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With talks all week that Bodog (www.bodoglife.com) has cut its staff and may possibly be leaving the US market, online gambling affiliates have a tough decision to make.
Bodog for years has been one of the best converters for affiliates. In fact, some maintain that the company has provided upwards of 75 percent of their financial backbone. But processing issues have taken a severe toll on the company, which is banking on a successful football season to offset tremendous losses brought on by this summer's processing issues. They have another ace in the hole with both their popular online poker product and their Internet casino.
But a look at PokerSiteScout.com reveals that the online poker room has fallen from the number 10 and 11 spot to number 14. Even more of a concern to Bodog Management is that Cake Poker - one of the few online poker rooms to take US customers - has passed Bodog in dramatic fashion, averaging 400 more real cash players per week.
Pacific Poker, Microgaming, UltimateBet.com and AbsolutePoker.com are each ahead of Bodog Poker.
The NFL will help boost volume, but depending on how the season turns out, it can also be a killer in terms of the hold percentage as can College Football.
With the exception of a complete departure from the US market, which Bodog management denied on Friday, online gambling affiliates should still have income coming in, though substantially less considering banking problems and new payment schedules imposed by the gaming company. Bodog is one of the most dramatic cost cutters at a time when most US facing sports books tend to spend more.
Affiliates - both on the sports betting and online poker side - are looking for more enticing affiliate programs in order to fill the void. The two biggest poker rooms - Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars.com - have grown increasingly hard for affiliates to promote. The problem: Most poker players already have accounts at the two sites.
Up-and-coming brands like Cake Poker and WassPoker.com (part of the Merge Poker Network) provide excellent incentives for would-be players and have excellent conversion rates while catering to US customers.
UltimateBet.com enjoys a successful affiliate program that still has value due to the concept that they have a substantial enough player base without completely dominating the US market (a la PokerStars and Full Tilt).
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Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
