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Thread: Youtube Slot Community and SlotLady

  1. #421
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    Mission146, You have the dream job. You get paid to write about gambling topics - I am a bit jealous.

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    I think ultimately if Casinos do a blanket ban on all filming, content creators will resort to hidden cameras. I don’t know how good the very small hidden cameras are, but you can always take an IPhone and sew it into the inside of a shirt - you make a small hole for the camera lens.

    Also, you would want to block any identifying features or numbers that would link that machine to a specific casino. This way a casino can't fight to remove the video after it’s posted since they can’t confirm where it was actually filmed.

    I think ultimately most casinos may make a screening process to get rid of riff raff like DSucky (Shoutout Mission). These content creators provide a huge benefit for the casino advertising wise. Especially El Cortez and Slot Lady.

    We will see what happens.
    Last edited by PositiveVariance; 01-27-2023 at 03:02 PM.

  3. #423
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    Quote Originally Posted by PositiveVariance View Post
    Mission146, You have the dream job. You get paid to write about gambling topics - I am a bit jealous.
    That's nice of you to say, but don't be too jealous.

    Some of the writing aspect of what I do requires a self-motivation that I often don't have! It's a pretty good gig, overall. I hope nobody takes me for a shill, but I also must admit that I get along fabulously with the LCB Group and ownership and don't remember ever having even the slightest disagreement with them.

    They've also never asked me to edit anything out or walk back my opinions on things, even when some of my statements have been unfavorable to online casinos. Not once. They sometimes request me to write about specific topics for various sites, but have never once told me what to say.

  4. #424
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mission146 View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by PositiveVariance View Post
    Mission146, You have the dream job. You get paid to write about gambling topics - I am a bit jealous.
    That's nice of you to say, but don't be too jealous.

    Some of the writing aspect of what I do requires a self-motivation that I often don't have! It's a pretty good gig, overall. I hope nobody takes me for a shill, but I also must admit that I get along fabulously with the LCB Group and ownership and don't remember ever having even the slightest disagreement with them.

    They've also never asked me to edit anything out or walk back my opinions on things, even when some of my statements have been unfavorable to online casinos. Not once. They sometimes request me to write about specific topics for various sites, but have never once told me what to say.
    That’s awesome to have that kind of relationship.
    When they first bought Wizard of Vegas for $2.35 Million, I thought they were out of their minds. After following Christopher Mitchell for the past 3 years and seeing first hand what kind of money he is pulling in with his small operation - I can only imagine the massive amount they are pulling in from their affiliate link from the #1 gambling site for most search engines. I would have to also guess that since they are so large, they probably get really good offers as an affiliate. Christopher Mitchell can max out at 35% revenue share (35% of money lost by customer that click your affiliate link). I’m sure they have new online casinos that come to them and offer 50% revenue share. Who knows maybe they take a quick $200 for every click.

    The thing I don’t understand is, I have seen past threads on WOV where it discusses Mike Shackleford asking for donations to keep the site up shortly before he sold it. Did he not realize the goldmine he had? Was he against affiliate marketing?

    I think he held out for the $2.35 Million since the site was “His Baby”. I don’t think he realized it had that kind of value.

    Mission, I know you are privy to information you probably can’t share. These were just some thoughts I had on the situation.

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    Quote Originally Posted by PositiveVariance View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Mission146 View Post

    That's nice of you to say, but don't be too jealous.

    Some of the writing aspect of what I do requires a self-motivation that I often don't have! It's a pretty good gig, overall. I hope nobody takes me for a shill, but I also must admit that I get along fabulously with the LCB Group and ownership and don't remember ever having even the slightest disagreement with them.

