, either geographic or product based, speed to acquire critical mass & liquidity is essential. Try working closely with an outsourced affiliate management company (e.g. Income Access) http://www.incomeaccess.com/. You can hit the ground running with hundreds of new affiliates in the first few weeks!

Inhouse, i bet your affiliates are already huge web 2.0 fans so why not assist their marketing further by investing in coaching for them on the types of low cost techniques we have already discussed such as the below features and benefits. Plus new measurement tools are entangling with social media marketing to allow complete affiliate tracking and cost per engagement analysis, see here  http://uk.techcrunch.com/2008/12/12/has-skimlinks-solved-the-problem-publishers-have-with-affiliates/:

If you’d like to know more about offering these services to your affiliates, receiving coaching across your marketing dept. or getting a complete outsourced solution

just email us at sara@sarawaller.com

Tip 6. Put it all together

Then you put it all together. OK so not all SEO is free, neither is PPC and JVs are commission based…but these low cost methods are still additional resources you can invest in without much cost or risk to compliment your existing online media buying or affiliate programs across CPM, CPC, CPA, CPE, CPL, commissions, tiered and hybrids. 

So there we have it 6 easy recession proof tips you can start implementing today in your marketing mix.

Wishing you the rest of a wonderful 2008 in marketing and here’s to recession proof results with ROI in 2009.

PS. I am inviting you to submit all your comments as my last post on Online Gaming  http://sarawaller.com/?p=299 generated so many interesting discussions.

About the Author

Tags: bingo, casino, eGaming, facebook, Poker, social media, sportsbook, twitter

Why social media is changing the landscape of online marketing 

Did you know that the best way to market your eGaming products these days is through social media? Let me explain…

This might be a useful blogpost for you in the industry. Please read on… 

Where do I start?

 Now that I have got your interest, let’s start with defining what social media is. Social media is defined as online-based tools that are used for sharing ideas among people from different walks of life.  

Old acquisition marketing strategies like unsolicited direct mail or email list rental are already a thing of the past. Everyone is sooo FREAKIN´ cautious about giving out their email addresses or personal information for fear of SPAM.

Social media is usually confused with advertising on social networking sites. It’s more than advertising it´s pure editorial word of mouth because it encourages active collaboration between folks.  

Ok so that´s a really simple account of what social media is; let’s discuss the integration of marketing strategies within this media space.

How do I integrate my eGaming marketing with social media? 

This is a very good question. As you know, over a billion people are online. Everyone is sharing interesting site links, videos, photos, notes and events to one another through email, chat, bookmarking sites and social networking sites such as Facebook and micro blogging sites like my favourite, Twitter.

This trend is slowly growing in the eGaming industry. Online poker, blackjack and casino sites can benefit from taking advantage of the social media to market their products to new sign ups, reinforce their legitimacy to convert free play to real plays and reinforce their brand identity to reactivate lapsed or stop defection before it happens. In this article, I’m going to use Facebook and Twitter as our two marketing examples. 

How do we do this?

To all the eGaming affiliate marketers out there reading, here are some of the features of Facebook and Twitter that you can use to market your clients. The benefits are clear: 

Facebook:

1. Profile Page: This serves as your basic business or brand portfolio you can take control off immediately. This is the place where your passion for the company, product or brand can be expressed. Here, marketers have the opportunity to create real-world scenarios as to why their or their clients´ products are valuable and needed in the world.

To make the profile page more interesting, your Personal and Work Information should be completed. Photos and related videos can be uploaded as well.

Facebook doesn’t have the option to keep track of the number of Profile page views. This may be intentional on the part of Facebook. In order to promote your Profile page, connect to hundreds or thousands of members in Facebook. Before you know it, your Profile page will attract a lot of traffic. Profiles are NOT Google indexed 

2. Facebook Groups: A simple way to build a community that promotes your company or brand. You can create a Group for your brand and this will serve as a central location for gaming colleagues, peers, and industry friends, JV or whitelabel partners, current and future customers and others. You choose B2B or B2B, open or private VIP membership etc. There are many applications that can be used to make you Group page more interesting. There are discussion boards, videos, photos and “post a link” option. You can communicate with the Group members by giving an update every now and then. It’s easy and effective. Groups are also NOT Google indexed 

3. Facebook Pages: My personal fave! This option launched late last year as a method for all types of businesses to create brand presence in the Facebook network. It is similar to Facebook Groups but with some relevant differences such as the ability to add flash and HTML applications in Pages and many more. Pages are effective in viral marketing. When someone joins they become a fan and that goes in the Newsfeed (Newsfeed Optimisation – NFO- is the future!).

