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Affiliate Interviews: Toni Halonen, Co-founder & CEO of Good Game

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Affiliate Interviews: Toni Halonen, Co-founder & CEO of Good Game

Good Game is an iGaming lead generation company based in Malta. Good Game differentiates itself from its competitors by concentrating only on a handful of sites, focusing on user intent and creating recognisable brands from these few sites. Long-term value for the user and partners has been the key to their success in the Finnish casino affiliate market.

Name: Toni Halonen

Age: 34

Hometown: Ilomantsi, Finland

Living in: Malta

Favourite Food: Traditional Finnish home cooking, Japanese, Indian, Thai

Must-Read Book: The Lord of The Rings, The War of Art

Job Title: Co-founder & CEO

Hi Toni, tell us and our readers a little bit about Good Game. How did your career start in the industry?

I’ve always been fascinated by all sorts of games, be it sports, computer games, board games or gambling. I opened my first online casino account when I turned 18 and started dabbling with online poker around 2004.

After finishing my studies in 2008, I started thinking what I should do for a living and it was then that I came across poker affiliation. The idea of having my own site came to me in 2008, but it took one year of the “real working life” before I jumped into playing poker professionally and chasing my affiliate dream. 🙂

Luckily I wasn’t alone in this, because my childhood friend, Ville Sissonen, also played online poker and showed an interest in affiliation. Our half-serious, half-joke motto in the beginning was: “maximising the passive income”. 🙂 Passwords to our affiliate accounts were always something like “BuyM3rc3d3s2010” back in the day, haha. I still don’t have a Mercedes, but Ville bought his first this year. (The passwords have since been changed, so no point trying to log in. 😉 )

Good Game was established in Malta in 2011 by me and Ville. We came to Malta to play online poker professionally and build affiliate sites on the side. The affiliate business only really started to pay off after our Head of SEO, Jussi Kauppinen, joined the company in 2013. During that time, we also began concentrating only on casino affiliation.

We sold our then main domain in 2015 and went all-in with the money from the first sale straight into building our next project – this time in an actual office 🙂 and with a team of ten people. That project came to an end at the beginning of this year when our main casino site was bought. Now we’re concentrating solely on our UK project.

Explain your current UK project, Bojoko.com, in one sentence.

Airbnb for online casinos.

What makes it different from other casino affiliate sites based on player communities, casino reviews and social proof?

The biggest difference from our competitors is that Bojoko allows casinos and game suppliers to create their own reviews, and publish their own offers and game reviews. This way they can control their brand (tone of voice, design etc.) beyond their own website and ensure that affiliate marketing for their brand is done according to the UK Gambling Commission’s standards.

Casinos and game suppliers have understood this concept well. New casinos have been especially keen on listing themselves on Bojoko.

What’s the reason behind launching Bojoko? In other words, why does Bojoko exist?

There are a couple of reasons why we’ve built Bojoko. First of all, we wanted to minimise the role of an affiliate in everything the user sees and interacts with on the site. Secondly, we see a big gap in how iGaming is consumed compared to other industries operating online. Selecting, playing and transfering money to casinos could be a lot more fluid and safer than it is now.

Our purpose is to build tools for Bojoko users, which they can then use to create this more fluid, safer vision of iGaming. We want to positively transform the iGaming user experience. This way we can establish casino games as an acceptable mainstream pastime too.

How do you see the UK market?

It’s certainly more competitive than the Finnish casino affiliation market and there are many more established brands which are almost non-existent in Finland. It’s a good challenge to build a site for a large market.

Tell us one change that you want to see in the online gambling industry?

I’d like to see all forms of online gambling becoming as accepted in the mainstream as lotteries are. Offering more user-centric products and safer gambling will move the needle to the right direction. There are good initiatives underway in the UK in these two areas, although I’d like to see us, the gambling companies, driving this change and not relying or waiting for regulators to do it. There’s a much bigger pie waiting to be shared in the long run if iGaming becomes a widely accepted and respected industry.

Do you have any advice for newbies who are looking to venture into casino affiliation?

You should constantly ask yourself questions which reveal what kind of person you are. This helps you find the values and ideals you want to push forward in the industry you’re working in. It will also boost your motivation immensely and endow you with a more holistic approach to building your business.

What do you think will be the biggest trends in iGaming in 2018?

Regulation is one, for sure. It will bring new rules to online gambling once again, but it also brings predictability (such as in Sweden) and new markets (US sports betting) to the table. Predictability and new markets are great things for the entire online gambling industry.

What other new things can we expect from Good Game and Bojoko in the second half of 2018?

Bojoko has just rolled out a new tool which helps users tremendously in their casino selection. The tool is attached to our casino lists and lets users filter and sort online casinos easily with over 30 different data points so you can really get to the one casino that satisfies all your requirements. Just like hunting for the perfect vacation home on Airbnb.

