8 April 2009

Special Edition
Casino Affiliate Convention 2009 - Amsterdam

Dear Reader,

And here we go with Casinomeister's annual CAC report - Amsterdam. If reading about the tripiness of Amsterdam, freaky people, red light hookers, bitchin' restaurants, and online gaming is your thing, then read on...

Reportingly yours,

Bryan

Can't read this newsletter in HTML? Click here (or copy and paste this link into your browser): http://www.casinomeister.com/newsletter.php#skip for the bitchin' online version.

CAC 2009 - Amsterdam

What happened to all the hookers?...

Amsterdam is always a pleasure - especially when one attends the Casino Affiliate Convention, and this was my sixth annual attendance. One of the joys is taking the train from Bierland Germany, to the Central Train Station in Amsterdam. I hate flying. And riding the train is both relaxing and aesthetic - the German and Dutch countryside whizzing by in a blur is a meditative event. You should try it sometime.

And of course I had the Soprano's third season with me. Thanks to my laptop's DVD player, I killed a few hours indulging in one of the best shows ever produced.

I arrived Sunday afternoon. It was sunny, but a bit brisk. I checked into my hotel, and had my obligatory dose of decadent KFC. I was prepared for a week of serious business. But before business...pleasure.

And what could be more pleasurable than going on a Beer tour. Ladbrokes sponsored a tour of the Heineken Brewery which was fairly interesting - and they had free beer. Actually the beer was rather good; it's a bit different coming from the brewery than what you get at home.

We had dinner that evening at an Argentine Steak House. It was pretty decent - I normally don't eat steak, but this time I made an exception. And as you would probably had guessed it, the conversation revolved around the CAP implosion and how it was affecting operators and affiliates. I was anticipating the following day since I'm quite concerned about affiliate/affiliate manager relations.

We partied that evening at the Werck - thanks to Euro Partners who sponsored the event. It's a shame that the bar closed early - relatively of course, so we meandered back to the hotel. We had a disappointing moment when Andy Scott of Ladbrokes, decided not to jump naked into one of the canals after I offered him 50 Euros to do so. We were bummed. But he did promise to do this on the following night...

Voice from the past - CAC 2008
As I did a Google Earth search and found a hotel with outstanding reviews which was in the area I had hoped for. Funny that it didn't show up at Expedia or Hotels.nl - but it was listed at Tripadvisor.com (where I had read the reviews). Free WiFi, Flatscreen LCD TV with a DVD player, breakfast included, clean in a choice location - all this for €115 - which is about half the price for a low-end 4 star. So I checked it out - The Black Tulip a gay leatherman's hotel.

Hmmm, I'm not really into that scene - honest - but the accommodations sounded great, so I booked it after they said they "like them straight too".

So there I was - getting my briefing on the Hotel rules. The owner was obligated to go over these, regardless of my relationship status: "Rule number one: No Crisco - it smells and stinks up the place." Made sense to me - no worries there.

I had a cage in my room - for people.

Monday - Day One:
A lot of us didn't know what to expect with all the crazy affiliate stuff recently. We wondered what the turn out would be, wondered who would be there - and who would be a no show. I was happy to see a number of familiar faces, and the mood seemed to be rather upbeat.

The exhibition hall held about half of what it had last year. I made my rounds, and a few of the affiliate managers voiced their concerns that they were expecting a better turn out. I drank some coffee, ate a bagel, and then ran into Bob Rains in the lobby of the hotel. We decided to sit and have a chat.

Bob Rains is the new guy on board for CAP, and he wanted to pick my brain on how CAP can pull itself together - I was rather frank with him. CAP, in my opinion, is a done deal; there is no possibility for this company to right itself. After the fiascos of forum drama and mudslinging amongst its executives, the CAP Spring Break was its Swan Song. The Cancun event was abysmal - around 16 people showed up, around 4-6 of them were affiliates. If my memory serves me well, several weeks ago Lou Fabiano made a CAP video and he warned those who were contemplating to attend that they needed to reserve a spot fast because the hotel was nearly booked out. I spoke with an affiliate manger who had contacted CAP a few weeks before the event asking them how many affiliates were showing up. He was told at least 125 were confirmed. Lies, lies and more lies.

