GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 19 - February 2012

tournament, the response you got might have looked like one of those horrid forms you fill out when you are a new patient at the doctor’s office. They probably asked for some of the following information: • How are you going to promote this tournament? • Howmany depositing players do you have? • How many players do you estimate to bring into the tournament? • What is your monthly rake across the operators you work with? • What countriesdoyour players come from? • Do you or any member of your family have a history of mental illness? (Okay, kidding about this one.) These are just a few of the questions that you will be asked to provide information on. Depending on your answers, you may or may not get that golden e-mail, telling you, “Yes, Dear Affiliate, we would love to pay for a private tournament for your players.” You see, your players may not be from the right country for that specific operator, or you have never advertised a tournament before so you aren’t able to give any esti- mation on howmany players you can bring to the tables. You might not have a large enough database of players to warrant the operator taking a chance on you, or your site might not have a big enough traffic rat- ing. These are all obstacles that can get in the way of your holding a private tourna- ment that the operator pays for. If an operator declines your request for a fully funded private tournament, he or she might offer you a tournament if you share the risk; i.e., you pay for half of the prize pool up front or with your affiliate earnings. This lowers the risk for opera- tors and gives them the security that you are serious about the business and willing to work with them long term. Sometimes, this will pay off and open many doors for you with operators. You get a proven track record, can see what works on your site (hopefully you never have to find out the hard way what doesn’t) and keep the play- ers loyal to your site and to the operator. This is risky, but sometimes you can do quite well in the end. Some operators will go a step further and withhold affiliate earnings until you have brought a certain number of depositors. This is a tough agreement to make. On one hand, you will get a private tournament for your site, but you most likely will not make any affiliate revenue for some time. Personally, this option feels a bit more like being tied to organized crime than a busi- ness partnership with mutual benefits. So, you finally have your private tourna- ment approved. Now what? The keys to success are often in the details. It is imper- ative to work with your affiliate manager, fill out a tournament request form, and make sure you are both on the same page. Be sure you have plenty of time for proper promotion, to write and send newsletters, and post on your site and on social media outlets. Make sure the gerbil that runs your ISP is healthy, and that you have plenty of coffee on hand, because you will also have to provide some type of custom- er service to your database at some point. There are a ton of logistical variables that can go wrong, many of which may be out of your control. This seems like a bit of work, and it truly is. It is hard to get decent private tour- nament prizes provided for you, and the follow-through required on your end can easily become a part-time job if you want to run several tournaments per month. Don’t let these obstacles stop you. There are a few solutions that are available for affiliates who want to use private tourna- ments as part of their marketing and rev- enue strategy. If you’re having trouble obtaining big money private tournaments that will mo- tivate your players, a second option worth exploring is working with companies like Global Gaming Events. This company takes care of all of the hassle. GGE sets up private tournaments with operators and affiliates use their own tracking links from these operators to promote the events. Affiliates therefore keep 100 percent of any revenue generated by their players. GGE’s most popular brand of tournament, Online Forum Challenge, awards the play- ers with added prize pools, and also re- wards the best performing communities with private events of their very own. This bolsters the sense of community on the af- filiate sites that participate. In addition to poker, GGE is now offer- ing private tournaments for affiliates to promote various casino games, with more variations being offered all the time. There are other options for getting private tournaments, but they are much tougher nuts to crack. There are a few affiliate sites out there that provide private tourna- ments, but you have to send your players to sites that have someone else’s tracking links. Often, in order for your players to be eligible for these third-party tourna- ments, your players are required to use their links, not your own. You are then at the mercy of proper and honest reporting, and you make only a small percentage of the revenue that they earn. If you are thinking about adding private tournaments to your portfolio of revenue tools, there are challenges with getting them set up in the first place. You can try some based on speculation, you could wait to promote private tournaments until you build your traffic and have a proven track record of how many players you can bring to the tables, and you can even share the risk with the operators and pay for half the tournament up front or out of your earn- ings. In addition, you have to carefully monitor their production and provide superb customer service when things go wrong if you do this on your own. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . About GGE Global Gaming Events (GlobalGamingEvents.com) is a marketing company that works directly with the operators and does not charge affiliates to promote any of these tournaments. These tournaments are totally free for affiliates to use as a tool, and are extremely easy to promote to your database and on your site. GGE provides creative, website copy and even a pre-registration form for players to register for the tournaments without even leaving your website. Almost all of the Global Gaming Events tournaments include a freeroll and a buy-in event, along with a bonus tournament after a series of events. These are designed to acquire, convert and retain players, and at the end of the day, result in some nice added revenue for the affiliate. “ Operators have fairly strict rules and guidelines when giving away private tournaments. After all, they are looking for ROI and are most likely held accountable for the results they bring in from the affiliates they work with.” 46 Adding tournaments to your arsenal is good for business