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Animal Crossing + NERDS Candy = NERDS World

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NERDS® ANNOUNCES NERDS WORLD; AN IMMERSIVE EXPERIENCE WITHIN NINTENDO’S ANIMAL CROSSING: NEW HORIZONS 

In Partnership with Non-Profit Cybersmile, NERDS World Will Support Brand’s Ongoing Commitment to Make the Internet a Friendlier Place  

Iconic candy brand NERDS® announced the launch of NERDS World, an interactive branded experience debuting within Nintendo’s highly-popular life simulation game Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Available in the United Kingdom, Australia and Canada, NERDS World offers players a positive outlet, allowing them to engage in a unique, user-generated experience including fun and inspirational activities.

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NERDS World is in support of the brand’s ongoing “Stay NERD” campaign, which encourages consumers to “embrace their nerdiness” by believing in themselves and supporting others. As part of this mission, NERDS partnered with The Cybersmile Foundation in early 2020, with a shared goal of making the internet a safer space for young users by tackling issues related to cyber-bullying and online abuse.

“At NERDS, we stand for inclusivity, belonging and positivity, because as a brand we celebrate how we are all better together,” said Kelly Peyser, Senior Brand Manager for NERDS“We saw Animal Crossing: New Horizons as an ideal place to bring these values to life, as the game creates a positive, fun experience where players don’t compete against one another but instead work together to create thriving communities online.”  

 

Inside the NERDS World  

A vibrant island destination, NERDS World is perfectly imperfect-shaped just like NERDScandy, and covered with decorations in the brand’s signature colors – purple and pink – along with stickers and fun Easter Eggs surprises. While in NERDS World, players can explore and engage in fun activities and win prizes:

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  • Fans can explore within the island by themselves or with others.
  • Players can receive a guided visit to NERDS World – which is led by a NERDS avatar – by using a Dodo Code that NERDS will share via Instagram and Facebook. Dodo Codes will be accessible at @NERDSCandiesAUS (Australia), @NERDSCandies_UK (UK), and @NERDSCandies_Canada (Canada), or fans can simply visit NERDS World via a Dream Address.
  • Throughout the game, fans have the chance to receive special merchandise as well as take pictures with the different photo spots all through the island.
  • Fans can stay tuned for more surprises throughout the month with special activities and challenges released in the NERDS World platform throughout the month-long activation.

Driving Good in the World Through NERDS World  

NERDS World will serve as a resource for players who want to learn more about or seek help related to online abuse or cyber-bullying. The island will be equipped with an innovative AI Assistant tool and QR codes, which will provide access to different Cybersmile resources, and will be populated with positive messages and tips throughout.

The activation is launching at a record-breaking time for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which became Nintendo Switch’s fastest selling title ever after launching in March 2020, selling 13.4M units in its first six weeks. Animal Crossing: New Horizons is Nintendo’s second-best selling game of the year, selling 22.4 million copies since its release. The wide popularity of the game globally can be attributed in part to social circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, where isolation has resulted in many consumers seeking indoor activities which allow them to stay engaged and connected to others.

“Especially during a time where the world looks different these days, NERDS World will provide players of all ages with the opportunity to connect virtually with friends and family, as well as build an even broader community online,”stated Scott Freeman, Cybersmile Director. “We are incredibly excited to be working with NERDS to introduce this creative destination, which will serve as a support system for young internet users across the world.”

Starting today, NERDS World will be available through December 17, 2020. Animal Crossing: New Horizon can be enjoyed on a Nintendo Switch console and is rated E for everyone. For more information, please visit www.staynerd.live.

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PA Betting Services and Liderform forge strategic partnership to elevate racing content for Turkish audiences

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PA Betting Services (PABS) are thrilled to announce a groundbreaking partnership with Liderform, the premier specialist racing form publication in Turkey. This multi-year agreement marks a significant milestone in the evolution of international racing, as Liderform integrates PABS’s pre-race stats and tipping from nine prominent racing regions into their own tipping product. The collaboration aims to enhance the quality of international racing coverage, offering Turkish audiences access to top-tier insights and analysis as they engage with racing through approved Tote partners.

