Online Casino

[Jimm]

As of August 14th 2007, Grand Monaco will be branded and launched as Grand Mondial.

Mondial is the French word for “world”, “worldwide” or “global”, and perfectly reflects the casino’s fervent expansion into new markets around the globe. Whilst Grand Monaco is perhaps more Eurocentric than most, Grand Mondial will cater for, and embrace, a wide range of different markets.

With the legislative changes in the US, traditionally the strongest online gaming market in the world, the so-called “new” markets like Europe and Asia have now become hot property, and are where the future of the industry lies. And this is why the name, Grand Mondial, is a clear indication of where we see this business going. Having already established a strong presence in the major European markets, built up through targeted products and expert personnel, this move is a natural progression and one in which PlayShare is confident of great success.

Grand Mondial will retain all the features, traits and strengths that made Grand Monaco one of the most respected Microgaming brands in Europe, but will bring an even more impressive package to the market. Multilingual websites, software and support, market-leading games offerings, personalized retention programs and, of course, big wins should make Grand Mondial an instant favorite amongst players around the world.

This evolution has been in the pipeline for some time, although the need to implement this change has recently been forced upon us by external parties a little sooner than initially planned. Please note, however, that this is not a knee-jerk reaction – it is, and has been for some time, part of the company’s long-term plans.

Read on for more details on why this change is taking place so suddenly, and what to expect in the coming weeks…

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LEGALLY SPEAKING…
A few months ago, La Société des Bains de Mer et du cercle des etrangers à Monaco, who is the operator of the Casino de Monte Carlo in Monaco, decided to take action against PlayShare’s brand, Grand Monaco, by launching legal action in multiple jurisdictions. Their aim is to remove the domain names and the use of the name Grand Monaco from PlayShare’s control. PlayShare is, however, currently in the process of responding to these attacks.

On May 25th 2007, PlayShare lost a preliminary issue before the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), which ruled against PlayShare in favor of La Société des Bains de Mer et du cercle des etrangers à Monaco, ordering them to give up their domain names and to have them transferred. However, this has been put on hold, as PlayShare has filed an injunction on this ruling in the state of Arizona, USA, and is appealing WIPO’s decision.

It is not PlayShare’s intention to enter into a full-blown legal battle with La Société des Bains de Mer et du cercle des etrangers à Monaco, but rather to continue to grow the business. Therefore, whilst continuing to vigorously defend the legitimate use of Grand Monaco, PlayShare is rebranding the casino as Grand Mondial.

PlayShare has consulted lawyers in 5 different jurisdictions worldwide, and they have assured us that Société des Bains case is weak in the extreme and, in any case, solely affects the company, and has absolutely no ramifications on affiliates in any way. Regardless of the outcome of the various cases that PlayShare is fighting, PlayShare will continue to operate its online casinos in full and to continue its phenomenal growth!

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WHAT’S CHANGING
As this is simply a rebrand of an existing online casino, there won’t be too many major changes.

The casino domain name will, of course, change, as will the casino website. The actual casino software will also be updated to reflect the new branding, but this will be implemented automatically. There will also be some exciting revision of some of the promotions on offer, but final details have yet to be confirmed.

From an affiliate point of view, the affiliate tags will be changing, as will all of the marketing material (banners, mailers, etc.). We will inform affiliates of the “what” and “when” details as soon as they become available, but rest assured that we will give sufficient time to execute any changes.

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WHAT’S NOT CHANGING
The player experience will remain exactly the same. Existing players will not be affected in the least, other than a seamless software update. They will also be informed of the rebranding by the casino itself, and will enjoy all the features they’ve been used to.

Until Grand Mondial is launched on August 14th 2007, Grand Monaco will continue to operate as per usual. This means that all of our affiliates should continue to market the casino as they have been doing so, as absolutely no ill effect will be suffered by affiliates or players when Grand Mondial becomes active.

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THE NEXT STEPS
In the coming month, we will be communicating with our affiliates on a number of issues, and keeping them abreast of any updates on the rebranding. Full instructions on what affiliates may need to change will also be given, and a full suite of marketing material will also be ready for use before the launch.

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We hope you are all as excited about this development as we are, and can recognize the massive opportunity that exists to make the most of this “new” casino.

If you have any questions about Grand Mondial, please do not hesitate to contact myself or your affiliate manager.

Kind regards,
Lawrence Wilson

Phone: +27 21 442 9822
Mobile: +27 82 788 5753
E-Mail: lawrence.wilson@playshare.com
MSN: lawrence_wilson@hotmail.com

[Anonymous]

WOW! Thanks for the info on all of this and it sounds like it will be an change over for all involved:)

[Anonymous]

sounds great!
thanks for the info Lawrence :hattip:

[Jimm]

Glad to hear you’re as excited about this as we are! I have had a sneak peek of the new website, and it is looking awesome!

[Jimm]

As you will already have heard, Grand Monaco will be branded and launched as Grand Mondial on August 14th, 2007. To make the transition as simple and effective as possible for you, we have already activated the grandmondial.com domain, which means that you can begin editing all existing Grand Monaco links and image sources now, instead of at the very last minute.

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WHAT MUST I DO?

