Now this is pretty serious stuff for ANY domain name owner or company trading online, irrespective of market, product or jurisdiction.
The State of Kentucky (actually, strictly speaking it’s a Commonwealth) has recently won a court judgement to seize control of 141 domain names that are related to gambling and shockingly, ICANN have agreed to hand over the domains! We’re not talking small companies here either. Golden Palace, Microgaming, Carmen Media and many more. This is causing serious waves in the industry, needless to say but has much more far-reaching repercussions beyond the online gambling market. Although it’s pretty straightforward for most to just switch domain names, there are two major knock-on effects of this landmark ruling which if enforced after the appeal on the 7th October, should worry many, many companies and doman name owners across all areas of industry.
Firstly, regards gambling, the residents of Kentucky are now even more open to fraud from illegal gambling operators than they were already
Just got back from the casino affiliate conference in Barcelona run by CAP. It’s the second time I’ve attended the Barcelona conference, my fourth “CAP Euro” and hmmm, must be my 10th industry conference in the past 4 years or so. Actually, strictly speaking it was my 10th and 11th, as I attended EIG this week too - same city, different venue and more geared towards the “online” gambling industry as a whole rather than affiliates.
I was a bit disappointed by EIG to be honest, although the affiliate site “GPWA” (Gambling Portal Webmasters Association”) had part of the exhibition and had asked me to speak about affCAFF and moderate a Panel session for new and aspiring affiliates, so I got involved. If you’ve ever attended ICEi (January every year in London), then EIG is a fraction of the size, although to be fair, ICEi covers
Most experienced online gamblers will be familiar with Neteller, the eWallet that is accepted at just about every sportsbook, casino or poker room going. Excluding US residents of course. Well anyway, they just launched an affiliate program which may be of interest - Neteller Affiliate Program - with a bounty for every new account holder on their first succesful transaction. Frankly, it’s not a great bounty at £20 a throw, but at least it’s something.
I’ve used Neteller for years and apart from the odd frustration, it’s served me well. It’s generally the quickest way to get money in and out of the merchants and can be treated like an offshre bank account to a degree. They are based in the Isle Of Man
Just received a mail from a casino I used to play at - King Neptunes - to say that they have been brought under the Belle Rock Entertainment brand banner. King Neptunes was part of the excellent Trident Lounge group but a while back was sold (with Trident Lounge Casino) to Carmen Media. No surprise here bearing in mind carmen own Belle Rock, who in turn manage the Carmen casino brands Jackpot City, Lucky Nugget, Gaming Club and River Belle. Good Microgaming casinos - like Neptunes - with a long and pretty solid history. The only downside is that BR support is pretty slow - it takes me anything up to 12 hours to get a response on a bad day. Otherwise, a pretty positive move.