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Issue 46 AUG/SEP 2014
Panda 4.0
Leveraging the visual
Retargeting for affiliates
iGBAFFILIATE
Issue 46 AUG/SEP 2014
Bitcoin
revolution
How the cryptocurrency is
opening new doors for iGaming
INFORMATION, INSIGHT AND ANALYSIS FOR THE BUSINESS OF INTERACTIVE GAMING
CONTENTS
Events Calendar 04
Webmaster News 06
Google’s New Panda is Off the Leash 10
A Change is Gonna Come: Mobile SEO in 2014 14
SEO Lessons and a Little Jedi Wisdom: World Cup 2014 20
Retargeting for Affiliates 22
Interview: Faye Evans, bet365 26
Leveraging the Visual Around Big Events 29
Bitcoin Round Table: Paul Davis, Michael Ellen, Eric Benz 32
Everyone is talking about bitcoin, Q&A: Chris Evans, Bitcoin Gambling Guide 36
and whether you believe in bitcoin
Interview: IOM’s Peter Greenhill on new digital currency regime 38
long-term or you think that another
cryptocurrency will supersede it, Bitcoin Casino: The Lowdown 40
you can’t afford to ignore the most Q&A: Binary Options For Affiliates 44
disruptive technology in the online
Amaya-Stars: A New World Order? 46
payments space. Why is bitcoin
important to iGaming? It lowers NJ’s New Affiliate Guidelines: The Legal View 48
payment costs significantly, it NJ’s New Affiliate Guidelines: The Affiliate View 50
eliminates chargebacks, and the
iGaming and the Connected World 52
majority of bitcoins traded today
are through bitcoin gaming merchants. CIS: Opportunities and Risks 54
But whether you mine them, buy them or Data Centre: iGaming Dashboard 58
have never paid bitcoin much attention,
Data Centre: EU Regulation 60
this issue will get you up to speed on
bitcoin in iGaming and how affiliates can Marketplace 64
benefit from the bitcoin revolution. Data Centre: US Search Data 66
Michael Caselli, Editor in Chief Data Centre: Top 100 69
Editor in Chief: Michael Caselli FREE SUBSCRIPTION email: alex.pratt@igamingbusiness.com
Printed in the UK by: Pensord Press, www.pensord.co.uk
michaelc@iGamingBusiness.com Published by: iGaming Business,
Editor: Stephen Carter St Marks House, Shepherdess Walk, London N1 7BQ
T: +44 (0)20 7954 3515 F: +44 (0)20 7954 3511
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www.iGamingBusiness.com
Publisher: Alex Pratt © iGaming Business 2014. All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by
alex@iGamingBusiness.com
any means, or stored in any retrieval system of any nature without
Designer: Kyle Young prior written permission, except for permitted fair dealing under
Production Manager: Craig Young the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. Application for
permission for use of copyright material including permission to
craig@iGamingBusiness.com reproduce extracts in other published works shall be made to the
Head of Business Development: James King publishers. Full acknowledgement of author, publisher and source
must be given. iGaming Business Affiliate Magazine is published
james.king@iGamingBusiness.com
by iGaming Business Limited St Marks House, Shepherdess
Senior Sales Executive: Ed Grundy Walk, London N1 7BQ. The views expressed by contributors and
ed@iGamingBusiness.com correspondents are their own. Editorial opinions expressed in this
http://tinyurl.com/igbaffiliate Sales Executive: James Harrison
magazine are not necessarily those of the Publisher.
The Publisher does not accept responsibility for advertising
@igbaffiliate james.harrison@iGamingBusiness.com content. Cover image: istockphoto.com. ISSN 2041-6954.
iGB Affiliate Issue 46 AUG/SEP 2014 3
affiliate events calendar
Due to their popularity and wealth of information, analysis and discussion, conferences have become
an integral part of the affiliate industry and a key communications bridge between affiliates and affiliate
managers. Whether used for networking, education or just an excuse to meet up with friends, the
affiliate conferences listed below provide all the tools you need to improve your business.
Affiliate Summit East Russian Affiliate Congress and Expo
Marriott Marquis, New York Sokolniki, Moscow
10th – 12th August 2014 3rd – 4th October 2014
www.AffiliateSummit.com/14E-Conference www.RACE-Expo.ru/ru
Barcelona Affiliate Conference Performance Marketing Insights London
CCIB, BARCELONA Westminster Park Plaza, London
23rd – 26th October 2014 28th – 29th October 2014
www.BarcelonaAffiliateConference.com www.PerformanceMarketingInsights.com/14/London
4 iGB Affiliate Issue 46 AUG/SEP 2014
n n i n g A Wi nation... C o m b i At Euro Partners, we’ve created a service that combines a portfolio of winning products with years of industry experience so that you can earn more. Join us at www.europartners.com THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIP
webmaster news
Gibraltar body to challenge new UK Gambling Act
The Gibraltar Betting and to research, education and treatment in or poorly regulated operators, leaving them
Gaming Association (GBGA) has written relation to British problem gambling and exposed to unnecessary risks.
to the UK government and Gambling regulatory costs. “This Act allows operators from 165 new
Commission to declare its intention to The GBGA has argued that the new law is jurisdictions to gain licences to operate
challenge the new Gambling (Licensing unnecessary and will open up the UK market and advertise in the UK and the Gambling
and Advertising) Act 2014. to operators based anywhere in the world – Commission is supposed to regulate this
The organisation, which represents some of whom will not obtain a licence. industry with no extra-territorial information
Gibraltar-based online gambling The Gibraltar organisation also said that gathering or enforcement powers.”
operators, instructed law firm Olswang to the new regime would effectively require the In letters before action, Olswang said that
contact Secretary for Culture, Media and Gambling Commission to police the online the new licensing regime established under
Sport, Sajid Javid, attorney general Dominic gambling sector on a worldwide basis. the act breaches Article 56 of the Treaty on
Grieve and the UK Gambling Commission in “This is bad for UK consumers, bad for the the Functioning of the European Union and
order to spell out its concerns over the Act. regulated industry, bad for Gibraltar and is in is unlawful.
