Scandinavian Affiliate Super Summit 2009 highlights. Såja.

Everyone knows that I love the Swedes and that Stockholm is my favorite city on Earth. Between Unibet’s Erik Good Looking, Bodog Network’s Patrik Selin and Jonas Ödman, Expekt’s John “Boat Chief” Ryott and Redbet’s Franco the Italian Stallion, I don’t even know what to do with myself in this city! Who cares if its f’n freezing. Who cares if there are 17 hours of darkness per day in November. Who cares if the winter lasts for six months. The incredibly good looking and friendly Swedish people in Stockholm make it the hottest city on earth all year round. And they love Americans. YES!

Thanks to Michael Whittam and the good organizers behind the Scandinavian Affiliate Super Summit (SASS), I was provided with the opportunity to visit Stockholm for the third time in 1.5 years. Seeing as there were over 250 attendees, fully sponsored networking sessions, and some juicy panels (which took on a life of their own due to Caselli’s moderation), reporting on SASS was a treat and a half. But lets be real. Although it’s important, most of you probably don’t want to hear about the juicy panels I attended at SASS. Most of you want to hear about a good party, a plethora of hot girls, lots of Swedish booze, and want to see pictures of all of the above. Great. We’re all on the same page then.

Barca vs. Inter “futball” match

As an American it is tough to keep up with the soccer games around the world, or the “futball matches” as “the rest of the world” likes to call them. However, I do have a lot of Swedish friends, Italian too, so I decided to make a social gathering out of the Barca vs. Inter match which took place the night before SASS. I want to see Barcelona’s Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimović play against his former team Internazionale Milano too, you know. A group of us went to watch the match at O’Leary’s, and I’ll tell you what…as a Bostonian, I’ve never seen this much Boston sports paraphernalia in a bar in my entire life. Not even in Boston itself!! I couldn’t believe it…extremely nice looking, well behaved, relatively sober, perfectly groomed guys in tight pants with perfect hair in a bar decorated with Boston sports. What?!

Café Opera, venue of the official SASS party

God bless this venue! The official SASS party took take place at Café Opera, same day as American Thanksgiving, might I add. See, Café Opera is such an amazing venue that I will give up Thanksgiving dinner with my family just to spend time with Affiliate Tips Agents’s handsome devils Johan, Eddie and Bjorn, sponsors of this spectacular evening. After their performance at SASS and Café Opera, I think I may have to dub Johan and Ed the new Erik and Gustav of online gaming…and Pokerlistings as the new party animals of the industry, are you kidding me? These guys dragged me to the Village late night where everyone was extremely drunk and making out like school children! I had to sleep 16 hours in a row after hanging with this crew. Legit hibernation!

Sveedish Ayre Heads

Ya, I know what you’re thinking…who needs to hire models when you’re in Sweden, home of the most beautiful women in the world? Well, mine were pretty damn hot. The Swedish Ayre Heads, Johanna and Pernilla, made their first appearance at the Bet24 sponsored cocktail reception on the opening night, they made their second appearance at the SASS conference and later that night at Café Opera, and their third appearance as my guests for the Stockholm tourism day. I know, it’s not fair…why is Becky always surrounded by hot girls at conferences?! Such is life my friends, such is life.

Karim’s sexy mustache and rakeback expertise

The rakeback panel with Boss Medias’s Per Karlsson, Bodog Network’s Jonas Odman and RaketheRake’s Karim Wilkens was very anticipated and very well attended. Why? I bet you think it’s because rakeback is a very hot topic within the igaming industry right now…or maybe because the panelists are all high profile and have very diverse opinions on the subject…or maybe because Caselli kept referring to poker playing “fish” as Turks? WRONG! Since November 1st, one of the panelists has been supporting prostate cancer research through Movember by growing a moustache…guess who it is…you’ll NEVER guess…ok, fine- its Karim. I don’t know about you, but the sight of Karim with a mustache is far too much for me to handle…in fact, I found it so sexy that I decided to conduct my rakeback interview with Karim in bed. With the Ayre Heads. HA! Såja.

Absolute Vodka Ice bar

Sveeden is known for its vodka, especially Absolute Vodka, my personal favorite. It just so happens the final stop for the SASS tourism day was the ABSOLUT ICEBAR STOCKHOLM, the world’s first permanent ice bar. Made possible by tourism day sponsors Bingo Las Vegas Casino, the last ones standing after the SASS party madness hopped on a bus and cruised around Stockholm for a tour. We stopped at the sunken Vasa ship, we sipped on glögg and ate ginger cookies in Old Town, we had lunch at a nice local joint, and our final stop was the Ice Bar at the Nordic Hotel. What a great way to kill our hangovers from Café Opera! Pokerlistings, I blame YOU for how I felt on this painful tourism day! Come to think of it, next time can we start with the ice bar and get drunk before the tour? Great- thanks, guys.