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12 Month of iGaming: A Landscape Analysis

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12 Month of iGaming: A Landscape Analysis
Reading Time: 5 minutes

 

Given the recent circumstances surrounding COVID-19, the gaming and betting industry has seen a huge influx of traffic and attention from consumers, new and old, that are now settling into home-based ways of working.

For the savvy gaming companies that have been making improvements to their sites over the last 12 months, now is a time to thrive. Leaders in this area have used this time to take advantage of scope to attract new customers with innovative marketing tactics, fantastic offers, and an energetic brand. For others however, the next months will likely be a struggle unless they take the necessary steps to amp up their efforts.

In uncertain times, player acquisition remains a vital priority and those who have invested time, energy, money and expertise into this area will likely reap the rewards 10-fold. Given the relevance, we’ve conducted a substantial analysis of the top 50 organic keywords in the UK for the four main sectors of iGaming – Slots, Roulette, Casino, and Poker – to better understand the sites that have seen the biggest improvements over the last 12 months, how they’ve done it, and what their next steps are likely to be over the coming months.

Additionally, through conducting an in-depth situational analysis of the current landscape we are able to better understand the activity that has been rewarded by Google over the last 12 months, while better differentiating between successful strategies and those that will likely deliver underwhelming results.

 

Slots

 

The websites that have seen the biggest swing in overall organic visibility over the last 12 months have been increasing their games library but more importantly; increasing the crawlable copy of game pages.

For slot sites that are usually quite Javascript heavy, ensuring all copy is clear and crawlable gives search engines something to work with at first pass and can improve performance long term.

Leading the pack, Admiral Casino has a larger than average amount of text on its game pages and is clearly reaping the rewards with significant uplifts in traffic Y/Y straight into game URLs.

 

It should also be mentioned that all of these sites were active with link building and typically saw a lead time of about 6 months between starting to build links and seeing serious gains in organic visibility.

Once these improvements began, however, the growth seen in the first six months was again repeated in the subsequent 3 months.

 

Roulette

 

 

 

 

 

The biggest 12-month swings in the Roulette sector has been for sites that have kept a tight focus on the Roulette topic area and supported commercial pages with informational content to grow awareness of their brands.

Leading sites such as Liveroulette.com and 888casino.com can be praised for the informative content and extensive guides targeted towards both first-time depositors and seasoned players.

In addition, leaders in this market must ensure they consider the user journey and are present throughout the conversion funnel, not just at the high-volume terms close to conversion. Focusing on terms such as “how to play” and exploratory informational queries is crucial to nailing that focused topical relevance.

Finally, it is important to note that these are established domains with sizable link profiles with the quality of the most recent links becoming the key differentiating factor. Newcomers looking to succeed in this sector must be both aggressive and smart with their link building strategies to ensure they’re in a position to compete as quickly as possible. Do not be afraid to break the mould with your PR to generate buzz and links that will get the site off to a great start.

Casino

 

 

PinkCasino.co.uk has seen a significant level of visibility growth over the last 12 months due to an increase in the number of landing pages on the site but more importantly the copy on game pages has had an overhaul.

Historically, one of the biggest technical challenges in the gaming space is the use of JavaScript and search engines inability to render the content. Useful HTML based web copy has worked as well for Pink Casino, as it has Admiral Casino, previously mentioned. The site is also benefiting from improved internal linking and a streamlining of the site structure.

Some of the domains on this list have also had expired domains with link equity redirected into them. Whilst this can sometimes be used as an effective tactic, it is important to remember that it can also raise flags with Google and should be used sparingly.

Poker

 

 

As with Roulette, focus and relevance are key in the Poker rankings. How to play type content and guides perform incredibly well when paired with effective internal and external link strategy.

Partypoker.com has this area nailed down and so it is no surprise to see them growing over 230% in 12 months.

Cardchat.com has also put a significant level of effort into producing content and guides and as a result are visible for nearly twice the number of keywords as pokerstars.com according to SEMrush data. The next step for them, and sites in similar predicaments, is to improve their visibility through good quality link acquisition.

