GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 40- February 2018

how well they signpost self-exclusion and addiction help. Long-term, if those things are in place, then we all win. What’s your preferred method of communication with affiliate man- agers? Skype, usually, for convenience – happy with anything, to be honest. I get a lot of e-mails, so that’s often the slowest way to reach me. What prompted you to join the GPWA? Well, I kept seeing the logo around, and after looking into it, I saw an excellent community in place. It seemed like the place to join if you’re in this in- dustry. The GPWA has helped connect us with opportunities and advised us. It’s a great place to go if you’re new, especially. What do you like about the indus- try? I like games! I’m a PC and card games player and have been since I was a kid. I love a challenge, too, and it’s a good challenge to build a business like this, with so much competition. It’s all the more satisfying when it goes well. If you could change one thing about the industry, what would it be and why? Well, all of our many partners have their portals, which we need to log into for graphics and stats, etc. There are some tools like Adge or Stats Remote that sort of work but are clunky and often fall over. They can be a pain in the ass, but then so is logging into 100+ portals each day. What do you think the industry will look like in five years? I think we’ll see new casino brands gain prominence, and the playing field will even out as more and more people set up their white-label gaming sites. I think we’ll see increased vigilance by the authorities looking to protect players. Online gaming is going to change too, probably heading towards VR and aug- mented reality. That’s exciting. What do your family and friends think of your work as an affiliate? I think most of them just see it as another business or another finger in another pie. If any of my friends question the ethics of it, I explain that there are sites to educate and guide players to be safe and knowledgeable before they play. The reviews are often revised if we start to hear bad things about a brand, and we’ve added the ability for players to leave their reviews on our review – which will alter the rating accordingly. I have some friends that think it’s very cool also. How do you manage your to-do lists? Do you use any special soft- ware to help you out? I use Todoist and Google Keep, as well as a strict e-mail system with labels of TODO, Needs Re- ply, Perusal, Waiting For and Done. This all helps, but then so does having a per- sonal assistant! How much time do you devote so- cial networking for your site? Not as much as we’d like. It tends to be short, intense bursts of effort and then gaps re- garding growth work. We regularly share our content on our social media, which is useful and keeps it looking fresh, however. What’s the most difficult thing about running your site? Definitely maintenance of our reviews and main- taining excellent communication with our affiliate relationships. With so many casinos, slots sites and sportsbooks on our site, we are spinning many plates. We’re getting better at this all the time, though, and it’s fun rising to meet the challenge. GPWA AFFILIATE INTERVIEW SERIES about A little bit more Tait Pollack His site is www.casinopapa.co.uk His favorite food is banana bread His favorite books are fiction: The Lord Of The Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien; non-fiction: Marketing Management , by Philip T. Kotler and Kevin Lane Keller He is 32 years old He is living in Norwich, England, U.K. His hometown is Los Angeles, California, USA Los Angeles photo by IM_photo/Shutterstock, Norwich photo by Helen Hotson/Shutterstock, banana bread photo by Cesarz/Shutterstock W W W . G P W A T I M E S . O R G 52