Under the new Act, which was given breach of European law, but fantastic news Olswang partner Dan Tench said: “The
Royal Assent by the British monarchy last for operators who choose to avoid proper measures introduced through this Act are
month, all remote gambling operators in the regulation,” GBGA chief executive Peter neither reasonable nor proportionate to
UK market are required to obtain a licence Howitt sad. achieving that goal and are likely to have
from the Gambling Commission to allow “We know of no precedent where any adverse consequences for consumers.
them to transact with British customers and regulator in any industry will be granted “All this Act achieves is a wholly
advertise in the UK. the role of licensing and regulating unjustified, disproportionate and
Overseas operators are also required to operators all over the world in this way, discriminatory interference with the right to
inform the Gambling Commission about threatening to criminalise companies and free movement of services, a right enshrined
suspicious betting patterns to help combat people who fail to submit to its regime. in European Law. For these reasons the
illegal activity and corruption in sports betting. This is plainly unworkable. Government must reconsider this law or we
In addition, operators based outside of the “The likely impact of this legislation will be shall have no option but to ask the courts to
UK will be required to pay and contribute to drive UK consumers towards unregulated review it for them.”
Amaya Gaming to push for PokerStars New Jersey licence
Canadian gaming provider Amaya Associated Press news agency that he is optimistic about the chances of gaining a
Gaming has commenced licensing talks with “encouraged” by the recent acquisition deal licence for PokerStars in the state.
New Jersey casino regulators in an attempt and the regulatory body has now entered into Although any documents are yet to
to gain a state online gambling licence for talks with Amaya in an attempt to reactivate be filed, Jones said she expects a licence
PokerStars. PokerStars in the state. application to be submitted next week while
Amaya is set to acquire PokerStars as “We've had discussions with Amaya to Rebuck said approval could be given to
part of a deal to purchase the online poker reactivate the application, and we plan to PokerStars by the autumn.
website’s parent company, Rational Group. begin discussions with them tomorrow PokerStars previously attempted to
Amaya struck a deal in June to acquire (Thursday),” Rebuck said. “We'll look at purchase the Atlantic Club Casino in New
Rational Group, as well as its PokerStars and whatever they bring over. I think in the long Jersey, but the deal fell through and the
Full Tilt Poker online poker businesses, for run it will be a good story for New Jersey. casino shut in January this year.
$4.9bn. (€3.6bn). “I'm optimistic that they know what the The online poker website then linked up
Amaya is already active in New Jersey rules are, and I fully expect them to be very with Resorts Casino Hotel, which itself has
through a previously-agreed deal with aggressive because they want to be here.” been unable to offer online gambling while
land-based operator Caesars Interactive The talks come at a time when the US PokerStars has been suspended in the state.
Entertainment, but PokerStars had its state is suffering from a dip in online gaming PokerStars was operational in the US
application for online gambling in the state revenues, with regulated operators in New until it was banned in 2006 and departed
suspended for two years by regulators. Jersey having posted declines in revenue the national market in 2011, before paying a
David Rebuck, director of the New Jersey during the last two months. $547 million fine to the Department of Justice
Division of Gaming Enforcement, told the Amaya’s company lawyer Marie Jones is despite not admitting any wrongdoing.
New Jersey fails in sports betting bid
The US Supreme Court has rejected year which said New Jersey cannot allow to having some form of sports betting on
an approach from New Jersey Senator betting on sports contests due to a federal their statute books at the time.
Chris Christie to revive the state’s sports law introduced in 1992, that bans most US New Jersey voters passed a referendum
wagering law. states from licensing such wagering. in 2011 to allow sports betting.
According to the Wall Street Journal Nevada is the only US state currently The state’s lawmakers followed by
newspaper, the court declined to review offering full sports betting, being among enacting legislation to allow casinos and
a federal appeal court ruling from last four states grandfathered from the law due horseracing tracks in New Jersey to take
6 iGB Affiliate Issue 46 AUG/SEP 2014
webmaster news
sports bets on games, with the exception of The Obama presidential administration
certain matches such as collegiate contests added its support to the leagues. NYX and Sportech strike
played within the state or involving New Both the sports leagues and the Obama New Jersey iGaming deal
Jersey schools. administration said in court papers that the
Online gaming software firm NYX
Gaming Group has announced
Major League Baseball, the National state’s appeal was meritless and unworthy
that its SNG Interactive joint
Basketball Association, the National of a review by the Supreme Court. venture with pools and sports
Football League and the National Hockey They also stated that New Jersey could betting operator Sportech has
League, as well as the National Collegiate not complain about discriminatory entered into an agreement to
Athletic Association, sued to block New treatment as the 1992 ruling gave the state provide a new online gaming
Jersey’s law claiming that state-sponsored a one-year period to begin sports betting platform to the Resorts Casino Hotel
in the US state of New Jersey.
gambling posted a threat to the integrity of and receive an exemption, but New Jersey
Under the agreement, NYX’s
their games. did not take this opportunity. Open Platform System iGaming
delivery software will deliver a range
Portuguese draft online gaming bill of casino game including a number
of titles from NYX’s NextGen
approved Gaming content division and various
The Portuguese Council of revenues, to compensate the social cost.” other land-based manufacturers.
NYX said its partnership
Ministers has approved draft legislation The government said that the legislation
with Sportech would ensure that
to enable the country to begin working on will cover a range of both online and SNG delivers a ‘best-of-breed’
a regulatory framework for the potential terrestrial games in order to effectively turnkey igaming solution to the
introduction of legalised online gambling in combat illicit gambling. New Jersey casino.
the European nation. Gambling formats intended to be covered Matt Davey, chief executive
The new legislation will allow the by the framework include casino games, officer of NYX Gaming Group,
said: “Resorts is one of the few
Portuguese government to investigate poker, gaming machines, bingo, sports
brands with legitimate claim to New
different methods of betting and gaming betting and horserace betting.