Although the move from Grand Monaco to Grand Mondial is essentially a rebranding exercise, the need to move to a new domain will obviously require some changes to be made on your side.

Affiliate Links
First and foremost, you will need to change any existing affiliate links to Grand Monaco you may have on your website(s).

Your current affiliate links will look something like this:

http://g3.grandmonaco.com/href.g3?ai=XXXXX

All you have to do is change the grandmonaco.com domain reference to grandmondial.com, and we’ll take care of the rest. Your updated links should now look like this:

http://g3.grandmondial.com/href.g3?ai=XXXXX

Any players referred through these links will, as always, be linked to your affiliate account, and you will continue to earn commission on any revenue generated by those players.

Up until Grand Mondial is launched, these links will seamlessly redirect through to Grand Monaco. As far as your visitors are concerned, they will click on a Grand Monaco banner or text link and go to the Grand Monaco website. And, when Grand Mondial launches, you will already have the correct links on your website, thereby negating the need for any further edits on your part!

Banners
If you’re utilizing banners that are served by G3 Partner, then you will also need to change any grandmonaco.com domain reference to grandmondial.com. The banners on your website will not change, although we will replace the Grand Monaco banners with Grand Mondial banners of the same size and a similar style once it is launched. This will save you a lot of time and energy!

You will need to edit the image source in the banner code(s) you have on your website(s). The image source in your source code will look like this:

http://g3.grandmonaco.com/src.g3?mi=123&ai=XXXXX

The updated banner image source code should now look like this:

http://g3.grandmondial.com/src.g3?mi=123&ai=XXXXX

NOTE: DO NOT change the Media ID number (the 3-digit number following the “mi=”)!

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Please make the required changes to your website(s) as soon as possible, so that you are fully prepared for when Grand Mondial goes live. We will be running a great promotion from August 14th, 2007, which will give you the opportunity to earn some extra income, and you will need to have made the changes before then to be eligible.

If you have any questions, please contact your affiliate manager. We want you to take full advantage of this exciting change, and will do all we can to make the move as simple, painless and profitable for you as possible.

Regards,
Lawrence.

[Anonymous]

Nevrmind – figured it out.. sorry.

[Jimm]

You raise a good point there

For the French, German and UK casino links, you’d use the following:

http://g3.grandmondial.com/fr/href.g3?ai=XXXXX
http://g3.grandmondial.com/de/href.g3?ai=XXXXX
http://g3.grandmondial.com/uk/href.g3?ai=XXXXX

[Anonymous]

Do you have any banners for this?

Where are they?

Thanks

[Anonymous]

Hi, I think you are a great program and all but this bit here

It is not PlayShare’s intention to enter into a full-blown legal battle with La Société des Bains de Mer et du cercle des etrangers à Monaco, but rather to continue to grow the business. Therefore, whilst continuing to vigorously defend the legitimate use of Grand Monaco, PlayShare is rebranding the casino as Grand Mondial.

made me wonder. You are just going to change the brand once? You are not planning to make a huge transition to grandmondial and then as soon as you get your grandmonaco brand approved do another switch all over again??

[Anonymous]

The UK link isn’t working: http://g3.grandmondial.com/uk/href.g3?ai=XXXXX

[Jimm]

Hi everyone,

@Dominique 134098 wrote:

Do you have any banners for this?

Where are they?

Banners for Grand Mondial will be released to affiliates just before the casino goes live. We will be contacting all affiliates at least twice before the launch with updates on the marketing material and a cool affiliate promotion.

The reason for not making the creative available sooner is simply because Grand Monaco is still fully operational, and will remain so until the second Grand Mondial goes live. We want to make sure that everyone is advertising the right thing at the right time, which obviously keeps the potential to acquire players and generate revenue at its highest

@Goldfinger 134116 wrote:

You are just going to change the brand once? You are not planning to make a huge transition to grandmondial and then as soon as you get your grandmonaco brand approved do another switch all over again??

We will definitely NOT revert back to Grand Monaco once Grand Mondial is launched. This is a long-term move that we believe is in the best interests of the business and its affiliates.

@LandofOz 134167 wrote:

The UK link isn’t working: http://g3.grandmondial.com/uk/href.g3?ai=XXXXX

Thanks for pointing this out – it looks like there is indeed a problem with the UK link. I have requested that our technical team resolve the issue as soon as possible. I’ll let you know when it’s fully functional.

Thanks,
Lawrence.

[Jimm]

@LandofOz 134167 wrote:

The UK link isn’t working: http://g3.grandmondial.com/uk/href.g3?ai=XXXXX

Just to let you know, this issue has been resolved :thumbsup:

[Jimm]

Hi everyone,

I know this might sound a bit obvious to most of you, but we have already had a couple of queries about this

In the instruction posts above, the XXXXX referenced in the URLs must be replaced with your unique 5-digit affiliate tag.

For example, if my tag was 12345, my new Grand Mondial link would be http://g3.grandmondial.com/href.g3?ai=12345.

I just wanted to clarify this, so there is absolutely no confusion!

Thanks,
Lawrence.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for reassuring me that this will be a one time switch over :hattip:

[Jimm]

My pleasure :bigsmile:

[Author]

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