In our newest Affiliate Managers under interrogation you can get to know Anna-Maria, Affiliate Manager at Portomasolive.com

Name: Anna-Maria Arakelian

Age: 27

Hometown: Varna, Bulgaria

Living in: Sliema, Malta

Favorite Food: Raspberries

Must Read Book: Agatha Christie – Poirot (all of them)

Affiliate Manager at: Portomasolive.com

GAV: Hello Anna, first of all, tell us and our readers a bit about yourself. How did your career start in the industry? What determined you to engage in this activity and start working at Portomaso Affiliates?

Annie: Hello, I am Annie I am 27 years old and I come from the sea capital of Bulgaria – Varna. About me I can say that I am positive, ambitious and communicative. A little bit more than a year ago I didn’t know that iGaming exist, but I was in love with marketing and I knew, that this is what I want to do. Then I found a job in an affiliate company and on day one I felt that iGaming is what I want. I had a team leader who was very experienced and smart, he thought me everything about the iGaming business and helped me with understanding how the business works from the core, and I am very grateful about that. I was dreaming to become an Affiliate manager, so I started applying, for me it was really big challenge, because I’ve never thought that I will have to move from Bulgaria, I’ve been on an internship in Belgium, but it was only for three months. Portomaso Gaming came in my life, by offering me the dream job, I accepted immediately, I moved to Malta ten days after I got my acceptance letter and now here I am – in Portomaso Tower in St.Julians’s in Malta building the future of PortomasoLive.com with the incredible team, that I am part of.

GAV: Portomaso Affiliates is the affiliate program for PortomasoLive.com online casino. What do you think is the key aspect that affiliates appreciate regarding your affiliate program?

Annie: Portomasolive.com is unique, because it is owned by Portomaso Gaming which owns a product live casino, we stream directly from the two land based casinos owned by the company. Regarding affiliates, the key aspect is that we are open to offer them different promotions, marketing materials, demos, etc. We aim high, and we want to have trustworthy partners to help us walking the path from a new casino to a successful and winning brand.

GAV: Could you fill us in on your current offer for affiliates and maybe a brief description of your program?

Annie: We just launched our affiliate programme along with the online casino, and I would be happy to tell you more. Portomasolive.com is the diamond in the crown on Portomaso Gaming. The company that owns Portomasolive.com is very big, as I mentioned earlier, two land-based casinos, product Live Casino (streamed directly from the two casinos). The company was 100% focused on B2B, but now with the online casino we aim to build brighter future for Portomaso Gaming. We would like to thank to our partners from NetRefer who provided us with a great affiliate platform. We want to make the work with affiliates clear, simple and fun of course. We can offer many and different promotions to our affiliates including ones involving live casino games. Also, I am happy to announce that we can offer to our affiliates up to 45% Revenue share!

GAV: What markets does Portomaso Affiliates target, and what makes it stand out in the ever growing crowd of casino affiliate programs?

Annie: We decided to start with DACH and Swedish markets, this is because we believe, that they are successful and wining markets. As I said this is just for beginning, in future we plan to step into UK and the rest of the Nordic countries. As I mentioned before, Portomasolive.com has its own live casino product and as the interest to live casino is growing, we have the advantage to explore and expand more with promotional campaigns for the casino in general and exclusively for affiliates.

GAV: Since the London Affiliate Conference is almost here, we would like to ask your opinion on this event, are you guys attending these conferences or are you going to be in London? How about the other affiliate conferences and the Nordic Affiliate Conference?

Annie: iGB – the company that organizes those events is very professional in my opinion, I already have been in Berlin for BAC in 2017 and I was impressed with the way that event was organized. I will attend London Affiliate Conference, but from the team of Portomasolive.com it will be only me, because big part of the team is going to attend ICE- Totally Gaming. I look forward to meeting the future partners of Portomasolive.com. Our focus now is LAC, because we need to start building our relationships with Affiliates.

GAV: Where do you think the online casino industry will be in 3 years, and of course, on which scale do you see Portomaso Affiliates?

Annie: Three years is a very long time, and the iGaming industry is dynamic and changing every day, but in a good way. I believe more markets will move towards re-regulation and it is natural for a company like ours to pursue those opportunities. Even if it means that the tax costs are going to be higher for us, it also enables us to reach out to larger audience. About Portomasolive.com I see it as a popular brand, that players know and trust, expanded and respected online casino with high acquisition and great conversion.

