GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 33 - October 2015

ceed. Everyone knows a team works bet- ter than an individual. So, from an affiliate point of view, the chances are higher to earn a better income with a public company, and you will be treated with more transparency and fair- ness, which is what makes a partnership successful in the long term. InterPartners is the affiliate program for InterCasino, InterPoker and VIP Casino, with InterCasino being the oldest of the group, launching back in 1996. Why has InterCasino succeeded over such a long time period? And are any plans in the works to celebrate the company’s 20 th birthday next year? That is correct, InterCasino was established in 1996 and is the oldest operating online casino. InterCasino has always been transparent, fair and very loyal to the players, and to our affiliates as well. There are players at InterCasino who are still playing with us after more than 10 years, because they know that they can win at InterCasino and also get everything cashed out. In May 2015 we had a player win $1.3 million on the Native Treasure slot, which is not even a progressive and only a regular slot. InterCasino even broke the record for largest online slot jackpot when a blacksmith with the player name of Obaesso won $8 million in May 2007 playing the famous Millionaire’s Club progressive slot. On the affiliate side, InterCasino pays its affiliates on time and we are still paying affiliates for players that the affiliate de- livered more than 10 years ago. With us, it does not matter if you are on a CPA or rev- enue share deal. We show all the numbers as we want to have a fair business and so both parties know what is going on in the established partnership. We celebrated our 18 th birthday at the Barcelona Affiliate Conference last September and I hope that everyone had lots of fun and enjoyed it. We gave out lots of bonuses to our players in November 2014 as birthday gifts. I do not know yet if there will be a party for our 20 th birthday . . . let’s stay tuned. The site was redesigned early in 2015. How was the redesign received by play- ers? Has traffic increased since the re- design? When we knew that we were going to do a relaunch, we asked more than 3,000 players for feedback. The accu- mulated information contributed greatly to our relaunch, which turned out to be very successful, according to the numbers over the last few months. Also, we started to run our TV campaign on Sky Network with the relaunch, which helped a lot with the increase of numbers. Players say that the new site is very user-friendly and easi- er to navigate than it used to be, and we’ve seen an increase in player activity, too. VIP Casino launched six years ago. How is VIP Casino unique from the InterCasino brand? Our main focus is on InterCasino, but let’s see what happens with VIP Casino in the near future. With its name, VIP Casino is definitely interesting and it has potential to grow. Every player likes to receive VIP service and feels like a VIP already if they play in a VIP casino. For now there are no new games being launched at VIP Casino, but the future is always bright. Intertain also owns several other online gaming properties, including Jackpotjoy, which was acquired earlier this year. InterPartners is not the affiliate program for those sites. Do you think the compa- ny might decide to consolidate affiliate management operations at some point in the future? Well, in my personal opin- ion, it would make sense for a company to have everything under one umbrella, but I don’t decide this. It is too early to say what is going to happen, but I am sure that time will speak for itself and for sure things are happening for the good of the Intertain group. This group has great po- tential and is one of the fastest-expanding groups I have ever seen. With smart and successful moves, the Intertain group managed to grow from $4 a share to a maximum of $20 a share in April 2015, in the space of only one year. InterPartners changed its affiliate terms and conditions from a tiered revenue share based on total monthly revenue to a tiered scheme based on the number of first-time depositors earlier this year . Why was this change made? And how is it working out so far for the company and for affiliates? At InterPartners, it is very important for us to look for long-term partners, which we have done in the past and still do today. The tiered scheme based on the number of first-time depositors did not apply retroactively for old affiliates and is only for new affiliates. We under- stand the cost involved in bringing more first-time depositors, and we are willing to share more produced revenue with our affiliates who can deliver more traffic. An affiliate who is all of a sudden delivering more first-time depositors has the ability to also earn more through the default deal . In general, the default schemes are not affecting affiliates so much, and the affili- ates who are active and who want to work closely with us are always welcome to a special affiliate deal. (That’s the reason an affiliate program has affiliate manag- ers!) We check all the statistics daily and we immediately contact new affiliates My guess is that more than 50% of the players will be playing through their mobile device and that it will be regulated in each country in Europe in the next five years.” 65 Affiliate Manager Interview Series