    They've also never asked me to edit anything out or walk back my opinions on things, even when some of my statements have been unfavorable to online casinos. Not once. They sometimes request me to write about specific topics for various sites, but have never once told me what to say.
    That’s awesome to have that kind of relationship.
    When they first bought Wizard of Vegas for $2.35 Million, I thought they were out of their minds. After following Christopher Mitchell for the past 3 years and seeing first hand what kind of money he is pulling in with his small operation - I can only imagine the massive amount they are pulling in from their affiliate link from the #1 gambling site for most search engines. I would have to also guess that since they are so large, they probably get really good offers as an affiliate. Christopher Mitchell can max out at 35% revenue share (35% of money lost by customer that click your affiliate link). I’m sure they have new online casinos that come to them and offer 50% revenue share. Who knows maybe they take a quick $200 for every click.

    The thing I don’t understand is, I have seen past threads on WOV where it discusses Mike Shackleford asking for donations to keep the site up shortly before he sold it. Did he not realize the goldmine he had? Was he against affiliate marketing?

    I think he held out for the $2.35 Million since the site was “His Baby”. I don’t think he realized it had that kind of value.

    Mission, I know you are privy to information you probably can’t share. These were just some thoughts I had on the situation.
    Mike Shackleford refused to post affiliate links on his site. His sole advertiser was Bodog/Bovada and I believe they paid him a fixed amount per month.

    With the amount of traffic his site gets, I think he could have pulled in 7 figures per month if he had affiliate links on his site. Mike doesn't seem like a sharp businessman. He sold his site for peanuts and gets a fixed salary while the new owners clean up with the affiliate links. And gambling online has never been easier thanks to crypto...no more credit card BS to worry about.

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    Some casinos give affiliates a percentage of losses and others give them a percentage of theoretical losses. So if you are getting 20% of theoretical losses on a game that has a 5% edge, then you get 1% of the total volume risked...doesn't matter if they win or lose.

    GambleHouse.com was on of the first sites to advertise gambling on Google. This was over 20 years ago when it was allowed. The owner was spending $500,000/month on ads and was making millions in return.

  7. #427
    Quote Originally Posted by PositiveVariance View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Mission146 View Post

    That's nice of you to say, but don't be too jealous.

    Some of the writing aspect of what I do requires a self-motivation that I often don't have! It's a pretty good gig, overall. I hope nobody takes me for a shill, but I also must admit that I get along fabulously with the LCB Group and ownership and don't remember ever having even the slightest disagreement with them.

    They've also never asked me to edit anything out or walk back my opinions on things, even when some of my statements have been unfavorable to online casinos. Not once. They sometimes request me to write about specific topics for various sites, but have never once told me what to say.
    That’s awesome to have that kind of relationship.
    When they first bought Wizard of Vegas for $2.35 Million, I thought they were out of their minds. After following Christopher Mitchell for the past 3 years and seeing first hand what kind of money he is pulling in with his small operation - I can only imagine the massive amount they are pulling in from their affiliate link from the #1 gambling site for most search engines. I would have to also guess that since they are so large, they probably get really good offers as an affiliate. Christopher Mitchell can max out at 35% revenue share (35% of money lost by customer that click your affiliate link). I’m sure they have new online casinos that come to them and offer 50% revenue share. Who knows maybe they take a quick $200 for every click.

    The thing I don’t understand is, I have seen past threads on WOV where it discusses Mike Shackleford asking for donations to keep the site up shortly before he sold it. Did he not realize the goldmine he had? Was he against affiliate marketing?

    I think he held out for the $2.35 Million since the site was “His Baby”. I don’t think he realized it had that kind of value.

    Mission, I know you are privy to information you probably can’t share. These were just some thoughts I had on the situation.
    Rusty Shackleford is a big doofus outside of mathematics. Clueless businessman with NO people skills whatsoever. Jackie Chan et al, could have easily bought that site for half ( a little north of 1mil). Rusty made out like a bandit.

  8. #428
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    Quote Originally Posted by Small_Banana View Post
    I think he could have pulled in 7 figures per month if he had affiliate links on his site.
    7 figures per MONTH?

