We should know by now that King Billy Casino was bound to be in the limelight for one more time. True to the words of the great Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho “Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.”, King Billy does it for the third time in a row.

So, after being shortlisted at the prestigious iGB Awards (and from there, winning it all), being shortlisted again at the prestigious EGR Awards, the King Billy Affiliate Program has now also been shortlisted at the prestigious SBC Awards (event to be held on December 3). Moreover, the operator is also on the SBC Awards short list for Casino Rising Star.

We asked the mastermind behind this tremendous streak, Ruslan Legenzov, King Billy Head of Affiliates to share his feelings with us and a few words about this new distinction. He was, understandably, in a state of euphoria:

“This is beyond our wildest dreams! To complete the “Big 3” of the industry’s annual biggest awards shows, by being short-listed in each and every one of them fills us all with immense pride. At King Billy Casino, we set out with a single goal in mind: to move beyond the commission and offer to our affiliates a program never seen before. We are happy that our effort is recognized by both judges and Affiliates!”

The SBC Awards, now in its 6th year, recognize the achievements of operators, affiliates and suppliers from across all major disciplines including payments, marketing, platform providers and data. The Awards will be held at Battersea Evolution, in the heart of London, bringing together 700 gaming industry delegates.

King Billy Casino is a new generation online casino, available in 5 languages (English, German, Russian, Finnish and Norwegian and soon Japanese) with an impressive record in awards and an amazing variety of games providers and features. King Billy has built on creating a superb user experience focusing on the myth of King Billy and his Kingdom and treats all players with the specialness they deserve.

On October 18, Smile-Expo held the first Georgia iGaming Affiliate Conference in Tbilisi. The event was dedicated to the specific nature of online and offline gambling business operations, Georgian gambling market prospects, and casino promotion using affiliate marketing.

The conference brought together casino managers, affiliate network representatives, government officials, webmasters, arbitrage experts, SEO specialists, as well as gambling regulation and taxation professionals.

Speakers’ presentations

Sviatoslav Slaboshpitskiy, Head of SEO at Digital Choo (DC), spoke on the topic: The Art of War in SEO: How to Win the iGaming Niche. The speaker stressed that one should develop niche websites to achieve efficient results. At the same time, it is significant to analyze the response and to evolve resources showing the best performance. Sviatoslav also talked about the rules of SEO team building. The expert recommended entrusting the content creation to single-discipline specialists as well as developing checklists and tutorials for newcomers.

Dmitriy Makarov, CEO at Zlodei Advertising Agency, and Gleb Sanzharevsky, CMO at Zlodei, made a collaborative presentation dedicated to ad placement on YouTube and Twitch. They explained that promotion via influencers could increase conversion better than direct advertising. The experts stressed that user stories and popular memes made ads more fruitful.

Nikola Minkov, CEO at Serpact, examined the application of the so-called Featured Snippets, zero blocks in the search results. According to the speaker, Google provides users with such snippets in 40% of the queries. They allow online resources to generate organic traffic and enhance the click-through rate.

The audience was intrigued by Ketevan Bitskinashvili, Chief Financial Officer at the Ministry of Finance of Georgia. The speaker told them about the special features of the Georgian gambling market regulation. She mentioned that the cost of gambling permissions depended on a venue type, a target region, and a number of installed gambling machines. The same parameters affect tax rates.

Ms. Ketevan stated that Georgia had already issued 214 gambling licenses. 20 casinos are operating in the country now. 10 of them are located in Batumi and its suburbs, 6 in Tbilisi, and one each in Gudauri, Tskhaltubo, Kazbegi, and Sighnaghi.

Giorgi Gvenetadze from Adjarabet raised an issue of online casino customer acquisition. The speaker believes that the core feature of advertising banners used by Georgian casinos is the availability of luxury car images. Besides, promotion messages mostly appeal to senses of beauty, control, and simplicity.

Panel discussion

The conference featured a panel discussion titled ‘Offline and online casinos. Review of tools for the competition for user attention’. It involved:

Shota Amiranashvili, President of the Association of casinos in Adjara;

Levan Kavtaradze, Director of Gaming department at Pokermatch;

Giorgi Gvenetadze, Head of Product Marketing Department at Adjarabet;

Lavrentiy Gubin from Shangri La Casino, an invited guest.

Experts said that primary advantages of land-based casinos included reach experience of the gaming process, expensive surroundings, and staff attentiveness. Virtual gambling platforms are lack of these aspects. Therefore, discussion participants think that offline gambling venues will never shift to the online space.

Speaking about the most in-demand gambling entertainments, specialists highlighted simple and user-friendly games like roulettes. Moreover, they noted that poker was becoming less popular because of the high buy-in. Currently, we can see a crypto casino trend, as such platforms ensure anonymity.

Participants also focused on the state regulation of the gambling market. According to them, countries failing to regulate the gambling business lose money that could go to the government budget as taxes. One more fact specified: gambling advertising bans give an impetus to look for new audience engagement channels.