 

In Conclusion

The gaming and betting markets continue to be one of the most competitive and varied SERPS to operative in.

From our analysis, we see a significant shift from black hat tactics to informative content and PR-led campaigns, which for many sites, is the driving factor behind and increase in strong coverage, brand awareness and long-term rankings.

The future of iGaming is looking quite bright and as the current surge in traffic continues, it is no doubt that current timings favour acquisition. For those looking to capitalise and increase their conversion rates, keep in mind that increased traffic lends itself incredibly well to different forms of testing. Now is a great time to catch and convert as many of those new visits as you can with short test cycles.

From the analysis conducted, the key takeaways for competing in iGaming SERPs in 2020 are as follows:

  • Sites that are spending the time and money on creating well written, informative, and user-friendly content are currently reaping the rewards.
  • Rather than focusing solely on the high-volume terms, it is crucial for sites in the noted sectors to ensure they’re considering the full user journey and conversion funnel.
  • Links remain important but the quality will always trump quantity over time.

With over 13 years of experience in the iGaming and Betting industry, the Blueclaw team are always happy to talk search. For a more focused analysis, or to discuss anything mentioned above, please feel free to get in touch with one of our experts.

 

Author: Andrew Parker, Performance Director at Blueclaw Media Ltd

Contact: [email protected]

 

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The Nomination Committee’s Proposal of Catena Media’s Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting 2024

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The Nomination Committee’s Proposal of Catena Media’s Board of Directors at the Annual General Meeting 2024
Reading Time: 2 minutes

The Nomination Committee of Catena Media proposed re-election of the following members of the Board of Directors:

Øystein Engebretsen

Theodore Bergquist

Adam Krejcik

Sean Hurley

The Nomination Committee proposed that Erik Flinck and Dan Castillo be elected as new members of the Board of Directors.

Göran Blomberg, Esther Teixeira-Boucher and Austin Malcomb have declined re-election as board members.

The Nomination Committee proposed that there will be six (6) members of the Board of Directors, changed from seven (7).

The Nomination Committee also proposed Erik Flinck to be elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors.

Erik Flinck, born in 1980, currently provides high end business consulting combined with serving as Chairman for the digital health startup, dr HUD. Mr Flinck previously served as Head of BCG Sweden and has extensive experience from corporate management, growth and turnarounds from nearly 20 years of Management Consulting and serving as Head of Group Strategy and M&A at Sandvik AB. He has a Masters Degree in Engineering (Software development and Financial Mathematics) from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and a Masters Degree in Business and Administration from Stockholm University and Stockholm School of Business.

Born in 1980, Dan Castillo has accumulated over 20 years of experience across startups, growth companies and turnarounds. Since 2015, Castillo has invested in Catena Media, maintaining a close watch on its progression, especially after its IPO in 2016. He has previous experience of listed board work in Kotipizza which Orkla acquired in 2018. He currently serves on the boards of five companies in different sectors, including Quartr.com in Fintech and Hope Studios in movie production. His academic background includes studies in Finance and Economics at Linköping University.

The Nomination Committee of Catena Media consists of:

Nicklas Paulson, representing Investment AB Öresund (chair of the nomination committee)

Marianne Stenberg, representing Second Swedish National Pension Fund

Martin Zetterlund, representing Niklas Karlsson

Göran Blomberg, chairman of the board of Catena Media.

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Industry News

IGT Announces Executive and Board Leadership Changes

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IGT Announces Executive and Board Leadership Changes
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International Game Technology PLC (IGT) announced that on March 21, 2024, its Board of Directors implemented changes to the Company’s Board and executive team.

Marco Drago announced that he will step down from his role as a non-executive director of the IGT Board of Directors. He will carry out his remaining term and depart from the Board at the conclusion of the Company’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) on May 14, 2024.

Enrico Drago has been appointed by the IGT Board of Directors as a non-executive director of the IGT Board. In addition, Enrico Drago will resign from his current role of CEO of IGT PlayDigital, and Gil Rotem, who is currently IGT PlayDigital President of iGaming, will expand his role to become IGT PlayDigital President and report directly to Vince Sadusky, CEO of IGT. These changes will be effective April 1, 2024. Enrico Drago will continue in his role as vice chairman of De Agostini S.p.A.

