GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 28 - April 2014

Do you think Sheldon Adelson will suc- ceed in his efforts to “persuade” the U.S. government to ban online gaming? Dangerous guy. I believe he has themon- ey and the influence tomake a bigdiffer- ence and should not be underestimated. Even if hedoesnot get a full ban, thisguy is a spanner in the works for any federal regulationand couldevenbuyopposition tobills at the state level.Anugly situation for sure. Areyouaone-personshoporareyoupart of a larger organization? I have one full- time employeewho does an excellent job of looking after the running of the sites, and a great team of remote part-time and freelancecolleagues including translators, technical experts andwriters. Describe your work environment. Do you work fromhomeor inanoffice?Andhow often do you get to see and interact with other people in the industry? Iwork from a co-working space called “TheHub” in Budapest, where I have two permanent desks. There are a lot of tech startups and some very smart people here. At home the line between working and not workinggets tooblurred formeand Ifind myself doing half of each. Not toomuch interaction with others in the industry nowadays, but I do chat with some of the longer-established poker webmasters from time to time. What traits do you look for in an affiliate manager? How about in an affiliate program? I prefer AMs to be hands-off, yet responsive to any serious player issues. For programs I primarily look for their ability to retainplayers, and for this reason I go with the bigger and better- knownbrands. Thenumberofprograms Ihavewritten to andhadno reply from is simplyamazing. A few quick and easy responses would havemeant a lot of players over the years for several different programs. What’syour preferredmethodof commu- nication with affiliatemanagers? Do you like to talkon the phone, by e-mail or via Skype? E-mail isfine forme. What prompted you to join the GPWA? Pretty sure it was the magazine which triggeredmy original sign-up, although I don’t clearly recall joining. You’ve been a member for nearly five years, but after just sixposts inyour first four years, you’ve become much more active on themessage boards lately. Any particular reason why? (P.S. – We love seeing you more often!) For many years I found the community over at PALmore relevant formypoker-focusedworld and Idevelopedalongsidea lot ofwebmasters there. That crowd has largely dispersed now (moving on inmany positive ways) and I am more aware of the need to diversify into casino and sports-betting – which iswhereGPWA is stronger. I look forward to learning about the nuances of the other verticals at GPWA and also look forward to getting to know manyof youbetter. What do you like about the industry? Many things: the creativity, the psychol- ogy of converting players, the financial rewardswhen it all goes right, the ability to try out new ideas, many of the great people involved…. If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be? The way that people communicate drives me nuts sometimes – particularly in the case of disputeswithoperatorsonpublic forums. What do your family and friends think of your work as an affiliate? My family and people I knowwell arepretty coolwith it. Ifind thatpeople Iknow lesswellandnew people I meet tend to assume I am doing something dodgy or outright spamming. This canbe frustrating sometimes. Do you gamble online? If so, what do you play? I’mpretty sure that if I hadnot started thewebsites then I’d have drifted away from online poker after a year or two like most people who started in the boomyears.Now Idonkaroundnowand again, anddo test out thenewest games. Age: 43 Hometown: Reading, England Living in: Budapest, Hungary FavoriteFood: Indiancurries MustReadBook: AnythingbyKurt Vonnegut, maybe Galapagos or TheSirensof Titan Sites: sitandgoplanet.com pokerbonuszklub.hu –and severalmore sites 57 GPWAAffiliate InterviewSeries