    Assuming $1 Million per month ($12 Million year) this would put a value on the site of over $40 Million.

    I think if the revenue potential was this high he would have received 8 figure offers for the site on a regular basis.

    These companies that buy up these gambling sites have a very good idea of what they will earn. The amount of traffic to the site is known, as well as the "conversion rate" for the number of people who click these link. For the most part the "guess work" is taken out if the equation.

    I think if they really are making their investment back in 1-2 months, even being the bad business man he is would have realised the value of the site based off of steady 8 figurure offers.

    Even at $10 Million, you make your investment back in 10 months, there is always a company willing to take that risk.

    I do think it's funny that if he was against affiliate marketing links he definitely sold out by selling to a company he knew would make his site an affiliate link farm. I personally don't see much of a difference between doing it yourself and selling out to someone that would. It would be different if he told the new owners to change the name of the site, but they would have never agreed to that.
    Last edited by PositiveVariance; 01-28-2023 at 12:59 AM.

  9. #429
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    Quote Originally Posted by PositiveVariance View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Mission146 View Post

    That's nice of you to say, but don't be too jealous.

    Some of the writing aspect of what I do requires a self-motivation that I often don't have! It's a pretty good gig, overall. I hope nobody takes me for a shill, but I also must admit that I get along fabulously with the LCB Group and ownership and don't remember ever having even the slightest disagreement with them.

    They've also never asked me to edit anything out or walk back my opinions on things, even when some of my statements have been unfavorable to online casinos. Not once. They sometimes request me to write about specific topics for various sites, but have never once told me what to say.
    That’s awesome to have that kind of relationship.
    When they first bought Wizard of Vegas for $2.35 Million, I thought they were out of their minds. After following Christopher Mitchell for the past 3 years and seeing first hand what kind of money he is pulling in with his small operation - I can only imagine the massive amount they are pulling in from their affiliate link from the #1 gambling site for most search engines. I would have to also guess that since they are so large, they probably get really good offers as an affiliate. Christopher Mitchell can max out at 35% revenue share (35% of money lost by customer that click your affiliate link). I’m sure they have new online casinos that come to them and offer 50% revenue share. Who knows maybe they take a quick $200 for every click.

    The thing I don’t understand is, I have seen past threads on WOV where it discusses Mike Shackleford asking for donations to keep the site up shortly before he sold it. Did he not realize the goldmine he had? Was he against affiliate marketing?

    I think he held out for the $2.35 Million since the site was “His Baby”. I don’t think he realized it had that kind of value.

    Mission, I know you are privy to information you probably can’t share. These were just some thoughts I had on the situation.
    I must admit that I'm not privy to anything on the business end and have no idea what the numbers are. I just write content. As long as I get paid on my invoices, and I always have, I assume the sites are doing well-enough. lol

    As I understand it, when Wizard owned the site, he was pretty adamant that he only wanted to advertise for Bovada. While his sites may have a great many readers, eventually, the VAST majority of the people who are going to sign up for Bovada already have. I don't believe that revenue splits (with affiliates) are perpetual, but I could be wrong. I believe it's on the first x number of deposits, or whatever has been agreed to. For that reason, even people who continue to use Bovada would have eventually ceased to be a revenue stream for the sites.

    If I had to guess, which I'm only doing because I'm not privy to any of the specifics, my guess would be that the purchase price wasn't based on the usual standard of 3-4 years of revenues, but rather, what LCB ownership anticipated the revenues could be (largely based on traffic) if the sites weren't beholden to only a single online casino.

    You'll note that the sites have links to several different online casinos now. While the Wizard's Seal of Approval should be construed as meaning no less than it did when the sites only advertised Bovada, the sites also advertise for some casinos that have not received the Wizard's Seal of Approval, (these are usually not featured casinos) and I don't think I am speaking out of class to suggest that Wizard would not do that if he still owned the sites.

