GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 50 - August 2021

support, an anti-fraud team, payment providers, terms andmany aspects to provide a good gaming experience. The background work of a project is immense and I never really thought about that before I took a look at it from the operator’s perspective. But I guess that’s typical for every industry, not just for iGaming. Another thing that surprised me that I never really thought about is that the risks and chances of winning and losing exists on both sides, operator and consumer. People that have nothing to do with iGaming some- times have stereotypes and could think that everything is a big fraud and you always lose. But the person on the other side of the laptop is gambling as well, because when a player wins $30,000 with a $20 deposit (real story), the owners have to pay it. I thinkmany operators can relate to that. I personally never realized that aspect before I started to work in the industry. How do you think the iGaming affiliate busi- ness will change in next three to five years? I don’t seemyself as a specialist for political opinions, but I still think it’s obvious that the restrictions for iGaming will increase more and more over time and the government will try to profit from licensing online gaming as much as possible. I think that leads to an even bigger separation between huge brands that are already established for years and go for the licensed way, and smaller brands that will look for niches and its personal ways to act in a grey zone. These will have to be extremely creative in terms of marketing and promotion, as the possibilities seem to And to answer the second question: No, I never want- ed to work in the gaming business before, because I didn’t really know there was something like a gaming business. For me, in the past, the gaming business consisted of some penny arcades in the corner. I didn’t even know that the online version of it is even bigger. I didn’t have any experience with online marketing either, so the online iGaming industry is my starting point, for everything I know about it, to this day. What has surprised you the most about the industry since you started? Howmuch work and effort are behind a project that doesn’t even seem to be that big. From a customer’s perspective, everything seems to be simple. As a player, you visit a site, make a deposit, gamble a bit and blame the support for not winning (worst case) in a period of five minutes. But even for such a supposedly easy process, you need 24/7 While studying economics I realized I’m not made for a generic job , with zero individuality . I enjoy talking to people. That’s the main part of my job, to negotiate and find compromises . . . It’s taught me how to handle different types of people and how important it is to take responsibility for your decisions . Another aspect I love about the job is that I had the chance to visit different cities and countries like Netherlands , Serbia , Portugal and hopefully some more in the future. 6 1 G P W A t i m e s . o r g