GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 35 - June 2016

This Romanian affiliate took his lumps when his first site launched — now he’s reaping the rewards of the lessons learned Your site, betdistrict.com, is dedicated to sports betting, and you call yourself a “semi-professional” sports bettor. How much time do you put into making picks? What is your average rate of return? I consider my previews to be my most im- portant activity on Betdistrict, and I spend at least 30 minutes analyzing each event I cover, usually more. I have a +1.5% return on investment on over 1,600 predictions on the website, which is not that great, but it’s a profit. In my defense, I had to over- come a horrible first year in which I was more concerned with making the website work. Over the last year or so, my ROI is about 8%, and that’s close to my standard. You first entered the iGaming affiliate in- dustry in 2007 with betforcash.ro, which targeted the Romanian market, but you said it didn’t fare too well. Can you ex- plain why you think the site did not succeed? I was very young and inexpe- rienced. I went with the “content is king” idea, which didn’t work against competi- tors with lower-quality content but more focus on SEO and optimization – things I had little to no idea about. The site did make me some money during college; it just didn’t become the industry leader I was dreaming about. Simply put, it was hands-on learning. What lessons did you learn? How did that experience help you build Betdistrict? When was it launched? Betdistrict was launched in May 2013. At that time, I had just quit work and was thinking about starting an affiliate site on the English- language market, as my Romanian web- site was pretty much dead. I’d had knee surgery earlier that year, and I decided to put my energy into starting work on Betdistrict while I was stuck in bed. I used that time to learn PHP and SQL and to write static content, and the website was already taking form when I got back on my feet. It’s difficult to pinpoint specific lessons I learned from my first website, because it simply taught me everything about the industry. However, getting into program- ming and understanding what and where to look were the main things. You run a tipster competition for your users, offering €220 in prizes each month. How much of your traffic do you attribute to that contest? How many tip- sters compete for those prizes in an av- erage month? Our main source of traffic is our editors’ picks, so honestly, not a lot is coming in via the tipster competition. However, it does help a lot with custom- er retention (bounce rate, views, direct visitors, returning visitors), something I value immensely. If Google dies tomor- row, we still have a business running, and that would have been next to impossible without the tipster competition. We have well over 100 tipsters, but a fair estimate would be 20-40 tipsters per month com- peting for the prizes. To compete in your tipster competition, users must have a registered account with Ohmbet. Why did you decide to use this sportsbook to run the competition? How successful would you say it has been? We had a partnership with Affiliate Lounge (Betsson & Betsafe) which lasted for over a year, until we agreed to end it a couple of months ago. I was contacted by Ohmbet for an affiliate deal and was impressed with their level of customer care. We had quite a few calls, and they were really professional and invested in our potential business together. I decided to offer them the possibility of sponsoring the tipster competition, and I can say that I’m really pleased with these guys. They really want to grow and treat me like an integral part in their game plan. I’m in the second month of working with Ohmbet, and early results are satisfactory. Do you run any sites other than Betdistrict? Do you work in game verti- cals other than sports betting? If not, is that something you’re considering do- ing? Betdistrict is my main website, and I also run an e-commerce website on the Romanian market, www.happybags.ro, focused on women’s handbags. No other gaming verticals, as I’m not an expert on poker, slots or casinos, but I do plan to cross-sell in the near future. Are you the sole proprietor of Betdistrict? Or do you have employees who work for you? I am a one-man shop. I don’t have employees, but I do have part- ners who get paid to write via the tipster competition or via editorial deals. Is the iGaming industry your lone source of income, or do you consider your iGam- ing affiliate business to be a “side job”? I am a full-time affiliate. My e-commerce website and a few other projects provide the rest of my income. I also have a small interest in www.ceasuri-pro.ro, a website I helped found. What traits do you look for in an affili- ate manager? How about in an affiliate program? I work well with affiliate man- agers who are invested but not too pushy, and who are willing to find reasonable solutions that work well for all parties. As for an affiliate program, definitely no negative carryover. I also like to mix well- known brands with emerging ones. GPWA AFFILIATE INTERVIEW SERIES Radu Pasan Rostick GPWA Affiliate Interview Series