GAV: Tell us a bit about your team?

Annie: Of course! My team is incredible it is made of people who are positive and ambitious. We are currently about 40 people working for the online casino and each of us is aiming high. I am quite new, I started working here four months ago, but I was accepted very well, I easily became part of the team, because the people working here made me feel comfortable. Also, I find something really important here – the support that we give to each other as a team, because no matter how many ideas you have or how strong and ambitious you are, if your team doesn’t support you, it will be hard to achieve your goals, I am lucky to be part of team who supports me. I was very nicely surprised when I saw the synergy in the team, everything is so well organized, and everyone is professional, so I really enjoy how the work goes smoothly, dynamic and fast.

GAV: Since Central and Eastern Europe offers a large pool of successful affiliates in the industry, do you think that this region is somehow overlooked by brands that are not applying for licenses in the demographic and are there many super-affiliates that you manage coming from this region?

Annie: I am happy to see that Central and Eastern Europe are developing business in the field of iGaming. Right now, we are focused to build strong relationships with affiliates, it doesn’t matter if they are super-affiliates or small ones. For us, every serious business partner is valuable.

GAV: Do you have any advise you would like to offer to newbies who are looking to venture into this great industry!?

Annie: Never ever give up! If you have a dream follow it, be ambitious and always keep in mind that iGaming makes the dreams about career come true!

GAV: Who is your favorite celebrity and if you’d have to a pick a destination in Eastern Europe, where would you travel?

Annie: That’s easy – Alex Turner of course! He is part of the UK band “Arctic Monkeys”, he has amazing voice and the songs of the band are awesome. Eastern Europe, this is tricky one, because the first thing coming to my mind is to say Varna, Bulgaria as it is my home, but if I have to pick different destination in Eastern Europe I would say the Dracula’s castle in Romania, I think it would be awesome experience!

GAV: Where you wouldn’t want to travel?

Annie: One thing that I love to do is to travel, there is no place in the world that I wouldn’t like to visit. Every place has its own history, beauty and culture that I would love to explore.

GAV: Tell us your opinion about GAV(GamblingAffiliateVoice.com)?

Annie: I follow and read the articles posted in GAV, because I really like to be informed about the things that are happening in iGaming and what people in the industry think about that and GAV provides us with that kind of information, for which I can say a big thank you, keep up doing what you are doing, you guys are great 😊

Get to know Ruslan Legenzov Affiliate Manager at King Billy Casino

Name: Ruslan Legenzov

Age: 31

Hometown: Donetsk

Living in: Kyiv

Favorite Food: Steak

Must Read Book: Theodore Dreiser The Financier

Affiliate Manager at: King Billy Casino

GAV: Hi Ruslan, first of all, tell us and our readers a bit about yourself. How did your career start in the industry? What determined you to engage in this activity and start working at King Billy Affiliates?

Ruslan: First of all, greetings to your readers and also to your team at GAV, you‘re doing an amazing job, guys! To answer your question, my career in the industry started more than 5 years ago, when I joined an iGaming project as Affiliate Manager. From the very start, I started dealing with Affiliates and found it a fascinating occupation. However, after having worked for all those years with Affiliates, I felt that I needed a fresh and exciting challenge. I finally found it with King Billy Casino, where all things, including running the Affiliate Department, are done at the highest possible level.

GAV: King Billy Affiliates is an exciting new project. What do you think is the key aspect affiliates appreciate regarding your affiliate program?

Ruslan: We have a nice phrase at our casino which encapsulates the answer to your question: the “King’s Package”. At King Billy, we are never one-sided in what we do and we excel in many areas: attractive welcome deal, plenty of promotional material, exclusive and unique content, all delivered in less than 48 hours and tailor made to our partners’ needs. You want a 10 by 10 pixel visual? We will do it. A 2,000 word original review? This too. And last but not least, we work in an Affiliate Department with the extra mile philosophy: we will do everything we can and then some more, so that we will leave no Affiliate unhappy!

GAV: King Billy Affiliates is relatively new, does your program have any East European affiliates that you manage?

Ruslan: It is true that we are relatively new on the market, but we are adding more and more affiliates, at a very fast rate (good news travels fast)! East European Affiliates are strategically important for us and we are happy to see their numbers on the rise.