Afterparty

The conference ended with a party. Guests, speakers, exhibitors, and sponsors were able to enjoy live music, Georgian sweets, beverages, and snacks. The afterparty allowed participants to communicate in a relaxed atmosphere and establish useful business contacts.

We express our gratitude to the Afterparty Sponsor, NOFLEAD gambling resource, helping to carry out the afterparty in an extremely comfortable environment.

Sponsors, exhibitors, and participants

Companies offering various iGaming goods and services introduced their solutions and services in the exhibition area. Event sponsors were exhibitors as well.

Badge and Bag Sponsor: Digital Choo, an international marketing agency with deep expertise in gaming.

Exhibition Area Sponsor: SoftGamings, a provider of advanced В2В solutions for online casinos.

Afterparty Sponsor: NOFLEAD, an online gambling resource aimed at both beginners and experienced gamblers.

Lanyard Sponsor: ZLODEI, an advertising agency with deep expertise in native advertising.

By the way, attendees were able to examine a stand by IBCCS TAX, an international company providing a wide range of fiduciary services.

Another event participant was Partners.io, an affiliate network for cryptocurrency gambling programs.

The Smile-Expo team expresses its gratitude to sponsors, speakers, and exhibitors for participation in the conference. We look forward to seeing you at the next events dedicated to gambling and affiliate marketing.

The AskGamblers team is happy to announce the AskGamblers Awards finalists’ names are in and ready to share.

For the past two months, the AskGamblers players’ have been nominating their Best Online Casino, Best New Casino and Best New Slot to enter the finals to win the AskGamblers Awards. Two additional categories in the race are the Best Software Provider and the Best Affiliate Partner.

The nomination period has been as exciting and intense as any race of this magnitude, with the accent placed on choosing the best among the best. Now, with the nomination period of two months over and the voting phase in its full speed, the finalists’ names are finally available for the world to hear.

Here are the top 10 finalists who have made the cut:

Best New Casino: 21.com, BaoCasino, MonteCryptos Casino, Maneki, Sportsbet.io, Spinia Casino, SlotWolf, Syndicate, Wishmaker, and Wazamba Casino.

In the category for Best Casino, the following 10 made the cut: Betsson Casino, Bitstarz Casino, CampeonBet, Everum Casino, EnergyCasino, Gunsbet Casino, King Billy Casino, Konung Casino, Mr.Play, and Platincasino.

The Best Slot category lists the following names in the finals: Book of Oz Slot by Microgaming; Cleopatra’s Diary Slot by Fugaso; Dead or Alive 2 Slot by NetEnt; Gold Canyon Slot by Betsoft; Mechanical Orange Slot by BGAMING; Pirates’ Plenty Slot by Red Tiger Gaming; Razor Shark Slot by Push Gaming; Solar Queen Slot by Playson; The Dog House Slot by Pragmatic Play; The Sword and The Grail Slot by Play’n GO.

In terms of the Best Software Provider, we have listed: Betsoft, BGAMING, Fugaso, Microgaming, NetEnt, Play’n GO, Playson, Pragmatic Play , Push Gaming, and Red Tiger Gaming.

The Best Affiliate Partner list goes as follows: LeoVegas Affiliate, Uffiliates, Betzest Partners, Stars Affiliate Club, RP Affiliates, JPJ Partners, Max Affiliates, PlayAttack Affiliates, IVY Affiliates, and Oshi Affiliates.

With the idea of giving the winners the acclaim they deserve, AskGamblers team is organizing the AskGamblers Awards gala night, third year in a row. The night of the final ceremony will be held on 17th January 2020 in Belgrade, allowing everyone absent to follow the event on live stream. The ceremony is expected to be the perfect blend of excitement, enthusiasm, and sweet anticipation – just as every other year before.

Being the most prestigious event in the iGaming industry, the AskGamblers Awards night is when the winners are chosen out of the following categories: Best Online Casino, Best New Casino and the Best New Slot with addition of Best Software Provider and the Best Affiliate Partner. Also, there will be a separate award called Players’ Choice.

As a crew of professionals whose primary mission is to keep its players happy and animated, AskGamblers has turned AskGamblers Awards night into a pure spectacle. By giving the players’ authority to choose the winners through nominations, AskGamblers is trusting and honouring their active dedication, trust, and commitment to the collective iGaming purpose.

AskGamblers’ Product Owner Denis Ristic reflected on the upcoming AskGamblers Awards event by saying: I am forever thrilled with the way AskGamblers team approaches improvement and innovation as well as with the way we manage to make our players feel in the process. Apart from our immense knowledge of the industry’s pitfalls and assets, I believe it is the unity of action, commitment, and creativity that keeps us pushing forward. The AskGamblers Awards night will be amazing, we can’t wait for the winners’ names to be announced!

By successfully keeping the players’ interest in the AskGamblers Awards nominations for a few years in a row, the AskGamblers team has once again proven itself worthy of everyone’s attention and trust. Pushing the envelope on more fronts than we can count has already become a fixed segment of the AskGamblers’s DNA.