First Russian Social & Mobile Gambling Conference held in Moscow

Gambling in social networks and on mobile platforms is growing and expensive segment of digital economy with an increasing share of the global gaming market. By 2015, its market turnover will grow from us$1.7 billion to us$2.5 billion.

"I am glad to greet you at SMGC conference, dedicated to casino games in social networks and on mobile devices. There are many talented and successful developers, operators, those engaged in promoting such content in Russia and the CIS. As you know, in recent times, due to strict legislation, these people are focused not on Russian market but on markets of Western Europe and Southeast Asia. Today we will learn how this segment works, how to succeed in it, will talk about development and state of the market," so was the welcoming speech by Oleg Vlasov, director of SNCE and MATE Expos, who in addition to these duties moderated SMGCconference.

Among other speakers of the conference were: NikolayIvanuh (Dohapoker), Vitaliy Makarov (PokerMoscow), Grainne Farrell (KamaGames), Arten Makarov (Trademob GmbH), Natalia Lebedeva (Infinity 2 Global), AndreyVerbin (Studio Mobile), AhmetTosun (TIMWE), Galina Davikova(Clickky), Maria Lepschikova ("Legal Line") etc.

Using the example of his project Dohapoker, NikolayIvanuh told the audience how to develop a gamble with minimum effort and human resources, a game one year later more than 50 000 people will play. Speaker was literally bombarded with questions - everyone was interested to get first-hand information. The audience liked Nikolay sociability, as he spoke not only about game development methods, but also about investments and achievements, expressed numerically.

Vitaliy Makarov, founder of portal about gambling PokerMoscow, didanalytical review of the situation in gambling market in social networks and told about its prospects in detail. The speaker also gave valuable advice to those who want to work in this segment - you should start right now, as rapid financial growth in this business will continue only in next two years. Vitaliy, who is rather hazardous person, draw the audience into discussion about the intricacies of pokergame, and that created special atmosphere when everybody was at the same wavelength.

Grainne Farrell, marketing manager atKamaGames, spoke about tools of promotion of gambling, about failures from her own experience, and told howshe managed to transform her failures into success and increase the number of loyal players. Grainne is interesting speaker not only as market expert, but also as fan of many popular games.

Arten Makarov spoke about the latest developments of his company and promotion tools of gambling using RTB technology. When Arten finished his report, he was simply bombarded with questions, offers and business cards: that was not only due to the fact that during his speech he demonstrated unique knowledge, but also because he is very competent and experienced speaker. His report, lasting 40 minutes, felt like if it was 5 minutes long - it was so much interesting for the audience.

After the break, Natalia Lebedeva told how using alternative sources that seemingly are not related to games (music service that allows anybody to make his own record), to attract the audience to the portal and retain existing players. Speaker did it by example of her gaming portal I2G. Natalia report also raised many questions and caused active discussion as it suggested quite a bold approach to promotion of games.

AhmetTosun advised using what payment systems and mobile applications one can monetize the project and increase customer loyalty and how to make players feel more confident about payment systems and make players more often use these payment systems during game play.

AndreyVerbin shared experiences in promoting his successful project PokerPlas, developed at his studio -Studiomobile. He alsospoke on one of the most important topics for the audience –ways to return players.

One of the most interesting and popular speeches at the conference was presentation by Maria Lepschikova as there are just a few experts of such level in Russia. Maria told about the peculiarities of Russian legislation related to online gambling and advertising of gambling.

SMGC included reports such as:

• "Trends and prospects of social and online gambling";

• "Market Segmentation - targeted marketing and customer retention";

• "Emergence and prospects of online poker in social networks";

• "How to succeed in advancing the mobile game? Using mobile RTB technology";

• "Cross-platform social entertainment network as an integrated marketing strategy";

• "Retention: when do players come back (by the example of mobile game PokerPlus)";

• "Multiplatform iOS, Android and Windows 8projects monetization";

• "Monetizing mobile applications";

• "Legislative regulation of the organization and advertising of gambling in social networks".