Ice Totally Gaming, one of the largest and most comprehensive trade event in gaming, will take place on February 3rd-5th at Excel, London.

Every sector is present, whether it’s be it betting, bingo, casino, lottery, mobile, online, social or street gaming, and whichever of these you belong to, you will find products and content to drive your business forward in 2015.

ICE is the annual launch pad for gaming innovation, with hundreds of new product launches over the three days. The event has the great learning programs—a unique gathering place for all major gaming players such as operators and regulators, allowing you to build your contacts, arrange meetings, and get potential partnerships.

ICE’s show-floor seminars are free to attend and can give you up-to-the-minute industry information and engaging debates around what the gaming industry is talking about.

Visitors, exhibitors and delegates attending have the opportunity to tap into all the latest developments taking place in and around both events courtesy of the new dedicated ICE app.

Available for free download on Android and iOS devices, allowing visitors to access the full event schedule, browse the latest product launches, receive information on all of the speakers taking part in the ICE Conference and Seminar programs.

It also features a detailed interactive floor-plan to help attendees navigate the 60,000+ square meters of show floor space as well as keep stakeholders fully up-to-date with the latest developments through a link to the #ICE2015 social media tag.

Laurent Malka is one of the first people I met in the online gambling industry, our initial meeting was at GiGse 2005 to be exact.  He’s one of the best digital marketers in our space, a widely respected expert in affiliate management and someone who understands iGaming better than most. Malka’s experience in iGaming spans from his time at The Nation Traffic and Euro Partners followed by the launch of his own company, Wingate Ventures, amongst other projects including operating several online casinos.

It wasn’t until l saw his post in the Stephanie Wynters Mastermind Group on Facebook that I realized Malka had started a new project to better the lives of anyone generating or buying traffic.  I wanted to learn more about Malka’s latest venture, TrackingDesk, especially because I can relate to tracking headaches as an affiliate due to my time at Casino City.  The timing is also appropriate, seeing as the LAC is around the corner and affiliates are ready to step things up for 2015.

We all know its not as easy to make a buck in today’s iGaming market as it was 10 years ago, so making the most of your traffic is essential.  Affiliates can absolutely squeeze more revenue out of their existing campaigns with better tracking and less time spent on the arduous task of data management – whether TrackingDesk is the answer to all your problems or you just need a nudge to step up your tracking, hopefully you’ll learn something from my interview with Malka.

Thank you for joining me and sharing your knowledge, Laurent.  Lets start with the background on this project- how & why did you decide to create TrackingDesk? 

After the casinos were sold in august 2013, we found ourselves with many large traffic sources. We had the possibility to either refer them to some friends or monetize their traffic. Several millions hits per day, from over 30 countries required a complete turnaround in the way we were operating until then. Pushing a brand over which you have complete technical control is a serious challenge, but pushing 20 brands over which you have very little technical control is a very different game. So when you find yourself with 20 brands to promote, over 30 countries and each brand has at least 5 different landing page per country, you quickly find yourself drowning under data. No matter how you try to handle this, unless you have a system in place that enables you to manage this traffic in a simple and agile manner, that reports in a granular way results and performances, there is NO WAY you can have a positive ROI.

So my team and I started hunting for platform that could get us to the right position. Unfortunately (and fortunately), we didn’t find anything that would match our requirements. So we were left with the only option to integrate various systems together. From analytic platforms, tracking software, landing page management, geo targeting databases to reporting software. Eventually, we manage to connect everything together and we started operating.

I took a step back and I started breaking down the features and matching them with various type of users – Affiliates, Media Buyers, Agencies, Enterprises. Eventually, I realized that there was a serious gap in the market. Large corporations and enterprises had access to heavy (and expensive) platforms, while small agencies and affiliates were left with basic tools. So I made up my mind, gathered a team and started designing TrackingDesk.

In this week’s confessions series, Lee Davy, talks about some of the characters in his local home game, and why their attitude towards the game blends in with the success of the PokerStars Spin & Go format.