Jersey and holds an iconic position
regulation in order to the country’s current Portugal’s government also suggested that in the industry.
laws to cover internet betting and gaming. a new form of taxation be introduced to cover “The combination of NYX’s flexible
In a statement, the Portuguese government the games. gaming solutions and extensive
said the legislation would help to ensure that This could include the creation of library of high quality game content
laws are in line with the existing European a homogenous framework and the will be key contributors to the
unique positioning and success of
framework for best practices. establishment of online gaming duty in order
Resorts iGaming venture.”
The statement read: “This initiative is to safeguard the regulated games.
crucial to combat illegal gambling, enabler In addition, the government said that Henderson confirmed as
of fraudulent activities and activities possibly the new regulatory framework should also new William Hill CEO
associated with money laundering, while include ‘solid and effective’ sanctions to William Hill has confirmed that
allowing the development of social policies prevent illicit acts and ensure players face James Henderson will assume
through a balanced distribution of gambling ‘healthy’ competition when gambling. the role of chief executive officer
of the UK bookmaker from the
start of August.
Henderson, the group’s
888 chief would welcome PokerStars to director of operations, will
US market replace long-standing CEO Ralph
Topping. He has been with the
Brian Mattingley, chief executive throughout Europe. They are a formidable company for nearly three decades
officer of online gaming operator 888 competitor. But they would make all of us and has recently been based in
work much harder and it would expand the
Australia to oversee the business
Holdings, would welcome PokerStars into
William Hill acquired from
a regulated US market and that the addition market.
Sportingbet last year.
of the online poker giant would help to boost “I would much rather have a small slice of Topping was due to retire at the
internet poker overall in the country. a large pie than a big piece of a small pie.” end of 2015, but it was announced
Despite having been absent from the “It would be like unleashing an 800-pound earlier this year that he would
market for a number of years, PokerStars gorilla into the market, but having more players depart earlier than planned.
could be set to return to the US scene after on a regulated site would benefit everyone.” William Hill confirmed the
appointment of Henderson to the
Canadian gaming provider Amaya Gaming Gibraltar-based 888 currently enjoys
London Stock Exchange this
agreed to acquire PokerStars and Full Tilt a partnership with Caesars Interactive morning and added that he will
Poker holding company Rational Group. Entertainment for legal online gaming receive a basic salary of £550,000
Although PokerStars’ return to the US websites in Nevada and New Jersey. (€694,000/$944,000) per year.
market would vastly increase competition Mattingley said that the US online poker Henderson said: “Under Ralph
amongst online poker operators, including market is currently suffering as customers as chief executive, the group is in
888, Mattingley said the move could in fact still access illegal and unregulated websites, the best competitive shape I have
ever known and he has created,
boost the US internet poker industry. but the introduction of a major player like
in my view, an unrivalled team with
Mattingley told the Las Vegas Review PokerStars could push more players to an outstanding track record."
Journal: “We compete with PokerStars regulated sites.
iGB Affiliate Issue 46 AUG/SEP 2014 7
webmaster news
New UK gambling act to be Online gaming bill introduced in
implemented in October
The UK Gambling Commission has
Pennsylvania
confirmed that the new Gambling A new bill aimed at legalising a range The first conviction of illegal internet
(Licensing and Advertising) Act of online gaming services in the US state gambling is a degree misdemeanour while
2014 will be implemented on of Pennsylvania has been introduced in the subsequent violations are second degree
October 1, 2014.
state senate. felonies, with the minimum fine being set
Operators that are currently able
to provide gambling services in the Sponsored primarily by Senator Edwin at $75,000.
UK and wish to continue offering Erickson, the latest bill has been altered The new bill would also allow for
such services should submit an from previous versions to potentially allow interstate concepts with other regulated
application for a continuation licence for wider regulation of internet gaming. states or territories in the US, but
by September 16. The previous version, leaked to several specifically mentioned this would not be
If the application has not been
news sources in May, stated the gaming extended for international possibilities.
determined by October 1, the
applicant will be issued with a board “only may approve poker games In addition, a ‘bad actor’ clause forbids
continuation licence that will allow pursuant to this chapter”. “any trademark, trade name, service mark
them to operate until the application However, this language has now been or similar intellectual property that is
process has been completed. removed and the new bill states “any used to identify any aspect of the Internet
Licence applications can be made interactive game approved by the board website or the operator offering the wagers
via an online application service via pursuant to this chapter”, which could or interactive games to its customers” from
the Gambling Commission website.
potentially mean the legalisation of other those companies that accepted Pennsylvania
The confirmation of the
implementation comes despite casino games in addition to poker. players after December 31, 2006.
heavy criticism from the Gibraltar The bill would introduce a tax rate of Player databases, software or any
Betting and Gaming Association 14%, while promotions could be deducted hardware used in violation of the Unlawful
(GBGA), which pledged to and funds seized from fraudulent players Internet Gambling Enforcement Act will
challenge the new Act after branding would be counted as taxable income. be excluded.
it unnecessary. The licence fee for operators has Other terms featured in the bill
The organisation, which
been set at $5 million (€3.7 million) include the requirement that all
represents Gibraltar-based online
gambling operators, said that the while affiliates would also require deposits be segregated from operating
new Act would open up the UK licensing in Pennsylvania. funds, players must be over the age
markets to operators based Although the bill states that unlicensed of 21, internet cafes are banned unless
anywhere in the world, some of operators would also be required to pay offered by a site operator, so-called ‘bot’
which may not obtain a licence taxes, this would not make them immune play is forbidden and gaming sites are
The GBGA also said that the new
from prosecution for offering illegal required to prominently display problem
regime would effectively require UK
regulators to police the gambling gambling, only for tax evasion. gambling information.
industry on a global scale.
