GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 36 - October 2016

each casino or slot game like a veteran player would. Instead of listing what the product has in a regular mundane way, it’s taken for a real blast, and then results are placed in the review. Apart from the quality of what we produce, we also do it in volume, aiming to cover every aspect. Howmany employees do you have? Do you use freelancers? At the moment, we are a team of five between the both sites, but I don’t call them employees. They are as much a part of the business as I am. We never use freelancers. Everyone here is part of the team. I try to search out people with the same passion, but with a different skill set. Sports betting can be a tough busi- ness, especially when your players are doing well. How volatile are your revenues from month to month? Ex- tremely volatile. We always know that this industry had been lacking. So, yes, I am pretty sure it has helped GPWAmembers on various levels. Has it helped me? Yes, it has. It has shown that we are serious in what we do, and all the interest surround- ing the site has given us an authority that is noticed by programs we work with and which allows us to negotiate much better affiliate deals. How did you get into iGaming affiliate marketing? What did you do before? Are you a full-time or part-time affiliate? I started off in the weight-loss industry. It was very successful for some time, but I saw iGaming as a much more lucrative industry with bigger rewards. We are a full-time affiliate. The number of hours that go into the project is insane. WonderPunter.com is predominantly a sports betting site, but it also fea- tures casinos and poker rooms. How much traffic do the non-sports-bet- ting sections of the site get? Do some verticals do better than others? At the moment, the non-sports side of the site gets around 20% of all traffic. It doesn’t sound like much, but WonderPunter pulls some decent-sized traffic. We have actually started to increase the casino section of the site and will be spending time trying to make it equal to the sports side. Poker is something I have yet to push and really just serves as an extra area for our existing readers to explore. Your main site is currently available in both English and Spanish-language versions. Do you have plans to add ad- ditional languages at any point? Once we reach the full potential of the English sites, we will add languages by popularity. What are some of your sites’ unique selling points? How do you stand out from the crowd? On the sports side of things, our betting predictions are very precise. Our resident handicapper, Mario, has a big following, and now a lot of our traffic comes directly to our brand name and whatever is being searched. Unlike similar sites, we do not charge for our picks. They are all completely free. For Ca- sinoWhizz, we have a 10-year experienced casino player and writer who goes through How often do you get to see and inter- act with other people in the industry? Have you attended any conferences? I speak to many guys over Skype or via private messages on the boards. As many know, I am always there to give out free advice. For the larger affiliates, we speak over Skype, and they usually complain about something. I have not attended any conferences yet as we rarely have free time. I do plan to be in Berlin this year, though. What traits do you look for in an affili- ate manager? How about in an affiliate program? For the affiliate manager, it’s their ability to customize the deal. We never take the standard offering, as we offer a little more than the average site. Another area is time of responses and their willingness to get things done. I like the “Yes, yes, yes” type of manager. With regards to affiliate programs, it’s the same: the ability to adjust the program. And one thing I cannot stand is chasing late payments. What prompted you to join theGPWA? How has it helped you? It was initially to find out what the good programs were, and yes, the GPWAhas helped me a lot over the years. A lot of questions regarding the problems I have had have been answered by another affiliate who had experienced a similar problem. What do you like about the industry? It sounds shallow, but the financial side of it. It’s very lucrative. But also the freedom of working for myself. What’s better than seeing the fruits of your labor pay off? I wish I could replicate myself. As many owners know, it’s hard to find someone like yourself to take on responsibilities. If they do exist, they are usually already in competition with me. the off-season (July to September) is our lowest, and we are always prepared for it. However, due to the type of play- ers that WonderPunter appeals to, we have picked up some very high-depos- iting players. On the flipside, they also make massive bets — six figures per week — so you can end up in the red pretty quickly, and unlike casino pro- grams, most sports programs have neg- ative carryover. Do you bet on sports yourself? What’s your favorite football team? I sometimes have a flutter, but it’s very rare. My favorite team is Real Madrid, which is where our company is based. W W W . G P W A T I M E S . O R G 51