GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 28 - April 2014

This is where players can build upmerit points whenever they play poker for real money, on both cash tables and tourna- ments. The more merit points which are built up the greater the loyalty award. We get reallygood feedback fromplayers using this promotion and it certainly assists bet365 in retaining players by rewarding them through thispromotion. bet365 Affiliates offers partners a 30 percent flat commission on all referred players. Some affiliate programs offer larger commissions to affiliates that bring inahighvolumeofplayersorhigher revenue. Why did bet365 decide to go with a flat commission rate? This was a decision that was made when the bet365 Affiliate Programwas first set up andwe feel itwas the right decision tomake. For thepastfiveyearsbet365haswon theBest Overall Affiliate Program and this award mirrors the fact that affiliates are happy with the bet365 product and want to continue toworkon this commission rate. Affiliates enjoy great success while being on a 30 percent commission revenue deal and these successes are inagreat position to continue formanyyears. Howmuch crossover do your poker play- ershave inothergamingverticalsoffered by bet365? Do poker players also play casino games and bet on sports? Or do your poker players tend to only play poker? At bet365we are keen to promote cross-product development as much as possible. We want to ensure that bet365 appeals toall onlineplayers and that they can find everything they want at bet365. In terms of poker players we see that a lot of them also like to bet on sports. This is the most popular cross-product for poker players, which is great for the overall success of the business. Although sports is the most popular cross-product for poker players to use, bet365 also sees poker players using the casino product. Within thepokerproduct there isawealth of casino games giving poker players a taste of what the casino product has to offer. These casinogames are a greatway of getting poker players to transition to the casino product, which in turn pro- vides them with a whole host of other promotions andopportunities. Describe the office culture at bet365. If there were a fly on the wall, what are some of the topics of conversation it wouldhearaboutat thewatercooler? The bet365 affiliate department is very much a team. We are all in close quarters with eachotherandweallhelpeachotherwith different queries, which really produces a great atmosphere in the department. General conversations include the football results from the past weekend or the upcomingmatches.Wehaveawide range of different football fans in the office so there is some good banter. The team is also a very sociable one, so upcoming nights out are also a topic that regularly get discussed. With somuchgoingon in thedepartment therearealwayswork-relateddiscussions occurring. As I am sure you are aware the sporting calendar is packed each year with massive events which can certainly help drive traffic to affiliates’ websites, not to mention all of the other custom- er promotions for all products. These events andpromotions enable theaffiliate team to discuss and try new things with affiliates in order to keep things fresh on their websites. The office atmosphere is most definitely a hub of excitement and eagerness toperform thebestwe can. Whatdoyouknowabout the industrynow that youwishyou’dknownwhenyoufirst started? Before joining, my knowledge of the iGaming industry was limited in comparison to where it is now. Since I started working as an affiliate manager I have learned a great deal more about our industry. The landscape of our industry is con- stantly changing. Due to the rate of this growthanddevelopmentwealwaysmust ensure that we are constantly acquiring knowledge, adapting as a result of this, and applying this adaptation toourwork with affiliates, inorder to ensure that per- formance and results continue to remain at optimum levels. In terms of what I wish I would have known, the answerwould be everything! Understandingeachof thedifferent prod- ucts and theirmarkets, how tomaximize the results for affiliates, the technology that underpins all of this, and so on and so forth. Knowing all of this (andmore!) would have been welcomed, but thank- fully I have been given an opportunity that has enabled me to now know all of this inorder toapply this tomyprofession every singleday. How do you ensure that payments are sent out on time?Andwhendo your pay- ments go out? All affiliates are given the affiliate accounts department’s e-mail address when they sign up. At the end of the month affiliates can send their invoices to this e-mail address for them to be processed and paid. Alternatively af- filiates can send their invoices to their af- filiatemanager,whowill then ensure that the invoice is sent and receivedby the ac- countsdepartment. Paymentsare sent out as soon as possible and our accounts de- partmentworks incrediblyhard toensure that affiliates arepaid ingood time. Wheredoyou think the industrywill be in five years? I think the industrywill con- tinue to grow and be even bigger in five years’ time. At bet365 we constantly see an influxof newapplications frompeople wanting to be affiliates. A lot of people realize that it is a successful industry and theywant tobe apart of it. It’s certainly an exciting time to work in the industry and especially at bet365. We are always looking at ways we can im- prove our affiliate program and keep up with the ever-changing affiliate industry. Where did you grow up? And howwould you describe life in Stoke-on-Trent? I grew up in Newcastle-Under-Lyme, which is just outside Stoke-on-Trent. Life upNorth in Stoke ismuch like life in any city; there are good aspects and the not so good. All of my friends live around here and it’s quite central to a few big cities;Manchester andLiverpool are only 45minutes away on the train, alongwith Birmingham. It’s certainly in a great lo- cation for people to live in. Speaking of people there is a friendly atmosphere around the city and if you stopped and asked for directions, you would get the right ones! Stoke itself is undergoing some big regeneration projects which are very exciting for the future of the city. In the next few years it’s being sig- nificantly redeveloped and modernized. AffiliateManager Interview Series AffiliateManager InterviewSeries