Affiliate Success
First Georgia iGaming Affiliate Conference: What Was Discussed at the Event?
On October 18, Smile-Expo held the first Georgia iGaming Affiliate Conference in Tbilisi. The event was dedicated to the specific nature of online and offline gambling business operations, Georgian gambling market prospects, and casino promotion using affiliate marketing.
The conference brought together casino managers, affiliate network representatives, government officials, webmasters, arbitrage experts, SEO specialists, as well as gambling regulation and taxation professionals.
Speakers’ presentations
Sviatoslav Slaboshpitskiy, Head of SEO at Digital Choo (DC), spoke on the topic: The Art of War in SEO: How to Win the iGaming Niche. The speaker stressed that one should develop niche websites to achieve efficient results. At the same time, it is significant to analyze the response and to evolve resources showing the best performance. Sviatoslav also talked about the rules of SEO team building. The expert recommended entrusting the content creation to single-discipline specialists as well as developing checklists and tutorials for newcomers.
Dmitriy Makarov, CEO at Zlodei Advertising Agency, and Gleb Sanzharevsky, CMO at Zlodei, made a collaborative presentation dedicated to ad placement on YouTube and Twitch. They explained that promotion via influencers could increase conversion better than direct advertising. The experts stressed that user stories and popular memes made ads more fruitful.
Nikola Minkov, CEO at Serpact, examined the application of the so-called Featured Snippets, zero blocks in the search results. According to the speaker, Google provides users with such snippets in 40% of the queries. They allow online resources to generate organic traffic and enhance the click-through rate.
The audience was intrigued by Ketevan Bitskinashvili, Chief Financial Officer at the Ministry of Finance of Georgia. The speaker told them about the special features of the Georgian gambling market regulation. She mentioned that the cost of gambling permissions depended on a venue type, a target region, and a number of installed gambling machines. The same parameters affect tax rates.
Ms. Ketevan stated that Georgia had already issued 214 gambling licenses. 20 casinos are operating in the country now. 10 of them are located in Batumi and its suburbs, 6 in Tbilisi, and one each in Gudauri, Tskhaltubo, Kazbegi, and Sighnaghi.
Giorgi Gvenetadze from Adjarabet raised an issue of online casino customer acquisition. The speaker believes that the core feature of advertising banners used by Georgian casinos is the availability of luxury car images. Besides, promotion messages mostly appeal to senses of beauty, control, and simplicity.
Panel discussion
The conference featured a panel discussion titled ‘Offline and online casinos. Review of tools for the competition for user attention’. It involved:
Shota Amiranashvili, President of the Association of casinos in Adjara;
Levan Kavtaradze, Director of Gaming department at Pokermatch;
Giorgi Gvenetadze, Head of Product Marketing Department at Adjarabet;
Lavrentiy Gubin from Shangri La Casino, an invited guest.
Experts said that primary advantages of land-based casinos included reach experience of the gaming process, expensive surroundings, and staff attentiveness. Virtual gambling platforms are lack of these aspects. Therefore, discussion participants think that offline gambling venues will never shift to the online space.
Speaking about the most in-demand gambling entertainments, specialists highlighted simple and user-friendly games like roulettes. Moreover, they noted that poker was becoming less popular because of the high buy-in. Currently, we can see a crypto casino trend, as such platforms ensure anonymity.
Participants also focused on the state regulation of the gambling market. According to them, countries failing to regulate the gambling business lose money that could go to the government budget as taxes. One more fact specified: gambling advertising bans give an impetus to look for new audience engagement channels.
Afterparty
The conference ended with a party. Guests, speakers, exhibitors, and sponsors were able to enjoy live music, Georgian sweets, beverages, and snacks. The afterparty allowed participants to communicate in a relaxed atmosphere and establish useful business contacts.
We express our gratitude to the Afterparty Sponsor, NOFLEAD gambling resource, helping to carry out the afterparty in an extremely comfortable environment.
Sponsors, exhibitors, and participants
Companies offering various iGaming goods and services introduced their solutions and services in the exhibition area. Event sponsors were exhibitors as well.