Optimal Payments Bovada halts online poker service in
becomes Crystal Palace Delaware and Nevada
shirt sponsor
Leading iGaming payments Online gambling and betting firm access make new accounts or deposits.
provider Optimal Payments has The New Jersey withdrawal came
Bovada has followed up on its decision
become the official sponsor of
to stop accepting new registrations for after the state’s Division of Gaming
English Premier League (EPL)
football club Crystal Palace Football its online poker service in New Jersey by Enforcement wrote to six US affiliates
Club for the next two seasons. adding fellow US states Delaware and earlier this month to tell them to remove
The company said it would use Nevada to its restricted list. “any online gaming links that are not
the sponsorship to elevate global Players in the two states will no longer authorised under federal law or under the
awareness of its Neteller service be able to create new accounts on the law of any state”.
and Net+® Card stored-value
Bovada website. Bovada said in a statement following the
offering, which will be displayed on
the front of the team’s shirts from Those that attempt to access the service New Jersey move that its partner brand |
the start of the 2014/15 English in Nevada or Delaware will be met by a Bovada.lv had taken the decision "of their
Premier League season. message that reads, “We are sorry. We do own volition and they hope that their
Neteller will be the first EPL not accept registrations from your state. existing customers continue to enjoy all
sponsor within the online payments For more information please contact us.” of the products and services Bovada.lv has
space. Lorenzo Pellegrino, The restriction will not impact existing to offer."
Executive Vice President – Neteller,
players with an account and funds. The Equity Poker Network also
said “This partnership gives
Neteller the platform to promote our Current customers are still able to play but announced in June that its FullFlashPoker.
services on a whole new level; are now unable to make new deposits. com flagship online poker room would
putting it alongside major global In May, Bovada announced it would no withdraw its full suite of online real-
brands like Barclays; Nike; longer be accepting new registrations from money gaming options from New Jersey,
Emirates; Samsung and General players in New Jersey, while punters in as well as from the regulated states of
Motors.” Delaware and Nevada.
New York and Maryland are also unable to
8 iGB Affiliate Issue 46 AUG/SEP 2014
TRAFFIC
Google’s new Panda
is off the leash
should affiliates and operators worry?
With version 4.0 of Google’s notorious algorithmic update now
having worked its way through the search ecosystem, Matteo
Monari of BizUp analyses its impacts and provides some recovery tips for
webmasters.
For most people in our business, or a set of its pages. Such actions can be a Bite Rule stating “all matches in which
the word Panda is no longer associated manual or algorithmic, and result in an a football player bites another player shall
to cuddly Chinese bears we should fight intentional decrease in rankings for one or automatically be won by the team of the
to preserve, but to merciless Californian more keywords and pages. Such decreases bitten player”, then Uruguay would have
algorithmic updates we should fight to in rakings are site-specific, and most of the lost its match against Italy and ended its
survive. In this article, we will look at the time are temporary or recoverable. Using World Cup earlier (...and Italy would have
newborn of Google’s Panda family, Panda a football metaphor, Google penalties won the World Cup - obviously ;-) ). In a
4.0, and what it means for affiliates and are like the four-month ban given to the similar way, the results of any previous or
operators worldwide. Uruguayan Luis Suarez for biting Giorgio future match involving biting would be
On the 20th of May 2014, Google’s Chiellini during a World Cup match: due changed forever, as the rules of the game
spam-cop Matt Cutts announced1 to to what he did, Suarez (and only Suarez) would have been changed.
the World the rollout of Panda 4.0, will be penalised for 4 months. After this Google data refreshes are data updates,
Mountain View’s latest Panda algorithmic period, as long as he stops biting other not concerning Google’s algorithmic
update. Keep reading to understand what players, he can go back playing football as structure, but the data processed by
the difference between a Panda update if nothing ever happened. a specific branch of such algorithm.
and a Google Penalty is, why Google Google algorithmic updates are more Resorting to football metaphors one
Panda 4.0 may affect your site, and how or less permanent changes to the last time, it would be comparable to
to recover in case your site’s rankings algorithms regulating the ways in which FIFA’s referees updating football results
were hit by this update. Google finds, rates and ranks online by applying the “Bite Rule” to ongoing
content, involving potentially all sites matches, by checking whether anybody
Panda and Google penalties indexed by Google. The decreases in has been bitten since their last check.
In order to fully understand what Panda rankings that may result from algorithmic Google Panda is an algorithmic
4.0 is and what it means for affiliates and updates are therefore not site-specific and update adding new elements to Google’s
operators, we should first of all clarify potentially permanent. Getting back to our algorithm: an additional set of rules that
the difference between a penalty, an football metaphors, an algorithmic update modify the way in which Google considers
algorithmic update and a data refresh. is like a retroactive change in FIFA’s and scores certain on-site parameters. The
Google penalties are specific actions rules: if after Suarez’s bite, FIFA had addition of this “Panda Factor” to the mix
taken by Google against a certain website retroactively modified its rules by adding has changed the rules of the game for all
1
https://twitter.com/mattcutts/status/468891756982185985
2
http://googleblog.blogspot.it/2011/02/finding-more-high-quality-sites-in.html
10 iGB Affiliate Issue 46 AUG/SEP 2014TRAFFIC
sites: following the release of copied, “thin” or re-hashed content. descriptions, information on legal
the first Panda update each and every Therefore, high quality affiliate sites aspects, etc. As this content is distributed
site has been assigned a “Panda Score”, and operators have historically not been to all operators using the same software
which represents the quality level of the significantly impacted. This is particularly provider, it is often used by many sites
site and is used as an additional ingredient true in the case of bingo and casino sites, and perceived by Google as duplicate
in Google’s secret ranking formula. After in which the relatively limited amount of content.
its first release in February 20112, this keywords to target and a generic lack of ● Copied, “spun” and automatically
specific algorithmic component has had news always meant rather small sites, with translated content. The worldwide
more than 20 updates and data refreshes3, limited amounts of content. However, a appeal of our industry and the volatility
the latest of which - Panda 4.0 - was few elements typical of the sites in our of some of its trends has led some site
particularly significant. industry have led to some Panda-related owners towards adoption of content
ranking issues for affiliates and operators production solutions like text-spinning
Goal and elements alike. These include: and automated translations. Content
of the “panda score” ● Syndicated content. Sports betting sites produced in this way can be identified
Defined by Google as an update may think it’s a good idea to provide as such by Google relatively easily, and
designed to decrease rankings for their readers with relevant sport news, becomes a target for its Panda algorithm.
