TRAFFIC
Figure 9: Pokerstars’ Big Map of Reality Shows
infographic
Figure 10: PokerListings’ Battle of Malta poker
tournament
to be among the most successful types of
link-building initiatives, even in the highly
competitive gambling world.
A successful example of marketinginitiative-turned-link-bait is Pokerstars’
Italian reality show La Casa degli Assi13
(Figure 8).
Apart from granting the poker room a
prime spot on national TV and helping it
broaden its reach, the TV show also earned
the poker room thousands of links from
hundreds of different websites. Moreover,
it also allowed the poker room to kick-off
further TV-related content distribution
campaigns like the one centred on The Big
Map of Reality Shows, a huge infographic
mapping the world of European reality
shows (Figure 9).
Another example of a marketing
initiative with produced great results in
terms of generating links is PokerListings’
Battle of Malta championship14 (Figure 10).
The tournament - one of the very
few promoted not by a poker room but
by a poker affiliate - has earned the site
thousands of links from more than 300
different sites, and has allowed this poker
affiliate to activate cross-branding initiatives
with high level partners like Lufthansa15,
which of course resulted in even more links
pointing to the website.
Even basic marketing initiatives like
promotions or online tournaments can
be turned into mid-level link-baits. An
example is Lottomatica’s Casino Holdem
Live Event, featuring the Italian poker pro
Max Pescatori16. A basic blogger outreach
campaign enabled the event – the budget
for which was entirely justified by its goals
in terms of player acquisition - to gain
links from 15 new websites for the poker
room. This is of a much lower volume than
the initiatives mentioned above, but still
a significant and valuable “extra” for an
initiative that had a completely different goal.
A change of perspective in link
building
As we have seen, Google’s increasingly
strict policies on links made link
building and content marketing almost
synonymous. This means that webmasters
around the world are now struggling to
come up with innovative ideas for contentbased initiatives which can help them
acquire more links than their competitors
- thus improving their authority and trust
in terms of SEO.
This is happening also in the gambling
world, where both operators and affiliates
have recently increased their focus on
link-bait campaigns, which in some
cases allowed them to acquire significant
amounts of links thanks to carefully
executed outreach campaigns centred on
content marketing initiatives.
http://www.lacasadegliassi.it/
http://www.pokerlistings.com/battle-of-malta
http://www.pokerlistings.com/battle-of-malta-players-fly-cheap-with-lufthansa-73848
16
https://www.lottomatica.it/casino-online/live.do?sezione=casino-eventi&body=casino-eventi-sfida-max-pescatori
Link-baits, however, can also cross the
boundaries of content marketing and
turn into pure marketing initiatives. In
the same way, marketing initiatives can
with little to no effort be transformed into
highly successful link-bait campaigns when
combined with properly executed digital
PR campaigns.
In the long run, only the operators and
affiliates who understand the link-building
potential of their marketing initiatives will
be able to prosper in the SEO game, so
never underestimate the potential outcome
in terms of links of any promotional
activities you conduct for