GAV: Are there any super-affiliates coming from those region? We know for certain that a huge group of affiliates come from Eastern Europe.

Ruslan: We do have super-affiliates from the East, although we would like to have some more! By the way, we are very satisfied with our overall super-affiliates performance, since we have managed in a very short time to cover important areas, like the Nordic countries and key English-speaking countries. 

GAV: What is your personal opinion about fair gaming? Do you think there is still room to improve the view of the gambling industry? I mean, is there a new generation prepared to do that? Both Affiliate Manager and Affiliates.

Ruslan: Yes, there is definitely room for improving. The problem with our industry is that just one “black sheep” can discredit the whole flock. So, we need to be vigilant, both Affiliates and Affiliate Managers, double and triple our efforts to improve our image. The time is ripe and the new generation is ready, knowledgeable and committed to not repeating the mistakes of the past.

GAV: Ruslan, please fill us in on your current offer for affiliates and maybe a brief description of your program!

Ruslan: Well, currently, half of our Kingdom is yours! King Billy Affiliates offers a very generous welcome deal for all new affiliates: 50% Revenue share with No Negative Carry-over within 3 months upon registration. Furthermore, our Affiliate program features up-to-date functionality, has a proven record and a user-friendly design which comes in handy not only for newbies but for experienced Affiliate Managers as well.

GAV: What markets target does King Billy Affiliates target, and what makes it stand out in the growing crowd of online casino affiliate programs?

Ruslan: Our main target markets are the Nordic Countries, Germany, Australia, Canada and, obviously, BTC players all over the world. We stand out by offering two Affiliate Programs at the same time: SoftSwiss (BTC players mostly) and Income Access. This is rather uncommon in the industry, but we have a saying in King Billy Casino which also applies to our Affiliates Department: “The King always adds one!”

GAV: Since the Berlin Affiliate Conference is almost here, we would like to ask your opinion about this event, are you guys attending these conferences or are you going to be at SIGMA? How about other events?

Ruslan: Well, didn’t Leonard Cohen sing “First we take Manhattan then we take Berlin”? The King Billy Affiliate Department is planning to “take” Berlin by a storm! Our whole team will be there, attending the Conference and meeting our partners. Regarding SIGMA, personally, I find it one of the best conferences, with an excellent atmosphere that makes new deals much easier. 

GAV: Where do you think the online casino industry will be in 3 years, and of course, on which scale do you see King Billy Affiliates?

Ruslan: I am pretty sure that the online casino industry will move to VR slots and live games. This is inevitable as all software providers are striving to create the most realistic atmosphere for players. As for King Billy Affiliates, our goal is definitely to enter the list of Top 50 European casinos. However, with the positive attitude in the company and our philosophy of hard work, we believe we can rise even more and become a well-known casino all over the world.

GAV: Tell us a bit about your team? As we know it’s quite new but well positioned industry professionals with many years of experience in the field.

Ruslan: Yes, you are right. We have a wonderful team of hard working professionals who know the needs of Affiliates. Basically, we “speak the Affiliate’s language”, which makes life easier for everyone!

GAV: Since Central and Eastern Europe offers a large pool of successful affiliates in the industry, do you think that this region is somehow overlooked by brands that are not applying for licenses in the demographic region?

Ruslan: I believe it is not exactly a case of overlooking, it is rather one of withdrawing. Unfortunately, if one takes into account the latest changes of gambling legislation in Central and European countries, the reaction of the top brands is rather obvious. Very strict rules, regulations and numerous licensing restrictions have been imposed, resulting in lack of interest by the brands.

GAV: Who is your favorite celebrity and if you’d have to a pick a destination in Eastern Europe, where would you travel?

Ruslan: My favorite celebrity: Robert De Niro. I would probably travel to Budapest.

GAV: Where you wouldn’t want to travel?

Ruslan: Well, I wouldn’t travel to locations with poor Internet, since this would mean being away from Affiliates!

GAV: What is your opinion about GAV (GamblingAffiliateVoice.com)?

Ruslan: GAV is like coffee, you cannot start your morning at work without it. You have created a unique digital hub for all Affiliate Managers with all the news and information one needs. Keep it up like these guys!

GAV: Thanks for your time and for the nice words Ruslan, keep up the good work and all the best to you for the Berlin Affiliate Conference 2017.

