Online Gambling : Affiliate Party’s Over
Last weekend the US Congress passed a bill which will outlaw Internet gambling in the United States. The new law will ensure that gamblers who try to enter online gambling sites from American IP addresses will be blocked and that the online gambling companies can no longer accept bets placed via credit cards with billing addresses in the United States.
The direct result was the sinking of share value among online gambling companies. BusinessWeek reports:
Shares of Gibraltar-based PartyGaming, the world’s biggest Web poker company, nosedived 58% in one day, while 888 Holdings, a specialist in online casino and card games, lost more than a quarter of it value.
Sports betting site Sportingbet, which gets 50% of its unique visitors from the U.S., according to researcher comScore, fell a stomach-churning 64%.
Shoemoney posts on his popular affiliate and online income oriented blog that 888.com (888 holdings) has now announced that it will be discontinuing affiliate revenues for US referrals:
In light of these considerations, the 888.com group has concluded that it is appropriate to suspend participation by U.S. based customers in our online poker and online casino products. As of today, we will not allow real money registrations of new U.S. based customers.
In light of these changes we urge you to focus your activities as a member of the 888.com Affiliate Program only towards non U.S. based individuals. In the coming days we will offer tools that will enable you to target traffic by country. Any U.S. based individuals referred by you to our Internet sites will not be permitted to open new real money accounts and you will therefore not be able to receive any commissions in relation to such persons. Please note that there are no new restrictions under the new law which prevents you from promoting the 888 brands to non-US players.
And another post on Shoemoney from PartyPartners.com (PartyPoker) :
What is the impact of the act on our business?
PartyGaming will no longer accept wagers from US customers once the act becomes law.
Customers resident in the United States, or accessing us from the USA will no longer be able to access our real money gaming services. Customers will still be able to use our play money and non-gambling services. They will also be able to cash out their present balance if they wish to.
There will be no impact for non-US customers.
So, you’ve built your million dollar harem of online poker, blackjack, and casino sites which no longer have the potential to earn referrals or advertising revenue from their US visitors… what do you do?
Well you could always try to attact the non-US market or rebrand over to a Payday Loan informational network.
But there is one other alternative, sell your site now while it still has some value! Greg Boser has a connection who is looking to purchase Poker Sites:
I know many people who have spent the last few years earning a living from Poker affiliate revenue are now considering cashing in their chips and getting out.
If you are one of them, drop me an email if you are interested in selling your sites. I got an email yesterday from an ex-client who is looking to purchase poker sites. (There’s always a rebel willing to push the envelope)