Badge and Bag Sponsor: Digital Choo, an international marketing agency with deep expertise in gaming.
Exhibition Area Sponsor: SoftGamings, a provider of advanced В2В solutions for online casinos.
Afterparty Sponsor: NOFLEAD, an online gambling resource aimed at both beginners and experienced gamblers.
Lanyard Sponsor: ZLODEI, an advertising agency with deep expertise in native advertising.
By the way, attendees were able to examine a stand by IBCCS TAX, an international company providing a wide range of fiduciary services.
Another event participant was Partners.io, an affiliate network for cryptocurrency gambling programs.
The Smile-Expo team expresses its gratitude to sponsors, speakers, and exhibitors for participation in the conference. We look forward to seeing you at the next events dedicated to gambling and affiliate marketing.
Affiliate Success
ReferOn Shortlisted for Two EGR B2B Awards 2026 Following Record Platform Growth
ReferOn, the data-driven affiliate management platform, has been shortlisted in two categories at the EGR B2B Awards 2026: “Affiliate Software Supplier” and “Full Service Platform of the Year (under 5 years)”.
These nominations reflect ReferOn’s rapid evolution from a fast-growing platform into a mature affiliate management solution trusted by operators seeking greater scalability, automation, and operational control.
Solving Affiliate Management Complexity at Scale
Over the past year, ReferOn has focused on solving one of the industry’s most persistent challenges: managing affiliate programmes efficiently at scale. By automating key affiliate management processes and transforming fragmented data into actionable insights, the platform enables operators to scale partner programs more efficiently while maintaining full visibility and control.
Turning Data Into Faster Decisions
As platform capabilities expand, Refie serves as an intelligent UX layer that makes complex data instantly understandable. By translating backend logic into intuitive visual guidance, it helps users move faster, make better decisions, and spend less time navigating reports.
By translating technical precision into intuitive visual feedback, Refie eliminates the need to dig through dense reports, guiding users toward real-time performance and faster decision-making. It moves beyond simple functionality; it’s about giving teams their time back by making complex data instantly readable.
Alex Bukin, CEO at ReferOn, commented: “These nominations reflect the momentum behind ReferOn’s evolution into an award-winning platform built for operators who refuse to compromise between sophistication and usability. We’re proud of how far we’ve come, but even more excited about the opportunities ahead.”
The winners will be announced at the EGR B2B Awards ceremony, taking place on June 3 at City Central, HAC, in London.
Affiliate Success
TAG Media and Gamblitude Launch affie.ai
The AI-Powered Affiliate Manager Assistant Set to transform Affiliate Management in iGaming
TAG Media and Gamblitude have launched affie.ai, a guided decision-making engine built for iGaming affiliate managers. It combines TAG Media’s 150+ years of collective affiliate management experience with Gamblitude’s operator-grade data and analytics platform.
affie.ai will make its debut at SBC Summit Malta (28–30 April), where affie.ai’s Elaine Gardiner, Alana Weldon and Wojtek Sznapka will be demonstrating the platform to operators interested in becoming one of the first five launch partners.
The Problem affie.ai solves
Affiliate management sits at the centre of operator acquisition strategy. It demands financial judgement, negotiation skill, data literacy and market knowledge. Yet there is no industry-standard training, no widely accepted playbook and no safety net when a commercial decision goes wrong.
The data is there. What’s missing is consistent, effective interpretation. With time, an experienced affiliate manager may know what a declining CPA trend means in a specific market or when a revenue share deal needs renegotiating. A less experienced one may not – and that gap costs operators money, talent retention and competitive ground.
Even for experienced affiliate managers, having the requisite time and patience with convoluted systems and tools to spot gaps and opportunities, even ad hoc, is progressively rare, further limiting their ability to achieve sustainable growth within their affiliate programme.
By encoding proven affiliate management expertise directly into their daily workflow, affie.ai gives affiliate managers the ability to make decisions grounded in real programme data and industry best practice, positioning them for true proactivity with their affiliate partners.
