GPWA Times Magazine - Issue30 - October 2014

If you’re trying to find him, be sure to look up in the trees When did you launch your sites? I started as an affiliate in 2002. How did you become involved in the in- dustry? I saw an opportunity when I was talking with a friend of mine in Spain. How long did it take for you to start earning money? Two years. Are you a one-person shop or are you part of a larger organization? Depends on the time of day! Most of your sites target various gam- ing audiences in Latin America. How did this come about? I spent some time living in Eastern Europe (Latvia). I target Latin America including Brazil because I am from Uruguay (yes, the same country as Luis Suárez). Please share with us your insights into the Latin American online gaming mar- ket. How does it compare to the rest of the world? Where do you see it go- ing over the next few years? The Latin American online gaming market is boom- ing. Brazil is performing extremely well and Mexico is the new kid on the block. The player culture in Latin America is quite different from that in the U.K., for example. Latinos love to socialize, even in the online world. They prefer local customer support and local payment so- lutions. They want to be taken care of by local people and not foreigners. Where did you grow up? And what coun- tries have you lived in? How much trav- eling do you do? I grew up in Uruguay. I lived in Spain, Latvia and Brazil. In my 20s I used to travel a lot (from summer to summer, from south to north). Nowadays I ammuch more stable and I have decided to establish myself again in Uruguay. Bruno Politano of Brazil recently made the "November Nine," the final table of the World Series of Poker's Main Event, which will be played later this fall. Des- cibe the poker market in Brazil and Latin America in general, and how do you think having a Brazilian player do so well in such a high-profile event will affect those markets? In terms of offline events, the poker market in Brazil is performing very well. In some ways, it is not easy to keep a high profile for a long time in Bra- zil, because a lot of “stars” in many areas are appearing all the time and they hoard all the attention (like football players do). However, the poker market (offline and online) is big and Brazilian poker players are proud to see one of their own perform so well in the WSOP, and this encourages new people to learn how to play poker. You have sites in Swedish, French, Span- ish and English. Any other languages I'm missing? How many languages do you speak? In 2009 I sold the “Mediagam- bling Network” with more than 300 sites to Cmedia. I started with a brand-new network in 2012 focused on Sweden, Den- mark, Norway and Finland. One year lat- er I launched new sites in Latin America, including Brazil. I speak English, Por- tuguese and Spanish, and basic Swed- ish and German. It took a lot of effort to improve my English and Portuguese through intensive courses, not to mention how difficult it was to understand the ba- sics of Swedish. You list more than 200 websites on your GPWA profile. How difficult is it to keep all those sites up to date? I am not alone in this venture. I have the good fortune to be surrounded by an A-team which helps me in keeping everything up and running. Your sites also cover every vertical of the gaming industry, from casino, to poker, to slots, roulette, sports betting, bingo and backgammon, just to name a few. What vertical makes you the most money? What vertical do you find to be the most interesting? This is a very inter- esting question. It depends on the coun- try, not only the vertical. In Brazil, bingo is converting like crazy. And I am promot- ing Betmotion.com through their affiliate program, Partnersonly.com, which is by far the best on the whole continent. Describe your work environment. Do you work from home or in an office? To be brutally honest I work from every- where. For large periods of time I just worked from abroad, so if you ask me if I can work in the top of a tree I will fig- ure out a way to be happy working there. What traits do you look for in an affiliate manager? How about in an affiliate pro- gram? Transparency. In both. 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? E-mail preferably. What prompted you to join the GPWA? How has it helped you? The GPWA is managed by great people and they work hard to gather the best affiliates world- wide. They have all my respect. The GPWA is very useful for making valuable contacts and for staying up to date on what is going on in the affiliate industry. You've been a GPWA member for nearly six years, and many of your sites dis- play the GPWA Seal of Approval. How- ever, in those six years, you have just one post on the site, making you one of our many "lurkers." How often do you visit the forums? And what topic(s) would be most likely to get you to be more active in the GPWA forums? In the last few years I’ve just been feeling that there’s a lack of interaction among the “old fellas.” That’s the reason I am now a lurker. However, I am trying to visit the forum on a regular basis. I would love to interact more with active mem- bers interested in expanding their “im- perio” across Latin America and Brazil. GPWA AFFILIATE INTERVIEW SERIES MAX scandinaviangaming GPWA Affiliate Interview Series