“sites which are low-value add for eventually by syndicating news from
users, copy content from other websites famous news outlets. As syndicated What’s new in panda 4.0
or sites that are just not very useful”, content is essentially copied content, this Since its launch, the Panda component of
with the Panda algorithm, Google can put a site at risk. Google’s algorithm has had more than 20
clearly opted for quality over relevance, ● Pages with little to no content. Toplists, updates and data refreshes, and Matt Cutts
for the first time. Tackling mostly the games, quotes, match results and stats has recently declared that the algorithm
content-farm and news-aggregation are no doubt useful content to present is now refreshing its data on a monthly
phenomena4, the new algorithm aimed to players. However, pages dedicated to basis6. Because of this, when he tweeted
at increasing the rankings of content this kind of content tend to have very on 20th May about the release of Panda
from high quality sources, preferring little text, which may lead Google to 4.0 (see Figure 1) the search industry knew
it to highly keyword-specific content assume they are low quality, from an something big was coming: not a simple
from middle- and low-quality sources, informational point of view. data refresh but a change in the way the
characterised by automated or ● Software-related content. Software “Panda Score” was being calculated.
industrialised content-production. providers in our industry tend to
What most webmasters rightfully provide their partners not only with Following these changes, popular sites
wondered following Panda’s first release software solutions but also with game like Ask.com and eBay.com - traditional
was how Google could really grade a
site’s quality. In order to “help” them, Figure 1 - Matt Cutts’s tweet announcing the release of panda 4.0
Google released a list of questions
webmasters could use as a checklist to
evaluate their content5, but of course it did
not reveal any real insight on the actual
factors taken into consideration.
Google panda and
online gaming sites
Key targets of Google’s Panda algorithm
are sites with significant amounts of
3
http://searchengineland.com/google-begins-rolling-panda-4-0-now-192043
4
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Content_farm
5
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.it/2011/05/more-guidance-on-building-high-quality.html iGB Affiliate Issue 46 AUG/SEP 2014 11
6
http://www.seroundtable.com/google-panda-update-rolling-16495.html
7
http://searchengineland.com/panda-4-0s-big-loser-ebay-winners-losers-chart-192123TRAFFIC
examples of good quality sites - suffered with a higher focus on syndicated content from the l7th instead of the 20th (a good
great losses of traffic7, approximately -50% and on how users experience a site - also tool to check for suspicious correlations
for Ask and -33% for eBay, which left considering client-side elements like JS between your traffic and Google updates is
webmasters all over the world scratching and CSS. Barracuda Digital’s Panguin Tool11).
their heads (see Figure 2). If Panda 4.0 seems to have had a
How to recover from panda 4.0 heavy impact on your site, I recommend
However, after close inspection, sites that If you noticed a sudden drop in rankings checking what areas are the most affected
at first glance seemed to be high-quality following the 20th of May, your rankings in terms of organic traffic, evaluating your
revealed some of the typical fallacies may have been impacted by Panda’s fourth content with an independent mindset
addressed by Panda: duplicated content, algorithm update. As the algorithm may and considering the following points and
empty pages and ad-heavy pages. have been pre-rolling a few days earlier, actions:
Apart from some big names, the kind you should consider this possibility even 1. Is your content providing users coming
of sites which have fallen victim to this if you saw rankings starting to decrease from search engines with the kind of
Google update more than others are press
release websites (see Figure 3) and the Figure 2 - A list of the sites that may have lost most traffic due to
sites syndicating their content8. Also this Google’s panda 4.0 Update (source: searchmetrics.com)
should not come unexpected to savvy
webmasters, both because press-release
articles with keyword-rich links have been
mentioned before by Google as a risky
practice9 and because, due to their nature,
press-release sites are mostly consist of
duplicated content.
Interestingly, also some technical
aspects seem to have been tackled by
Panda’s latest release. As noticed by Joost
de Valk in a recent article10, when its
robots cannot correctly access JavaScript
and CSS resources and therefore have
problems in rendering a page, Google
now tends to assume more easily that
the Webmaster is up to something fishy.
The technique of blocking Google from
accessing JS and CSS files to hide adverts
and part of the site’s content is not new.
What seems to have changed though is
Google’s approach to these situations:
from “innocent until proven guilty” to
“guilty until proven innocent”.
Considering the points above, the
shared opinion is that the new update
did not bring drastic changes in Google’s
Panda algorithm, but slight tunings in
the elements considered by it - possibly
8
http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/press-release-rankings-slammed-by-panda
9
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en
12 iGB Affiliate Issue 46 AUG/SEP 2014
10
https://yoast.com/google-panda-robots-css-js/
11
http://www.barracuda-digital.co.uk/panguin-tool/TRAFFIC
information and services they would original, for instance because you have REL CANONICAL attributes and Meta
expect to find? If not, improve the been buying it from external providers, Robots NOINDEX tags.