Keith Zammit is Affiliate Manager at Condor affiliates, business oriented, neighbour loving, quiet conflict solver, with a deep entrepreneurship vain, a passion for all things Digital and a love for writing!

Name: Keith Zammit
Age: 29
Hometown: Swieqi Malta
Living in: Swieqi Malta
Favourite Food: Green Thai Curry Chicken
Must Read Book: How to win Friends and Influence People. Dale Carnegie
Affiliate Manager at: Condor Affiliates.

GAV: Hello Keith, first of all, tell us and our readers a bit about yourself. How did your career start in the industry? What determined you to engage in this activity and start working at Condor Affiliates?

KZ: I was born and raised on the island of Malta, but I do not have a typical island mentality. Adventure, Open Source, foreign influence… these things excite me… However, that does not mean that I don’t have a Maltese approach to life. I love fine wine and great food by the sea, and I look forward to the village feasts with cold beer and amazing firework displays all summer long.

My Career in Affiliate Marketing started way back in 2010, when a friend of mine and I started building niche websites as a side income at Uni. During the glory days of online poker we built a network of Poker Niche sites that was eventually acquired by a Network.

Having been in contact with a number of affiliate managers over the years, I always said that one day I would cross the fence and join the casino side. I was eventually contacted by Condor Affiliates and decided to take on the challenge.

GAV: Condor Affiliates is the affiliate program for online casino brands Rembrandt Casino, Casino Sieger, b-Bets and 24Bettle. What do you think is the key aspect that affiliates appreciate regarding your affiliate program?

KZ: Our affiliate programme has 4 key factors to it:

1. We have a custom built back end system which allows us to show tailor-made reports to our affiliates.

2. Even though you have 4 brands to market, the revenue is separate, and we do not have a negative carry over… so should you have a negative balance on one brand, this will not affect your income on the other 3 brands.

3. Our brands all have something unique in character, from GEO targeted styles (Casino Sieger and Rembrandt Casino) to an Auctions Based Loyalty Program (b-Bets) and also a gamified platform in 24Bettle, which increases retention and re-deposits.

4. In addition, we have a strong Sports Betting pull, which allows us to cross-sell from Casino to Sports and back… increasing our affiliates Revenue.

GAV: What is your personal opinion about fair gaming? Do you think there is still room to improve the general view and perception of the gambling industry? I mean, is there a new generation prepared to do that? Both Affiliate Manager and Affiliates.

KZ: It is every gambler’s innate fear that online casinos can be rigged, and that the payouts can be meddled with and modified by the Casino Managers. In reality, when it comes to RNG and licensing many know that this area is heavily audited and that the game providers are always under scrutiny by the Gaming Authorities. In our case, we have a Malta License, which is very strict when it comes to fair gaming.

It is up to us as Affiliate Managers and the Affiliates to really push forward the reassurances that there is no interaction between the Casino and the Payout % and a chance of winning, and that Casinos who comply with Fair Gaming standards set out by the relevant gaming authorities should proudly display this, and make sure that the players are aware that the casino is running a fair game.

GAV: Could you fill us in on your current offer for affiliates and maybe a brief description of your program?

KZ: Our Program has been designed to help you maximize your income. We work on a revenue share model with no hidden fees and no additional hidden deductions. Thanks to our special welcome promotion, you can get a 45% revenue share for the first 3 months! There is no negative carry over and no player quota with us either!

At Condor Affiliates, our goal is to build long-lasting, trustworthy and mutually successful relationships with affiliate partners. As a partner, you’ll be promoting products which are worth your efforts and your time. Sending your traffic our way always translates into high ROI. This is why our focus is set on player retention by constantly launching fresh, exciting promotions and targeted rewards. We like to reward our affiliates too!

GAV: What markets does Condor Affiliates target, and what makes it stand out in the ever growing crowd of sports betting and casino affiliate programs?

KZ: Currently, our target Markets are mainly Central and Western Europe as well as the Nordic Countries. We also support quite a few languages on our websites. Having said that, we see players come from all over the world, with a few exceptions!

We are actively working on acquiring our UK Gaming License and look forward to start accepting UK Players in the very near future as well.

As mentioned previously, apart from our 45% Revenue Share deal, we offer you to promote 4 casinos that have no negative carry over, no player quotas, fast payouts and most of all statistics can be viewed inside one affiliate account for all brands.

