It's been a mainstay for gamblers on the net since 1994. Virtual Vegas is a true veteran in the online gaming industry and has continued to grow as it diversifies into specialty free play sites such as slotszone.com and blackjack.com. Now, founder David Herschman has developed a new hub for his sites called prizecentral.com which will launch February 16. Interactive Gaming News spoke with David Herschman about the evolution of his company and how it fits into the world on internet gaming.
IGN: You're starting a new site called prizecentral.com in mid-February. What's the strategy behind the new venture?
DH: The strategy behind the new venture is to reach out to a wider audience. We want to get a more mainstream audience that hasn't even thought about gambling online yet. Once they play solitaire or gin rummy and win some prizes, then they may be more inclined to play slots and win even bigger prizes.
IGN: How does it fit in with the rest of your family of sites such Virtual Vegas, SlotsZONE.com and BlackJack.com?
DH: Prize Central is now the Hub. It's really the parent company behind Virtual Vegas now. All prizes will be redeemed through prize central, whether someone is playing blackjack or solitaire.
IGN: You're one of the true veterans on the internet having launched Virtual Vegas in 1994 What sort of lessons have you learned about gamblers on the 'net?
DH: So many lessons. For one, people really love to gamble on the net and will spend hours doing it. We've found that, by giving people a chance to play for free and get comfortable, they are much more inclined to play for real money. We've seen some incredible conversion rates off our site from free player to real money player. I'm pretty sure that we're among the highest if not the highest conversion rates in the industry.
IGN: What can you tell us about your players? Any hints on how those who take advantage of "free play" convert to real online wagering accounts?
DH: We've seen that by getting people in the mood with free play, they're much more inclined to play for real. People need to feel comfortable and trust their environment. Sometimes, people will play for free for months before starting an account. One casino sponsor of ours is getting a 9% conversion rate from click-throughs. It seems like it's just a matter of time before people start to feel comfortable gaming for real.
IGN: What's the future for your "empire" of sites? Where do you see your company going in the future?
DH: We're really focused right now on bringing in a more mass market player. We had 360,000 unique players visit us in January, '99 and we're adding new sign-ups at a rate of 50,000 per month. We anticipate lots more growth in that category. We're really pushing our tokens as a form of incentives to get people to use us as a hub. Many of our players have accounts at 6 or 7 online casinos. They use us to comparison shop. It's fine by us. As long as our sponsors are happy and pay their bills on time, we're happy, too.