    I would be surprised if there was any mechanism by which the sites were paid just for clickthroughs (not leading to deposits), but I wouldn't know.

    There's a spectrum in business between profiting by any means possible and running it with whatever integrity means to you. I don't think it's inappropriate of me to suggest that Wizard leaned WAY to the side of integrity when he owned the sites; so much so, in fact, that he sacrificed any real capability to make profits the longer the sites lasted. Like I said, you eventually run out of folks who don't already have Bovada accounts.

    While Wizard certainly cleaned up with the sale of the sites, to a certain extent, I imagine a lot of that was effectively making money which could have been revenues he would have otherwise realized had he been willing to have multiple advertisers whilst the sites were under his ownership.
    Last edited by Mission146; 01-28-2023 at 07:46 AM.

  10. #430
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    Quote Originally Posted by Small_Banana View Post
    Some casinos give affiliates a percentage of losses and others give them a percentage of theoretical losses. So if you are getting 20% of theoretical losses on a game that has a 5% edge, then you get 1% of the total volume risked...doesn't matter if they win or lose.

    GambleHouse.com was on of the first sites to advertise gambling on Google. This was over 20 years ago when it was allowed. The owner was spending $500,000/month on ads and was making millions in return.
    This is correct. I don't know the specifics of LCB contracts, as that has nothing to do with me, but I also know that some deals call for a percentage of the first x number of deposits...regardless of theo or actual loss. I only know that because a personal friend of mine has a non-competing website for local sports news and is presently working on a deal with one of his in-state regulated sportsbooks.

    ADDED: Also, the only reason I know that is because he ran more specific information on his prospective deal by me asking whether or not I found the proposal fair. I had to tell him, unfortunately, that I would have no idea as I have nothing to do with the business end. It sounded pretty fair, to me, but my opinion on that is no more qualified than his would be.

  11. #431
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    Quote Originally Posted by PROUDBOY MAGA 2024 View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by PositiveVariance View Post

    That’s awesome to have that kind of relationship.
    When they first bought Wizard of Vegas for $2.35 Million, I thought they were out of their minds. After following Christopher Mitchell for the past 3 years and seeing first hand what kind of money he is pulling in with his small operation - I can only imagine the massive amount they are pulling in from their affiliate link from the #1 gambling site for most search engines. I would have to also guess that since they are so large, they probably get really good offers as an affiliate. Christopher Mitchell can max out at 35% revenue share (35% of money lost by customer that click your affiliate link). I’m sure they have new online casinos that come to them and offer 50% revenue share. Who knows maybe they take a quick $200 for every click.

    The thing I don’t understand is, I have seen past threads on WOV where it discusses Mike Shackleford asking for donations to keep the site up shortly before he sold it. Did he not realize the goldmine he had? Was he against affiliate marketing?

    I think he held out for the $2.35 Million since the site was “His Baby”. I don’t think he realized it had that kind of value.

    Mission, I know you are privy to information you probably can’t share. These were just some thoughts I had on the situation.
    Rusty Shackleford is a big doofus outside of mathematics. Clueless businessman with NO people skills whatsoever. Jackie Chan et al, could have easily bought that site for half ( a little north of 1mil). Rusty made out like a bandit.
    Joshua Chan, for the record. I find it ironic that you suggest Wizard has no business skills at the same time you suggest that he got more for the site than you think he should have. "He sucks at business; man did he kill it making that deal!" LOL

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    Quote Originally Posted by Small_Banana View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by PositiveVariance View Post

    That’s awesome to have that kind of relationship.
    When they first bought Wizard of Vegas for $2.35 Million, I thought they were out of their minds. After following Christopher Mitchell for the past 3 years and seeing first hand what kind of money he is pulling in with his small operation - I can only imagine the massive amount they are pulling in from their affiliate link from the #1 gambling site for most search engines. I would have to also guess that since they are so large, they probably get really good offers as an affiliate. Christopher Mitchell can max out at 35% revenue share (35% of money lost by customer that click your affiliate link). I’m sure they have new online casinos that come to them and offer 50% revenue share. Who knows maybe they take a quick $200 for every click.