With this alliance, Liderform solidifies its commitment to delivering unparalleled racing content to its customers, leveraging PABS’s expertise in pre-race analysis and tipping to augment their existing offerings. By incorporating PABS’s comprehensive data and insights, Liderform seeks to enrich the experience of Turkish racing enthusiasts and foster a deeper engagement with unparalleled insights and analysis across international racing events.

Richard Duncan, Head of Business Development & Strategic Partnerships at PABS, expressed his enthusiasm for the partnership, stating, “This partnership with Liderform presents an opportunity to promote PABS’s pre-race tipping and statistical content, which has a proven track record of success in domestic markets, to new international audiences. We couldn’t be more excited to work with Liderform to enhance their market-leading form products.”

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The collaboration between Liderform and PABS represents a strategic alignment of two industry leaders, each renowned for their commitment to excellence in racing content. Murat Akyer, CEO of Liderform, emphasised the significance of the partnership, stating, “The breadth and quality of pre-race international form, stats, and tipping content made PABS the obvious choice to enhance our leading form solution. This collaboration not only enhances Liderform’s position as the leading Turkish provider of racing form solutions but also underscores our dedication to innovation and delivering value to our audience.”

The post PA Betting Services and Liderform forge strategic partnership to elevate racing content for Turkish audiences appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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Back in Full Force! Hacksaw Gaming Makes Epic Come Back in Croatia with Hrvatska Lutrija!

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We’re back breaking the boundaries of remote gaming in Croatia! This also marks the start of an exciting new partnership with Hrvatska Lutrija, the national lottery of Croatia.

Star titles Chaos Crew, Wanted Dead or a Wild, Hand of Anubis and RIP City, to name a few, are now available on Hrvatska Lutrija’s online platform (Cro Casino) as of the 16th April. Cro Casino highly values responsible gaming principles, with a focus on top customer support and social responsible gaming principles.

Hacksaw Gaming is thrilled to celebrate this new collaboration, and is adamant that Cro Casino players will be starstruck with the variety of our games, offering multiple themes, features and mechanics that showcase our innovative and dynamic approach to creating the ultimate user experience.

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Marcus Cordes, Hacksaw Gaming CEO stated that he is “pleased to welcome Hrvatska Lutrija to our growing list of partners. We’re committed to growing our global presence, and being able to reach more players in Croatia with Cro Casino is just what we need to keep on track!” 

Our partnership with Hrvatska Lutrija marks yet another milestone. Emphasizing responsible gaming principles, Cro Casino aligns perfectly with our commitment to providing an exceptional player experience. All that’s left to say is… “Bok” to our Croatian fans!

The post Back in Full Force! Hacksaw Gaming Makes Epic Come Back in Croatia with Hrvatska Lutrija! appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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The untapped potential of SEO in iGaming

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With Filip Podborschi, SEO Strategist at The Unit

From our experience in SEO in igaming, there are a number of areas where we see room for improvement and common mistakes which can be rectified. Let’s take a look at these facets of SEO one by one, with our best tips for how to make sure you can maximise your search ranking and drive more volume to your website.

Keyword strategy

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The first thing operators should do in this area is identify the best performing keywords that result in higher search volumes on each post. It’s pages that rank rather than websites, so you need a different search intent on each page, and that increases the list of keywords you’re ranking for.

The way to do this is by checking the search volume, and then implementing the keywords according to SEO best practices, which means having primary and secondary keywords and adjusting repetition accordingly.

