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Exclusive Interview with Lee-Ann Johnstone just ahead of this year’s AffiliateFEST

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Exclusive interview with Lee-Ann Johnstone ahead of the AffiliateFEST Bootcamp2018

We had the opportunity to catch up with Lee-Ann Johnstone who took time from her busy schedule to answer our questions on a wide range of topics related to affiliate marketing. Lee-Ann is the co-founder of Affiliate Insider and has been in the affiliate marketing industry for over two decades.

In the interview she talks about her career, the growth of Affiliate Insider and what is in store in the upcoming affiliate conference AffiliateFEST. She advises affiliate marketers to “invest in your skills development” and describes how to go about it.

While she admits that she has “no crystal ball that can predict the future”, she is quite confident that “commercial acumen and personal touch” will remain the secret of success in this industry even amidst the advent of artificial intelligence, machine learning, smart analytics and all that.

Over to Lee-Ann now.

 

GAV: Let’s start with a few words about yourself. Our audience love to hear top-class professionals saying a few words about themselves.

Lee-Ann: I like long walks on the beach and sunsets? … Just kidding, I’ve been in the iGaming space for almost two decades and seen a lot of affiliates build businesses which is incredibly difficult to do alone. Having spent a lot of time building affiliate programmes and relationships I saw the gap to break out of the corporate world and make a difference helping others to grow their businesses with mentoring support, which isn’t readily available in the affiliate sector. This is why I’ve built Affiliate Insider – a company that can help support best practice, strategic growth, and skills development for affiliates and operators alike. I’m passionate about this Chanel and about what we do and I think it shows in the quality of the services we deliver to our clients, sponsors and delegates alike.

 

GAV: How did you choose affiliate marketing as a career? Is it deliberate or is there an interesting story behind that. About 20 years ago, it might not have been a popular choice.

Lee-Ann: It wasn’t a conscious choice back then as it was still an industry evolving. I learned everything I know today – on the job (as digital marketing was being created still, I was learning it as we went along) I just really loved it! I moved into online from a traditional offline marketing background and had a in depth online media buying background before moving over to affiliate relationship management and I guess it was the people aspect I loved the most. Finding ways to meet the end goal and revenue objective innovatively is what spurred me on to specialise in this channel and here we are almost two decades later and I’m still learning so much each day.

 

GAV: It’s been under 6 months since affiliateinsider.com was launched. The website offers all-round coverage of the affiliate industry. Is the growth so far in anticipated lines?

Lee-Ann: As we are still a new brand to market our growth rate has been well above expectations and this is due to the fact that our content team know this industry inside out, we live, breathe and consume everything about the affiliate marketing sector in the iGaming space each day. We manage clients affiliate programme, we create content that supports affiliate growth and we teach others the skills our team has amassed over two decades of being in the iGaming sector. Through this FREE for all knowledge share Affiliate Insider has built a solid reputation in a very short time as a thought leader and developer of best practice, strategies that impact revenue growth and events that deliver a depth of content found nowhere else. The combination of mentoring, training, content lead events and insight is what makes this business invaluable to the industry both affiliate and operator facing. Suppliers need to engage with our site too as it is here that they will engage new business leads for the products and services they deliver in this market place. We have a steady and loyal repeat readership growing on the site and in our newsletters who spend time on the site, and take time to read the content we are delivering which is offered with no paywall restrictions.

 

GAV: What about AffiliateFEST? What is special in this year’s event on September 19th? Who will benefit from attending the event?

Lee-Ann: All our Affiliate Bootcamps are special – but AffiliateFEST really is about helping affiliates growth hack their marketing and digital activities on site to increase their revenue. Today we just announced the Keynote for September’s event who is trailblazing influencer marketing as a new digital medium : Ben Jeffries (CEO of Influencer along with YouTube sensation Caspar Lee). This is the kind of content we focus on bringing to affiliates and operators in order to share the latest tangible insights and marketing techniques. This really is the core of what this conferences offer. Digital Marketing Insights that help affiliates get ahead of digital disruption within the iGaming industry offering them a competitive advantage to implement strategies and tactics to really row their revenue.

Each Bootcamp we run is unique and has a very specific subject or vertical focus – for example we have the Affiliate Insider America Track coming in April 2019 at Betting On sports America, and an exclusive African Business Retreat for those affiliates who want to expand their business and localise into the African Market as well as have a but of a retreat in South Africa alongside to take time out from working in their business to work ON it.

