GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 17 - September 2011

How long have you been working in the industry? What drew you to the business? Back in my pool-playing days, my team- mates and I used to like a game of poker but living so far apart made it very hard. So I haggled a private game online on Betfred for us. I then set up the forum so that we could all have a place to brag and get some banter going about the games. I then started “recruiting” anyone online who I had seen was Scottish to join in our friendly banter. That was back around 2004. The site was called scotbet.com and in 2008 I sold the domain to a Scottish bookmaker and bought a new domain, and pokerbanter.com was born. I never knew about affiliates or how it worked when I first began, but I did use the “refer-a-friend” offer at the time and was getting £25 per person who signed up. I got about 10 signups just from friends. I then noticed that one of them was play- ing 10/20 NL tables and regularly sitting with thousands at the table and winning! I then got alerted about how I could be an affiliate by the Betfred Affiliate team and have never looked back since. To this day, I wish I had signed up that 10/20 player on a revenue deal rather than a £25 “refer- a-friend” bonus! Are you a full-time online gambling af- filiate, or do you hold down another job as well? I am a very part-time affiliate and see it as more of a luxurious hobby than a job. I work online as my full-time job and have six eCommerce sites selling anything from fancy dress to poker goods. Your three sites are all dedicated to poker. One is a .com site and two are .co.uk sites. Which site draws the most traffic, and which earns you the most revenue? Yes, I have my main site, pokerbanter.com, which is a community-driven site with a forum and over 1,000 members. This is the main site and draws in the most traffic and the most revenue. The .co.uk domain is hosting my eCommerce store selling poker goods and equipment. The store has only been open for just over a year but earnings are starting to pick up and per- haps this will overtake the main site soon! As I have a lot of good friends on my fo- rum I put earnings back into the forum as prizes for members in leagues. Regarding the eternal CPA vs. rev share debate, you’ve posted that you’re for rev share in all cases. Do you feel that this is a better model for you personally, or for poker in general? And would there ever be any circumstances under which you might consider taking a CPA or hy- brid deal? Yes, I always choose rev share where possible. I love the fact that you can keep on earning long after you have signed a player up and the earnings can be limitless rather than capped. I don’t only try to get players to sign up at sites, I try to get them actively contributing to my forum at pokerbanter.com. This way I can keep them active on poker sites by or- ganizing poker leagues or tournaments. How has the traffic on your sites been af- fectedby theBlack Friday indictments and domain seizures in the States? My sites are mainly focused towards European players although we do have some U.S. members. I had never been too focused on the “big” sites such as PokerStars and promoted more medium to smaller poker clients, which has served me well. My traffic has remained constant and perhaps has seen a very small rise since Black Friday. In light of Black Friday I see myself even more fo- cused on small to medium – and mainly U.K.-based – sites, although recent legis- lation proposals in the U.K. may change that soon! You’ve said that you like to bet on “pok- er-themed” horses at Cheltenham. How has that strategy been working out for you? Oh, don’t talk to me about horses!!! I hardly ever win betting poker-themed horses but it’s a great feeling when one romps home. I don’t bet on horses to win money, though; I bet for the thrill of the event and the fun of watching them. Winning is a nice bonus. What do you like about the industry? I love connecting with people with whom you would normally never have the chance to connect with, from all corners of the world. Promoting the poker industry means there is always a talking point somewhere. What don’t you like about the industry? This is an easy answer! Unscrupulous and rogue affiliate platforms that don’t realize the value of affiliates! What surprised you the most about the industry? The one thing I don’t like about the industry is affiliate teams’ constant push for new depositors and their seem- ing lack of drive to retain customers. I think affiliate teams should be more driv- en to keeping active players rather than new signups. What did you do before you joined the on- line gaming industry? Before I joined the gaming industry I worked in a local pool hall. It was one of the largest venues in the area and appealed to me perfectly as I used to play eight-ball pool at the national level for a number of years. The highlight of this was winning three world champi- onship team medals playing for Scotland. How long do you give yourself for re- sponding to e-mail? And what e-mail tips can you offer? I always try to answer e- mail as soon as possible, but as I have a busy home life some things occasionally have to wait. The best tip I can offer re- garding e-mail is to always be courteous, even if you are annoyed by the conversa- tion or the person! How do youmanage your“to-do”lists? Do you use any special software to help you out? Ah, to-do lists. This is the list that I never seem to catch up on and grows fast- er than I can reduce! I don’t have any spe- cific software but I do have lots of notepad files scattered around my desktop with the title “Don’t Forget!” Work to live, don’t live to work – and choose rev share whenever possible BILLY PRENTICE pokerbanter GPWA Affiliate Interview Series