GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 14 - October 2010

it has grown from four employees to nearly 40, and has continued to respond to market needs, branching out into affili- ate program management, search engine marketing, online marketing development and media buying. A “sacred” position As the provider of affiliate statistics — and most importantly for affiliates, rev- enue numbers — Income Access holds a unique position between the affiliate and the operator. “For me, it’s a very sacred position,” says Senyard. “We’ve got this very spe- cialized position, and it’s something we take with a high degree of responsibility. We are the bridge between the [affili- ates and the operators], and I think our responsibility is to become an authentic bridge, not one that plays one agenda off the other.” Income Access’s authenticity — and avail- ability — becomes apparent when talking to affiliates about their experiences with Income Access. “They’re always at the conferences,” says Ian Simms, aka “Simmo!” on the GPWA. “They’re very visible and they’re very nice people, very easy to get on with. I’ve got a lot of time for them.” “The most comparable system to Income Access is NetRefer, who have a similar soft- ware backend for affiliate programs,” adds Simms. “The difference is you don’t really have any contacts at NetRefer; it’s the sys- tem, and that’s what it is, whereas the In- come Access people are very visible.” “Sometimes affiliates, if they have prob- lems with clients, will come to us outside of the normal channels with their client and tell us they’re having an issue with payment, for instance,” says Gaffney. “Quite often, we’ve been able to mediate the issue. Sometimes a client might think that an affiliate is quite small and won’t give them the time of day, but when we give them a little bit more information, it’s worked out quite well. It’s an effective po- sition for us.” And being a bridge doesn’t just mean as a software company. In some instances, Income Access provides affiliate program Director of IT Operations Vanesa Cantt Director of Client Relations Kristen Gaffney 61 Bridging online gaming’s numbers gap