 

GAV: You have been in this industry for two decades. What’s your advice to people who are starting out on the affiliate industry? What does it take to become successful in the industry?

Lee-Ann: It’s a lot of hard work. You learn every day and you need to keep your knowledge base fresh. I consume an incredible amount of media around the subject of affiliate marketing, I also write a lot about it too from my own experiences which helps to upskill others. It takes determination and grit to be a good affiliate manager, as the skills set required to be a real good one is vast. My advise to anyone coming in to the industry is to invest in your skills development by finding experts you can learn from. This generally means finding people who have hands on experience for a few years longer than you in doing the job successfully.

There is no accredited School of Affiliate Marketing for the iGaming space. Therefore we have created The Affiliate Insider Training academy which offers a range of training options for both corporates and individuals to gain access to expert lead affiliate marketing strategies and for affiliates – a source of iGaming business mentoring that can help them advance their skills and work with like minded individuals to knowledge share and grow revenue in the affiliate space. Everything we do is about offering a high end in depth service with tactical content that can be implemented in any iGaming business for success.

 

GAV: Final question now. Could you provide your take on the evolution of affiliate marketing industry over the years? We have been hearing a lot about machine learning and all that. Will there be a time when robots take over affiliate marketing scene?

Lee-Ann: I think we are in for a big evolution in terms of how the affiliate model sits within the digital marketing mix. As one of the largest and most cost effective drivers of traffic the channel continues to evolve year on year and grow. AI is a big part of the reason why this is happening as we get smarter analytics and more regulated the opportunity for innovation continues to expand in this channel as well. The entire ecosystem will need to overhaul the value chain and how relationships interact in the affiliate model. We could see a move to differential pricing from traditional CPA and Revenue Share or Hybrid models based on tracking omni channels more accurately. There is no crystal ball that can predict the future but I can say that relationships will always require a commercial acumen and personal touch to really succeed and this is what we excel at delivering at Affiliate Insider as well.

 

Thanks for your time Lee-Ann, we really appreciate it, and all the best for the AffiliateFEST!!!

Affiliate Success

Casino Guru secures Safer Gambling Initiative of the Year at iGB Affiliate Awards

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Casino Guru secures Safer Gambling Initiative of the Year at iGB Affiliate Awards

 

Casino Guru is proud to announce that it has won the Safer Gambling Initiative of the Year at the iGB Affiliate Awards 2025, for a third consecutive year.

The distinction further highlights the company’s commitment to building a sustainable future for the gambling industry, not only through its dedication to providing players with the most complete, real-time-updated database of online casinos curated by trained experts, but also through its efforts to influence business standards and responsible practices across the sector.

As a leader in informed play, Casino Guru has dedicated a significant portion of its time and efforts to building a casino database that uses safer gambling as one of its core metrics for assessing a brand’s reliability, sustainability, and treatment of customers.

Casino Guru’s Head of Sustainable and Safer Gambling, Šimon Vincze, was excited to share his appreciation for the award: “As someone closely involved in responsible gambling and safer play at Casino Guru, I can say this award is a true testament to our work. We’ve worked tirelessly to leverage our market position to produce tangible outcomes in terms of awareness and impact of safer gambling practices, player complaints, and the availability of blocking software. We are a trailblazer in safer gambling among affiliates, but collaboration with other like-minded companies has enabled us to stay at the forefront.”

Casino Guru could not be prouder of this moment, which once again reinforces the company’s leadership in helping to set safer gambling standards industry-wide.

Daniela Sliva, Public Relations and Creative Projects Director, commented on the distinction: “Winning the Safer Gambling Initiative of the Year for a third consecutive time was an emotional moment and a well-deserved one. Casino Guru has worked tirelessly to establish itself as a leader in promoting sustainable and responsible play. We truly believe we are setting new standards for responsible gambling, not just within the affiliate space, but across the wider industry. Our company ethos places safer gambling at the heart of everything we do, from our Complaint Resolution Center to the Safety Index, and especially through initiatives like the Casino Guru Awards, which further reinforce this commitment.”

Among the achievements that Casino Guru has to be proud of are the Casino Guru Awards, which have established clear competitive guidelines for safer and responsible gambling and distinguish companies that adhere to the Casino Guru’s ethical guidelines and best practices.

