GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 31 - February 2015

If something like that happened to me I would go public on the GPWA site and at least hope that other affiliates would avoid programs that use such practices. In two years as a member of the forums, you've made just four posts, which makes you one of our many lurkers. What prompts you to join a conversa- tion in an online forum? Lack of time has been the real reason behind my not taking part in the discussions. Moreover, the cur- rent situation in the Greek gaming market seems to be so different from everywhere else that I find I don’t have that many things in common businesswise to discuss with affiliates from England, for example. What do you like about the industry? I really like how you can make sports so much more exciting by adding the gam- ing element and of course the excellent payout margins that are unparalleled in any other industry. If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be? The notion that all people who gamble have a gam- bling problem. Gambling can be fun as long as you treat it that way. What do your family and friends think of your work as an affiliate? At first it was a bit difficult to explain exactly what I was doing, but after the proper introduction they thought it was really interesting and a unique way to put food on the table. Do you gamble online? If so, what do you play? I do gamble, although not that often, and when I do it is almost always on foot- ball. I prefer to treat gambling the way it was really meant to be treated, as a form of entertainment, not a way to make money. How much time do you give yourself to answer e-mail? What e-mail tips can you offer? I try to answer e-mail within the same working day and e-mail from visitors within a couple of hours. Their feedback is all you can rely on to improve your service. When there is some action required on my part, I answer the e-mail, then set it to unread so it’s always there before my eyes until I actually complete the action required. Only after I have done what is needed do I let it slip into the ocean of read e-mail. How do you manage your “to-do” lists? Do you use any special software to help you out? Google Calendar is my friend as far as tasks are concerned, although I do write down the day’s tasks so I can further expand them into sub-tasks and details. How much time do you devote to SEO and/or social networking in order to drive more traffic to your sites? Not as much as I should. This is one of the areas I am currently looking into outsourcing as time is really limited and as I also know that there are people out there with a far greater skill set than I have in terms of SEO and social networking. What’s the most difficult thing about running your sites? After having done this for 10 years now, there is not one thing I would say is difficult. Staying on- line 24/7 is a challenge, but having help from an excellent system administrator has really made all the difference for me. What’s the best thing about running your sites? Watching the visitors’ num- bers grow day by day, month by month and year by year. Then you know you are doing a good job as the audience is the ul- timate judge. What do you do to stay in shape – both physically and mentally? I should really be doing much more, but at the moment I only have time for an hour of 5-a-side foot- ball per week. Reading the month’s National Geographic also helps take your mind off your little everyday world and into more serious matters such as world poverty. What’s your favorite vacation spot? That would be Corfu. I have been going there with my wife for vacation ever since we met 11 years ago and every time there is a new beach to discover, a new restaurant to eat in and something new to do. What’s your all-time favorite movie? Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds . I hate racism of any kind and I think that movie has both a serious and a funny way of getting that message across. If you could invite any five people, living or dead, to dinner, who would they be? I would have a nice dinner with my wife, my mother, my father, who passed away a few months ago, and my wife’s parents, whom I never met as they passed away before I had met my wife. That would make the best family gathering. What are three things that nobody knows about you? “Nobody” is really not applicable for a person living with an- other person for more than 10 years now (LOL), but the next best things, what very few people know about me, are: 1. I own more than 200 domain names, each of which is a business idea wait- ing to be developed. 2. My big love in terms of work is 3D pro- gramming and I am currently working in my spare time on a personal project that combines the web and 3D. 3. I work as an operations manager in a gaming company in Greece. AGE 38 HOMETOWN Athens LIVING IN Athens FAVORITE FOOD My wife’s spaghetti carbonara MUST READ BOOK Stasiland: Stories from Behind the Berlin Wall, by Anna Funder SITES goalsgr.com globalscore.com betscores.gr 33 GPWA Affiliate Interview Series