content and make sure the website Copyscape13 is a good tool to double-
delivers on its promises. Bounce rate, check its authenticity. As Panda updates modify Google’s scoring
pages per session and time on site 4. Are you syndicating your content to and ranking algorithms in a complex
are good metrics to check in your external sites? If so, make sure they are and semi-permanent way, identifying
analytics platform to get an idea of user not ranking above your site (that is a the elements that led to an eventual
satisfaction signal Google may be thinking they are drop and your recovery from it can take
2. Do you have any pages with little to no the content originators), and consider some time. However, as these updates
content at all? If so, consider removing forcing them to use REL CANONICAL mainly look at a site’s content and on-site
such pages, adding a Meta Robots attributes on their sites pointing back to elements, once a weak spot has been
NOINDEX tag to them or populating your original content. identified, it can be fixed rather quickly by
them with fresh, useful content. A good 5. Are you intentionally or unintentionally implementing on-site modifications. Also,
way to check for “thin” pages is via preventing Google from being able to as Google refreshes its data on a monthly
ScreamingFrog’s word count feature12. fully render the content of your site? basis you should be able to understand
3. Are you hosting any copied content If so, make sure Google’s spiders can quite soon whether you are going in the
on your site - either due to content access your JS and CSS files. Using right direction or not. So, watch out for
syndication, manual copies or external Google Webmaster Tools’ new “fetch low quality, duplicated, syndicated or
content sources such as software and render” feature is a good way to re-hashed content you may be hosting on
providers? If so, consider clearly verify what Google can and cannot see your site... and good luck cleaning up after
identifying “recycled” content by adding in your site. the new cub in Google’s zoo ;-)
to all copied pages REL CANONICAL 6. Are you duplicating any content within
attributes referring to the original your own site? Google Webmaster Tools
URLs. Alternatively, you may remove will help you identifying any internally
such pages or - possibly better - add a duplicated HTML Titles and Meta
Meta Robots NOINDEX tag to them. Description - possibly related to entirely
Even better would of course be to create duplicated pages and sections. Once
new, good quality content. If you are you identify the problem, in most cases
not sure whether your content is truly you can solve it with a careful use of
Figure 3 - MAtteo MoNArI is COO
prNewswire.com’s seo Visibility dropping after Google’s panda 4.0 of BizUp, a results-driven
Update (source: searchmetrics.com) Internet marketing agency
specialising in competitive
segments and international
link building. After heading
the SEO department of Europe’s
leading content-on-demand company,
Matteo is now leading BizUp’s link-
building team, providing links in ten
languages to clients in more than 20
different countries. He has worked
for some of the biggest affiliates and
operators in the iGaming world.
You can follow Matteo on Twitter
@matteo_monari or email him at
m.monari@bizupmedia.com.
12
http://www.screamingfrog.com
13
http://www.copyscape.com
14
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.nl/2014/05/rendering-pages-with-fetch-as-google.html iGB Affiliate Issue 46 AUG/SEP 2014 13TRAFFIC
A CHANGE IS GONNA COME?
MOBILE SEO IN 2014
Natural search traffic from mobile is now a big deal. Nick Garner of 90 Digital looks at what Google currently
expects in terms of mobile UX and what could be around the corner for those who aren’t towing the line.
FOR YEARS, MOBILE was the next big Since iGaming is by definition mostly non- ‘online casino’ searched for in the UK:
thing and now it’s finally arrived. Something geographic, it means the search results are As you see, it’s an exact match, and
like 38% of all traffic to UK sites is from mostly the same irrespective of the device this is typical for most iGaming phrases,
mobile devices. And the starting point for so you are on. The only deviation is when someone
much of this activity is, of course, Google. Below (Figure 1) is a set of results for searches for something like ‘uk online
According to Google, consumers spend
7.3 hours a week on average surfing mobile Figure 1
web, and when they make a purchase they
will visit an average of six mobile websites.
48% of users start their research using a
search engine. Since Google is the dominant
search engine here in the UK, that means
46% of us searched via Google.
What does this all mean? For iGaming
brands, natural search traffic from mobile is
a big deal. So it’s time to double check that
you are working in line with what Google
expects from you when it comes to mobile
user experience.
Of course, you can do what you like when
it comes to how you treat mobile users, but
sooner or later, if you fail to stay in line with
what Google asks of you, they will just stop
referring mobile search traffic to you, and
that is not good.
With that in mind, I want to run through
what Google do expect from you and what
they are now planning on doing to penalise
those who do not tow their line.
Background
Google’s mobile search results are largely
the same as desktop search results when it
comes to non-geographic search queries.
14 iGB Affiliate Issue 46 AUG/SEP 2014TRAFFIC
Figure 2 Desktop Result Mobile Result
SERP 1: site.com SERP 1: site.com
SERP 2 SERP 2
Website
SERP 3 SERP 3
site.com
SERP 4 SERP 4
Internet SERP 5 SERP 5
SERP 6 SERP 6
Website
m site.com SERP 7 SERP 7
SERP 8 SERP 8
SERP 9 SERP 9
SERP = Search Engine Ranking SERP 10 : mSite.com SERP 10 : mSite.com
bookmaker’, but even then the results With phrases like ‘online casino’, Responsive design
are normally identical. most sites are much the same, but ●●Google says: Responsive design serves
One question that comes to the differentiator is going to be the the same HTML for one URL and uses
mind is...why? Surely mobile search number of links going to those pages. CSS media queries to determine how
should be different because so many The catch for Google is that, the content is rendered on the client
sites are not mobile friendly, therefore in depending on links as a core side. This removes the possible glitches
shouldn’t you show different sites when signal, they know that most mobile of user-agent detection and frees
on mobile search? sites, i.e. http://m.mysite.com, will users from redirects. This is Google’s
The reason both are the same is down have very few links going to them when recommended configuration.
to how Google decides which sites to rank compared to the desktop version of the
highest. For those not familiar with SEO site, i.e. http://www.mysite.com, so in Translation: The same web address
and Page Rank, here is a micro lesson on order to at least have a chance of irrespective of device. Basically the same
ranking signals. getting the ranking results about page, just presented differently depending
Google looks at the content on a site and ‘right’, i.e. in line with user on your device.
knows, based on that, what search queries expectations, they will typically just rank For Google this is of course the best
are most relevant to the content on a given which ever brand site has the most ‘good’ option because for them, they know users
page. And Google also looks what content links the highest. This diagram (figure 2) get a consistent experience with the same
is most popular based on the number of explains it: content irrespective of device.
other sites linking to it. This means sites So, because of this, Google has to The catch is when you have a complex
with lots of ‘good’ links will typically rank show the same results irrespective of transactional infrastructure, i.e. a betting
higher than an identical site with few device, because they are relying so site or an online casino, it’s very difficult
‘good’ links. heavily link signals generated over time to repurpose that framework to be
Therefore, whichever site has the most to the desktop versions of sites. responsive. This is because an iGaming
relevant on-page content and the most Google describe three technical platform has to be performant and have
links going to it will get to rank highest. options for mobile users: security similar to a bank.
iGB Affiliate Issue 46 AUG/SEP 2014 15TRAFFIC
Having done a survey of several igaming Figure 3
brands, very few actually render their
desktop site. One exception is williamhill.
com who take mobile users to their desktop
site and then ask users if they prefer a
mobile version. If you want a mobile version
of the site, you get redirected to mobet.
williamhill.com.