I have just come off the phone, from a conversation with my mate Steve. We always have a little chat the afternoon after our local home game. We’re gossiping. We talk about how lucky people are, who unlucky others are, who deserves to win, and who deserves to lose.

I use this time to give my friend some advice. Steve loves the game, but it’s his love for the game that gets him into trouble. He plays too many hands, sees too many flops, and loses more money than he wins. I know I shouldn’t give him advice. I should take his money. But I like Steve. He’s a solid bloke. He’s salt of the earth.

“You just don’t get it Ching.” He told me when I castigated him earlier for ruing a hand he played where he folded, instead of chasing a one-outer that duly arrived. “I don’t play to win money. I love the game. The money is a nice bonus. But twice I week I sit down and play. I’m in my element. Like a pig in shit.”

Steve used to have a nasty habit on the Fixed Odds Betting Terminals (FOBTs). He used to tell me that they would wink at him, and beckon him over like a young woman in a pair of fishnet stockings. That was an expansive affair. He never complained though.

“I loved every penny I spent.” He once told me.

Gary is another one of the boys. He likes the wheel. He has a system, and it seems to work for him. I use the word ‘seems’ because I know that the outcome is generated by luck. I guess he’s a very lucky man. He loves it though.

For the third time in four years, Rep. Bobby Moak has submitted an online gambling bill to the lords and masters in the Mississippi Legislature.

If online poker has any chance of emerging from the draconian deathlike grip of the Undemocratic States of America then we have to hope that men like Democratic Representative, Bobby Moak, never give up in what they believe is just and fair.

In 2012, Moak introduced The Mississippi Lawful Internet Gaming Act – it didn’t make it past the House Ways and Means Committee. In 2013, he tried again – same response. Now it’s a case of third time lucky.

House Bill No. 306: The Mississippi Lawful Internet Gaming Act is a 74-page document, not too dissimilar from the pieces of paper that were cast into the recycling tray back in 2012 & 2013. The new piece of draft legislation is being pushed through ahead of results from a comprehensive study of internet gambling governed by the Executive Director of the Mississippi Gaming Commission, Allen Godfrey.

The bill leads with the assertion that millions of people are engaged in online gambling through illegal offshore operators. It’s promise is to bring some law and order into what it believes to be an industry that lacks oversight, regulation and enforcement.

The need to protect the young, stop sending taxes and revenue overseas, the creation of jobs, and the improvements it could make to statewide economic conditions, are cited as reasons for following the lead of Delaware, Nevada and New Jersey.

The act is wise in the insertion that the Magnolia state could enter into agreements with other entities to share liquidity with games such as online poker. This agreement could stretch to other states, tribes and even other countries. A recent bill was also presented to the overlords in Washington State, but it was devoid of ink that would allow them to do business with other countries – New Jersey have already been in discussion with the UK for example.

Ray Henson tops the largest field in World Series of Poker Circuit history, after defeating the six-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner, TJ Cloutier, in heads up action at Choctaw Casino in Oklahoma.

There are two things that I know for sure.

1. Poker players may think that re-entries are bad for poker, but they do their very best to keep them alive by ploughing money into them.

2. Once a great poker player: always a great poker player.

The World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) $365 Main Event (Re-Entry), held at Choctaw Casino, Oklahoma, broke the attendance record when four starting days attracted a field size of 4,053 entrants and $1,215,900 in prize money.

With the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) also breaking records under the baking Bahamian sun; 2015 looks like it’s going to be a stellar year for live poker attendances. It’s not just a new influx of players that are affecting these numbers, as the final table of this bad boy demonstrated.

With six-WSOP bracelets, spread over a 35-year career, TJ Cloutier is a veritable legend in the game. His runner-up spot to Ray Henson is testament to both his skill and stamina, as he picked up a $122,040 paycheck – his largest in seven years when he took $240,560 for his victory in the $5,150 Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge IV in Tulsa. Guess whom Cloutier beat in the heads-up phase of that contest – Ray Henson.