Facebook Pages are the only type of Facebook content that ARE Google indexed and are visible externally WITHOUT being logged in to Facebook 

4. Facebook Events: This is a free yet effective application that can be used to promote parties, marketing events, product launches and other significant happenings. The format of the Event is similar to Facebook Groups – there are wall feature where invited members can post, discussion boards, photos, links and videos.

Invited friends can be made admin officers in the event page which in turn gives them the opportunity to invite other people in their own networks. It’s one of the most effective ways to inform thousands of people about an incoming event without sweating much. It´s probably my second favourite marketing tool after Pages and before Notes.

5. Facebook Notes: Love it! This feature can be used to post information about your company. The information should be genuine or else it will be construed as a SPAM and most members will certainly ignore your future articles because of this negative reputation. Once this is posted, you have the option to let everyone in the network read the note or just choose the target people who are most likely to respond to the note.

6. Facebook Messages: This is similar to sending an email. You can send a message to friends within or outside the network.

It should be noted that Facebook is strict when it comes to preventing SPAM messages in the network. Facebook would most likely red-flag and account that keeps sending messages to those members that are not yet in the account-holder’s network.

Facebook does not specify as to how many messages sent can be construed as SPAM so it is best to be careful in sending advertisement using this option.

7. Facebook Marketplace: This option is the Facebook’s version of classified ads (Craigslist). These can be posted within your network, free of charge. However, if there’s an interest to post the ad in several networks, there’s an extra charge. Good locally for an offline poker tourney in a major city or a sports event and landbased casino etc.

8. Facebook Posted Items: You can post your gaming brand’s company link or info using this option. The posts usually show on the network updates of the account-holder and can be used to update the walls of other members within the network. So you could attract direct clicks from prospective customers. Make the content RELEVANT. GPWA do this well in Facebook posting from their GPWA group (go Michael & Steven C!). Blackjack.com are also excellent at this.

9. Mini and News Feeds: Facebook adds a feed item to the Mini Feed option when there’s recent activity on the account such as the addition of photos and videos. The feed can also be added when someone joins a group or becomes a fan of a Page. This development can be seen by others within the network via the News Feed option.

This means you must be careful when it comes to adding appropriate information in the profile because it would create an impression to the others. NFO rocks! Look out for NFM too (News Feed Marketing -buy PPC off Facebook UK, its legal eGaming guys!)

10. Other applications: There are other applications created by developers that are not affiliated with Facebook. These applications can be embedded in your Profile, Group or Page. Example of popular applications are LinkedIN, Flickr, Stumble Upon, Google Reader and many more.

Facebook is constantly upgrading its service by coming up with new applications almost everyday. I suggest that you take an extra mile in exploring these features.

Twitter

Allow me to rave on here like a fan, I LOVE Twitter! (almost as much as Facebook).

Twitter is considered one of THE most popular AND useful social media tool and it would be a crying shame if you didn’t sign up for this free service. It´s actually a micro blogging site, what can you say under 140 characters or less! Do you know that it only takes a few words to inform your fellow affiliates, gamers and visitors about what’s new about your games, bets and bonuses?

Twitter gives you the opportunity to gather target demographics by having “followers” who share similar interests, likes and niches with you! And unlike FB it’s passive.

All you have to do is to create your own account at www.Twitter.com, fill up all the necessary information, upload your profile photo and a 140-character long bio. Once you are signed up, you can start searching and following your new friends! You can use keywords like “eGaming,” “online gaming,” “online casino/ poker,” among others.

Remember, it is better that you follow people that are within your target demographic. They will likely respond to your updates.

I have a great tip for you. Search for prominent individuals that are connected with the eGaming industry. I’m pretty sure that these people have a lot of “followers” from the same industry.

Once you become a “follower,” a notification email will be sent to the person you are following bearing your link. The person has the option to follow you back but considering that both of you have the same interests, then I’m pretty sure they’ll do a positive action.

Now that you are officially signed up at Twitter.com, don’t forget to maintain a good reputation and be careful in sending advertisements.