“As Marco Drago prepares to step down from his position on the IGT Board of Directors, I’d like to thank him for his many years of service and his unwavering commitment to driving results and creating value for all IGT stakeholders. Enrico Drago joining the Board and leaving his executive leadership position at IGT is a natural evolution that supports the Company’s vision for its next era of growth and transformation. Enrico’s value-creation mindset and understanding of global growth opportunities will enhance the Board and align with IGT’s strategic priorities,” said Marco Sala, IGT Executive Chair of the Board.

“Watching and guiding IGT through its evolution from a collection of companies that started with Lottomatica and GTECH grow into a unified global gaming leader has been very gratifying. We have been fortunate to have a great group of board members and business unit leaders that have helped drive IGT’s growth during this time. I thank them for their contributions and am certain that IGT is positioned for continued growth as we go forward with the bold initiatives we have undertaken,” said Marco Drago, IGT Non-Executive Director.

“Over the last five-plus years, IGT PlayDigital has established leadership positions in the global iGaming and North American sports betting sectors that will be foundational to the Company’s future successes. I thank the entire IGT PlayDigital team for all that we have accomplished in this time, and I look forward to supporting IGT in a new capacity and further helping the Company define its vision and strategy,” said Enrico Drago, CEO of IGT PlayDigital.

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Bidstack Executive Team Acquires Bidstack Limited and all its Subsidiaries

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Bidstack Executive Team Acquires Bidstack Limited and all its Subsidiaries
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The executive team of Bidstack has acquired Bidstack Limited and all the operating entities of the Group, from the administrators of Bidstack Group PLC. The deal sees James Draper, Founder & CEO, and the executive team of Bidstack Ltd become significant majority shareholders.

All contracts and client relationships will continue within the new ownership structure – safeguarding jobs for the UK and European-based staff.

Bidstack, the multi award-winning in-game middleware technology provider that initially set about bringing programmatic advertising revenue to the most renowned sports gaming franchises in the world, has diversified into a broader offering, taking advantage of the most advanced off-engine content management system in gaming.

Following the announcement of a partnership with the Washington Commanders, where the NFL franchise became the first-ever sports team to utilise a platform to control advertising within their virtual stadium, across official NFL games, from multiple studios and developers, the management team has been focusing on sports rights holders as a key customer type.

The executive team has the support of the world’s leading rights-holder professionals in the sports industry. It will continue to execute from its position as the leading technology for the sports industry, for fan engagement and brand activations, in video games.

The executive management consists of James Draper continuing as Chief Executive Officer, with Lisa Hau stepping up to Chief Financial Officer, Dave Garvey continuing as Chief Legal Officer, Will Stewart moving to Chief Product Officer and Daniel Barrigas to Chief Technology Officer.

James Draper, Bidstack’s Founder & CEO, said: “The acquisition is a pivotal moment for the next phase of growth for the business. Our technology is at the forefront of sports technology, and I couldn’t be more excited. I am proud that we are able to reward our ambitious and industry-pioneering team and have them as shareholders alongside myself.”

“I want to thank the staff and customers for standing by us during this strategic review, which has obviously been an uncertain period. For all of our customers to have stood strong alongside us is testament to the relationships we’ve built over the years, as well as the incredible staff we have here who have fostered those connections.

“The company can now focus on the enormous potential we have, to enable sports teams to get closer to their fans and improve the player experience by bringing their virtual IP to life, with real-time messaging, rewards and engagements.

“Thank you to the management team who have invested to protect the incredible work our talented group has produced. It’s extremely motivating to see the unwavering belief we collectively have in our vision and product. Sadly, the public market is an uncertain place currently, and it’s a challenging environment for growth businesses such as ours.

“The interest and support we’ve had from some of the leading players in the sports industry has given our team great confidence and motivation as we work with some of the world’s largest sporting franchises and leagues.

“Thank you to everyone’s support and to our Board of Directors, who have assisted myself and management throughout.”

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