These affiliate managers and their operators were screwed. They invested time and their company's resources to attend this event and took a massive financial hit based upon CAP's bullshit. And who got screwed the worst? It was the affiliates. Most affiliates are small time and their business is a month to month venture. They ought to be pissed off in a most serious way - these people flushed their money down the drain, and for what? To hang out in an overpriced tourist hell hole? They were mislead and cheated by CAP. There should be no room for CAP to continue "business as usual". It's over for CAP in my opinion. And most of the persons I've spoken with - both affiliates and affiliate managers - feel exactly the same way.

Lunch crept up, and I headed for Chinese at a really outstanding Chinese restaurant (just a five minute walk from the CAC) with the Casino Coins people. We had quite an enjoyable lunch. And discussed amongst other things - the aftermath of CAP.

That afternoon: I participated in a panel discussion which included Simmo! and J.Todd of APWC and the topic was ethics in the casino industry.

For one thing, the term "ethics" is a bit subjective. What is ethical for one company, may be way out of line for another. To define ethics, one can use the fairness meter: what is fair for player, the operator, and for the affiliate is probably ethical.

We also discussed the possibility of the certification of affiliate programs.

CAP was certifying affiliate programs until they did a faceplant. The certification from them was pretty much meaningless since it only indicated that the affiliate program paid a fee to be listed at CAP. For webmasters it had no worth - same goes for the affiliate managers. The only people who benefited from these "Certifications" were the people running CAP. The question presented was whether or not this industry needs certification of affiliate programs, and if so - could it be done? My answer was and is no.

No - for a number of reasons. For one, it's too problematic. There are too many companies coming from differing parts of the globe, each with its own view point and philosophy on marketing online gaming. It's much more complicated than some people think.

The first thing that should be considered is this: what properties are being promoted by the affiliate program? Are the casinos reputable, upstanding properties that treat their players in a fair and professional manner? I've come across a number of stellar casinos that are backed by suck-ass affiliate programs. I've also dealt with a number of roguish or mismanaged casinos that have fantastic affiliate programs. Do you see the problem here?

Another concern was "who" would be behind the certification. How transparent would this entity be, and would they have any conflicts of interest? Would they be biased for or against any software providers? eCOGRA's Andrew Beveridge was there to entertain some questions. I was surprised that there are still those who think that eCOGRA is a puppet of Microgaming and 888.com. That couldn't be further than the truth. eCOGRA may be a solution, but there are a number of operators who still distrust the organization, which is unfortunate. Some of these people need to read up on the matter a bit more.

And there was the issue of why should the affiliate managers put up with an additional cost. They are already paying some affiliates 35-45% of their profits. Would affiliates be willing to foot the bill on some of these extra costs? I'm pretty sure the answer was no - why should they? The affiliates will just move on to somebody else. It's an extremely competitve environment.

The bottom line is that most affiliates will vote with their feet. If an affiliate has the smarts to tackle his or her job as a long term mission, they will (in most cases) chose casinos that are upstanding and which provides an excellent service to its players. REMEMBER: IT'S THE PLAYERS' NEEDS WHICH ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT FACTORS IN THIS EQUATION. In turn, the affiliate programs will be well funded and properly managed to enable its affiliates to do their job - marketing online gaming in an ethical manner.

So its back to the ol' "trickle-down effect" self regulating industry - the one we're all used to.

The discussion ended, and it was nearly time for the traditional Curry and obligatory "Red Light District" stroll...

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CAC PART II

No, I'm not a perv...
That evening was spent with my good friends Greedygirl, Simmo!, Gideon, and my friends from Club World Casino eating Curry at the Balti House - one of the best Curry Houses I've been to. We go there every year.

From there we made it back the Kraspinoski Hotel, where we saunter off to the our annual obligatory stroll through the Red Light District. What a disappointment. I would say about half of the girls were gone. It's really a shame since these girls are having to find other venues to do business. Not that I'm a perv or anything, it's just that the girls in the windows are what make this city unique - it's a flair and tradition that can't be found anywhere else on this planet.

We ended up in a Irish Pub and partied until closing time. Which again seemed mighty early relatively speaking.

Voice from the past - CAC 2004 Anyway, that evening a number of us strolled through the narrow streets and over the little bridges that cross the murky canals. The "Red Light" District is something else; very surreal. Women of all colors sizes and shapes patiently wait behind plate glass windows, doing their nails, or performing mini-dances. They smile, wave, and shameless men poke their heads in their doors asking for prices. My wife said "It's not fair, there are no men on display!" But I explained, how would guys make money doing that? After the first customer, they would have to hang a sign on the door "Come back later." Oh well, ce la vie.