In the coming months, we’ll be focusing on bringing more user features like this to Bojoko. They will help users mainly in two ways:

  • Selecting online casinos more quickly and easily
  • Interacting with other Bojoko users in our community

If you find this interesting, the best way to stay tuned to Bojoko and join in the fun is to sign up on the site.

Affiliate Success

ReferOn Shortlisted for “European Corporate Services Supplier” Category at EGR EUROPE Awards 2026

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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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Affiliate Success

ReferOn Wins Prestigious “Best Affiliate Software 2025” at SiGMA Central Europe B2B Awards

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ReferOn Wins Prestigious “Best Affiliate Software 2025” at SiGMA Central Europe B2B Awards

A milestone achievement as ReferOn continues to impress

ReferOn, the next-generation affiliate management platform, has taken the title of “Best Affiliate Software 2025” at the SiGMA Central Europe B2B Awards, held in Rome.

The award recognises ReferOn’s rapid growth in becoming a leader in iGaming. It distinguishes the platform for its cutting-edge architecture, exceptional product innovations, and measurable impact on affiliate operations.

Redefining Affiliate Management

In a short amount of time since its inception, ReferOn has become one of the most recognised names in affiliate technology, leading the way by creating user-centric features that help the real needs of affiliate managers.

The platform recorded rapid adoption, supporting an influx of tens of thousands of affiliates and millions of clicks while continuously evolving and growing with new features and refinements. The platform’s approach to innovation and user-facing experiences is its new living interface, Refie. Refie brings awareness and human-like interaction to the platform, helping make affiliate operations more personable and accessible.

Building Beyond the Standard

Alex Bukin, General Manager at ReferOn, commented on the win, “This award is more than recognition. It empowers and validates our team, encouraging us never to stop building. At ReferOn, we always aim to shape how affiliate marketing should work. At its core, it should be simple, transparent, and powerful. Every new integration and feature comes from a team that deeply understands the product and what real affiliate managers need. This helps us refine our platform to be the best it can be. And we’re only getting started!”

Continued Momentum

ReferOn’s win at SiGMA Central Europe marks another significant achievement. In 2025, the platform conducted multiple migrations and released groundbreaking features to transform affiliate operations. Its sights are set on 2026 — a year that will be focused on product refinements, sustainable growth through key industry partnerships, and delivering more key solutions for real affiliate managers.

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Affiliate Success

Casino Guru secures SiGMA Central Europe B2C Awards’ Best Affiliate 2025 distinction

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Casino Guru secures SiGMA Central Europe B2C Awards' Best Affiliate 2025 distinction

Casino Guru has won the “Best Affiliate 2025” category at the SiGMA Central Europe B2C Awards, distinguishing the company’s efforts in delivering the best online casino database and guiding players to the safest casinos of their choice.

Via Tuscolana hosted the ceremony on Tuesday, November 4, in Rome, Italy, distinguishing a number of companies, among which was Casino Guru, which secured the landmark accolade for itself.

Commenting on the win, Casino Guru’s Head of Casino Research, Matej Novota, said: “Winning the Best Affiliate 2025 award at the SiGMA Central Europe B2C Awards is a meaningful milestone for us as we approach the end of the year. At Casino Guru, we are honored to be recognized in this category. Our mission has always been to build the world’s most comprehensive online casino database and to offer impartial insights that empower players to make informed decisions. This award strengthens our resolve to continue serving as a trusted bridge between players and operators, while upholding the highest standards of integrity, transparency, and fairness in everything we do.”

Casino Guru has been awarded for its unflagging commitment to providing players with the most reliable up-to-date information about casinos and bonuses.

At its core, Casino Guru is committed to making the gambling industry safer and promoting best practices in Responsible Gaming. The company plays an active role in shaping these standards, drawing on its extensive experience, expertise, and firmly held values of fairness, integrity, and transparency.

Platforms such as the Global Self-Exclusion Initiative and Casino Guru Academy have been created to foster a better understanding of Responsible Gambling and how players and industry professionals can leverage it to their benefit.

Notably, the Casino Guru Awards have become a trend-setter in actively encouraging change on the part of industry stakeholders, and distinguishing deserving individuals and companies across numerous categories, such as Rising Star in Responsible Gambling, Most Impactful Social Responsibility Initiative, Fairest Bonus Policy, Industry Culture Shaper, and more.

Casino Guru has worked tirelessly, developing the world’s most complicated ranking system, the Safety Index, which carefully examines each casino’s offer, focusing on criteria favored by players, and issues an objective score that is also regularly updated.

Besides the Safety Index, Casino Guru has launched and maintains a world-beating independent adjudication service, the Complaint Resolution Center, which has returned more than $50m to players, including closing cases that involved more than $1m disputed by a single player.

Casino Guru is proud to receive the latest accolade from the SiGMA Central Europe B2C Awards, celebrating the company’s commitment to making gambling safer and better for everyone out there.

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