    The thing I don’t understand is, I have seen past threads on WOV where it discusses Mike Shackleford asking for donations to keep the site up shortly before he sold it. Did he not realize the goldmine he had? Was he against affiliate marketing?

    I think he held out for the $2.35 Million since the site was “His Baby”. I don’t think he realized it had that kind of value.

    Mission, I know you are privy to information you probably can’t share. These were just some thoughts I had on the situation.
    Mike Shackleford refused to post affiliate links on his site. His sole advertiser was Bodog/Bovada and I believe they paid him a fixed amount per month.

    With the amount of traffic his site gets, I think he could have pulled in 7 figures per month if he had affiliate links on his site. Mike doesn't seem like a sharp businessman. He sold his site for peanuts and gets a fixed salary while the new owners clean up with the affiliate links. And gambling online has never been easier thanks to crypto...no more credit card BS to worry about.
    I would be shocked and astounded if any single site, or the entire Wizard group of sites combined, has pulled in seven figures even in its best month, but I could be wrong. I wouldn't be surprised if the entire LCB family of websites have had the occasional seven-figure month, but admit I would have no idea. The rest of this is addressed in my reply to PositiveVariance.

  13. #433
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    Quote Originally Posted by PositiveVariance View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by Small_Banana View Post
    I think he could have pulled in 7 figures per month if he had affiliate links on his site.
    7 figures per MONTH?

    Assuming $1 Million per month ($12 Million year) this would put a value on the site of over $40 Million.

    I think if the revenue potential was this high he would have received 8 figure offers for the site on a regular basis.

    These companies that buy up these gambling sites have a very good idea of what they will earn. The amount of traffic to the site is known, as well as the "conversion rate" for the number of people who click these link. For the most part the "guess work" is taken out if the equation.

    I think if they really are making their investment back in 1-2 months, even being the bad business man he is would have realised the value of the site based off of steady 8 figurure offers.

    Even at $10 Million, you make your investment back in 10 months, there is always a company willing to take that risk.

    I do think it's funny that if he was against affiliate marketing links he definitely sold out by selling to a company he knew would make his site an affiliate link farm. I personally don't see much of a difference between doing it yourself and selling out to someone that would. It would be different if he told the new owners to change the name of the site, but they would have never agreed to that.
    Yeah, I strongly doubt the entire, "Wizard," branded family of sites has made seven figures in its best month, though I have to admit I wouldn't know.

    I imagine there was a lot of guesswork when it came to valuing the Wizard-branded sites. For one thing, the fact that there was only one advertiser artificially depressed the clickthrough rates; eventually, everyone who is going to get a Bovada account already has one, so no more clickthroughs. My guess is that they based the valuation and anticipated clickthroughs on sites they already had.

    The usual offer to buy out a website is between 3-4 years of that website's revenues. Again, when it comes to buying out the Wizard-branded sites, I would tend to think LCB offered 3-4 years worth of anticipated revenues after changing the business model to have more affiliates.

    The thing about having a single affiliate is that it is a smart business plan, but only for so long. It's a smart business plan to the extent that you have a well-known gambling mathematician and author putting shine on a single site and saying, essentially, "This is the only website I would trust and you have my personal assurance that I will help you if there's a conflict." I imagine he killed it with that model for the first several years, but again, you eventually hit a point where everyone who is going to sign up for Bovada has already done so.

    I think there's a bit of a difference in that Mike doesn't control the business end, that I know of. He got a great offer, is compensated to remain as basically the head of the Wizard family of sites and main content contributor and has significantly less work to do on the backend. Another aspect that doesn't escape my attention is one day Wizard, I assume, will retire...so eventually, he would have likely sold the sites anyway. Who would ever buy them other than someone with an intent to promote affiliate online casinos? I imagine that selling at a time where he was going to stick around for a few years as the main content contributor (especially for WoO) increased what LCB was willing to pay for the sites, but that's just an assumption.

