eGR Power Affiliates 2012 - Casino

The past 12 months have been some of the most challenging in gaming with Black Friday topping the list of hurdles affiliates have had to overcome.

Not only that, revenue share deals are constantly being squeezed while uncertainty surrounding who will win out and how newly regulated markets, such as Spain, will perform are putting affiliates under more pressure than ever before. However, many have invested in other niches or diversified in order to find more traffic.

It is these that have made the grade in this year’s eGaming Review Power Affiliates.

Yesterday we brought you the top bingo affiliates and later this week we will bring you the leading affiliates for poker and sports betting, but today it is the turn of casino.

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Bryan Bailey (pictured) – Founder, Casinomeister

eGR: How has social networking changed the affiliate sector over the past year?

Bryan Bailey (BB): Social networking is very important, as people enjoy being able to interact easily with one another, so
webmasters need to take it into consideration. Facebook and Twitter make it possible to spread news and updates very quickly, but I don’t think it’s that popular among casino players, as it can’t offer the same volume of igaming representatives, affiliates or webmasters grouped together as the affiliate portals can.

I have a Casinomeister page, but only because everyone else has one. I’m not really interested in free-play games either ““ I thought about doing free-play years ago, but decided against it in the end.

eGR: What are the biggest challenges facing the sector?

BB: The US market is a big challenge for everyone. It’s not a matter of keeping your business faced towards the US market ““ mine has been focused on Europe since UIGEA ““ but a case of keeping up-to-date of what is happening in the US in the next year or so, because that can affect the business in a number of ways. No one really seems to know what the US is going to do so it’s really important to keep up with what’s happening to be prepared. In this business you need to be very resilient to react to change it happens.

eGR: Was the US a major market for you?

BB: I’ve been based in Europe for 13 years, so it has never been my focus. After UIGEA came into force I had a surge in traffic because so many US players were coming on the site to find out what was going on. After the bill came through, we ran a poll where the majority of US players said they wouldn’t be affected, but a year later they were all gone. Back then we had around 70% US traffic, but now it’s flip-flopped to 70% non-US, rather than any significant drop in visitors.

eGR: How can affiliates prepare for regulation in Europe?

BB: You really don’t know what’ll happen, but if you have the dot.com it’s silly to acquire the dot.fr and dot.de domains, though some of the larger domains like the dot.eu and dot.com are probably worth having. Some affiliates don’t really work with a brand, and have a range of sites, but Casinomeister is just one brand. If you have put together a strong brand, localised offerings aren’t as important.

Casino affiliates:

Ask Gamblers

Founder/Principal: Igor Salindrija

Domains: askgamblers.com, superbetting.com

Following the relaunch of SuperBetting, the site has been redeveloped from a forum to a multi-service platform. Ask Gamblers remains Salindrija’s main site, with over 400,000 visitors each month. Around 35% of traffic comes from the US.

Casino Affiliate Programs (NEW ENTRY)

Founder/Principal: Warren and Arjun Jolly

Domain: casinoaffiliatenetwork.com

Educational portal and community with more than 15,000 registered members. Has own content team that post up to 10 articles a day. Launching casinoaffiliatenetwork.com to go head-to-head with the likes of Income Access. The site generates seven figures as well as 50,000 uniques a month.

Casino Bonus (NEW ENTRY)

Founder/Principal: N/A

Domains: casinobonus.net

Launched in 2004, Casino Bonus offers visitors exclusive promotions for a selection of casinos. The site also acts as an intermediary in disputes.

Casino Choice

Founder/Principal: Richard Skelhorn

Domains: casinochoice.co.uk, costabingo.com

Site went live in 2001. Said to generate up to as much as 75% of UK casino traffic. Owner of four brands on Dragonfish platform.

Casino City

Founder/Principal: Michael Corfman

Domains: casinocity.com, casinocitytimes.com, rgtonline.com, audiovegas.com, casinovendors.com, casinocitypress.com, gamingdirectory.com

Launched in 1995, Casino City features reviews of 3,000 land-based and 2,000 online casinos, as well as race tracks, cruises, poker rooms and bingo sites.

Casino Online (NEW ENTRY)

Founder/Principal: Michael Hawthorne

Domains: casinoonline.co.uk

Founded in 2009, Jackpot Gaming-owned Casino Online selects sites to feature based on payout percentages, house edge and game quality. It is aiming to become the most trusted casino review site online, with every game and site featured reviewed and tested by at least one member of staff.

Casino Top 10 (NEW ENTRY)

Founder/Principal: N/A

Domains: casinotop10.net

Operated by Chance Publications and based in Malta, the site ranks online casinos in the US, UK, Australia and Canada.

Casino.de

Founder/Principal: Jan Balslev

Domains: casino.de, online-casinos.com, online-gambling.com, gambling.dk

One of Germany’s largest affiliates, the site is present in the English-speaking market through Online-Casinos.com. Balslev has launched a mobile gaming section, a YouTube channel and pages on Facebook and Twitter.

Casinobonusguy

Founder/Principal: Judy Matthews

Domains: casinobonusguy.com, casinoveritas.com, pokerbonusguy.com, luckydabberbingo.com, newcrapsplayer.com

Casinobonusguy is Scriptycan Media’s leading egaming affiliate site, and is also involved in other sectors. Scriptycan was founded in Toronto by Matthews, and despite only having been focused on the online gambling sector for three years, has become a leading affiliate in the sector with sites in every vertical.

Casinomeister

Founder/Principal: Bryan Bailey

Domains: casinomeister.com, gonegambling.com

Casinomeister is one of the most influential community sites, with around 100,000 unique monthly visitors and a conversion rate of around one in three players. The site has been live since 1999, and hands out awards to the best and worst casino sites each year.

Casinoportalen

Founder/Principal: Mikkel Pedersen

Domains: casinoportalen.com/se/pl/fr/es/dk/de

Mikkel Pedersen replaced founder Søren Mirzai as managing director in February 2011, overseeing the company’s move away from the traditional affiliate model, to offering operators media buying, similar to a marketing agency. Casinoportalen closed its Turkish-facing dot.tk portal last year.

Casinoverdiener

Founder/Principal: Jesper S

Domains: casinoverdiener.com

Founded in 2003, Casinoverdiener is focused on German-speaking markets including Germany, Belgium and Austria, driving traffic to each vertical, with dedicated portals to German egaming sites Novomatic and Merkur. It has a strict procedure of only featuring sites that can guarantee secure payments, high-quality software and reliable customer service.

Latest Casino Bonuses (NEW ENTRY)

Founder/Principal: Joshua Chan, Nikola Zugic

Domains: latestcasinobonuses.com

Founded by Joshua Chan in 2006, Latest Casino Bonuses welcomes 700,000 monthly visitors, with the founders confident of breaking the 1m barrier in 2012. LCB has offices in Sydney and Belgrade, employing 20 full-time staff and drives traffic to sites worldwide; its core business comes from Europe and the US.

Online Gambling Insider

Founder/Principal: Ryan D

Domains: online-gambling-insider.com, gamblingkingz.com

Ryan D has been active in the egaming industry for a decade, and offers players a mixture of in-depth reviews, advice for new players and exclusive content. Traffic figures are estimated to be five figures. He also runs Gamblingkingz, which drives traffic to regulated UK and European sites.

Slot Junkies

Founder/Principal: Ian Sims

Domains: slotjunkies.net, azonlinecasinos.com

Veteran affiliate Sims drives six-figure traffic through his Slots Junkies network, and has branched out to create AZ Online Casinos.