About the Initial Facebook Application
About the facebook Application
The initial facebook application we are building has two primary components:
1. An application for facebook users who like to gamble and visit casinos (players)
We are building an application that lets a facebook user record casinos and other types of gaming sites and facilities they have visited (both land-based and online). Currently we are calling it the “Casinos I’ve Visited” application, although we are likely to change that name. Users can use the application to record planned trips, whether they had a big win, and other information of that nature, and can also tell stories about their visits. Being a facebook application, this information will be published to their friends - I'm going to foxwoods this weekend. I won a slot tournament at river belle casino, or, as in the case of one of our employees a few months ago, I won $45K playing keno.
For land-based casinos we'll show where they are on a map. For both land and online casinos we'll let users of the applications indicate their favorites. And the links to online casinos will carry affiliate codes.
2. A back-end application for GPWA members to be able to promote their websites and earn revenue directly on facebook (affiliates)
If a facebook user adds the “Casinos I’ve Visited” application based on your invitation, then anyone following a link published by that player to go to an online gaming site with which you have a relationship will be sent using your affiliate codes. You will be able to promote the application from your portal websites, in e-mail messages, and directly from within facebook. As a GPWA member you will have access to a back-end application that you can use to specify the affiliate codes for the various online gaming sites with which you work. You will also be able to provide information about a portal site and a facebook group you would like to feature within the “Casinos I’ve Visited” pages of the players you invite.
We're also build a back-end reporting facility that provides statistics about the traffic through the application attributable to your players, and information such as what casinos they visit and what are their favorites. We think GPWA webmasters will be able to use this infrastructure to promote their portal site and also generate some extra, potentially significant, revenue with very little work within facebook.
Why we think the application will be successful
As the application evolves we believe it will allow people to do a good job of sharing information about their gambling activities with their friends. The facebook "Cities I've Visited" application is quite popular, and we think the "Casinos I've visited" shares many of the good social networking aspects as this application. Users of the application will be able to see their friend's favorite gaming destinations (both online and land-based), and share information, such as a big win, that they want their friends to know about.
We also think allowing users of the application to share both land-based and online gaming favorites is important. If friends that gamble in land-based facilities connect using the application, and one of the friends gambles online, we believe that knowing where their friends gamble online, with links directly to those sites where they play, will significantly increase the liklihood that their friends will decide to sign-up and play too. We think this is good for everyone in the industry, since this type of association with friends who gamble online increases the perceived legitimacy of online gaming.
Current Status
Currently, the facebook “Casinos I’ve Visited” application is available for beta-testing. While a lot of development work has been done on this application, it is still undergoing rapid change, there are still lots of known issues, and there are still many important functions and features we feel we need to add, so be gentle. It is also important to know that we have focused primarily on the way the application works, and not so much on making it pretty yet. But don't worry, we will make it pretty!
We are still working on the affiliate management back-end application, and we currently expect it will not be until late March or early April until that part of the application will be ready to be used in the beta testing process.
Feedback
Your input on the application is very important to us. Let us know what you like, what you found confusing, what you think we got absolutely wrong, what clever idea you have that you think would make a difference, and, of course, what didn’t work when you tried it.
When you have comments or suggestions, please create a separate thread for each major area or topic. That will help to organize the feedback we receive from everyone, and make it easier for everyone to follow along.
Michael
