Multiple casino brands under one roof.

[WCD Admin]

I am starting to think some of the problem in our industry is parent companies operating more than one casino brand. I am going to try setting up a poll about this here, and then get some discussion going.

The question is: should operators focus on a single brand or play casino empire and run multiple casinos?

[WCD Admin]

I think in the beginning it was great seeing all these brands (variety is the spice of life) to chose from but what has become of this?

Single properties don't bundle. Only multiple properties.
Single properties don't have problems paying winners unless there has been gross negligence
Single properties have more resources and staff on the ground for retention, support, conversion, and all around high quality service.
Single properties can afford more games, better creative materials, etc.
Single properties make me more money.
Single properties take only ONE spot on my site.
Single properties have every interest to NOT screw players and NOT screw affiliates. It's all they got - so they love it, nurture it and care for it.

In summary, I think multiple brands used to work when there was plenty of money going around. As soon as an operator have 15 winners across 15 brands, at the same time, we start hearing about bundling, financial difficulties, etc. I don't hear this from single program operators.


Just an opinion poll. I've been thinking about this for awhile

[tryme1]

It does depend largely on how this is handled. For example, Casino Rewards have = at last count - 2,335 brands, but it doesn't seem to have stopped them from delivering conversions, good player support and all the other stuff you've mentioned.

On the other hand, I would agree with you in general terms. The idea that 'hey, we've got one online casino that makes $xxxx ... if we have 5 online casinos we'll make $xxxx multiplied by 5' just isn't true and actually can cause more problems than it solves.

Personally, I don't rule out companies with multiple casinos, but I tend to only promote 1 or 2 properties from each and no more.

[slotplayer]

It does depend largely on how this is handled. For example, Casino Rewards have = at last count - 2,335 brands, but it doesn't seem to have stopped them from delivering conversions, good player support and all the other stuff you've mentioned.

On the other hand, I would agree with you in general terms. The idea that 'hey, we've got one online casino that makes $xxxx ... if we have 5 online casinos we'll make $xxxx multiplied by 5' just isn't true and actually can cause more problems than it solves.

Personally, I don't rule out companies with multiple casinos, but I tend to only promote 1 or 2 properties from each and no more.

CR has 2,335 brands? Can you elaborate?

[tryme1]

It was exaggeration used for humorous effect. It guess it didn't work. CR do have a lot of brands, though. Maybe not 2,335!

[bb1webs]

Bernie i think you're touching on a subject i brought up a while back about can you have too many players at any one property because unlike the casinos ... we don't have enough players to weather having a big winner every month which when you reach a certain number of players in your base that I imagine the numbers will show that you're going to have a big winner more often which as we all know it only takes one big winner to wipe out a month's income.

That starts happening to a person every other, or every 3rd month and its going to be a devasting situation for those that are completely dependent on their gaming income.

That's why bundling is such an important issue. if you can keep the incomes separate then you're going to be okay because (for instance) if you've got 10 players at 10 places ... the odds you're going to have a big winner every 60 or 90 days is much less than if you had 100 players at one place.

[WCD Admin]

I think CR is the biggest exception. I think they invest their money properly into retention and conversion and player support. They bundle which I dislike, but I still make money. Good management.

[Renee]

LOL @ tryme

Just to clarify, we now have 19 casinos brands, and 5 poker brands.

I think WCD has a valid point, and that a lot of groups out there may not be able to handle more than one property, but I would like to think that for the most part the groups out there who do have more than one property would be like us and be ever growing.

We have just expanded onto another floor in our building and have started recruiting a crapload more staff, especially for support and retention (some exciting new stuff we are trying in regards to retention btw) so that we can ensure that all partners (that's you) and players are well taken care of and to enable us to give the best possible service that we can. Unlike other groups, we are much smaller in terms of employee count with just over 100 staff whereas other microgaming groups who have less than half the properties we have, have an employee count of over 300.

I think the main thing that should be noted when choosing an affiliate program is that you should read the terms and conditions, and do some research on the feedback from other affiliates because there is nothing more valuable than that.

The other point i'd like to make is that if every group only had one brand, and that brand didnt convert for your players, but had a really great affiliate program, whereas a brand that did convert awesome for you was a brand that never paid and was unresponsive, wouldn't you want the group with the great program to offer you more than one way to try to convert your traffic with them rather than to send your converting traffic to the place who is not interested in being your PARTNER?

I think that way you have a choice. Not every brand converts for everyone. I think that's a saying that's been beaten to death by now.

Anyway just my 2 cents.

[Renee]

I think CR is the biggest exception. I think they invest their money properly into retention and conversion and player support. They bundle which I dislike, but I still make money. Good management.

We launched a brand new revshare model a couple of weeks ago and unlike our old model, the new model does bundle.

The new model was designed to get rid of the stuff that was causing massive amounts of fraud which unfortunately the non bundling had a lot to do with, amongst other things.

The good news is that instead of enforcing this retroactively, we introduced a brand new model with brand new T&Cs which will only affect those people who join that model.

Our wager model is still the brand that we push number one since after doing the numbers most affiliates are still better off on it, however now we have a Revshare option for those who don't like the wager model.

If there are any questions I'd be happy to answer them (rather than continuing to sidetrack this thread) so please email me at Renee@RewardsAffiliates.com

Cheers