     
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  14. #434
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    As Mission brought up, I believe many of these affiliate deals can be vastly different. The only company I am familiar with is BetOnline. I have posted a screenshot below of the revenue share from BOL. If your affiliates lose a minimum of $25k in a month, you get 35% of that. On slots they pay up to 45%. You can also earn a flat rate if someone clicks your affiliate link and signs up. All they have to do is make 1 deposit and you get $100. If you take the $100 option, that’s it, no revenue split.

    To be honest Im not a huge fan of revenue splits. I think watching Chrissy Mitchell left a bad taste in my mouth. On the flip side if I owned a site and someone simply clicked a link, I would have less of an issue with that.

    Over the years Wizard had to have people come to him and tell him what he is missing out on. Here’s the thing, outside of the forum members, most people that come to the site have no clue that Wizard doesn’t own it anymore. If they happen to get screwed by a casino, they will still think Wizard had a part in it since his site referred them.

    As far as the revenue splits being “perpetual”, I can’t speak for most sites, but I am almost certain with BOL it is perpetual. You guys remember Blackjack scammer Michael Morgenstern? He had an account here for a short time. One night, I believe he may have been drunk, I got him to post something that showed his BOL stats from Commission Kings. This showed his income for a particular month, more important it showed his current number of affiliates. He had OVER 1900. Yes, 1900 people clicked his link and deposited money. About an hour later he deleted all this. This was about a year ago. There is a slim chance that I may be wrong but I believe this is likely how he supports himself to this day - other than a few videos , he hasn’t been active for several years.

    If I was Wizard, I would have partnered with a small independent casino. Request a 50% revenue share and only promote that one casino. With this type of promotion, the casino would have no reason to cheat it’s customers. Then Wizard could stand behind the casino as he did Bodog. If they did cheat or not pay customers, Wizard could move to the next casino. In a way he would be the face of that casino. Even if he wasn’t morally happy with revenue splits, he could have taken a salary of say $200k month. I think he could have cleaned up with this model. If he really wanted to clean up advertise his sports lines at -108 vs -110. Or better yet, advertise 4% commission Baccarat. Remember with Baccarat you only have to have 1 table regardless of the number of players you have. With Blackjack you max out at 6 or 7 per table since everyone gets their own hand. Baccarat everyone is playing off the same cards. You can have 1,000 people at the same table - so why not advertise lower commissions even if it’s one day per week.

    Like Mission said, with Bovada you eventually run out of new customers. There comes a time when you have to change it up. Wizard decided to change it up by selling the site. I cant say I blame him. On the low end he will earn $200,000 per year off that $2.35.


    Mission, have you ever thought of starting a site. Or even a newsletter type site? Even getting 40-50 people clicking that link, you can clean up!



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    Last edited by PositiveVariance; 01-28-2023 at 11:19 AM.

  15. #435
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    Quote Originally Posted by PositiveVariance View Post
    As Mission brought up, I believe many of these affiliate deals can be vastly different. The only company I am familiar with is BetOnline. I have posted a screenshot below of the revenue share from BOL. If your affiliates lose a minimum of $25k in a month, you get 35% of that. On slots they pay up to 45%. You can also earn a flat rate if someone clicks your affiliate link and signs up. All they have to do is make 1 deposit and you get $100. If you take the $100 option, that’s it, no revenue split.

    To be honest Im not a huge fan of revenue splits. I think watching Chrissy Mitchell left a bad taste in my mouth. On the flip side if I owned a site and someone simply clicked a link, I would have less of an issue with that.

