Vice President of Strategy for Income Access Sarafina Wolde Gabriel believes that affiliate marketers will have an opportunity to increase their influence in 2021. The V.P. was a panelist at SIGMA Europe; describing how affiliate marketers can have a positive influence in the iGaming space. Gabriel took some time out to offer her advice on the future of affiliate marketing, speaking with Calvinayre.com’s Becky Liggero Fontana.

Gabriel believes that affiliate marketers need to shift their focus to interactive marketing and engaging their audience. “What’s exciting about affiliate marketing it’s continuously evolving and typically affiliates were seen as a funnel. They’re just funneling traffic from one source to another, whereas now with more interaction the affiliates are actually engaging the audience,” Gabriel said. 

Gabriel thinks that affiliates can be taking a more targeted approach to capture potential customers:

“Before they funnel them through, they can get more targeted and make sure that they’re sending them to the correct places, so you could see more YouTube and video marketing. When we talked about influencer marketing, they’re building communities, they’re building their networks and then they’re trying to get to know exactly what products or services are more suited to them. Rather than just put up a creative or an ad for a brand and just send the traffic, so that’s a big trend that we’re seeing and it’s only just beginning.”

In the fast-moving world of gambling, sometimes you might miss news that could be important to you. To make sure you’re all caught up on gaming industry news, be it online or brick and mortar, we’re rounding up the some of the announcements and partnerships from the last week that you might have missed.

Don’t miss out on all of the latest announcements from the gambling industry. Our Press Release section is updated constantly, and we publish roundups of the latest partnerships twice a week.

Inspired Announces New Contract with Entain

Inspired to Provide Virtuals Across Entain’s Online and Retail Network

Philippine-based online gambling operators will face tougher anti-money laundering (AML) requirements as the country aims to avoid being ‘gray-listed’ by global financial watchdogs.

Last week, both bodies of the Philippine legislature approved a revised version of the country’s Anti-Money Laundering Act (AMLA) that includes Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGOs) and their service providers under the AMLA’s definition of ‘covered persons.’ 

AMLA, which was approved in 2001, was amended in 2017 to include the country’s land-based and online casino operators, as well as the casinos’ junket operator partners, under the covered persons definition. (Although critics expressed dismay at the high monetary threshold for reporting suspect transactions.)

But the amended bill didn’t cover the hundreds of POGO service providers, which was flagged as an area of concern by the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) last March. The AMLC also expressed concern over many POGOs’ lack of commitment to observing their new know-your-customer (KYC) requirements.  

Casino operator Bally’s Corporation has further diversified its offering by acquiring daily fantasy sports operator Monkey Knife Fight (MKF), while rival Caesars Entertainment has made its own DFS play. 

On Monday, Bally’s (formerly Twin River Worldwide Holdings) announced the signing of a definitive agreement to acquire MKF, the third-biggest DFS operator behind market giants DraftKings and FanDuel and possessor of what Bally’s calls “the fastest-growing gaming platform in North America.”

The $90m transaction, which Bally’s expects will close in the current quarter, is an all-stock affair. MKF will get immediately exercisable penny warrants to buy around $50m worth of Bally’s shares, as well as contingent penny warrants to buy up to $20m more shares on each of the deal’s first and second anniversaries of closing. 

Bally’s plans to incorporate MKF into its new ‘Bally’s Interactive’ division, which also includes the Bet.works sports betting and iGaming platform that Bally’s acquired last November. The MKF add-on will make Bally’s only the third US sports betting operator to include a DFS component, joining DraftKings and FanDuel (more on Caesars’ efforts to join this formerly exclusive club below).

After a tumultuous weekend in the F.A. Cup, Frank Lampard lost his role as Chelsea manager, the holders Arsenal were knocked out and Liverpool suffered another defeat, this time at the hands of their bitter rivals, Manchester United.

With the Premier League returning in midweek with a full programme of 10 fixtures, which sides will be looking to move up the table and which others will be glancing over their shoulders nervously?

West Bromwich Albion vs. Manchester City (Tuesday, 8.15pm GMT kick-off)

A tricky tie for Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side, not least because Kevin De Bruyne will miss the game after a hamstring problem sent the Belgian assist machine to the injury room at the Eithad for between four and six weeks.

A delayed start, quarantine regulations and COVID-19 restrictions – just how was anyone supposed to prepare for the Men’s Singles at the Australian Open properly?  

From the pundits to the players, the fans to the financiers and the advertisers to the organisers, putting on this year’s Australian Open has been a Herculean effort worthy of commendation. But with players forced to quarantine for a fortnight, many of the world’s best tennis players have found cause for complaint.  

Unsurprisingly, one of those is world number one Novak Djokovic, whose 305th week at the top of the men’s tennis rankings was spent calling out the AO for the condition players have been forced to isolate in. Living in their hotel rooms, players such as Djokovic have not been happy, but disharmony isn’t helping anyone.  

Djokovic said in his letter to the AO on Twitter that “better conditions” were needed for players in Melbourne and kicked back against those accusing him of wanting COVID-19 restrictions eased for his own benefit. Fans are understandably loathed to forget Djokovic’s antics around last year’s Adria Cup and are judging him with that indiscretion in mind.  

Last year, the World Series of Poker cancelled the biggest live poker festival in the world late. In fact, if you’re judging on the specifics, it was very late. Some players had booked months in Las Vegas before finding out in May that the entire WSOP was cancelled. From the fabled Main Event to the Colossus, it was in the bin.  

Or rather, it wasn’t, because the WSOP Online Series came along, promising to be the efinitive way to search for World Series bracelet winners during a global pandemic. If the poker mountain couldn’t be travelled to by the MMT poker player, then the mountain would come into players hoes via the internet. GGPoker and WSOP.com welcomed thousands of players to their online lobbies. Guarantees were met, winners received their bracelets via FedEx, some winners bounced off car park WiFi. It was a hoot.  

Then the World Series reappeared like a reanimated zombie at the close of the year. That summer event online wasn’t the World Series of Poker Main Event, this hybrid version was instead, they told players. Cue confusion, a lower top prize than the $5,000 single re-entry Main Event and an angry Bulgarian in Stoyan Madanzhiev.  

Well, after the turn-of-the-year win was sealed by Argentina’s Damian Salas for a total prize of $2.5 million (Madanzhiev won $3.9m back in the summer and he got a certificate too), the World Series has been distinctly quiet on whether or when the World Series of Poker Main Event and thus the festival itself will be back.  

Winamax Pro Ivan Deyra has been dismissed as an ambassador and forced to pay back winnings after being exposed as a multi-accounting cheat.  

As reported by PokerNews today, French player Deyra, who won a World Series of Poker bracelet back in 2019, the year Hossein Ensan took the Main Event trophy, won over €83,000 in the recent Winamax Series by dishonest means.  

Deyra’s duplicity was exactly that. As discovered by French poker forum Club Poker in the aftermath of the event, Deyra busted from the tournament only to then use an account registered to his own father’s name to seal victory.  

So what was the clue that gave his game away? Well, given he’s a talented poker player, it’s not exactly a trick that Moriarty would be proud of and didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to figure out. Having not played his Day 2 until using the account name ‘MATIVANAO’ to do so, forum members discovered that this pseudonym was put together using the Christian names of Deyra’s brothers and sisters.