Lee Davy brings you a short recap of the first 13-side events at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas.

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) is one of the most prestigious events outside of the World Series of Poker (WSOP). The winner of the $100,000 Super High Roller, $25,000 High Roller and $10,000 Main Event will all take home paychecks containing a lot of zeroes.

Those three tournaments are what make the PCA special, but it’s the depth of side events that makes the PokerStars live events the most attended outside of the once a year jaunt to the desert.

Here’s a short recap of the action that has gone down during the first 13-events.

A fresh new year, and it seems as if the poker economy is going to be strong. Both the $100,000 Super High Roller, and $25,000 High Roller events attracted record numbers (50 & 269 respectively), and at the time of writing Steve O’Dwyer has banked $1.8m as the $100,000 winner, and there are 11-players vying for the $1.2m first prize, with Dominik Nitsche a potential Triple Crown winner, in the $25,000 event.

For the first time since its inception, the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) came to the Bahamas and Josh Kay defeated a field of 532 entrants to win the first prize of $367,928 in the Main Event.

Three more six figure winners to catch up on.

UK-listed bookies William Hill have declined to renew their sponsorship of the Lincoln Handicap race at Doncaster due to the imposition of the UK’s point-of-consumption tax (POCT). The tax, which costs operators 15% of revenue earned via online gamblers based in the UK, kicked in Dec. 1. Hills had served as the race sponsor since 2006 but the latest deal ended last March.

On Tuesday, Hills spokesperson Kate Miller said the company “had to review a number of our marketing investments” as a consequence of adjusting to the new POCT reality. Miller told the Racing Post that it hadn’t decided to axe any other racing sponsorships and the Lincoln hadn’t been singled out for special treatment. “The renewal of it came up at an opportune moment.” Track officials say they are “currently in discussions with several interested parties” regarding the now vacant sponsorship.

In more positive Hills news, the company’s US division has been added to the board of the American Gaming Association (AGA). Hills was one of six new firms added to the AGA’s board, joining Nevada bookies CG Technology, casino and racetrack operator Greenwood Racing Inc., gaming device maker Konami Gaming, the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority and Seminole Hard Rock Gaming, the AGA’s first ever board member from the ranks of America’s Indian tribes.

Finally, Hills recently paid out £2,500 to a Scots punter who bet the bookies he could lose 100 lb. in less than a year. Self-confessed pie eater Gary Connell had tipped the scales at 344 lb. and when he decided to drop the fork he convinced Hills to accept his £25 wager that he couldn’t flay the flab in under a year. Thanks to a pie-free diet and a regular exercise program, the 35-year-old Connell now weighs a mere 240 lb. Hills spokesman Rupert Adams said the bookie normally accepts around 100 such bets each year and called Connell’s accomplishment “a flau-ulous feat.”

New Jersey’s regulated online gambling market earned $10.7m in revenue in December, $2m more than it earned the previous month. The gains are a bit illusory, given the fact that November’s numbers were negatively impacted by a $1.3m slots jackpot paid out by Caesars interactive New Jersey. Nonetheless, the state’s Division of Gaming Enforcement (DGE) is trumpeting the fact that December’s total is up 63% over December 2013, the first full month of the state’s regulated online gambling market.

As usual, the casino vertical earned the bulk of revenue, generating nearly $8.7m, while the poker vertical earned $2.05m, an improvement on November’s record low of $1.87m. The market’s poker vertical peaked at $3.4m in January and has been on a largely uninterrupted decline ever since.

For 2014 as a whole, online gambling earned nearly $122.9m, with $93.8m coming from casino games and just under $29.1m from poker. The state’s annual tax haul from online gambling came to $18.4m.

The Borgata/Bwin.party/Pala online combo earned $3.6m in December, $2.5m (+5%) from casino and $1.1m (+10%) from poker. With no crippling slots jackpots to pay out, Caesars Interactive earned $2.63m, roughly equivalent to what it earned back in September. Caesars’ casino vertical earned nearly $1.7m, while poker earned $950k (+8%).