    Over the years Wizard had to have people come to him and tell him what he is missing out on. Here’s the thing, outside of the forum members, most people that come to the site have no clue that Wizard doesn’t own it anymore. If they happen to get screwed by a casino, they will still think Wizard had a part in it since his site referred them.

    As far as the revenue splits being “perpetual”, I can’t speak for most sites, but I am almost certain with BOL it is perpetual. You guys remember Blackjack scammer Michael Morgenstern? He had an account here for a short time. One night, I believe he may have been drunk, I got him to post something that showed his BOL stats from Commission Kings. This showed his income for a particular month, more important it showed his current number of affiliates. He had OVER 1900. Yes, 1900 people clicked his link and deposited money. About an hour later he deleted all this. This was about a year ago. There is a slim chance that I may be wrong but I believe this is likely how he supports himself to this day - other than a few videos , he hasn’t been active for several years.

    If I was Wizard, I would have partnered with a small independent casino. Request a 50% revenue share and only promote that one casino. With this type of promotion, the casino would have no reason to cheat it’s customers. Then Wizard could stand behind the casino as he did Bodog. If they did cheat or not pay customers, Wizard could move to the next casino. In a way he would be the face of that casino. Even if he wasn’t morally happy with revenue splits, he could have taken a salary of say $200k month. I think he could have cleaned up with this model. Like Mission said, with Bovada you eventually run out of new customers.


    Mission, have you ever thought of starting a site. Or even a newsletter type site? Even getting 40-50 people clicking that link, you can clean up!
    (Image removed from quote to minimize space)

    It's kind of like you basically said: We all sort of have our own lines that we draw. You wouldn't be comfortable with a revenue split, but if you had a site, you wouldn't have a problem with getting a flat rate per depositing player, even though you know that it would likely not make as much total money as the split would. A single well-bankrolled person with a serious gambling problem could potentially garner you revenues that would pay for any number of individuals who make one deposit that results in $100/pop revenue for you.

    My line is that I have no moral qualms about writing for a gambling site, especially if I'm telling the truth anyway. My signature on WoV goes to this post:

    https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/off-...20/#post815219

    If that tells you anything.

    With that, there's simply no way that I would be willing to own a website that profits as being an affiliate to any casino. I'm not going to sit here and claim that I could do what I do, how I do it, without people losing money on online casinos, because both of us know that claim would be total bullshit. That said, I feel like my owning a website would be, de facto, directly encouraging the very behavior that I am directly profiting off of, regardless of what my articles/posts/pages did or did not say.

    Beyond that, LCB ownership has treated me so well that I would never want to compete with them. Nor would I ever want to work for anyone else in the context of being a gambling writer. Why wouldn't I want to just continue to work for the same people who have treated me so well, for years, and with whom my interactions have always been agreeable? Seems like it would be a betrayal, if you want my opinion.

    I definitely wouldn't want to do the Morgenstern model. I don't even see the point in what he did other than the money enabled him to gamble more. Total black hole. Not interested. I do online and PA Skill Games mostly now and only go to land casinos often enough to have some idea what the hell I'm talking about; too depressing otherwise.

    Greed comes with strange consequences. I've also found that the line in the sand where one crosses over into, "Greed Territory," isn't quite as far out there as we might initially assume. I try to stay well short of that line as the thought of what might happen to me, or worse, to other people because of me, is quite alarming. Besides, greed causes a certain single-mindedness that could cause me to ignore the many other things that I presently enjoy doing.

    In short, gambling and writing about gambling is just a job, man. Nothing more or less than that. Maybe I will go into business for myself one day, but that business will have exactly nothing to do with gambling if I do.

