Affiliate Success

Affiliate Interviews: Jaume Lopez of Rahapelit-Netissa.com (Epicorns)

Published

3 years ago

June 26, 2017

GAV: Hello Jaume, could you fill out the short form below so our readers can imagine your profile?

Name: Jaume Lopez
Age: 29
Hometown: Viladecans, Barcelona – Spain
Living in: Andorra la Vella – Andorra
Favorite Food: Spanish cusine
Must Read Book: I won’t recommend any since I am not into reading books
Profession/Job title: Online Marketing/CEO at Epicorns

GAV: Hi Jaume, first of all tell us and our readers as well a little bit about yourself, we want to know who Jaume really is? How did your career start in the industry? Since when are you active at rahapelit-netissa.com?

JL: I am born in the metropolitan area of Barcelona, where I studied and got the title of Senior Technician in Administration and Finance. Afterwards I started studying online but at the age of 23 the crisis hit very hard in Spain and it was very difficult to get a good job. I then decided to move to Malta and there is where I started working in the Igaming industry. First, I started working for a very well-known poker/casino affiliate within the Spanish market. 2 years after that, I moved to Cyprus to work as a Head of SEO, where I was working and living for almost 2 years. In Cyprus, I met my better half and we decided to move to Andorra, where we then started doing consultancy and creating affiliate sites, and that’s how our company started.

GAV: We know that you also have an international online marketing company, tell us all about it?

JL: At Epicorns we do a lot of services like SEO, web development, content writing.., but we don’t focus much into selling the services, since our main income nowadays is affiliate marketing and lead generation. We currently have over 150 websites in 11 different languages.

We are growing fast, and now we are in total 9 employees, plus more or less same number of freelancers (mainly for content). All of us work from home in different locations: India, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Andorra, Colombia..

GAV: Since there are thousands of websites and portals in this niche out there, where do you think rahapelit-netissa.com stands now and what is that plus that the other portals don’t have?

JL: With no doubt, I will say the variety of the content, we talk about betting, lotteries, casinos, poker and basically whatever that is considered gambling. That makes rahapelit-netissa.com a site for all kind of gamblers.

GAV: Which markets do you target with your site and why?

JL: We target mainly Finland since the site is just in Finnish at the moment.

We created the site since we saw that there was a gap. The market either targets betting, poker or casino.. all by separate. Since Finnish people are “gamblers by design” they basically like all kinds of games, and that’s where rahapelit-netissa.com stands out.

GAV: How do you see the online casino market/industry at this moment?

JL: It is still a quite new industry, especially in some locations and markets. In places like UK or Sweden the market is more mature and you can see that the game is very different.

What I noticed, is that there is a lot of new casinos, every time more, which is making the value player way lower and the quality of the support, CRM.. it’s every time lower and lower.

I think that this is happening because the big players in the industry makes money from TV ads, sponsors and so on, and they don’t take care much about the affiliates, that’s why so many new casinos are coming to fill this gap.

GAV: In your opinion what are the strong points of rahapelit-netissa.com and what makes it stand out from the other niche websites?

JL: The variety, you can find everything in one place and that makes it unique.

GAV: We have surfed your website and found some great quality content. Are you writing it by yourself or do you have a team of people writing for you?

JL: Thanks for noticing! Yes, we have a small team of freelance content writers, in addition to that my partner Nina Sparv is also writing and over checking that all content is properly written and placed in the website.

GAV: How about the online marketing and SEO of your websites, how many team members do you have, let us in on a new trend that you guys are following?

JL: In the marketing part of the company we are 3 people, and we basically divide our job by markets or countries. We don’t follow any strategy, we´re just focusing on to keep growing the sites with good content and get links from reliable sources. Like this you will always grow progressive, and with less risk than when using more aggressive techniques.

GAV: How do you manage to keep all the websites fresh and relevant, when a lot of fluffy and nonsense appear on the Internet non-stop?

JL: We have content writers. Before they were not experts in the area, but after writing tons of content about our industry they already became experts. Which is very important to keep the site fresh and with interesting content.

GAV: We are pretty convinced that you receive messages from Affiliate Managers on a daily basis showcasing their best products. You, of course select them by the brands they work with. What are your thoughts on how a real Affiliate Manager-Affiliate relationship should be built, and how not?!

JL: In here I think the volume and the size of the affiliate influences a lot. It´s not the same, a relationship with a startup than with a big corporation.

In our case, we love the affiliate managers that help us grow, check how to improve conversions, how we can bring more traffic…

GAV: How do you see the future of the online casino/gambling industry? For instance, will it become a truly global phenomenon?

JL: I think it will always exist, and every time I think it will be more regulated in the countries.

Regarding global.. I think it is already, and most of the world still didn’t even start gambling online, so in few decades I am sure it’s going to be truly a global business.

GAV: Tell us one change that you want to see in the online casino industry?!