What is affie.ai?
affie.ai is a guided decision-making engine, not a dashboard and not a tracking platform. It is trained on real affiliate programme performance data and built on the strategic frameworks TAG Media has applied across 50+ programme launches over the past decade.
On the data side, Gamblitude, founded by former STS chief technology officer Wojtek Sznapka and former STS chief sportsbook officer Piotr Cerlak, provides the analytical backbone: a cloud-native data layer purpose-built for iGaming operators.
The result is that affie.ai provides affiliate managers with specific, data-informed recommendations on deal structures, partner performance, programme optimisation and commercial risk insights, removing the time spent and consistency required in pulling reports, second-guessing spreadsheets to build progressive performance.
For operators, affie.ai delivers measurable reductions in programme management overheads, faster onboarding of new affiliate managers, institutional knowledge that stays in the business regardless of team changes and the agility to make rapid commercial decisions to positively impact the bottom line. affie.ai gives affiliate managers the power of proactivity.
Human Relationships, Sharper Decisions
Affiliate management is a relationship business. Trust between manager and affiliate drives long-term value – no tool replaces that.
affie.ai removes the noise around those relationships. Instead of debating whether a deal is commercially sound, the affiliate manager already has the answer and can focus on the conversation. affie.ai provides human-led decisions with AI-led precision, built on real data, not assumptions.
Elaine Gardiner, Co-Founder of affie.ai says: “After 17 years managing affiliate programmes for operators including Cherry Casino, Ninja Casino and Rizk, I know what good decision-making looks like in this role and I know how rarely it’s supported by the right tools. affie.ai takes the strategic thinking our team applies every day and makes it available on demand and at pace: specific to your programme, specific to your data and ready when the affiliate manager needs it.”
No Strings Attached Six-Week Trial – Five Places
affie.ai is offering five operators an exclusive six-week trial. No fees. No lengthy onboarding. Operators connect their affiliate programme data and their affiliate team uses the platform to obtain new insights on their own numbers, enabling faster commercial decisions on deals to build growth. To book a meeting, email [email protected] or visit www.affie.ai to register your interest in using affie.ai to build affiliate programme growth.
Affiliate Success
ReferOn Shortlisted for “European Corporate Services Supplier” Category at EGR EUROPE Awards 2026
ReferOn, the next-gen affiliate management platform, has been named on the EGR Europe Awards 2026 shortlist in the “European Corporate Services Supplier” category, recognising the platform’s solutions that help real operators with their operations and growth.
Continuing 2025’s Momentum
The nomination reflects a busy 2025 for ReferOn, one that was highlighted by significant product updates, rapid growth, and an ascent to becoming one of the most recognised affiliate management platforms in the industry.
Going into the new year, the ReferOn team has ambitious plans to accelerate this positive momentum by scaling alongside its growing partner base with advancements to its product vision around clarity, transparency, and ease of use. The EGR Europe Awards 2026 marks a pivotal start to 2026, and an award win demonstrates that the platform’s direction truly resonates with operators and affiliate managers worldwide.
Refie’s Human Impact
Refie, the platform’s human layer, transcends a mere surface-level companion. It hops around dashboards and workflows, providing relevant assistance, such as fixing reward logic, identifying anomalies, and making suggestions to the user.
In 2026, ReferOn plans to enhance Refie’s functionality with advanced platform gamification, engaging users and transforming how affiliate managers interact with their day-to-day operations. These developments will pave the way for personalised, smart intelligence on the platform and set an industry standard for affiliate tech.
Alex Bukin, General Manager, commented on the nomination and plans for 2026, “ReferOn made great strides in the past year, with major product developments, key recruitments, and a rapidly growing partner base. With this growth, our expectations have risen, and we want to establish ourselves as a platform that accelerates affiliate tech across the board. Being nominated for the ‘European Corporate Services Supplier’ category solidifies our ambition and is a meaningful start to our new year. With Refie driving more innovation, we look forward to driving our goal of transparency, clarity, and customer-facing features even further.”
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