The common mistake we see here is that companies don’t go into enough depth when conducting competitive analysis; especially when they’re new to the industry. Identifying what exactly your competitors are doing regarding SEO is harder than it looks, and it’s an area where marketing agencies tend to be quite lazy. They may use some tools which will show the standout competitors by algorithm, but they won’t crawl for long enough to ascertain what services they offer and provide a comparison with their client’s service. You need to find out which sites could be ranking better than you, and why.

We also see issues with the ranking of sites based on the user’s location. For example, you may have a website that ranks well in Canada, and when I as a user based in Romania search for that category, I’m not going to get the same list of results as a user who is based in Canada. The best thing to do is use a VPN to gauge how your websites are ranking and performing with your specific audience in your domestic geographical area.

SEO tags optimisation

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With SEO tags, which are essentially the page title and description you see on the search engine results page, the page title has the highest ranking power. Google will first check the page title to get an idea of what the page is about and what searches it is relevant for. It will then check the H1 and the content, and it may look through the H2 as well.

A common issue here is some websites have templated SEO tags, especially for the inner pages, so it’s more of a formula within the code to generate a random structure. It is very obvious they are templated and that the operator doesn’t really care about the length.

The key thing with tags is to make sure your pages have titles that don’t exceed the ideal length. This is a big mistake if you get this wrong, and it is very important to optimise your titles. SEO tags can be optimised around keywords. Once doing so, it is very important to prioritise your main pages. If you have 10 pages as part of the main menu, then you should optimise those, before optimising the inner pages.

Identifying duplicate pages is also important, as well as making sure meta inscriptions include CTAs; those inscriptions don’t impact rankings directly, but they do impact the CTR. You have to do that without being too spammy though, so it’s advisable to avoid words like ‘sale’ or calls to “CLICK HERE NOW”.

Headings

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Keywords must be implemented in headings; especially in H1s and H2s. Make sure not to overuse H2s and keep them optimised for content value.

If we structure the ranking power of the elements that are bringing results, we would optimise with the page title first, H1 second, content third and H2s fourth. It is better to have five H2s with three of them being optimised around the same search intent that is highlighted in H1, than it is to have 3/10 optimised around keywords. Too many H2s will just confuse Google about your search intent. You can have similar search intent as with H1s, and also have H3s and H4s to highlight value to the reader.

Interlinking strategy

Interlinking between pages is often missing. I’m not talking about interlinking from the main menu, as every page has the ability for you to go back, but I’m talking about interlinking within content, which Google considers to be much more important, because it cares about the relevancy. Google will consider pages with high-quality content as a higher authority page.

Our advice would be to implement anchor links on both branded and non-branded keywords. You should make sure there is an anchor link to the parent page. For example, domain.com/blog is a parent for domain.com/blog/igaming-seo.

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It’s very important to have child pages linking to the parent page, passing authority to the parent page. Having that interlinked structure will pass more authority to that parent page.

To explain that in a little more detail, let’s say you have a sportsbook page with 10 more child pages that reflect a particular set of sports. Having each of those 10 pages optimised so they have some authority and linking them to the parent page would pass authority to that parent page. Parent pages usually have a keyword with higher search volume, and passing as much authority as you can to the child page is very important. Too often websites lack content on child pages.

The future of SEO and experience needed

Going forward, we see AI as one of the most significant developments in SEO. At this point, we are not able to rank user engagement in AI, and it is important to keep yourself updated with how Google is reacting to this.

Google in time may provide additional options if you want to be eligible for a particular set of results in that environment. Keep an eye on what features it will offer and the types of websites. Google may consider implementing specific types of results for betting, such as displaying odds or a comparison of odds from three or four sites at the same time.

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With all these issues, it is vital to have the relevant experience on board, particularly when it comes to the skill of conducting very in-depth competitor analysis, and this is something The Unit can provide. Conducting competitor analysis is something we have done across several industries, and not just in igaming. The main strength you can have with SEO is to know your competitors inside out, and those skills can be adjusted based on your needs.

The post The untapped potential of SEO in iGaming appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.

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