The Tropicana’s casino-only site earned $2.3m, virtually unchanged from the previous month. The Golden Nugget’s casino-only site earned nearly $2.2m, up $700k from November, reflecting a full month’s contribution from Betfair, who switched over to the Nugget’s platform on Nov. 21.

For 2014 as a whole, Borgata/Bwin.party generated a total of $44.3m ($29m casino, $15.3m poker), easily eclipsing Caesars’ $32.8m ($19.5m casino, $13.3m poker). The Tropicana earned nearly $22.6m while the Nugget claimed $10.8m.

Atlantic City‘s casinos reported revenue of $2.74b in 2014, 4.5% less than they earned in 2013 and a whopping 48% decline from the seaside gaming hub’s peak of $5.2b in 2006. The annual decline would have been 8.5% were it not for the additional $122m in revenue AC earned from online gambling, which was only operational in the state for about six weeks at the tail end of 2013.

The struggles Atlantic City faced in 2014 are well documented, with four casinos closing their doors and the Trump Taj Mahal’s survival still far from assured. Yet there is some indication that AC’s eight remaining casinos may have a brighter future, given that six of these joints reported gaming revenue increases in the month of December, and the elite eight saw their share of gaming revenue rise nearly 8% in 2014.

Stripping aside December’s $10.7m in online gambling revenue, the eight surviving casinos earned $179.8m for the month, up 7.3% from the amount those same eight earned in December 2013. Perennial top dog Borgata maintained its number one position, gaining 13.3% to $49.9m. Harrah’s placed second with $29.8m (+11.1%) while Caesars fell 6.1% to $27.6m. The rest shook out as follows: Tropicana ($20.2m, +23.6%), Bally’s ($17.2m, +5.4%), Golden Nugget ($13.7m, +47.4%), Resorts ($10.6m, +20.9%) and the Taj Mahal ($10.8m, -34.9%).

Up in Detroit, the city’s three casinos posted a modest 1.2% annual gaming revenue decline to $1.33b in 2014. The Michigan Gaming Control Board said the decline would have been much worse were it not for December’s tally, which was up 10.8% year-on-year. The Board had been expecting a decline in the range of 2.5% to 3%, so executive director Richard Kaim figures the real numbers are “certainly manageable.” MGM Grand captured 42% of the city’s casino revenue, with MotorCity owning 33% and Greektown 25%.

Trigger-based customer marketing campaigns enable businesses to deliver relevant, personalized messages when they matter most

New York, NY – January 13 –  At the National Retail Federation’s Annual Convention and EXPO today, Optimove, a provider of automated retention marketing solutions for customer-centric businesses, announced that it has added real-time marketing capabilities to its innovative retention automation platform. By automatically delivering personalized, highly-relevant messages to individual customers based on real-time activity triggers, marketers are now able to deliver the right message to the right customer at the exact moment when it has the greatest impact.

The Optimove platform already enables marketers to maximize revenue and customer lifetime value by managing and automating multi-channel customer marketing plans using proprietary predictive micro-segmentation technology. The addition of trigger-based campaigns to the Optimove platform enables marketers to respond to customer behaviors as they happen in real-time, in order to dramatically increase customer engagement and loyalty while reducing churn.

“One of the holy grails of personalization is the ability to implement real-time, data-driven customer marketing,” explained Optimove CEO, Pini Yakuel. “By building into our customer retention software a complete, end-to-end system for real-time personalized messaging, we have not only taken another great stride towards achieving the ultimate retention marketing solution, but we’ve also become the first platform to offer real-time retention marketing in such a sophisticated and easy-to-deploy manner.”