Furthermore, Casino Guru established the Gamtegrity platform, which reunites all of the company’s safer gambling projects in one place.

Among Casino Guru’s notable achievements are the Casino Guru Academy, which offers upskilling programs with a focus on responsible gambling, the Global Self-Exclusion Standards Initiative, an active list of partners with some of the leaders in the responsible gambling space, including Mindway AI, and much more.

“An industry-wide commitment to responsible gambling is not only possible: it’s within reach. Casino Guru’s achievement at the iGB Affiliate Awards 2025 is yet another reason for us to double down on our efforts and work even harder to make this vision a reality,” Silva concluded.

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Affiliate Success

Casino Guru brings home ‘Casino Affiliate of the Year’ accolade at SBC Awards Europe

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Casino Guru brings home 'Casino Affiliate of the Year' accolade at SBC Awards Europe

 

The SBC Awards Europe have crowned winners across dozens of categories during the June 12 event at the Hilton Malta in San Ġiljan, Malta, featuring 400 guests, and some of the industry’s best and brightest.

As SBC Awards Europe sought to distinguish the best operators, affiliates, suppliers, payments and game developers across the European sports betting & gaming industry, Casino Guru is proud to announce that the company has won the ‘Casino Affiliate of the Year’ accolade, a distinction that has exemplified the hard work that the team behind the project have put into creating the world’s most complex casino gaming resource.

Casino Guru overcame a competitive field of contestants, proving once again that the company is committed to maintaining its status as a leader in helping players make informed decisions.

Besides developing a highly effective Safety Index that combines big data with human expertise, Casino Guru has also become a foremost authority on complaint resolutions within the iGaming sector, having returned more than $40,000,000 to players, and thus establishing the website as more than an affiliate.

Commenting on this distinction, Casino Guru Daniela Sliva, PR & Creative Projects Director at Casino Guru said: “Winning the SBC Awards Europe in the ‘Casino Affiliate of the Year’ category further reaffirms Casino Guru’s status as the leading authority in complaint resolution, casino evaluation, and helping players make committed decisions. Our brand holds a 360-degree view of the iGaming sector in which we operate, incorporating responsible gambling, a proactive approach, and an uncompromising commitment to stringent evaluation criteria.”

Casino Guru has consistently built an affiliate model that goes beyond simple deal-making, placing an uncompromising focus on players and helping them make informed decisions.
Furthermore, Casino Guru has repeatedly strengthened and enhanced its reviewing practices to guarantee fair general terms and conditions, as well as bonus terms and conditions that benefit the players.

Casino Guru is an outlier in the industry by proactively reaching out to casinos and encouraging them to improve their terms and conditions in order to ensure that players are playing safely and responsibly.

The latest win at the SBC Awards Europe is yet another testament to the tireless efforts dedicated to making iGaming safer for players every day.

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Affiliate Success

ReferOn Wins Prestigious “Rising Star Provider of the Year” Category at the AffPapa Awards 2025

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ReferOn Wins Prestigious “Rising Star Provider of the Year” Category at the AffPapa Awards 2025

 

‍ReferOn, a state-of-the-art affiliate management system, has won the “Rising Star Provider of the Year” title at the 2025 AffPapa Awards — a milestone that recognises the platform’s bold innovation and rapid growth in the affiliate tech space.

This award reflects ReferOn’s ability to deliver fast, transparent and scalable affiliate solutions that answer key industry demands. The category highlights the best rising companies in the iGaming and affiliate marketing industries, celebrating innovation and problem-solving solutions.

The AffPapa Awards is an annual event that recognises greatness in iGaming. The ceremony  celebrates developments and innovations among affiliates, operators and B2B providers who have raised the bar and set new standards.

Vladyslav Bondarenko, ReferOn’s Head of Product, commented on the achievement, “ReferOn wasn’t built to impress, it was built to solve. From day one, we challenged how affiliate platforms should work, look and feel — because the existing ones simply didn’t. More than a win, this award highlights the value of asking the right questions and building with purpose.”

2025 has been a crucial year for ReferOn, with the company receiving widespread industry recognition and implementing core product developments. Heading into Q3 and Q4, ReferOn is preparing a range of new features and enhancements focused on elevating the user experience and streamlining affiliate operations. The team will travel to iGB Live in London this July ready to share what’s next, meet with partners and discuss how ReferOn is refining affiliate management.

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