Ok, the summer months are generally quite a challenge even under the best conditions. Players are offline more on Holiday or outdoors enjoying the weather and summer activities. So we all expect business to be off for July and August and plan and budget accordingly.
But this year and August in particular has been really rough. To the above factors we have to add:
1. A severely depressed US economy. Analyists claim this is now improving, but it's been a rough ride in the Orlando area with relatively high unemployment in the tech sector and much lower raises and spendable income for those fortunate enough to have secure jobs. I understand this is generally true across the country and it has impacted our sales.
2. The Great Blackout. This single event basically killed NE business during a critical mid month weekend period. Several of the casino groups we work with were down and not serving banners so even though the rest of the country and world were online they couldnt see this casinos. Obviously this will effect the bottom line for August.
3. Viruses and Worms Run Wild. In August we faced the Blaster Worm quickly follow by the SoBig F virus which has been awarded the dubious title of the fastest spreading Virus seen so far http://www.msnbc.com/news/955498.asp
These two viruses clogged networks, slowed access time and disrupted legitimate email marketing efforts over a two week period in August. While things are improving today SoBig is still causing problems for many internet users and leading them to do mass purges of thier incoming emails.
4. Lower conversions due to increased difficulty processing online gambling transactions. The noose is getting ever tighter and our players are getting more and more frustrated in regards to banking. Even previously accepted debit cards are now routinely rejected. You can see evidence of this in the increased number of Neteller promotions offered by the casinos as they scramble to find alternative payment methods that offset the lost revenues.
5. US Legislation. The spectre of this alone is depressing sales and causing financial institutions to tighthen security further in anticipation of new anti gambling laws being enacted in late 2003 or early 2004.
All of these factors have certainly made the summer of 2003 one we will not soon forget.
