GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 29 - July 2014

GSNbettingbigon skillgames—andaffiliates By Aaron Todd W henNew Jerseycasinos launched regulated online gambling sites in November 2013, many affiliates with a large audience of U.S.-based players were licking their chops. But now, more than sixmonths later, the reality of state- by-state regulation is starting to set in. Affiliates face higher barriers to entry as theymust apply for and receive licenses, and revenues so far have beenmuch low- er than projected (see the story on New Jersey's affiliatemarket onpage 40). So where’s an online gambling affiliate with a strongU.S. player base—or an af- filiate in Europe looking to diversify—to send thoseplayers?Onepossible solution is real-money skill-game sites. People have been playingWeb-based on- line games for nearly as long as there has been aWeb. And in the late 1990s, some sites started to try tomakemoneyoff that traffic beyond advertising, offering play- ers the opportunity to play the games against opponents for realmoney. According to the Online Casino City da- tabase, there are 41 skill-game sites that allowplayers tomake real-moneywagers worldwide. Some of them are very nar- row in focus, offering only backgammon or rummy. Others offer a full suite of ca- sual onlinegames, from cardgames toar- cadegames to strategygames. One such site, GSN Cash Games, also offers games based on some of the most popular game shows on television. Founded in 1999 as WorldWinner, the companywas acquired in 2007byLiberty Media Corporation, which also owns the television network GSN (Game Show Network). As a result of the acquisition, the sitewas able toobtainexclusive rights to create skill games based on shows like Wheel of Fortune , The Price Is Right and Deal or No Deal . GSN Games now has more than 450 employees spread over nineoffices. “Thesebigbrands allowus to create these titles that areverywell brandedandmake it easy for us from a customer acquisition standpoint,” says Jim Dee, the executive director ofGSNGames. TalkwithDee fora fewminutesandyou’ll hear lots of Internet marketing buzz- words, but you’ll also get a sense of how excitedhe is about theproduct. “We have access to exclusive titles that our competitors do not have,” says Dee. “These brands reallymake it very attrac- tive to affiliates, because that’s going to make their job thatmuch easier.” The folks at GSNCashGames knowhow to work hard, and play hard. One of the defining features of the Waltham, Mass., office isanarcademachine that includesa refrigerated storage compartment to store a keg that dispenses draft beer from a tap mounted right on thegame. Those familiar with GSN Cash Games shouldn’t be surprised that theymanaged to tweak an arcadegame tofit their needs (and make it better). As a real-money skill-game site, GSN often needs tomake a few changes to familiar games in order to ensure that the outcome of a game is basedon theplayers’ skill. The “skillification” process is an essential part of game development for GSNCash Games. Inorder tobeclearly legal inmost U.S. states (real-money play is available in38U.S. states), eachgamehas to clearly be a gamewhere skill, not chance, deter- mines theoutcomeof thematch. “About 15 peoplewho are all a lot smart- er thanme go into a room, once we have the rights to a title, and try to figure out how they can (turn it into a skill game),” says Dee. “We’re always refining games, too; once a game is launched it could go through multiple updates. We’re al- ways iterating to try to put up the best product and keep that content fresh for ourplayers.” Some games—Wheel of Fortune, for in- stance—don’t require much in the way of modification. Players in a Wheel of Fortune tournament arematched upwith an opponent and both players receive the same puzzle, though they are playing the game solo against a timer. Players spin the wheel and guess letters in an attempt to solve thepuzzle. If theplayer solves the puzzle, their score consists of anymoney theywon during the round, plus a bonus for any extra time left on the clock. They thenhave the opportunity towin an addi- tional 1,000points in thebonus round. The player with the most points at the end of the roundwins thematch (and the cash). It’s hard to argue that Wheel of Fortune isn’t a game of skill. Deal or No Deal, however, requires some extra tweak- ing—or skillifying—in order to qualify as a skill game. InGSN’sCashGames, theDealorNoDeal game begins just as the game show be- gins: Theplayerpicks oneof 26numbered suitcaseswhichhold a value between $.01 and $1 million inside. Players then pick six cases to reveal what’s inside, and the bankermakes an offer that the player can either accept or decline. Before opening more cases, however, players play a quick wordgamewhere theyarepresentedwith a scramble of letters and they must form three- and four-letterwords out of the let- tersprovidedasquicklyaspossible.Asep- arate score is kept in eachof these rounds, and this is theactual score thatmatters; the player’s result in theDealorNoDealgame is irrelevant to the resultsof thematch. DealorNoDeal isoneof themostpopular games GSN offers, in large part because people love to go through themechanics of playing theDeal orNoDeal part of the game, even if it has no impact on the out- comeof theirmatch. “AlotofouraffiliatesuseDealorNoDealto promoteus to theirplayers becauseof the obviouswell-brandedaspectofthegame,” 30 GSNbetting big on skill games— and affiliates