Good evening to you all,
My name is Chris Baker and I am a senior representative of the Internet Gambling Advertising Standards Authority (IGASA).
I would like to answer some of the posts on this forum.
IGASA is a non-profit organisation owned by the trade association for the internet marketing industry, tasked with promoting trust by providing robust currencies on which to trade media in the gambling sector.
IGASA is paid for by advertisers, as advertisers have different opinions and requirements about what standards sites should meet in order to pay premium rates.
A suggestion was made to these advertisers that if they were able to set a list of requirements (that would apply across the board to all affiliates and advertisers), that sites had to meet in order for them pay premium rates, as a collective would they do it? Out of that seed IGASA was born. A body that would be all inclusive, that would help regulate the industry for the benefit of both publishers and advertisers.
IGASA is non-profit distributing, which means we take the money from registration fees to cover the cost of staff and technical consulting, audit fees for audit work (man hours), and annual subscription covers PR work, production of kite marks and certifications, web listing, management of meetings. We also take the fees to invest back into what we are doing to then reduce the fees overall to benefit our members.
Sam Barnett initially pitched the idea to our parent company and was one of the people who pitched the idea to advertisers and advertising trade bodies to get involved. He still consults and helps with marketing of IGASA to advertisers and agencies, but has nothing to do with the day to day running of IGASA.
IGASA’s intentions are to protect advertisers and find a way for advertisers to appropriate rates for the quality of traffic that site produces. The converse applies for affiliates and website owners. We want publishers to be rewarded for the quality of their traffic and to display to all seal which denotes that, so they are able to receive the appropriate rates for the quality of their traffic.
We are currently trailing a limited number of large advertisers sharing data about publishers and paying them appropriate rates for that traffic.
IGASA aims to simply put in place a system that better regulates gambling advertising for the benefit of advertisers and publishers in this sector. Our parent company has done this in numerous other media sectors where media is traded in a way that benefits all parties involved.
There is no cost to gambling affiliates joining IGASA and no potential downside as they have nothing to lose except for being part of an authority that aims to regulate and better facilitate internet advertising as a whole in the gambling sector and allow them to receive the appropriate rates for the quality of traffic they produce.
We are open to suggestions from both publishers and advertisers about suggested improvements and recommendations on how the exchange of media in the gambling sector can be better facilitated and regulated for the benefit of all involved. Please email me with feedback at chris@igasa.org
Please visit the IGASA website to find out more about IGASA
If you would like to sign up to IGASA, please sign up here http://igasa.org/signup.php
Regards
Chris
Chris Baker
Senior IGASA Representative
Gambling Publishers sign up here http://www.igasa.org/sig
chris@igasa.org
http://www.igasa