GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 27 - February 2014

GPWA AFFILIATE INTERVIEW SERIES Putting pen to paper really helps him clear his mind When did you launch your sites? I start- ed the Czech/Slovakian site in 2004. How did you become involved in the in- dustry? The site I started was more sports focused than betting focused. But I was approached by a bwin marketing repre- sentative for these local markets and we started working together. How long did it take for you to start earning money? It wasn’t long. There weren’t many sites at that time that pro- moted online gaming here, so using my affiliate accounts with a few bookmakers I was able to generate quite a lot of leads in the early days. This also generated com- missions. bwin also started some aggres- sive marketing campaigns in local markets at that time, so the deals were interesting. Your site stavky.com is the Slovak ver- sion of worldpicks.eu. Which site at- tracts more traffic and which site brings in more revenue? And which countries do most of your worldpicks.eu players come from? It is definitely the Slovakian one. Worldpicks.eu is an English copy of the Slovak website, which is older and still among the bigger sites locally. Worldpicks.eu is just gaining attention, but it is slowly growing month by month. Players come from the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Portugal and Romania. Describe the sports betting market in Slovakia. Are there betting shops on the streets as there are in many other European countries? Outside of soc- cer (football), are there any other sports that draw heavy action from punt- ers? Betting shops are very popular and widespread. Among local companies, the biggest is Nike, which operates only in Slovakia. They operate most of the lo- cal shops. The second biggest is Fortuna (Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland) and third and fourth are Tipsport and DOXXbet, which operates only via betting machines. Except for soccer the most pop- ular by far is ice hockey. During the World Championship in ice hockey, all pubs are full, there are big screens in cities and a tremendous number of Slovakians watch the Championship. You’ve said that you really like Betfair and have been involved with them in one way or another since 2003. What is it about Betfair that you find so appeal- ing? Betfair was something new when a lot of people did not yet understand the principles that are now considered to be relatively easy. Betfair offered a solution for highest odds. Unfortunately, Betfair cut their marketing activities in Slovakia in 2013, as did bwin. Right now the most popular companies here include bet365, Unibet, DOXXbet and Fortuna. Are you a one-person shop or are you part of a larger organization? Thanks to my work as an affiliate, I also founded a company, Promiseo, which helps book- makers with SEO and local ads. Describe your work environment. Do you work from home or in an office? If you work from home, how often do you get to see and interact with other people in the industry? I work in an of- fice. I find it much more productive than working from home. I definitely suggest working from an office or at least regularly changing one’s working environment. What traits do you look for in an affili- ate manager? How about in an affiliate program? I have been lucky in that I have been working with great affiliate managers who taught me a lot about conversion opti- mization. They gave me a lot of advice and helped me increase revenues significantly. What’s your preferred method of com- munication with affiliate managers? Do you like to talk on the phone, by e- mail or via Skype? While it may already sound obsolete, I prefer e-mail. It gives me time to think about a response; I can respond when I want to and I don’t get disturbed by ringing phones. But every time my computer starts, I am also online on Skype. You’ve been a GPWA member since 2007. What prompted you to join, and how has being a member helped you? Also, is there any particular reason you’ve never posted anything in the fo- rums? I thought the GPWA could raise the standards for affiliate websites and teach me a lot of things. I was correct. I definitely got some insights into the in- dustry thanks to the articles and posts in the forum. I have not posted because I have seen there are many bigger special- ists in these fields, but I think I will share my experiences someday. . . . What do you like about the industry? The industry has given me a lot. As I said, I started a small company that is helping companies with SEO and is also helping bookmakers with SEO and getting into the Czech and Slovak markets. Without PETER clovek55 Age: 22 Hometown: Kosice, Slovakia Living in: Kosice Favorite Food: Italian Must Read Book: I really enjoyed Thinking, Fast and Slow , by Daniel Kahneman Sites: worldpicks.eu stavky.com bf-betting.com – and many more small ones GPWA Affiliate Interview Series