With the passing of the UIGEA many poker and casino affiliates have been looking to enter and promote within new and emerging markets.

This article is about some of the challenges and considerations for poker affiliates when entering new global markets.

Promoting Online Poker To A Global Audience

Ever since the UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) was signed into law by President George Bush on Friday Ocotber 13th, 2006, there has been a common direction for poker affiliates.  You can read about this topic in every casino or poker affiliate community.  At each industry convention there are usually multiple speaker sessions dedicated to the topic.  You guessed it......going global and having your websites translated into tons of different languages.

With much of the market share falling off in the U.S., as well as a large majority of online poker and online casinos cutting off U.S. players, this seems like the logical approach.  And actually, it is a very smart approach.  There are several emerging markets within online gambling that are certainly going to be extremely profitable in the months and years to come.  Eastern Europe and Germany, as well as many of the Nordic regions and even Russia are experiencing the Boom that the U.S. experienced back around 2004-2005 with respect to online poker.

So yes, the webmasters that can gain exposure into these countries will definitely be able to grab a piece of the pie.  But when I see all the "experts" and various people at conferences speaking so laxed about going global and simply having your website translated, I really question their true expertise.  I do feel qualified to speak about this as well.  Being a member of the board at PokerNews,  I have seen some of the challenges of going global and capturing market share in 20+ countries and languages, especially in the online gaming market.

It sounds simple to just go to rent-a-coder or a similar type service and pay to have your site translated.....think again though, this is actually a bad business decision in my opinion.  If you have already done this, do yourself a favor and have a poker player fluent in that language give it a quick read for a second opinion.  If you're going to attempt to get into different countries, do it right and partner with people in those countries who understand the local market and demographic.  Below is a list of the 3 biggest challenges for poker and casino affiliates when entering foreign markets:

1.  Translation - This is the most important and critical aspect of entering a new market.  The fundamental problem with "English only" speaking affiliates is that they hire a translator and then there is no way to know if the translation is good.  With bad translation you will actually build a bad reputation for your site in these markets.  Keep in mind every language has so many various subtleties.  What would you think if you went to a U.S. site and read something like this --

"The game of Texes Holdam is played by individuls from around the country area.  Here at www.pokeraffiliateworld.com we offer bonus for you best at sites. We can do also rakeback at 35% for sites no U.S."

Laugh out Loud if you have to, but this is how your site will look if you pay for cheap translation.  This brings me to point number two.

2.  Translator - There are two critical things you will need from a translator to do a good translation that will allow you to present a professional page in one of these emerging markets.  For starters you will need a translator that speaks fluent in both languages.  If they only speak fluent in one and half ass in the other, your content will look like the sentence above.  Second and equally important, you have to have a translator that understands poker!  There are so many terms that are going to get garbage translations if you don't have a translator that understands all the various poker terms we throw out there....and believe me, there are too many to count.

3.  Understanding of the Culture and Market - Maybe not as important as the prior points, but nonetheless it is important.  Entering an emerging market is no different than choosing a niche.  How can you promote within a niche for example if you have no idea what the niche is even about?  Foreign markets are the same way.  But the beauty is, once you have a firm understanding of that foreign market, you can make a killing by catering to them.  But keep in mind the cultures in some markets are much more difficult than others to learn.  I am so sick of hearing about going to Asia, because this is THE toughest market to crack into for U.S. affiliates.  For one the fraud is incredibly high, and two, the real gamblers are more apt to gamble at true Asian sites, and not a translated .com.  Furthermore poker is not their game of choice right now. It's games like Baccarat and other obscure card games.

Although there are several challenges for poker and casino affiliates when entering global markets, the ones mentioned above are probably the top 3.  Although other little nuances that shouldn't be overlooked can include having to get banners made in various languages, or sending players to rooms that accept players from that country but have no translation of their own on the site.   Most affiliate programs and even sites only have a couple languages. 

Now I will share with you some "inside advice" on the easiest way to get past these obstacles and launch into a foreign market properly.  Although I am not a huge fan of keeping everything on a .com, it has worked wonders for us at PokerNews.com with subdomains.  Nonetheless, pick up a domain with that countries TLD extension if you can.

Next, instead of simply hiring a translator to translate all the important pages on your site, partner with a poker player or webmaster from that country to be responsible for ALL the current and future content for that language.  Two things......pay them well, and give them a simple CMS (Content Management System) to take care of all the content.  This is very important as then you're partner is not limited to X amount of dollars for X amount of pages translated.  Instead it encourages them to make the kind of money they see other big webmasters making.  Don't be greedy and give up an extra 10% for a lesser value partner.  You will make your money back 100 times over if you bring on the right partner, pay them well, and provide them the resources they need to be successful.

Likewise here's a quick piece of advice.....Poker players in Germany don't care about how Mike Matusow finishes at Foxwoods in Conneticut.  Having all your pages like this translated is almost a waste to be honest.  Poker players in Germany want to know what the schedules and results of players like these guys are.  Likewise they want news and articles on the poker scene in their area or country.  Of course you want site reviews and strategy articles in the native language, but including U.S. focused content is going to be poor ROI.  This is where having a poker savvy writer in Germany, with the freedom to create his or her own content comes in handy.  Once again, pay them well (based on performance) and give them a simple way to add content so all they have to do is pump it out, and not worry about technical stuff.

There are some great opportunities that lie ahead for poker and casino webmasters within new emerging markets.  However if you want to enter into these markets and build your brand as a professional one that will attract repeat visitors, you must do it properly.  Furthermore I think it is always important to be moderately successful in your native market before venturing into others.  The purpose of this article was to point out a few of the important things that must be taken into consideration when thinking of jumping off the bridge into the foreign and emerging markets.  It can be lucrative, but just make sure to cover all your bases.

Happy Promoting!

Jeremy

Did you know the forums at Poker Affiliate World have webmasters from all over the world.  Join in the Affiliate Discussions Today! If you're looking to promote to players across the world, try the PokerStars Affiliate Program.