Dynamic serving
●●This is Google’s second most preferred
choice for managing mobile users.
Google says: Dynamic serving serves
different HTML for one URL depending
on the user-agent. Use the Vary HTTP
header to indicate you’re doing this.
Translation: A user goes to http://www.
mysite.com, and if they are on a mobile
device they get a version specifically geared
to mobile. Betfair do this on http://www. Figure 4
betfair.com/sports
Separate mobile site
●●And finally Google’s least favourite
option…
Google says: Separate mobile site redirects
users to a different URL depending on the
user-agent.
Translation: A user gets automatically sent
to another web site depending on the device
they are using.
This redirection solution is the
overwhelming choice for iGaming brands.
Good housekeeping
Reiterating an important point, one of
Google’s greatest issues with mobile search
are sites which send users to a separate
mobile site. The issue with iGaming is Figure 5
operators are serial offenders when it comes
to poor user experience from mobile search.
Examples
Figure 3 shows a mobile search result for
‘Online Casino’. Paddy Power ranks No1
both on desktop and mobile. This is a huge
thing and well done to their SEO team for
achieving that.
Figure 4 is an example for ‘online roulette’:
And finally ‘blackjack’ (Figure 5):
Do you notice something odd? Every
mobile page is the same, except for ‘online
casino’. In fact to make sure, i tried
16 iGB Affiliate Issue 46 AUG/SEP 2014TRAFFIC
searching another 20 pages on the Paddy
Figure 6
power casino site from my mobile device
and they all took me to the same page.
Search engines want to know where
you are redirecting users, so they ask for
something called a ‘rel alternate’ link to
tell them where they are sending a mobile
user. The tag looks like this
Conversely, they want mobile sites to Figure 7
have tags saying what the original desktop
page should be, so they suggest you use a
tag like this one:
You may wonder why Google cares about
sites using this tag. It’s because it helps
them work out what information to show
users from mobile search.
Sky Bet do use this tag:
And this is the upshot on mobile search
results (Figure 6):
Sky Bet can now keep their really good “We’d like to spare users the frustration marked. It’s not ‘if’ iGaming is
rankings for search phrase ‘online of landing on irrelevant pages and help impacted, its ‘when’.
betting’, and more importantly, can webmasters fix the faulty redirects. Starting
change how their listing looks for mobile today in our English search results in the
users, therefore improving their click US, whenever we detect that smartphone NICK GARNER is
through rates. Nice. users are redirected to a homepage instead of Founder and CEO of 90
Digital, the full service
Of course, you guessed it. Paddy Power the the page they asked for, we may note it
SEO agency. He is an
don’t use this, so Google has no idea what below the result. If you still wish to proceed iGaming specialist and
pages are connected to what. to the page, you can click ‘Try anyway’”. along with his team they work
with several iGaming brands.
90 Digital has a team of 72, located
Google rings the changes Conclusion
across four offices.Nick is a huge fan
On June 4th 2014, Google quietly An iGaming brand may think ‘so what?!’. of Paddy Power, but to make this article
announced things are about to change Well if you’re an iGaming operator and more interesting he chose them as the
with mobile search. you do what Paddy Power do to their specimen brand rather than someone
no one cares about ;-).
From Google: mobile search users, then Google has you
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Skrill.com/affiliatesTRAFFIC
SEO LESSONS AND A LITTLE JEDI WISDOM
WORLD CUP 2014
iGaming SEO specialist Paul Reilly of Media Skunk Works highlights several key lessons for affiliates
emerging from the recent World Cup in Brazil.
THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE looks at Having of course nailed the World Cup 2014, those who left the tournament during the
some lessons in evolution since the last you will no doubt be planning your attack group stages, many of these with active
World Cup in 2010, and will help set the on the next major international football local betting markets or ex-pat or non-
scene for your future digital marketing championship and betting event, Euro 2016. domicile residential communities, all
efforts, particularly around big events. located outside of their own natural native
Since moving into iGaming as a specialist Internationalising your geographic search market.
niche within SEO, I have seen significant way to stability
changes, not only in terms of the evolution The biggest lesson from this years World Figure 2
of the Internet in the four years since the last Cup will have been experienced by those Nation Date of elimination
World Cup, but also of how we interact with who failed to internationalise. This applies Cameroon 18/06/2014
information and each other in the digital space. especially to the Spanish and English-facing Spain 18/06/2014
Some of the key differences to the affiliates whose dreams ended early, along Australia 18/06/2014
landscape since the last World Cup in 2010 with most of their player acquisition. Japan 19/06/2014
Honduras 20/06/2014
include: However, let this be a lesson to all
Croatia 23/06/2014
● Google’s real-time analytics affiliates on why you need to target those
Ivory Coast 24/06/2014
● Google’s custom reporting and emotional punters in international markets.
England 24/06/2014
segmentation It’s crucial to simultaneously consider both Italy 24/06/2014
● Google query data becoming partially then geography and language when looking to Ecuador 25/06/2014
100% “Not Provided” diversify revenue opportunities around a Iran 25/06/2014
● 100% “Not Provided” was replaced by World Cup, or any international event for Bosnia 25/06/2014
Portugal 26/06/2014
detailed Webmaster Tools Reporting that matter (see Figure 1).
