GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 43 - February 2019

O ver the last few years, the gambling affiliate landscape has changed irrevocably as the industry ma- tures and adjusts. As with many maturing industries, mergers, acquisitions and consolidations have be- come the norm as firms seek to increase their leverage and market share in the face of higher competition. There is also increased oversight of affiliates on the in- dustry regulatory level, stricter advertising standards and a whole host of new legal data management requirements through the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Many of the smaller independent affiliates have felt the pinch over this period, and there is a growing sentiment that their time is over. I disagree, and believe that we simply have to look at other maturing or matured industries to see how the small affiliate might carve out an effective position in the new space. It will be harder than it has been, as is the norm when any “gold rush” ends. That is the nature of business. Successful small affiliates may still find they can perform better in the long term if they can meet the short-term challenges currently presented. IMPROVISE, ADAPT, OVERCOME Over the last two decades, many high street names have folded as they failed to adapt to new ways of shopping and doing business. Those that didn’t found suc- cess in three ways – they became agile, they found niches to leverage and they took calculated risks. While some business- es are overly cautious when their marketplace changes, others realize that once contraction begins, the only option is to do something new – otherwise, the end is inevitable. The mechanism that allows this creativity is in chang- ing the way the business works to allow it to be flexible, efficient and able to make faster decisions. Many large firms — such as the modern super-affiliate — are by their very nature slower to react, adapt and improvise than a small flexible business unit such as an independent affili- ate. To counter the financial and resource leverage of their larger competitors, the first task for a small affiliate is to realize the areas in which they have a com- petitive advantage. No matter how well-organized the large company, you will always be in a position to be more flexible than they are, find that crack in the market share and wedge it open. SMALL IS NIMBLE AND EFFICIENT A large company often has too many layers be- tween the top management and the people actually doing the day-to-day work – as owner-operator, you are hands-on with your product. Worse for the big business, the gap from deci- sion-maker to end user is often huge, and many large companies have top-level decision-making staff and investors who know far too little about their specific market. If the independent gambling affiliate, running a small team and focusing on leveraging their end customer knowledge and ability to work granularly on their product, is smart, this can be a massive advantage – provided there is a business plan. START WITH A PLAN, THEN CHANGE IT Plans are useless, planning is essential, so the phrase goes. It’s regarded as absolutely mandatory when seeking business investment to have a business plan, and this doesn’t end once a business is off the ground. It’s very common for hard-working people to become so buried at the coal face, mining away hard, that they forget that without planning, research and measurable goals, we are not able to either track our progress or – more importantly – know when a change of direction is required. If a start-up business doesn’t take itself professionally, why would the industry? I allocate a minimum of one afternoon per week to pure research and analysis time, and I expect my staff to do the same. It is essential that they are continually improving their skillsets and knowledge – we can always be better. SET GOALS, THEN CREATE A ROADMAP Beyond today, what are your goals for your business? This will have a huge impact on what you can and should do to meet your long-term objectives. If your target is to grow a business and then sell it to one of the acquiring groups, there are various structures you will absolutely have to put in place. They will want solid, easy-to-integrate tech and backend management, sustainable SEO based on solid foundations, and traffic from clean sources, among other things. Have you researched what you will need to do properly? It can affect the end val- uation hugely to have gotten basic things AFFILIATE SURVIVAL GUIDE G P W A t i m e s . o r g 30