     
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      PositiveVariance: Fair enough

  16. #436
    Owner Dan Druff's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Small_Banana View Post
    Quote Originally Posted by PositiveVariance View Post

    That’s awesome to have that kind of relationship.
    When they first bought Wizard of Vegas for $2.35 Million, I thought they were out of their minds. After following Christopher Mitchell for the past 3 years and seeing first hand what kind of money he is pulling in with his small operation - I can only imagine the massive amount they are pulling in from their affiliate link from the #1 gambling site for most search engines. I would have to also guess that since they are so large, they probably get really good offers as an affiliate. Christopher Mitchell can max out at 35% revenue share (35% of money lost by customer that click your affiliate link). I’m sure they have new online casinos that come to them and offer 50% revenue share. Who knows maybe they take a quick $200 for every click.

    The thing I don’t understand is, I have seen past threads on WOV where it discusses Mike Shackleford asking for donations to keep the site up shortly before he sold it. Did he not realize the goldmine he had? Was he against affiliate marketing?

    I think he held out for the $2.35 Million since the site was “His Baby”. I don’t think he realized it had that kind of value.

    Mission, I know you are privy to information you probably can’t share. These were just some thoughts I had on the situation.
    Mike Shackleford refused to post affiliate links on his site. His sole advertiser was Bodog/Bovada and I believe they paid him a fixed amount per month.

    With the amount of traffic his site gets, I think he could have pulled in 7 figures per month if he had affiliate links on his site. Mike doesn't seem like a sharp businessman. He sold his site for peanuts and gets a fixed salary while the new owners clean up with the affiliate links. And gambling online has never been easier thanks to crypto...no more credit card BS to worry about.
    By the time he sold it, the forum had lost a lot of activity. His Wizardofodds site was still getting good traffic, but I don't think as good as before. He had affiliate links, and I don't think they were generating that much, especially because AP gamblers don't click on them.

    I think he got as much as he could have.

     
    Comments
      
      PROUDBOY MAGA 2024: It was mainly his lack of people skills for the MASS EXODUS. He runs his site/house polar opposite from you. Straight up wannabe Dicktator !

  17. #437
    Silver Mission146's Avatar
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    Here's the article on the group pull stuff; link to PFA in the first sentence:

    https://wizardofvegas.com/articles/s...d-shenanigans/

     
    Comments
      
      JoeD:
      
      The Boz: Good stuff! Can’t credit you over there.������
      
      Tellafriend:
      
      JeffDime: Great to see such great journalistic work covering the gambling world!

  18. #438
    Silver Mission146's Avatar
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    Thank you for the comments! I'm afraid I don't know how to add to them, or I would do that.

  19. #439
    Gold PositiveVariance's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mission146 View Post
    Thank you for the comments! I'm afraid I don't know how to add to them, or I would do that.
    Good article.

    As far as the comments that are under a post with either green or red, you can add up to 1 comment per post as long as you are not the author of that particular post.

    You can add a comment to a post by clicking the “star” icon that is in the bottom left corner of every post (except your own post). You can click “positive” (green) or “negative” (red) if you dislike the post along with your comments.

    Mission, are you paid for the WOV articles as well?

     
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      Mission146: Thank you very much! If it's not a post or a response to a comment on an article, then I am paid for it.

  20. #440
    YouTube Content Creator EZ Life Slot Jackpots's Avatar
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    Since someone decided to post an article picking apart my video (and they are here) and have even went as far as private messaging me today let's dive into this.

    1. I believe this person or website runs its own virtual gambling pool which seems why they are so inclined to have incentive to think this is legal.

    2. To accept money from people to gamble with and make profit is illegal. You can choose to pick apart my words and video as much as you'd like but that was the purpose of the video.

    3. As in the articles posted by actual news outlets, this is the first case of it's kind, do you really think the end results will be: IT'S LEGAL?

    4. Google is your friend:
    http://www.gambling-law-us.com/Feder.../wire-act.htm/
    http://www.gambling-law-us.com/Artic...-Wire-Act.htm/

     
    Comments
      
      JeffDime: Great work EZ! If it weren’t for you so much scumbaggery would never see the surface.
      
      Tellafriend: i really enjoyed the d-rucky expo; f/u on the scammer!

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