Then try adding apps like Tweetdeck, Twhirl or Tweetburner to help you optimize the effectiveness of Twitter. When you post remember the two golden rules of social media:

THOU SHALT NOT SPAM and IT´S BETTER TO GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE

Effectiveness of social media 

You are probably wondering how you can MEASURE the effectiveness of social media. The answer is through constant analysis and monitoring. There are several measurement tools that are available online. Here are some of the sites that I am in the process of trialing and checking out as recommended by new media God, Chris Brogan:

http://www.radian6.com

http://www.buzzlogic.com

http://www.crimsonhexagon

http://www.vibemetrix.com

http://www.hubspot.com

http://www.tweetburner.com  

In PR rather than advertising? I have good news!

The PR world is now taking advantage of these tools to measure, manage and analyze the impact of social media on their clients’ site traffic. Through these tools, PR professionals can come up with marketing strategies to increase sales. 

However, measurement of social media is still a matter of debate among marketers because there’s an absence of accepted metrics. This doesn’t mean that we can’t come up with a qualitative or quantitative approach in determining the impact of social media in businesses such as the eGaming industry.

Advertisers are now starting to adopt this new type of online advertising pricing structure called Cost Per Engagement (CPE). Interaction is the key. Online users are invited to participate in online polls, watch a video, play a game and other interactive action orientated stuff. In online gaming sites, target demographics can be encouraged to sign up by downloading gaming software that doesn’t require real money. Fun play. 

As affiliates in the eGaming industry, we are faced with another shift in marketing strategies. We can still implement ad pricing structures such as Cost Per Click (CPC), Cost Per Action (CPA) and Cost Per Impression (CPM) but these may soon be a thing of the past if CPE goes full blast.

By applying the marketing strategies for Facebook and Twitter that I mentioned earlier, you can encourage the users to visit your respective sites. You can keep track of site visitors by using Google Analytics. I suggest that you sign up for this free service because Google Analytics provides detailed statistics. 

Customer Relationship Management

The challenge has been imposed to you in terms of maintaining a relationship with the users. Social media marketing has made it possible to retain the interest of the online players because they are receiving legitimate and great offers and not SPAM messages. This is imperative in the eGaming industry because clients have several gaming sites to choose from (fickle and promiscuous as they are), 90 day lifecycles and bonuses to chase. It would be easy for them to make the switch if they find that they are not getting their money’s worth. This is how churn has got out of hand as folks have focused on huge CPAs rather than using decent Recency, Frequency, Monetary, Latency etc metrics, running quintiles, using simple excel (Concatenate!). Come on, read Jim Novo!!! 

One you have applied the marketing strategies for Facebook and Twitter, it would be easier for you to communicate with existing and future clients by posting motivating message or interesting articles and links in your personal or company’s accounts. If it piques their interest, there’s a big chance that they will share it to their network of friends and so on.

Who will be first with Twitter Bingo Moms ? I will watch the space   

Final Thoughts

Social media marketing at this point is still a work in progress. There’s still a matter of creating an actual structure that it acceptable to everyone. This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do anything about it. All you have to do is make use of these social media tools and CONNECT with your target demographics. Interact with your customers and retain their trust. Cheaper than any rakeback program I know of! 

If you want to get updates, don’t hesitate to access my official site at www.sarawaller.com.

Happy playing!

Tags: bingo, casino, eGaming, facebook, Poker, social media, sportsbook, twitter

I just signed up for Devilfish Poker and I like it so far!  Great bonusses and the chance to try your luck against the man himself in weekly bounty tournaments.  Use the banner above or below to get 150% bonus up to (you guessed it) $666. For those of you who dont know who Dave “Devilfish” Ulliot is, follow the banner below and then click on the link at the top right – “Who the hell is Devilfish”.  Here is an excerpt …

Dave “Devilfish’ Ulliott is one of the most successful, formidable, and well-known poker players of our time. Born in working class Hull, in northern England, Ulliott drifted out of education and on to the wrong side of the tracks. Despite, or perhaps because, of sharp mind and natural street smarts he found himself in trouble and had several unhappy brushes with the law. During this time he discovered his talent for poker, a talent which would be his saviour.

By the time he hit his 30s his life was well and truly back on track. He had a successful pawn broking business and was organising regular poker games in the back of his shop.