Optimove’s real-time messaging capabilities come as an integrated part of the Optimove platform. Businesses simply choose which message or offer to serve to each particular customer persona using Optimove’s proprietary customer modeling technology, and select an event or activity that will trigger the message. Messages can be personalized to individual customers based on their specific purchase history, lifecycle stage, predicted future value, risk of churn, and many other factors, such as in the following scenarios:

When a customer is about to spend more than $75 in a particular product category for the first time, the merchant can offer free shipping if the customer increases their purchase to spend $100 or more.

When a retail customer views three similar products on a merchant’s website or mobile app, but adds none to their shopping cart, the retailer can serve a message offering a discount on any product in the category.

London Affiliate Conference Acquisition Zone sponsors and speakers confirmed Now in its second year running, the Acquisition Zone has more speakers and a dedicated sponsor zone

13 January, 2015, London, UK (Press Release): Leading publishing, research and events company iGaming Business has confirmed the full schedule for the CAP Network sponsored Acquisition Zone feature at the London Affiliate Conference 2015.

The Acquisition Zone targets senior marketing executives working within both operator and affiliate brands. The zone will include a dedicated lecture theatre open to all attendees, with hand picked experts discussing topics such as:

Smart acquisition using real time context

SEO is dying: Six figure iGaming opportunities without SEO

Open mic with online acquisition experts Digital Fuel

Turn players into stayers; attract, convert & retain the right players for your business

In article #1: ‘How to be an iGaming Conference Hero’ I went over attitude and how to prep before a conference. The main take-away from that article is to be positive and bring the energy. In this article I am delving into the existence of the prevalent drinking culture and how to avoid some of poison traps which inevitably exist.

I enjoy these conferences. I think they are extremely well run and endorse people to go to them if they think they can kick some goals.

Everyone going to these iGaming conferences should always keep in mind these two goals:

Networking.

Try to be +ROI.

With that in mind, let’s look at drinking culture and poison traps.

Drinking Culture

After reviewing Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s request, the board approved a motion to launch a new request for proposals for a fourth casino in the Southern Tier.

Cuomo wrote to the board on Dec. 26 and requested it grant a fourth and final upstate casino license to the Southern Tier after it was passed over for a casino in the Finger Lakes.

Board members met in New York City Tuesday night where they made the decision. In a five to zero vote, the board reversed itself and declared New York’s Southern Tier and the state ready for a fourth Las Vegas-style casino – if the right proposal comes forward.

“We are unanimous in our belief that the Capital Region will not be reopened. The Catskills Hudson Valley Region will not be reopened. Our decision in the Finger Lakes Region will not be reopened. All we are entertaining here tonight is the reopening of a new bid for that Southern Tier Region,” said Chairman Kevin Law.

The decision comes a month after the board declined to recommend fourth casino, considering the state faced better odds if it licensed three full-scale casinos instead of four, as New York voters approved in 2013. The board was able to recommend four locations in December but only casino proposals in Schenectady County, the Town of Thompson in Sullivan County, and the Finger Lakes Region, were chosen.

The decision renews hope for Jeff Gural, owner of Vernon Downs, as he announced his plans to resubmit his proposal to expand Tioga Downs near the Pennsylvania border from a racetrack and video gaming site into a casino with table games and a hotel.

But the board said that plans already submitted and rejected are very unlikely to make the cut. “Let’s see what else and who else may want to bid a casino in the region,” Law said at tonight’s meeting in New York City.

A strong possibility has emerged that the state of Florida would not renew a key provision in its gambling compact with the Seminole Tribe, allowing the state to finally update its outdated gaming laws and open new gambling options for other casino operators.

The Miami Herald reported that because of the positive outlook of the state’s budget, Florida’s lawmakers could use that as leverage and ultimately reject the estimated $116 million revenue pot it stands to get from the Seminole tribe as part of their 2010 agreement.

Destination resort casinos in the state have often argued that the state could gain more from expanding their businesses rather than sticking to its compact and extending the tribe’s monopoly to run blackjack tables and other banked card games.

Seminole tribe has made its argument that it can guarantee nine-figure revenues for the state, for as long as it receives exclusivity on blackjack, baccarat, and chemin de fer at five of its casinos—one of the compact provisions, with a 15-year expiration date, giving the tribe a virtual monopoly outside Miami-Dade and Broward.

