GPWA AFFILIATE INTERVIEW SERIES It’s been eight years since we last interviewed you for the GPWA Times Magazine (Issue 30, October 2014) and at that time you had been an iGaming affiliate for 17 years. If our math is correct, you’ve now been in this game for 25 years. Please tell us how you have managed to adapt and survive all these years. After all these years, I can say with confidence that being an affiliate in the online gambling industry these days is not an easy task. It requires attention to detail, knowledge of the laws in the countries in which we operate, making sure as much as possible is updated and, most importantly, always having our hand on the pulse of all that concerns innovation and new developments in the field. So, I can ultimately connect to the word “survival” in this context because our existence depends, to a large extent, on so many external factors, such as Google, new regulations, the partnerships we choose for the long term and other risks so that we often find ourselves faced with various problems, that force us to make necessary changes to survive in the business. The key is to react in time. When you started your affiliate site way back in 1997, did you ever think it would be a “project” that you would dedicate a quarter century to and make a living? I was very young at the time and had a lot of thoughts at the time, but I reckon if you had asked me then if I thought I was going to be around the 25-year mark, then I would probably have chuckled and said, “No way!” Back in 2014, you had a nine-person team and you mentioned that the success of your sites was due, in part, to the dedication of those people. How has your team changed since then? Our company’s activity has grown significantly since 2014. We also launched GamblersPick.com in 2018, which received a design facelift in May 2022, but the number of employees has not changed. We mainly work with external suppliers on demand per project. We used to mostly do things inhouse, today there are dozens of different external suppliers in every field that we are in regular cooperation with. We discovered over time that it is much more convenient, effective and saves a lot of time and money in the long run. What is your managing style when it comes to employees and freelancers? We always believe in teamwork, even with our outsource suppliers, with some working with us for many years, so they are like family now. What do your family and friends think about this journey for you over the last 25 years? My family was always supportive. I always balance my time between work and family. The work in our industry never ends. I can work for 20 hours a day, and still, things are left to do. So balancing time became an issue, especially in the last few years after I got married and have Oren Arzoni - ocreditor Game Survival After 25years in the business, “ocreditor” still has his hands on thepulse of the online gambling industry G P W A t i m e s . o r g 50
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