I'm running a Bitcoin casino. Right now, we have two promotion methods -- one's a friend referral bonus, and the other is a system that's kinda like "superaffiliates" on a national level -- basically one marketing chief who gets a cut of revenue from all the players in their own country. This is a structure I think is a solid foundation, but we need more.
The real issue is, Bitcoin isn't very widely adopted yet. It has a tight community that likes playing for low stakes, but is more interested in trading the Coins themselves, with the market rising 1,000,000% and falling by 9/10ths of that in the last six months. Still, the Coin is easily traded for USD, EUR, CAD CHF and AUD. Once in the system, it's cryptographically secure and anonymous. Bitcoin's got a huge amount of potential -- zero transaction fees, peer to peer, instant withdrawals across borders with absolutely no paperwork. Hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth can be carried on a memory stick in your pocket. It's very US-friendly for gambling; and although my casino doesn't take US players, we're putting together an industry association / self-regulation gaming council with several other small poker rooms and sportsbooks who also accept Bitcoin, most of whom are US-facing and do quite a bit of Bitcoin business there for the above reasons.
One thing that's brutally obvious though, is that if you search for deposit methods, there isn't a single affiliate network that lists Bitcoin (BTC) as a form of deposit. Even though it's the only method where every casino in the space guarantees instant withdrawals. Since Bitcoin is a distributed network (not owned by anyone like Paypal or Liberty Reserve), there's no central payment processor to pay for listings on "casino-deposit.com" type sites. Bitcoin itself is also the wild west -- practically anyone can set up a casino unlicensed if they want to, similar to the situation with Paypal in the mid-to-late '90s. Casinos doing business with BTC would have to shoulder some joint responsibility. We are literally the only one in this space that's incorporated and offshore -- we're based in Costa Rica and comply with US law by not taking American players. We're trying to help get the other sites up to transparency and responsible gaming standards similar to what we've chosen to adopt, because we believe that self-regulation will lead to an expansion of Bitcoin as a currency for trade, which in turn will lead indirectly to more traffic for us.
So. What's this all mean? While we'd be willing to pay out from our own site to the right affiliate network, we can't make that commitment for the other sites that would be represented by having Bitcoins listed as a deposit method. And we also can't yet vouch for the rest of them, at least not until the ink's dry on this industry association we're trying to put together. And clearly, that kind of thing isn't what affiliates want to hear. But I'm hoping we can get taken first as a responsible, transparent site, and treated on an individual basis, and get our currency listed somewhere as the excellent deposit method that it is.
So, we're shopping. Basically for the right network to whom my casino (and maybe 3-5 others) could give revenue share that would be willing to drive not just casino traffic, but drive traffic into the Bitcoin currency as a whole by letting it list as a deposit method.
Anyone have any suggestions?
The real issue is, Bitcoin isn't very widely adopted yet. It has a tight community that likes playing for low stakes, but is more interested in trading the Coins themselves, with the market rising 1,000,000% and falling by 9/10ths of that in the last six months. Still, the Coin is easily traded for USD, EUR, CAD CHF and AUD. Once in the system, it's cryptographically secure and anonymous. Bitcoin's got a huge amount of potential -- zero transaction fees, peer to peer, instant withdrawals across borders with absolutely no paperwork. Hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth can be carried on a memory stick in your pocket. It's very US-friendly for gambling; and although my casino doesn't take US players, we're putting together an industry association / self-regulation gaming council with several other small poker rooms and sportsbooks who also accept Bitcoin, most of whom are US-facing and do quite a bit of Bitcoin business there for the above reasons.
One thing that's brutally obvious though, is that if you search for deposit methods, there isn't a single affiliate network that lists Bitcoin (BTC) as a form of deposit. Even though it's the only method where every casino in the space guarantees instant withdrawals. Since Bitcoin is a distributed network (not owned by anyone like Paypal or Liberty Reserve), there's no central payment processor to pay for listings on "casino-deposit.com" type sites. Bitcoin itself is also the wild west -- practically anyone can set up a casino unlicensed if they want to, similar to the situation with Paypal in the mid-to-late '90s. Casinos doing business with BTC would have to shoulder some joint responsibility. We are literally the only one in this space that's incorporated and offshore -- we're based in Costa Rica and comply with US law by not taking American players. We're trying to help get the other sites up to transparency and responsible gaming standards similar to what we've chosen to adopt, because we believe that self-regulation will lead to an expansion of Bitcoin as a currency for trade, which in turn will lead indirectly to more traffic for us.
So. What's this all mean? While we'd be willing to pay out from our own site to the right affiliate network, we can't make that commitment for the other sites that would be represented by having Bitcoins listed as a deposit method. And we also can't yet vouch for the rest of them, at least not until the ink's dry on this industry association we're trying to put together. And clearly, that kind of thing isn't what affiliates want to hear. But I'm hoping we can get taken first as a responsible, transparent site, and treated on an individual basis, and get our currency listed somewhere as the excellent deposit method that it is.
So, we're shopping. Basically for the right network to whom my casino (and maybe 3-5 others) could give revenue share that would be willing to drive not just casino traffic, but drive traffic into the Bitcoin currency as a whole by letting it list as a deposit method.
Anyone have any suggestions?