GAV: Since the Amsterdam Affiliate Conference is almost here, we would like to ask your opinion on this event, are you guys attending these conferences or are you going to be in Berlin? How about SiGMA and the brand new Nordic Affiliate Conference?

KZ: We will be at AAC this year and we believe that participating at affiliate conferences allow us to meet our current and potential partners and get to know them on a more personal level. It is very easy to speak on Skype and arrange a quick meeting in person see the person, but in the buzzing atmosphere of the conferences, we can create a real connection, make them thrive and hopefully last for many years.

Berlin is one of the cities we really love and we will be surely attending conferences there too!

Since we are based in Malta, SiGMA is always a favourite of ours and we have built many new relationships through these events and look forward to being there again this year.

The Nordic Affiliate Conference is a very exciting one for us, since that is one of our largest target markets, and we are already discussing our participation there. Maybe we could find a bird handler who has a Condor? Hmmmm….

GAV: Where do you think the online sports betting/casino industry will be in 3 years, and of course, on which scale do you see Condor Affiliates?

KZ: The industry is always moving into a stronger position and with new casinos showing up every day, the market reach is getting better. There is always the slight worry that individual countries will limit the activities of Remote Gaming without a specific licence for each country, but here at Condor-Affiliates we are always building towards servicing as many countries as possible. I believe that over the years our brands will grow further and further. We have recently expanded our affiliate team and we have also opened a new office in Bulgaria… so definitely expect greater things from us shortly!

GAV: Tell us a bit about your team? As we know it’s quite made of enthusiastic professionals, who think out of the box, and deploy even the wildest ideas, thus transforming the the online gaming market, through innovation and reliability.

KZ: Currently our Affiliate Team is being expanded (is growing steadily) and we are always on a lookout for the creative geniuses to take our and our affiliate’s efforts to the next step. Being a flexible company we are focused heavily on the individuals and therefore we are more keen on creating custom tailored solutions for both, our players and our affiliates. This is where I believe innovation is created, as we get to hear it straight from the users and this is how we then create innovative plans designed specifically for them.

But of course there is more to it other than only the affiliate team. We have great colleagues in the company, who are also making the magic happen (behind the scenes). I have witnessed some great product training sessions, brainstorming events, and our conference room being invaded by teams who were working on truly exciting projects which are completely new and upcoming. I can not tell too much about this, but one thing i can already see: it will be revolutionary, out of the box, and the wildest ideas are coming truth!!

GAV: Since Central and Eastern Europe offers a large pool of successful affiliates in the industry, do you think that this region is somehow overlooked by brands that are not applying for licenses in the demographic and are there many super-affiliates that you managed coming from this region?

KZ: I do believe that there is definitely room for improvement from most of the Operators and Managers when it comes to Eastern Europe, but here at Condor we have already realized this potential and that is why we have set up our Bulgaria office, to be closer to this untapped market. We currently work with a few Super Affiliates from the East Europe region and we have had great success with these people… but we are always on the lookout for new affiliates, whether they have super affiliate status or not. We believe that together we can build up towards mutual success So if you’re a Junior, Senior or Super affiliate… get in touch 😉

When it comes to Licenses, we are always monitoring potential market opportunities. Now our priority is to get through the UK application and obtain UKGC License, which is going to be a very nice opportunity for our brands!

GAV: Who is your favourite celebrity and if you’d have to a pick a destination in Eastern Europe, where would you travel?

KZ: If I had to pick any celebrity I would have to go with Frank Sinatra. I am an avid lover of music and there is an old world gentleman charm that Sinatra portrays.

Eastern Europe destination would have to be Budapest… I’ve been there 4 times already and I think I would like to stay there for an extended period of time and get to experience living there.

GAV: Where you wouldn’t want to travel?

KZ: The Sahara desert. Malta already reaches temperatures of 40 Degrees Celsius and during our Summer months and I cannot stand the heat. So I cannot imagine myself traveling in the desert..

GAV: Tell us your opinion about GAV(GamblingAffiliateVoice.com)?

KZ: I get onto GAV everyday to read the latest news section as well as following the group discussions. I think it is very important to always be aware of the latest happenings in the Affiliate Industry, and GAV always have the latest… so for me it’s a must!

GAV: Thanks for your time Keith, we appreciate it and wish you and Condor Affiliates all the best!