JL: There are a lot of things, especially regarding the regulations. But the one I am going to say, is “trust”. Nobody trusts the business fully yet, we look like a bunch of scammers that do weird things, banks don’t give you credits, countries check what you are doing because it can be “suspicious”, most of online casinos are located in countries where gambling is illegal so you have to hide that you work on that…

I don’t think our business is what the rest of the world thinks, but that will take a lot of time to change.

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

JL: Take it easy and learn on the way. At the beginning invest in time, not in money and when you have a better understanding, then start investing in it. It’s not rocket science, but it needs patience and knowledge.

GAV: How about iGaming/online casino or affiliate conferences, do you attend any of them? If so, which one is your favorite and what is your most fun experience?

JL: I start going to conferences last year, so I didn’t go much. Since I don’t have much experience I can’t say which one is the best, probably in 1-2 years I will be able to answer that question better.

GAV: What do you think the chances are for Eastern Europe to become a potential gaming hotspot in the near future? Where do you think the region must improve upon?

JL: I think it will become a gaming hotspot, now everybody is in the Nordics and UK, once these markets are completely saturated, people will start looking more and more into the opportunities in other countries, especially in Europe.

GAV: Where would you like to travel in Eastern Europe, any favorite country or region?

JL: I would like to travel to Romania since I’ve never been there. My favorite country (from where I´ve been before) would be Poland, and my favorite city is Budapest.

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

JL: Since I love travelling I would love to travel everywhere!

GAV: How about a favorite celebrity or a mentor, do you have one?

JL: I don’t have a favorite celebrity, but mentors fortunately I had a lot, so I can’t mention just one.

GAV: Tell us your opinion about the Gambling Affiliate Voice?

JL: I think it’s a great online magazine, the industry is growing and we need more sources to be aware of what’s going on in the market and thanks to GAV we are always updated.

GAV: Jaume, thank you for your time and interest, we wish you guys all the best!

If you would like to suggest subjects for future affiliate interviews, send your suggestions to: george@gamblingaffiliatevoice.com

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Affiliate Success

A Representative of Storm International will Speak at the Kyiv iGaming Affiliate Conference

Published

2 months ago

December 6, 2019

George Miller

A Representative of Storm International will Speak at the Kyiv iGaming Affiliate Conference

Lavrenty Gubin will present a report on the key elements of a successful casino

There is a series of conferences and exhibitions to take place in Kiev in the coming months due to the upcoming gaming business legalization.

The Kyiv iGaming Affiliate Conference will take place in the capital of Ukraine on December 18, 2019.
The core topic of the conference is gaming business legalization in Ukraine and adoption of international experience in the field of regulation.

Lavrenty Gubin, Marketing and PR Director of Storm International, was invited to the conference as a speaker to cover the land-based casinos sector. Lavrenty will make a presentation on the international experience required to open a brand new casino like Shangri La Tbilisi or SL Casino Riga.

The conference will gather government officials, operators, software developers, marketers and other industry professionals to discuss the future of the Ukrainian gaming business. The conference is run by Smile Expo, a well known industry events organizer in Western Europe and CIS.

Conference website: affiliateconf.com.ua

Affiliate Success

Three-peat for the King Billy Affiliate Program at the SBC Awards!

Published

3 months ago

November 5, 2019

George Miller

Three-peat for the King Billy Affiliate Program at the SBC Awards!

We should know by now that King Billy Casino was bound to be in the limelight for one more time. True to the words of the great Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho “Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time.”, King Billy does it for the third time in a row.

So, after being shortlisted at the prestigious iGB Awards (and from there, winning it all), being shortlisted again at the prestigious EGR Awards, the King Billy Affiliate Program has now also been shortlisted at the prestigious SBC Awards (event to be held on December 3). Moreover, the operator is also on the SBC Awards short list for Casino Rising Star.

We asked the mastermind behind this tremendous streak, Ruslan Legenzov, King Billy Head of Affiliates to share his feelings with us and a few words about this new distinction. He was, understandably, in a state of euphoria:

“This is beyond our wildest dreams! To complete the “Big 3” of the industry’s annual biggest awards shows, by being short-listed in each and every one of them fills us all with immense pride. At King Billy Casino, we set out with a single goal in mind: to move beyond the commission and offer to our affiliates a program never seen before. We are happy that our effort is recognized by both judges and Affiliates!”

The SBC Awards, now in its 6th year, recognize the achievements of operators, affiliates and suppliers from across all major disciplines including payments, marketing, platform providers and data. The Awards will be held at Battersea Evolution, in the heart of London, bringing together 700 gaming industry delegates.

King Billy Casino is a new generation online casino, available in 5 languages (English, German, Russian, Finnish and Norwegian and soon Japanese) with an impressive record in awards and an amazing variety of games providers and features. King Billy has built on creating a superb user experience focusing on the myth of King Billy and his Kingdom and treats all players with the specialness they deserve.

Affiliate Success

First Georgia iGaming Affiliate Conference: What Was Discussed at the Event?

Published

3 months ago

November 4, 2019

George Miller

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.