But casinos in the state, specifically the eight ones in Miami-Dade and Boward counties, are pushing lawmakers to scrap the compact altogether so they can begin offering the games that have eluded them for years.

The sole authority to negotiate the compact lies in the shoulders of Florida Governor Rick Scott but he also needs legislative approval to renew, revise, or drop the compact altogether. Doing so would mean getting enough votes from the legislation, which will undoubtedly open up a lobbying free-for-all from all sorts of sectors tied to the gambling industry.

With the current compact set to expire on July 31, 2015, the next few months could turn into a bonanza of discussions regarding the future of the gaming industry in Florida. Some lawmakers, including Republican Bill Galvano, believes that “it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the governor and Legislature end up doing nothing on the compact.”

The English Premier League champions and the Spanish Liga BBVA champions have announced separate sponsorship deals with two established businesses to help expand their reach to a global audience.

First up is Manchester City, which has announced a new deal with Chinese lottery provider DJI Holdings.

Terms of this deal were not disclosed but the tie-up can be attributed to DJI leveraging its new partnership with Manchester City to offer its Chinese clientele exclusive offers to various city-related events, including flights to see the team play and private club gatherings. In addition, DJI customers will also receive the benefit of gaining access to exclusive news and information pertaining to the English football club.

“DJI (Holdings) is a pioneer in providing exclusive and unique content and games for its players in China,” Manchester City Chief Business Officer Tom Glick said in a statement. “As we expand our commercial partners across the globe, we want to work with partners, like DJI, who are established and well-connected in their market, but also looking for innovative ways to activate our partnership.”

Meanwhile, Club Atlético de Madrid, SAD, the reigning and defending Liga BBVA champions, has announced its own partnership deal with Plus500 Ltd., an online service provider of that allows customers to trade on movements in the price of shares, Forex, commodities and indices without needing to buy or sell the underlying instrument. If Plus500 was looking to strike a deal with a team that’s blossomed to become a force in Spanish football, it couldn’t have picked a better squad to do business with than Atletico Madrid.

As part of the deal, Plus500 becomes an official sponsor of Atletico Madrid for the remainder of the season with a chance to extend and expand the relationship in succeeding seasons. A big perk of this partnership for Plus500 will be seeing its logo prominently displayed on the back of the team’s home and away shirts for national matches.

In addition, Plus500 will also receive a handful of branding rights at the Vicente Calderon stadium to go with a host of other sponsorship benefits.

Philippines Commission of Audit have criticized the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) for investing in non-core assets and failed slot machine venture.

PAGCOR paid Php262.6 million to buy 66 condominium units from AMVEL Land Development Corp. In 2013, out of 66 units 54 remain unsold, leaving the the gaming agency with Php218.1 million unrealized profit.

All units were meant to be sold as “decent and affordable housing facilities” to PAGCOR officials assigned to the Casino Filipino office in Parañaque City. However, five years after the acquisition, PAGCOR has so far struggled to sell these units, leaving the company with “idle funds that could have been used for activities more beneficial in the attainment of PAGCOR’s objectives/goals.”

COA also found out that PAGCOR incurred unnecessary expenses that the developer should have paid, specifically Php2.5 million in transfer tax and registration fees for the 66 unit.

“Apparently, there was inadequate planning prior to the purchase of the units,” the report added.

The gaming agency said that “a few [staff] qualify in terms of capacity to pay the amortizations” but efforts to sell the condominiums were being pursued. PAGCOR has taken legal steps to address the issues pertaining to the transfer tax and registration fees.

Then there’s the issue of the Plaza Del Norte Slot Machine Arcade in Laoag City in the province of Ilocos Norte, almost 500 kilometers north of Manila. According to the report, PAGCOR failed to meet its projected winnings amounting to Php2.88 million per month or Php34.56 million per year since it opened on January 2, 2013.