In this edition of Affiliate Spotlight, Lee-Ann Johnstone speaks to SlotsCalendar.com. Founded in September 2018, this website provides online slot reviews and allows players to try game demos.
SlotsCalendar discusses why they think it’s important that customers understand the games they play. The affiliate also talks about how to combat potential future challenges within slots, along with what makes it unique.
Affiverse: What made you start this affiliate site?
SlotsCalendar: SlotsCalendar.com went live with the primary goal of becoming the Internet’s main slots database. We have an excellent partnership with the biggest casino content aggregator on the market, CasinoEngine. They have given us access to all of their demo slots. We wanted to make this information public – available to all players, and not just operators.
AI: What are the key USPs you wanted to give to casino players? How have you differentiated your brand to provide these services online?
SC: Standard affiliate sites tend to focus on bonuses and casinos, because this is what converts and makes the most money. Our approach is a bit different, because the main focus is on demo slots. We have all relevant play for slots, oldies but goldies, new slots and even games that have yet to be released. All of these can be played for fun, in demo mode, and are backed up by a review.
Another cool functionality available on our website is the calendar – known as the Slots Calendar. Here, users can see in real-time when a slot will be, or was released. They can also choose to receive a notification once the slot game goes live. The calendar shows the latest demo slots by day, week, month and year.
We also offer custom, tailor-made bonuses for each demo slot. These come from casinos that offer whichever software provider created the game.
We’re working hard to match everything so that our beloved users get the full casino experience. We already have an impressive amount of demo slots, bonuses and casinos, and keep adding dozens more daily. We intend to grow even higher and reach that sweet spot where users find the right information on SlotsCalendar. That’s why we’re already working on making SlotsCalendar a multilingual website, so we can accommodate all players.
AI: Why is it important for players to really understand slot games? How can they use your demo section to get the facts they need to play responsibly?
SC: It’s neither responsible, nor fun to play something you don’t fully understand. That’s why we believe it’s important that players know what they’re doing before betting real money. We put great importance on responsible gambling and want to ensure that all players know exactly how everything works.
With the use of demo slots, players get to experience the game just as it is, for free, with no risk whatsoever, no download and no registration. This a great way to understand the game and practice before playing it for real money. By knowing what to expect from the game, related risks are greatly diminished.
And it’s not just for the demo slots that we try to educate users. The game page will show all the details that need to be known beforehand. On the right side of the page, you have some sort of a table of contents. This section tells you the reel setup, RTP, volatility, jurisdiction, bet level, software provider, game category, release date and even a grade from 1 to 10.
This, as well as the full review (graphics, bonus features, gameplay, pros and cons) created by the content team that actually plays the games, and the free demo version will give players the complete picture.
By reading all the information that’s provided to them and trying the demo version, players will have no surprises when they decide to play at a licensed online casino.
AI: New games are being created all the time. How does your website help to keep players in tune with new releases?
SC: This is our biggest differentiator. Due to the integration we have with CasinoEngine, we know everything about all the slot games. Right now we’re improving the integration in order to receive data in real-time, directly, without any type of human interaction. This way we will be able to bring players more data related to each individual slot faster, so we can keep players informed about their favourite slots – along with future releases.
On SlotsCalendar, you’ll find countless types of video slots (video, classic, jackpots, movie, etc.). These can be played on both desktops and laptops, as well as mobile devices. We make sure that we add many great new slots, even by category, so that players can easily find the most popular themes for slots. These can range from Halloween and Christmas slots to Cleopatra, 777, or anything else they might be interested in.
No matter what device players choose to play the newest slots on, they’ll see that we have blazing fast loading times and constantly add new and exciting functionalities constantly to help make the experience better and better.
AI: What’s the biggest challenge that your content team faces, in keeping your site up-to-date delivering responsible gaming content?
SC: Our biggest challenge is accepting that there’s a difference between what we want to do and what’s humanly possible, and pacing ourselves. We feel a huge responsibility to provide slot players with complete and unbiased information, and strive to give them anything they want. This takes a lot of research, reassessing, reevaluating and rewriting to always keep adding and improving.
The gambling industry is huge. we’re talking about thousands and thousands of games, bonuses and casinos, and getting to them all as soon as possible is a challenge for sure.
One of the things that makes us unique is that we give players the chance to play demo slots and read reviews of games that haven’t even been released yet. But getting our hands on that info, especially when the software providers are still keen on keeping it a secret, isn’t an easy task.
Another daily challenge we take on is ensuring that players are given accurate and helpful information. We make bonus views so that players completely understand the terms and conditions of each offer. However, online casinos sometimes write these in a way that’s complicated to understand. Either that, or it takes a long team to read the entire document. But we do read them, and then analyse and ‘translate’ them for players to digest easily. This way, they know before heading to the casino whether any offer is right or not.
AI: As a casino affiliate, what do you think is the biggest challenge for 2020 and beyond? How will you prefer that operators assist you in tackling these, and building successful relationships?
SC: As for any company within online gambling, constant regulatory changes are a big challenge. We’re looking forward to having all the markets fully regulated. Then, we’ll know in advance the rules of the game and how to protect players. It also means that we won’t risk getting banned by local governments, without explanation.
The parent company of SlotsCalendar is GSH Online Media, which also owns other affiliate brands. Although the SlotsCalendar website is new, the team behind it is experienced. They own affiliate brands that have been market leaders for over 20 years.
We praise the UKGC and we think all the other GEOs should follow their example. You might call us crazy for saying this as affiliates, especially when thinking about the fact that all their changes have a direct impact on our profitability. But we think there’s something more important than profit, and that’s our social responsibility.
We must remember that our industry is sensitive, and there are people out there who can cross the line between fun and … not fun anymore. It’s our duty to do what we can to protect them and make sure that fun is always fun, even if this has an impact on our profitability.
