The journey continues, we are bringing you inspirational stories of gambling affiliates, who have managed to climb the ladder and start their own business in the industry. We catch up with Jos Moes, the owner and CEO of Sportwedtips.nl and the new Betchant.com

EEG: First, we would like to thank you for the opportunity to interview such a highly appreciated professional of the industry. Could you give some details about your profile? I’m sure this way the readers will not think you are robot after reading this interview 🙂

• Name: Jos Moes
• Age: 27
• Hometown: Alkmaar
• Living in: Heiloo
• Favorite Food: Lasagna
• Must Read Book: The Davinci Code

EEG:Tell us a bit about yourself, we want to know who Jos Moes really is, the main person behind sportwedtips.nl and the all new BetChant.com. Where were you born? What was the key idea of developing this great website for top online bookmakers and betting news?

Jos: Hi Guys,

I am Jos Moes, I’m 27 years old and I’m the owner and CEO of Sportwedtips.nl and the new Betchant.com. I was born in Alkmaar, a small city near Amsterdam in The Netherlands. As a huge sports fan and good programmer I started some funny sports site years ago with some bookmaker ads on it. One day I earned €4000 with this small website and I thought wow, I am going to investigate how this market works.  After that everything went very quickly from a 200 likes facebookpage to a 1500+ daily visited tipster website to an international tipster platform. Now we are just 1 month live with our beta of www.sportwedtips.nl and when all the small bugs are removed we will take over the world with www.betchant.com too!

EEG:Since there are thousands of bookmaker review websites out there, where do you think your website stands now and what are you looking to achieve with BetChant.com?

Jos: We’re not just a review site because the members (sing up for free) can get social on our website, discuss about sports tips, bookmaker offers and more. It’s not only informative to visit our website but also fun because you can win badges and take part of tipster competitions.  In Holland our website is a success now and we want to take over the sports handicapper world with Betchant!

EEG:What are the strong points of your website and what makes it stand out from the niche websites?

Jos: I think the diversity, it’s not only based on one sport but on several popular sports. Next to that, the website runs itself by the sports tipster and preview writers who loves to provide people with good betting information and staying connected to each other.

EEG:What were the bumps on your road when you got started and how did you overcome them?

Jos: In my opinion there are a few:

1. When you work together with other programmers who don’t know a thing about gambling, sometimes it’s hard to explain some betting related terms or formulas.
2. Because of the large amount of offers and some popular bookmakers people use mostly it’s hard to find customers for bookmakers with a less known name and to let your players keep playing at those bookies. But nice deals and good promotions will do the trick mostly.
3. Because all the bookies are such big companies, it’s difficult to get things fixed quickly. Some elements need to go by several ways for you get a decent solution or answer on your question.

EEG:What are the strategies you are using to get traffic and players to your website? Social Media, Payed advertising?

Jos: When we got started, we promoted a lot on Social Media with payed advertisers but now-a-days it all comes by itself. Off course you need to  provide the followers and readers with good content, but when you are creative and original, the articles and tips will be shared by the people itself.

EEG:We have browsed your website and found some high quality content. Are you writing it by yourself or you have a team of people writing the reviews? How many reviews are there on your website?

Jos: Thanks for the nice words! In the Netherlands we are now writing with a team of 5 men, each of them specialized on their own sports. The power of good content is to be original and not repost something a rival did.

EEG:How do you keep the content fresh and devoid of clutter when a lot of fluff and nonsense appear on the Internet on a daily basis?

Jos: That’s a good question. Now-a-days you see one message which is going viral on twenty different betting related pages a day. Everybody is copying each others articles to gain more followers. We also see this things happen at our pages, tips posted on our page are posted one hour later on some other so called tipster pages.  Our main key is to keep our articles related to our page and write them ourselves instead of copying and adjust some things. Also an important thing is to be the first one with something, if you post something first, you will mostly get the credits you deserve. So the lesson of today is BE ORIGINAL!

EEG:We are sure that you receive daily messages from Affiliate Managers showcasing their products. You of course select them by the brands they work with; but what are your thoughts on how Affiliate Manager-Affiliate relationships should be built?

Jos: Many times I get the feeling that account managers are kind of lazy. Maybe it’s the company,  I don’t know. Most of the time if you want to achieve something you have to ask things by yourself. For example, a simple thing such as to get on a promotion mailing list. That kind of things are very effective to get new customers, but when you don’t ask to get this info you don’t get a thing.  If I should own a bookmakers office, my accountmanagers had to discuss numbers and promtotions on a monthly base with their affiliates. And not only the big ones but also the small ones, everybody started small and wanted to grow. When we were  a small company it was very hard to get some promotions like a free bet budget cause you don’t bring any customers, I understand the arguments for that but if the big boys always get the biggest marketing materials, the small ones stay small en the big boys stay big which is not fair in my opinion.

EEG:How do you see the future of the gaming industry? For instance, will it become a truly global phenomenon in the near future?

Jos: The last years you see magnificent changes in the gaming industry. The full Premier League is sponsored by huge bookmakers, all the biggest clubs in the world are sponsored by bookmakers and every year you see a lot more sports events with bookmakers as sponsors. I think it’s a good thing because prices are going up and it’s more attractive to visit or play such events. For example, darts. When you saw it 10 years ago and you see it now-a-days, it’s a massive change in popularity but there is also a change in the prices.

EEG:What advise you would like to offer to the new affiliates who are looking to venture into this great industry?

Jos: Be patience, you don’t earn 20k in your first half year, but keep positive and stay connected with your visitors to reach your goal. If you want to succeed and you got a good plan, you will succeed!

EEG: Who is your favourite celebrity?

Jos: Wow, in general I would say Steve Jobs and Johnny Depp. But we are now sports related so I will go for Ronaldhino.

EEG:If you would just open your Youtube search bar, what would you search for?

Jos: Some nice house or rap music

EEG:Back to work. Do you attend any igaming conferences? If so, which one is your favourite and what is your most fun experience?

Jos: Yes we always attend the Amsterdam Affiliate Conference in June every year. Mostly it’s a lot of fun to discuss some nice deals with some nice dinners or crazy party’s!

EEG:How do you rate the chances of Eastern Europe becoming potential gaming hotpot of the future? Where do you think the region must improve upon?

Jos: You see a lot of crazy stuff over there with TV shows about betting, we can’t imagine that kind of things here. A news program about betting tips for the weekend, it’s great haha! I don’t think the companies have to improve a lot but the well being needs to go up to get it on a same level as the UK for example.

EEG:Alright, here comes the fun part….favourite food, where would you like to travel in Eastern Europe, some part of the region maybe that you haven’t visited yet and favourite destination around the world.

Jos: Lasagna, Croatia and Brazil

EEG:Where you wouldn’t want to travel in Eastern Europe?

Jos: Right now at Ukraine.

EEG:What is your opinion about EEG (Eastern European Gaming – eegaming.org)?

Jos: I love the concept, it’s nice to read new things, interviews with other people and nice tips & tricks everybody uses.