GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 44 - July 2019

about A little bit more Cedric Amadei He is 39 years old His sites are sortonlinecasinos.com gambling-pro.com He is living in his hometown of Marseille, France His favorite food is hamburgers His favorite book is Ravage, by René Barjavel Marseille photo by Boris Stroujko/Shutterstock; Hamburger photo by Jag_cz/Shutterstock brand site and several more focused sites on specific niches – that way, you can cater to both worlds. But beware of thin content. What emerging markets are you most excited about? Do you have plans to target new areas whose online gaming industries are ex- panding? What are some of the chal- lenges of moving into new markets? I think that the African market has some cool potential. The challenges in moving into new markets are multiple: first, lan- guage; second, people from other coun- tries have their own specificities, ways of thinking, culture and societal references; third, offers and companies are changing a lot and are testing markets; and fourth, from a technological point of view, slow internet connections and difference in devices can be a barrier. Specific solutions and offers must be put in place to offset those limitations. This is very challenging for both operators and affiliates. What makes your sites unique? How do you help them stand out from the competition? First, I have always favored branding from day one, in any market I have been in. Actually, my sites are getting old, so it may not be very clear, but the refresh will show stronger branding, graphically and concerning the mission. I try to be distinctive in the whole project and marketing line – each site must have its own feel and own pur- pose. We are a lot of people competing for the same pie: If you create a bland copy of existing websites, there are lots of chances that you won’t break even – unless you have more money than your first three competitors in your segment! Also, I always try to have something dis- tinctive, innovative, a feature that people can remember. For example, with Sor- tOnlineCasinos.com I was the first to offer a powerful search for online casinos with lots of specific filters and to be able to sort everything on several levels. Now it’s common, but when I created this I was the first to provide that. People were using it a lot – I was recording their searches to see what they were doing – and search engines favored the preset pages a lot, as they were well targeted and always updated. How do you decide what casinos to promote? Reputation is first in line, be it among professionals or from users. In my early days I tried to promote less reputable casinos (not rogue), but this proved to be a bad idea: I got complaints from users or had payment problems myself, so I had to stop promotion. Second, I look for the qual- ity of the branding and the features from a customer’s point of view. Then, at last, the early communication with the affiliate managers and their ability to be consistent in the long term are important pluses. How big is your operation? Do you have employees or use freelancers, or is it just you? I have always been alone, but now it will change. For my new projects, I will need to hire several freelancers or freelancer services, available very often. I can no longer address all the users’ needs alone. There is too much work, and even as I am currently in the process of automating the maximumnumber of tasks possible with complex systems, the human work required is very high. And the automated systems need maintenance as well: Bugs can arise, APIs may change, data collections have to be managed and analyzed… Do you gamble online? What about in brick-and-mortar casinos? Yes, I gam- ble online. I have always loved blackjack, and before I was less into online slots, but now I like them a lot as well. As for brick- and-mortar casinos, I go there mainly for the atmosphere and to enjoy a good evening with my friends. Furthermore, what fasci- nates me the most is the effect of land-based casinos on people: I like to observe their reactions, to see how things are managed to engage people in playing and spending money, and to see how different kinds of people react to the experience. How often do you get to see and interact with other people in the industry? Do you still attend con- ferences? Why or why not? I still haven’t attended any conferences, but I know I should. My health has prevented me from going to them, as I was not at my full potential. But good news: I’m planning to attend conferences in the near future, as I think meeting face to face with business partners is very important. 53 G P W A t i m e s . o r g Cedric Amadei | Maxfalcon