Death of the Browser-Cookie..?

Hi, everybody

hope, this is the correct thread. I`ve been meaning to ask this for while now, mainly because nobody but me (or so it seems to me, at least) seems to really care about the current (and here to stay) tracking obstacles, i.e.

- the millions of "Do-not-track"-plugin downloads
- pretty much all browsers deleting cookies upon closing set as default now
- many users not accepting any cookies ever and so on...

For at least two years now, conversions here are on a constant path downwards; what used to be 30 clicks to the bookies for a signup and 50-70 for a depositor, is now well into the hundreds. It`s not a bookie-issue either, numbers are approaching zero over all programs, the well known, that used to convert great to the lesser known names, all the same. What I used to refer daily is now a monthly number (some not even).

For the 2-3 biggest names here in German sportsbetting, I used to generate 100 signups each a month easily, even during the summer months, now I can only dream about that number in total per month.

It is simply inconceivable, that for example 500 visitors deliberately and voluntarily click to the one bookie everybody over her knows and trusts knowing full well where they are going and (maybe) 1 or 2 only sign up.


So, I guess what I`m trying to get at is: Am I seeing ghosts and noone but me experiences conversion rates falling off a cliff over the last years ? I`ve been doing this since 2002, btw...

Problem is also, that the programs apparantly (and for good reason, of course) do not seem to be overly eager to come up with a solution to this, after all we are sending them players and they don`t have to pay for them, because they are not being tracked and it isn`t even their fault.

Thanks in advance
Ben

Some of what you are saying is true.

Some users are denying cookies or deleting at the end of session.
Conversions rate are generally down on 2002, 2005 or 2010.

But there are a myriad of reasons, I can think of 5 main reasons - here they are in order of importance :

1/ High Bot levels.
Unless you are filtering out scrapper / spam bots (IP banning / user agent scanning) then 50-60% of your clicks may not be human.
Amazon AWS et al do not provide human visitors just bots visiting every link and page looking for content and/or email addresses.
A single bot can produce 10,20 even 50 clicks if you have a big site.

2/ User account saturation.
Many visitors (especially loyal repeat visitors) already have an account there.
They will click through to place a bet - not open an account - thus lowing account open percentages.

3/ Geo-restrictions on account open.
European bookmakers are continually having to close markets and restrict access.
It is very hard to keep up-to-date with this, and presenting a correct bookmaker choice to an international audience is tricky.
We have visitors from 180 different countries each month - and using geo-tech to present correct choices is an important step.

4/ Geo-restriction on wallet use and deposit.
The US and UK markets are now both prevented from using e-wallets at non-licensed sites.
In 2002 - they would have been 50-75% of the total market value?

5/ Cookies.
Cookie restriction is a real situation but only in 5-10% of cases.
Most people like to stay logged into a favourite forum and/or Google+, Facebook, Twitter and this happens via cookies.
Most cookies seem to last a month or so before being deleted / cleaned.
I estimate only 10-15% of end users are stopping cookies/deleting cookies at session end.

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But that's just my opinion - how have you quantified what is happening to you?
What numbers do you see?

Has anyone else looked at the reducing signups phenomena and come to conclusions?
Please share.
8-)

I just think everyone is a member already.