Online Casino

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I am the Affiliate Director at Bodog Asia. Here’s what I can tell you:

China is still very much like the “wild, wild, east.”. Good and Bad for you if you’re interested in entering.

Good:

1. If you’re looking to gain search engine traffic, Baidu (primary seach engine in China) is behind google by a few years. That means the SERPs are a bit more volatile and typically we don’t see websites maintain rankings for long. That gives newcomer a better opportunity to rank but question is for how long.
2. The cash model is still fairly young that means the affiliate model is as well. The affiliate model is growing fast.
3. You probably have some content that can pertain to a typically Chinese gambler. Although probably not as much as you think. Localization is key and truly understanding Chinese players and what’s important to them. I wouldn’t recommend simply translating your content to Chinese.
4. Forums do very well so building a relationship with your community and players will help you survive long-term.

Bad:

1. Yes there are censorship in China on several level:
   1. The Chinese Firewall: You’re not likely to get approved hosting and domains in China which means you’ll have to host offshore. That means you have to get through the Chinese firewall. This is the Chinese government’s control of what content gets in and what stays out (i.e. Facebook, google was once but acceptable now, etc.). If the government doesn’t like your website, you be blocked indefinitely. On top of that expect poor website performance especially during peak hours because of the firewall bottlenecks. And yes they do have a large team in China doing this everyday.
   2. Baidu blocking: Baidu can crawl for unacceptable content such as porn, gambling and mostly anything against the Chinese governement. You can be banned from Baidu and eventhough Google is now allowed most are primarily using Baidu at the moment.
   3. Don’t except friendly competition. I’ve seen many occasions when competitors are reporting each other, ddos attacks and site’s that get hacked and overtaken.
2. You asked what happens if you get blocked? Well the simplest answer is that you get new hosting, new domains and start over again. Or you can find some sort of crazy way to trick the system. I think it’s better that you build your database and some form or alternative communication with your players while you still can. If you’re lucky you don’t get blocked for a long time.
3. Yes there are VPN’s, proxy servers, custom browsers and such. All of which can be blocked as well. There is a demand for it and it works to some level but there are technical challenges as well. One example is performance of these alternative solutions and how well it works with different gaming clients.
4. Depositing through Credit Agents are still the primary choice of online gaming. In fact at least 10X the size of the cash market.

These are just what’s on top of my head. I’m sure there are many other issues that we can discuss. Many benefits in being in the China market as well.

I have 22 people in my staff supporting affiliates all over Asia. 8 in China alone. If you have any additional questions, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. I’m not in the forums much so you if you need to reach me, add me to skype at johndang90.

I’ll have my team chime in on this thread as well. Hope that was helpful to you.

John Dang