GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 11 - January 2010

“German playersare always looking foraMercedes” Youposted last year that yourmainbusi- ness is sportsbooks targeting the Ger- man and Balkanmarkets.Which sports- books are currently the most popular withyourplayers? This isadifficultques- tion, because you have to split the player groups. Aplayerwho is trying to become moreprofessional is still going toBetfair, for example, andmoreandmore toAsian bookmakerslikeSBOBETand188bet.The average German hobby player likes the classic sportsbooks (e.g., bwin), because they trust themwith their huge range of games and their extreme advertisement activities. For new sign-ups and because they’re something of an all-rounder, bet365 would be the winner: currently they are the only sportsbook that hits the middlebetweenEuropeanofferandAsian betting style like Asian Handicaps, high odds and stuff like this. There are also some upcoming sportsbooks likeBetClic, but I think the brand name is not catchy enough for German players. Our conclu- sion after a few years: Germans are play- ing as they live– they are always looking for aMercedes. They will accept a lower bonus and slightly lower odds if they can be sureabout theirmoney. What did you do before you became an onlinegamblingaffiliate? Oneofmyuse- ful previous jobs was in a classic mar- keting company. They did a lot of work for one of the big oil companies, focus- ing particularly on gas stations, so the marketing used to be targeted on B2C business. Other lessons were learned while working at our offline betting shops in Germany. You will never learn more about gamblers than you can learn throughdirect contact. How longwas it before your sites start- ed earning youmoney? This is a tough one. We started Sportwetten Magazin more as a political site, with comments and some articles about politicians’ lies. At the timewewere still focused on our offline betting activities. Afterwe began focusing on the site as a potential profit center, it took us about fivemonths un- til it really made some money. Simul- taneously we launched another site, which started to be profitable after threemonths, but itwas aWiki-site and not amagazine. Howdidyoudiscover theGPWA? I can’t really remember how I found it. I think a company didn’t answer me when I sent the usual e-mail, so I was looking for some way to directly contact the af- filiate manager. And yes, the GPWA helped me. I’ve met some interesting people and I’m sure I’ll have many fu- ture opportunities to cooperate with other members. I’ve also learned about new ways to promote things as well as ways I would NEVER use to promote a brand. DoyoueveruseFacebook,Twitteroroth- er socialnetworks topromoteyour sites? If so, how? Yes, I use them all, but more to inform people via media which they are using daily. I think this is just one small component of marketing and not anything big. The classical spammers in our business have unfortunately already destroyedanypositive imageof thismar- keting channel. Doyougambleonline? If so,whatdoyou play? Yes, Iamstill activewithsportsbet- ting, but not asmuchas inmy earlydays, when thiswasmymain income.However, I can still finance some nice extras with wrongodds frombookmakers. Ifyouhadtopickfivekeystosuccessasan affiliate,whatwould theybe,andwhy? Neverbecomearrogant, nomatterhow fast first success comes. Always keep an open mind, because you can learn every second if you do it thisway. Stay focusedonyourproject. Create some reachable targets. Be flexible – the markets definitely are. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. If you could changeone thing about the gaming industry, what would it be, and why? Oh, I’d like to see just a littlemore serious image and less “Yeah, we are all thebiggest playersaround.”This costsus abunchofmoney. If you could have one “super power,” what would it be? And why? As a man: X-ray-eyes. Seriously, I’d like tohave the power to move something really impor- tant, thingswhichare forgotten toooften, like fightingagainst hunger in theworld. Ifyouwerecastingamovie (withyourself in the starring role),whowouldplayyour romantic interest?Why? Monica Bellucci. Doyou reallyneedananswer to “Why?”!? Andfinally,whatarethreethingsthatno- body knows about you? We should stay away from thesedark topics. FedaMecan | FMecan Age: 27 Hometown: Bochum (Germany) / Born in Zenica (Bosnia and Herzegovina) City currently residing in: Bochum Favorite food: Italian One book everyonemust read: In our business, of course, The Gambler, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky Sites (4 of 8): sportwetten-magazin.com dnevna-kladionica.com livescore.im wagernews.eu 51 GPWA Affiliate Interview Series