Ghana 26/06/2014
● Social networks now connect us all in
Russia 26/06/2014
some way shape or form and with varying This consideration is made particularly South Korea 26/06/2014
degrees of engagement important by the scale of the Spanish-
● The rise of the second device speaking, global betting population (without So, what did you do to mitigate that risk
(mobile and tablet) forgetting those English-speaking affluent of an early knock-out?
● The continued progressive enhancement Australians who were also eliminated on
of Google’s spam filters the very same day). As for the England team And more importantly…
● Link / penalty removal has become a themselves, don’t even get me started! Do you have a strategy for Euro 2016? I
booming industry Figure 2 shows the elimination dates for guess you do now. The question however
● Fully integrated campaigns are becoming
the norm for more and more affiliates. Figure 1
At this point, I’d like to reiterate a point I’ve
consistently maintained throughout my 15
years in SEO. When it comes to event-driven
digital marketing, especially SEO with its
delayed response times to various actions
based on an infinite number of variables and
unknowns…
TIMING IS EVERYTHING
By the time preparations for World Cup
2014“should” have been underway, none
of the above (with the exception of 100%
“Not Provided” being replaced by a
beautiful reporting suite within Google
Webmaster Tools), should have presented
you with any surprises.
20 iGB Affiliate Issue 46 AUG/SEP 2014TRAFFIC
remains: will you take action now or wait next, because you’re going to need them. costs increase, based both on asking price
till that bus has passed? Now here’s the bad news… They’re more and on another cost dimension - human
expensive than ever before. resource overheads.
Thematic re-orientation with on- This is increasing largely due to
site content and news feeds The super-inflation of link costs webmasters (having agreed to sell a link)
Those affiliates who saw masses of Google’s campaign of Fear Uncertainty dropping out mid-deal (usually during the
traffic but didn’t convert many players will and Doubt in the webmaster world a client approval stage) having stumbled
no doubt be feeling this right now. Get is working its magic within the link across a copy of the aforementioned gospel
into your Webmaster Tools account and economy. Outside of risky networks and according to Matt Cutts.
take a look at the content/keyword data for old school, spammy link farms, quality This is forcing link traders and off-site
your site(s). sites and the formerly questionable SEO specialists to both increase the cost
Figure 3 below shows a couple of editorial integrity of link sellers, over the per link, as well as strictly enforce their
examples of two sites which performed last 6-8 months we’ve seen a dramatic service terms and conditions.
differently in terms of the type of traffic increase in link cost as webmasters With this in mind, should your link
they generated. Both performed incredibly hanker to the gospel according to [head of provider be continuing to operate at the
well during the World Cup, but for Google’s webspam team] Matt Cutts. same cost level, you should really be
different reasons. Previously, we’d seen these costs questioning the mechanics and process
The objective is to bring the transactional already go sky high in certain territories, behind how this might be economically
keyword tokens to the top of the list, while where gambling has traditionally workable.
delivering excellence in both quality and been taboo, combined with restrictive That said, links are king and content is
timeliness of your onsite content, and legislation. In some cases, I’ve seen this certainly still queen. The playing field still
supporting this with appropriate levels of result in severe penalties for webmasters remains level, and the road to success is
link and social activity. who take the link money (and I’m not strewn with demolished dreams for those
Before you start thinking I’ve referring to Google penalties, but rather who cut corners on this all important,
converted to the Cult of “Content is heavy fines and even imprisonment). business critical requirement.
King”, I haven’t – I’m getting to links Both the UK and US have seen average link And with SEO still unregulated as
an industry, you could do worse than to
Figure 3 remember the words of the Jedi masters:
● “In time you will learn to trust your
1. Keyword Weighting Slightly Skewed 2. Keyword Weighting Perfectly Skewed
feelings, then you will be invincible.”
To Sports Informational Phrases To Multi-Product Transactional Phrases
● “Mind what you have learned, save you
it can.”
● “May the Force be with you.”
PAUL REILLY is the
founder and Chief
Visionary Officer at
Media Skunk Works, a
Karma Neutral Innovation
Laboratory based at the
University of York. He specialises
in large-scale, business-critical link
building for the iGaming industry and
uses big data to provide near infinite
scalability to link building, content
marketing and outreach, as well as
to algorithmically identify and avoid
the many traps set by Google. More
recently, since their technology has
reached maturity, they also help
companies quickly and easily form
scalable world class in-house SEO
departments, which inherit competitive
advantage over using an agency for
their proprietary back-end technology.
iGB Affiliate Issue 46 AUG/SEP 2014 21TRAFFIC
RETARGETING
FOR AFFILIATES
Ahmed Chopdat of specialist PPC agency Circusmedia provides iGB Affiliate with an easy-to-follow
guide to retargeting traffic for webmasters.
BETTER KNOWN AS remarketing in There are plenty of different variations different software for Gambling.com, as
recent years, due to Google’s introduction of these ads which are discussed later highlighted in red in Figure 2.
of this term, a basic explanation of how in the article. Gambling.com is obviously just one of
retargeting works can be found in Figure 1. Google explains its version of many companies that use many different
The user lands on your website whilst a remarketing a bit more at the following avenues of retargeting to ensure they get
cookie is dropped. If the user leaves your link: http://www.google.co.uk/ads/ the best possible results from their traffic.
website they will then see your ads on other innovations/remarketing.html. You would also find most casinos do
websites which will lead them back to your Google however is only one of the many the exact same thing, with sports betting
website. These ads are sometimes known as avenues to be able to do this, and in the companies also taking huge advantage of
AdSense by Google. image below you can see an ad run by the Facebook opportunity. This however is
Figure 1
User comes to Your Website
Your Cookies are dropped
Website on users computer
User returns to
Your Website
User leaves Your Website for
Other Websites on the network
Other websites
on the network
Your ad
22 iGB Affiliate Issue 46 AUG/SEP 2014You can also read
