Microgaming White Label Issue

[Casinomeister]

...Bottom line, it is deceptive advertising, no two ways about it. Clutter on the internet? Yeah, in the same sort of sleazy way that Jackpot Factory's pages were clutter too. Different scenario, but the ultimate goal is the same..and neither campaign has/had the player's best interests at heart in any way. The player was never given a second thought in any of this, nor were they last year. Only the player's pocketbook.

Again, it's only deceptive if it isn't transparent. The concept of a white label casino is good - but the execution needs to be well thought out and with strict controls in effect. Like I mentioned before, White Labels should be focused on niches that are ignored or overlooked by the main casino groups. It could be that the main casino group lacks the finesse to tackle a certain target market.

Take the Mexican ranchers for example. Let's say you are a Mexican webmaster - you have a portal totally localized in Spanish that deals with topics of interest of Mexican high-roller gamblers. This is a perfect scenario to bring in a WL. You purchase the domain name, and the casino provides the rest. You market this to your target market, and if it's done correctly, you are actually providing a service to your visitors/members/players. Playshare may not have the expertise to tackle this market - but you do.

But it needs to be 100% transparent. It's a big mistake not to be this way - and it will eventually backfire.

[Simmo!]

I'm not a fan of white labelling at all, mainly because of the transparency issue. I'm surprised MG are allowing operators to go down this route, but I know Playshare aren't alone.

I think having front-ends that differ, running from other sites is ok as long as it announces the originating brand - markedly different from white labelling. An example might be "Casinomeister Casino In association With Grand Monaco" plus it should clearly state that all the payments, operations, support etc are operated by Grand Monaco/Playshare (in this instance).

I've seen this recently in one of the Gambling magazines - I forget which - but they have launched a casino "in association with Belle Rock". That, to me, is fine - it's totally transparent, and all the pages on the site mention it.

Anonymous white labels are not good IMO. I don't think the affiliate in this particular instance is at fault by the way - he's been offered it and taken it. I think this needs a bit more thought from the Operator's end.

[Pinababy69]

Again, it's only deceptive if it isn't transparent. The concept of a white label casino is good - but the execution needs to be well thought out and with strict controls in effect. Like I mentioned before, White Labels should be focused on niches that are ignored or overlooked by the main casino groups. It could be that the main casino group lacks the finesse to tackle a certain target market.

Take the Mexican ranchers for example. Let's say you are a Mexican webmaster - you have a portal totally localized in Spanish that deals with topics of interest of Mexican high-roller gamblers. This is a perfect scenario to bring in a WL. You purchase the domain name, and the casino provides the rest. You market this to your target market, and if it's done correctly, you are actually providing a service to your visitors/members/players. Playshare may not have the expertise to tackle this market - but you do.

But it needs to be 100% transparent. It's a big mistake not to be this way - and it will eventually backfire.

Okay, I will concede that it may be good to target a specific market, but this is most definitely NOT the case here, not by any stretch of the imagination. I grasp the concept you are trying to explain. But Playshare, or any of the other groups involved, are not aiming this at any specific group of players, or any niche. Just people who have money to gamble, period. There are no specialty type casinos, or marketing. There are 35 identical, clone sites with absolutely nothing to differentiate between them, except for colour schemes. How does this particular campaign help any player?

I went back and read the threads that Mouse posted in their entirety. One of the casinos involved was Ruby Fortune, part of the Palace Group. Darran is a regular at this forum, yet never thought it necessary to clarify this for anyone who was posting about it? Simmo commented in the thread that he would find out what was going on but nothing more was ever said. Everyone, and I mean everyone, blamed the whole thing on a sleazy, spamming affiliate. In the thread that led back to Big Dollar, you yourself were pretty upset about the whole thing and said that you were going to contact the manager. Given Grand Prive's reputation for avoiding any difficult issues, it wouldn't surprise me if you never heard a word back from them.

But how in the hell has this been kept under wraps for eight months? All these threads about spam campaigns from unknown MG's, and no one had any clue? From some of the posts, it looks like even affiliates were in the dark and some even suggested contacing eCOGRA back then. I wish I had paid more attention to it then, but like everyone else, figured it was just another spamming affiliate. The entire player community, kept totally in the dark. Best kept secret in the history of online gaming.

And if anyone wonders why I get so upset about this stuff..it's this. Like I've said before, if I go and play at Virtual, I would expect to be treated like shit. When I play at Inetbet, I hold them to a higher standard. RTG in general have a shitty reputation, MG (IMO) had a stellar one. I expect more from them than I do from any RTG casino. What I don't expect them to do is totally hide a business practice such as this from the player community at large. THAT is deceptive. Especially when there were opportunities for this to be made public when these spam campaigns started.

Maybe one of the questions that eCOGRA should have included in their survey, was how people feel about this type of marketing from Microgaming casinos.

[Pinababy69]

"Casinomeister Casino In association With Grand Monaco"

It's too bad that Bryan already snagged Crapmeister Casino...now that would be a totally appropriate name for one of these sites, as they are now.

[SlotsWizard]

An example might be "Casinomeister Casino In association With Grand Monaco"

Another example would be "Simmo! Casino in association with 32Red" for the blue muppet niche market.

[NASHVEGAS]

I'm not a fan of white labelling at all, mainly because of the transparency issue. I'm surprised MG are allowing operators to go down this route, but I know Playshare aren't alone.

I think having front-ends that differ, running from other sites is ok as long as it announces the originating brand - markedly different from white labelling. An example might be "Casinomeister Casino In association With Grand Monaco" plus it should clearly state that all the payments, operations, support etc are operated by Grand Monaco/Playshare (in this instance).

I've seen this recently in one of the Gambling magazines - I forget which - but they have launched a casino "in association with Belle Rock". That, to me, is fine - it's totally transparent, and all the pages on the site mention it.

Anonymous white labels are not good IMO. I don't think the affiliate in this particular instance is at fault by the way - he's been offered it and taken it. I think this needs a bit more thought from the Operator's end.

Absolutely agree with this as I posted, not sure why I got flamed about a so called request to remedy the confusion possibly caused by the split.......I guess everyone can have a bad day but all is well that ends well,I think!

[happygobrokey]

was away for the weekend, and most of this goes beyond my comprehension, or at least it's all being said better than anything i would have had to input anyway.

does bryan own all the permutations of his name too? i could see a "Casino Meister" or "Meister Casino" trying to slingshot themselves to fame on the back of our beloved chief. and the man is always stressing how it's one word and thusly "cm" is a poorly-formed abbreviation. so if a casino wanted to call themselves the master casino (instead of the master of casinos) using a space between the words, they might be able to?

in running with this, he should actually get his hands on a nice MG white label. "Meisterspace" or "Meister's Gang" or "The Sanctuary" or "Projekt Meister" and i'm sure it will catapult onto the accredited list and be an overwhelming favourite. we would feel super-safe and the meister would get a cut for his work on it. plus we wouldn't feel so bad losing there.

[NASHVEGAS]

was away for the weekend, and most of this goes beyond my comprehension, or at least it's all being said better than anything i would have had to input anyway

Ney, maybe it was the doobies cause everyone knows you are a Mensa,

[kakata]

It took me years to get to where I am now



Years? to go to Portugal and be left there stranded?
Well what you gained from this story is............you lost a girlfriend who didnt love you, no more waste of time for you.

PS
just kidding

[peteyweestro]

i'm gonna start a white label casino for bi-pedal hairy hominids at least 6 1/2 feet tall with a distinct oder problem...lol...sasquatch slots!