The Within Scoop – Delaware Opens, Neteller Is In, and The New Jersey Manager Speaks

Editor Note: Jeremy Enke is an industry veteran most well known for his publications as well as his industry accomplishments. Jeremy also leads the community at Poker Affiliate Listings. Jeremy writes a weekly feature for Poker Affiliate Solutions on the fast-moving developments in the regulated U.S. online poker market.

In racing, before the green flag goes in the air and the best cars and drivers in the world embark on a fast and furious journey against their opponents, the famous words “Drivers, Start Your Engines” is heard.

With less than 30 days to go before New Jersey is slated to go live with regulated online gambling, itÂ’s safe to say that proverbial green flag will be flying on November 26th in the Garden State. And you can bet once the race is on, success will be determined by whomever has the best equipment and team.

Nevada Regulated Online Poker Update

With the ramp up and anticipation of the New Jersey market, we must not forget that there is a regulated market already in operation, Nevada. This past week the duo in Nevada (WSOP.com & UltimatePoker.com) saw a slight increase in their overall 24 hour rolling average of players online.

UltimatePoker.com could attribute much of this increase to the addition of Pot Limit Omaha on their site. A whopping 33% of the players this past weekend on the site were taking Omaha for a test drive. Although experts expect that % to decrease in the coming weeks, adding another variation to a poker site is never a bad thing. WSOP.com is still trailing UtimatePoker.com with respect to market share. However, the two are neck and neck with their rolling 24-hour average of players separated by a mere 47 players.

Delaware To Go Live With Regulated Internet Gambling on October 31st

Trick or Treat for the residents of Delaware? At the WRB last week @WebbJennifer announced that the state of Delaware will officially go live with regulated online gambling on October 31st. This will make Delaware the 2nd official state to go live in the U.S. with regulated online gambling.

As exciting as these developments are, they amazingly are still shrouded in a layer of secrecy. I guess weÂ’ll all find out together what this market looks like later this week. With less than 1 million residents in Delaware however, expect only casino offerings initially. In order for Delaware to offer online poker, interstate compacts will most certainly have to be in place.

Optimal Payments (Neteller) Approved by The New Jersey DGE

Today Optimal Payments, aka Neteller to the gaming industry, announced that it has received approval from the New Jersey DGE to once again provide payment solutions in the online gaming industry within New Jersey borders. The company has already partnered with Caesars Interactive Entertainment, Inc. and Bally Technologies to provide payment solutions and related services for these operators.

This may turn out to be significant in New Jersey if the credit card companies, mostly Visa, continue to make processing gambling transactions difficult.

The Inside Scoop from The World Regulatory Briefing

Some of the biggest news coming out of the regulated markets over the past week came from the World Regulatory Briefing held in Philadelphia. Operators, regulators, and media met at this 2-day event to discuss regulation in the U.S. As expected, all the chatter and discussions revolved around New Jersey, as well interstate gambling compacts.

I like the slogan of the WRB – “Envisioning State Compacts And Pooled Liquidity To Make State-By-State Regulation of iGaming Work For The States, The Industry, And The Players.”

But letÂ’s be honest, thousands of readers donÂ’t come to the Inside Scoop for slogans each week. So courtesy of one of our favorite New Jersey journalists John Brennan, @BergenBrennan, as well as others, we bring you some of the most notable quotes and tweets from this major industry event:

Bill Pascrell III says “rephrensible” for other online operators to try to influence NJ re: his client Pokerstars

NJ Gaming boss Rebuck says he has to explain to overseas companies: “you need me more than I need you”

CA regulator Schuetz Laments re: iGaming: “there aren’t any adults in federal government right now”

@ThriveGamingCo: “Geolocation issues can ultimately create a negative perception of someone’s brand.”

@TotallyGaming – appropriately concludes compacting of states for Internet gambling will be no easy feat

@EwaBakin – As we found out #wrb13, any kind of money sharing is very complex and nearly impossible.

A Sit Down With The New Jersey Boss

Ok, not Tony Soprano or Bruce Springsteen, but the actual HDIC (Head Dude In Charge) at the DGE. We at the Inside Scoop were quite impressed when we learned the crew over at Online Poker Report secured an interview with Head of The DGE, David Rebuck.

Marco Valerio got the rare opportunity to sit down with David Rebuck where they covered a plethora of interesting topics. It was quite a candid interview and I was impressed at how much David Rebuck shared. Most intriguing was his quote on whether PokerStars would be receiving a license.

“I would say that anybody who is not going to make it, you more than likely will find that out from the company themselves because you’ll see a situation very similar to what you just saw in Massachusetts where the company that is being evaluated withdraws from the process. That’s a common action in the gaming world.”

So essentially what Mr. Rebuck is saying is that if PokerStars gets denied, it will be on them to share with the industry.

Read The Full Interview Here

Advice For Gambling Affiliates on The U.S. Regulated Markets

So every week that leaves us with the question, where do gambling affiliates fall into the big scheme of things in New Jersey? Sadly, the answer remains, we donÂ’t know.

As reported before here at the Inside Scoop, we do know for a fact that operators are actively preparing to work with affiliates. Many of them however are still waiting on instructions from regulators. Our feelings are that nothing significant will likely happen for gambling affiliates before 2014.

Until regulators get a better understanding of the online gambling market after the 26th, their focus will be further into understanding the traditional online marketing efforts. The good news for us affiliates however is that once these operators are off to the races, they are going to be our best cheerleaders. As the competition to acquire playerÂ’s increases, operators are going to NEED affiliate marketing partners.

The smartest thing affiliates can be doing right now is building sites and databases focused on targeted markets such as New Jersey. I wouldnÂ’t even worry about being profitable at the moment, you wonÂ’t be. But take a simple site like NJPokerOnline.net for example. They appear to be an affiliate that is doing it right. Their focus is on content, driving traffic, and planning in advance of need.

And while the uncertainty in the U.S. regulated market can get frustrating on the affiliate side of the industry, I leave you with a quote:

“Chase the vision, not the money, the money will end up following you.”
-Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO

Where else can you find Jeremy?

Twitter – @JeremyEnke

LinkedIn - Jeremy Enke on LinkedIn

Radio - Affiliate Life Radio

Forums – PokerAffiliateListings.com

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