Las Vegas Advisor relaunch brings tips, deals to locals and visitors alike

Anthony Curtis had the advantage of being an early mover when he entered the Las Vegas marketing and promotions universe three decades ago. He was still an early mover when he built his website, Las Vegas Advisor, in the 1990s.

As the Web grew, and consumers and visitors flocked to the site for its selection of tips, deals and insights into Vegas area casinos, restaurants, and attractions, Curtis discovered that his technical infrastructure was unable to meet the growing demand. It crashed frequently and was limited in its functionality.

“One of the reasons we were ahead for so long is that we started very early – back in 1990s – building our website, but we were never able to upgrade that,” Curtis explains. “So five years ago we embarked on a mission to rebuild and redevelop the whole site.”

The new version officially launched in mid-March. It offers the site’s 15,000 members and 250,000 to 300,000 unique visitors per month a smoother, friendlier, more modern experience.

“The appeal of the site is the sort of information that we present. We’re like a monster content-creating company for people who visit Las Vegas,” he says.

Because the site has produced and archived so much Vegas-related content over the years, sorting and managing it all emerged as the major challenge of the redevelopment process. “The biggest pain point was getting all the information in a usable format,” Curtis notes. “Navigational issues are still the biggest problem, but that’s a process every new site goes through.”

In its twenty years, Las Vegas Advisor has become the go-to site for out-state visitors to southern Nevada for destination gambling and leisure. Curtis and his team have found their niche sleuthing around the valley, hunting for and negotiating the best deals and promotions in gaming, entertainment, retail, and food and beverage.

While his deals are local, the vast majority of his patrons are out-of-towners. 75 percent of his site traffic originates from outside the state and 94 percent of his members are not from the region – with Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles being the top three markets.

“We call it local bias,” he says, slightly perplexed as to why more southern Nevadans aren’t engaged. “Hopefully the word gets out, especially with this new site, that this is something that can save them money – especially if they live here.”

So who are his customers? Curtis, who originally came to Vegas as a professional blackjack player, makes it clear that his site first and foremost caters to visitors who come to spend money and gamble.

“I come from a very solid and deep gambling background, so we do a lot on LVA looking at gambling situations and gambling promotions, new games, existing games, variations on games as they are played in different places,” he says.

Accordingly, the site – complete with his “Gambling with an Edge” blog that offers advice and strategies from professional players – has built a reputation for funneling the brightest and most dedicated players to the region’s casinos. He is also aiming to draw more international traffic as long-haul overseas visits to the region picks up, especially from China.

“What this website was created to do was to provide a clean and strong advertising environment, especially for the casino industry, because we’re as good a conduit to their customers as anybody,” Curtis explains. “We’re dealing to the casino’s industry’s customers. That’s where we set ourselves up – to become a conduit between the customers and the industry.”

The casinos play ball with him because the type of customer Curtis sends their way is generally is far more attractive than a random tourist. “We’re essentially three times the [Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority] averages on the upside on the important metrics – frequency of trips, length of stay, trip budget, and gambling budget.”

While other deal and promotion sites have sprouted up over the years – including national powerhouses like Groupon and LivingSocial – Curtis asserts that the competition has only helped the Las Vegas Advisor by expanding the overall market.

“Groupon and LivingSocial did nothing but enhance things for us. They showed that there’s a market for this kind of thing. They do work with casinos like we do, but they don’t understand the market the way we do and they can’t get the type of offers we get.”

Curtis says that his deals aren’t just better for the customer, but for the casinos as well.

“After working with Groupon and LivingSocial, casinos have realized that they bring them a random customer. Whereas when they work with us, they know that we bring them a very targeted customer.”

Also, because Las Vegas Advisor doesn’t draw revenue directly from the deals it promotes, its offers come with fewer transaction costs. “We don’t use the Groupon model. We’ll make the same half-price deal, but we don’t take a revenue share,” he adds.

Las Vegas Advisor’s revenue model consists of online commerce, its 15,000 paying members, and its Huntington Press publishing arm, which specializes in books about expert gambling strategies and Las Vegas-related titles.

Another aspect that differentiates Las Vegas Advisor from other online marketing and deal repositories is that all of its content is independently curated. While Curtis says he’s considering implementing “advertorial” as a new revenue stream, he insists it will be easy to distinguish from originally-produced content. “As we open up to advertisers, it will be clear what are ads and what are not.”

While the site’s primary focus is the gambling customer, people who are not necessarily interested in gambling will still find plenty of value.

“We try to go across all lines,” Curtis says. “We very much cater to the gaming customer, but you don’t have to be gambler to go to a great happy hour.” He touts his “Vegas with an Edge” blog, which highlights the region’s top non-gaming attractions and deals.

The introduction of professional sports into the region will provide yet another vertical for Las Vegas Advisor to branch into. “We’re as chameleon-like as it gets when it comes to this sort of thing,” says Curtis. “We’ll try cater to people who want to come here to see a Raiders game or a hockey game.”

“We’re very pro-Vegas,” he continues. “Without Vegas we’re not in business, so we want the industry to succeed and we want Vegas to succeed. We want to help guide people to these new things that are coming online in this town.”