Tuesday - Day two:

I spoke with the representative of Affiliate Club's affiliate program by his booth. The first item on the plate concerned the German player who reportedly won €157,000 and had his winnings confiscated because of fraud. (you can read about this here) At the moment this issue is being dealt with by the Malta LGA. I'm hoping there will be some kind of resolution in the very near future. The casino is adamant that the player committed fraud; the player insists he hasn't done anything wrong.

What is frustrating is that for some reason, the casino (Casino Club) has been hit by a higher than average amount of player fraud. They aren't making this up; a number of these players were signing up in our forum at Casinomeister, and I was able to detect multiple accounts (these members had more than one account opened up on their computer), and once banned, they have been the most vocal in other people's forums sucking in others with their deception.

Anyway, the other item on the agenda was the deal with the retroactive terms and conditions for affiliates. The operator was firm that they have the right to implement these to protect their business; I explained that to implement retroactive terms to affiliates was unfair and wasn't the right thing to do. But he was unmoving on his stance, and said that all affiliates would be treated fairly. We agreed to disagree.

I wandered the conference floor a bit more. It wasn't sparse, but the activity from the previous conferences just wasn't there. But after speaking with several affiliate managers, I had the feeling that this didn't make much difference. Several mentioned that they were still getting new affiliates, and that the conference was quite productive. This was good to hear.

In fact, it was like the old days. The last several years, it was a real effort just to find space to sit dawn and chat or have a meeting. The lobby, cafe, bar, and every table and chair in every corridor was occupied. This year was much more relaxing. It was easy to find space to chill and discuss matters. I found it rather enjoyable, and I found it rather productive as well. There are a number of new Casinomeister Accredited casinos coming on board in the next week or so. Stay tuned to this newsletter.

The traditional beer session commenced at 1530. The first half hour was devoted to marketing which in fact, I don't have much to say. But the following hour was quite animated with a discussion that seemed to have spilled over from the panel discussion the previous day.

CAP has left a void. Does it need to be filled? Well if so, with what? We have bodies like the APCW which audits programs, we have the Affiliate Guard Dog that keeps track of changes in terms and conditions. We have affiliate communities at GPWA, Casinomeister, and a few others. We have enough conferences. What's missing? Certification? Don't need it. As long as there are affiliates who have the right information in order to make wise decisions, certification is a pipe dream.

Perhaps there is room for an organization of sorts, but if it's going to be meaningful, it's going to have to offer something unique, be transparent, be run by people who are known to be trustworthy, and if there are fees, they must be reasonable. We'll see what the future holds.

And with the end of the beer session, the convention was adjourned. Kudos to Marc Lesnick on bring us together once again for a worthy and productive experience.

That evening it was dinner at Le Garage - a posh overpriced restaurant. The decor was nice, but nothing special. The food was very good, and so was the wine thanks to Adrian's expertise. I sat with the usual suspects to include Peralis, his wife, and his newborn daughter who barely made a peep. A cute, low maintenence kid - hopefully she'll stay that way for her parents' sake.

I also sat next to my buddy Alex Pratt who explained to me a little more about the CAP fiasco and what impact it has on the conferences. An interesting discussion, and I hope that the CAC/ACC situation can be worked out in an amicable way.

Nope, I won't be at the ACC which is in Amsterdam April 30th to May 3rd. I hope it'll be an enjoyable experience for those who make it. But one conference in Amsterdam is enough for me.

Headed back the next day - train ride and a completion of the Sopranos third season; what a hell of a series. And then I watched "Fargo" for the umpteenth time...

Voice from the past - CAC 2005
The next day - back on the train heading home - and I began banging out this newsletter. In real time that was days ago - in your time, it was the amount of time it took to read this newsletter. Time is an amazing thing sometimes.

Lastly, I want to thank all those who approached me and expressed their appreciation for what I do - about the newsletter, about the forum and webcast (new show in the works - I promise!). In a nutshell - it's really just for you my dear reader, really it is. Undeniably so.

Complaints? Kudos? Please let me know.

Peace

Bryan Bailey
Webmeister
Casinomeister