How much has he won?

According to The Hendon Mob poker database Devilfish has almost $5.5 million in career tournament winnings. As well as his World Series of Poker victory in 1997 he has come second four times in 1998, 2000 and twice in 2001, and third twice in 2001 and 2005.

In 2003 he won his second “major”, taking down the World Poker Tour $10,000 no-limit hold’em championship for $589,175 and in 2007 he came third in the $15,000 WPT Doyle Brunson Classic in Las Vegas for his biggest ever tournament payday of $674,500.

Indeed 2007 proved to be Devilfish’s most successful year ever in terms of tournaments with over $1.25 million in winnings. As a result he won the prestigious Card Player European Player of the Year title.
He is the top earning English tournament poker player in the history of the game.

Tags: Poker, Poker Strategy

Take a look at Reefer Poker. Part of the Merge network – they welcome US players and have great liquidity and really cooooool bonusses

Tags: Poker

Mansion Poker has moved to the iPoker network. iPoker is one of the top 3 networks now, operated by Playtech.  I have been a Mansion player for some time (even in the old days when they had their own room) and have always enjoyed good support and games although the level of play is quite high.

Their tournaments over the past year have been phenomenal, with huge overlays. I hope they continue that on the new network.  I will certainly be giving it a go!

Tags: Poker

There are various games that you can start playing with video poker machines, and for the most part if you know how to play poker you will be able to play just about any of the games that you find on the machine. But if you are new to the whole poker thing than it’s a good idea that you begin playing Jokers Wild first. This game is a great game that is easy and fun to play.

You will find that you that Jokers wild has a good amount of winning hand. Once you begin mastering this game you can than move on to any of the others since they are very similar.

Let’s go over just how to play Jokers Wild on a video poker machine.

The first thing you will need to do is add money to the video poker machine. The rules of the game are simple. You will be dealt five cards and from those five cards you will need to decide which of them you want to keep and which of them you want to get rid of. The goal is to try to get a few variations of hands, such as two pair (the higher the pair the better, such as Aces), three of a kind, 5 consecutive cards (Straight – 2, 3, 4, 5, 6), 5 cards of the same suit (Full House), Four of a kind, 5 consecutive cards of the same suit (Straight Flush), Five of a Kind and a few others. The great thing about Jokers Wild is that you can use a Joker as any card to help you get one of the winning hands listed above. You will be paid out a specific amount for that video poker machine and also for the specific winning hand.

You can find a great amount of help for free regarding video poker online such as tips and tricks on how you can win more than you lose. The most important thing is that you know how to play the game of your choice. Jokers Wild is a great place to get started if you are new to the poker seen because all of the poker games for the most part will have the same winning hands, the only difference with Jokers Wild is that you get a wild card to increase your odds of winning significantly.

Tags: Gambling, Poker, Video Poker

When you are searching online for different types of information about online gambling you will come across many websites trying sell you some sort of product that will somehow make you a winner. They will sound pretty convincing with their claims to help you to win some outrageous percent of the time.

Listen closely to what I am about to tell you because it will save you from wasting a ton of your money on worthless unreliable products. There are no tricks or tips that will help you to increase your chances of winning at online gambling. The best thing that you can do for yourself is to understand this. Of course there are ways of playing certain games that will improve your skills, but there are no guarantees. There is certainly no sure shot way of beating the slot machines. But again there are things that you should know that will improve your chances of winning bigger.

Online gambling is not much different than playing in a casino other than the location and the room filled with a ton of people searching for the same things the big shot to win a ton of money. The ability to play blackjack, Texas Hold’em or any other poker game online from the comfort of your own home is a great way to enjoy the chance to win money. The thing that I like best about online gambling is that you can play at your own speed which helps you to make better decisions especially when it comes to poker games. Of course the main downside of online gambling is the lack of the unlimited supply of free drinks. But that a small downside when you are looking at the ability to win money while sitting in your bed with your laptop.

As I mentioned earlier there are going to be many products being sold on the internet claiming that they will teach you how to beat the game of your choice all you need to do is pay them thirty-seven or more dollars to learn the method. The internet is filled with all of the various strategies for any game for free. Don’t waste your money on high hopes; simply learn the game and find a good betting strategy and you will be better off. Trust me on this, it’s something that you will not regret.

Tags: Online Gambling, Poker