GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 49 - April 2021

AFFILIATE MANAGER INTERVIEW SERIES Anastasios Ioannidis WilliamHill/MrGreen Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from and where did you grow up? I am native Greek, but I have lived and worked in various European countries such as Austria, Cyprus, Malta, Spain, Poland and the U.K. Since 2018, I have been living and working again in Malta where I used to live and work between 2007 and 2009. You have been involved in the iGaming af- filiate industry for almost two decades. Did you always want to be involved in the industry? It all started back in 2006, a few months after I completed my postgraduate studies in Austria. An Austrian friend told me that he saw on an Aus- trian job portal an ad for “Marketing Manager for the Greek market’’ at an iGaming company (Bet- at-home.com). I applied and my journey in the iGaming industry started. The industry has changed dramatically since you started in the business. What are some of the positive changes you have seen and what are a few of the negative changes? Mobile technology has had a huge impact on the iGaming industry in the last decade. You only have to look at the number of online bookmakers and casinos that now have dedicatedmobile apps available, which can be installed on a tablet or mobile phone within seconds. One of the major developments over the past decade is the introduction of live dealer casinos. There is constantly increasing demand for online gambling and this has led to the ever-increasing number of online casinos. A negative change is the market saturation. The market is flooded, especially since it has become so easy to build and launch a casino site. This has resulted in reduced levels of quality as operators Albert Einstein once famously said, “The only source of knowledge is experience.” Well, if that’s the case, this latest round of our affiliate manager interviews should provide a great deal of wisdom. Because between them, Anastasios Ioannidis from William Hill and Martin Janovcik from GAMING1 combine for nearly four decades of experience in the iGaming space. In the pages that follow, they discuss what their past work history has taught them about their present-day roles, what advice they would give to an affiliate just starting out in the business, and what the keys are to a strong relationship between affiliates and the programs they work with. One thing is for sure, both Anastasios and Martin have vibrant personalities and they agree that being “hands on” and “serving the customer” are vital to success in this industry. Meet the Affiliate Managers G P W A t i m e s . o r g 62