iGaming industry professionals traveled to the ExCeL for one final time, the conclusion of London Conference Week and day two of iGB Affiliate London. iGaming affiliates, affiliate managers and other industry professionals have returned to roam the lively expo floor, enjoy activities at different booths and maybe even catch a marketing session or two.
Each year at iGB Affiliate London Betsson Group Affiliates pimps out their stand with some sort of entertainment for delegates. This year they introduced a “car simulator challenge” with a Formula 1 feel and five tempting prizes up for grabs. The promo did not have any direct relationship to games offered by Betsson Group brands, rather the idea was simply to entertain.
“Its more to entice people to come to our stand, to have fun, it’s a thrilling challenge, we have great prizes in store for the people who come and our top five, so its just for them to have fun”, Shakyra Jonsson, Affiliate Operations Manager of Betsson Group shared.
“We always have a competition each year on our stand, so we thought that this would be the ideal thing to have for London and perhaps we’ll have it also for Amsterdam and Berlin, we’ll see”, she revealed.
Of course, Betsson Group has much more to offer to affiliates than a car simulator challenge.
“We have quite an extensive amount of brands, over 17 brands, they target different markets…we’ve never showcased all the markets that we target and I think that this is how we are different to all other of our competitors”, Jonsson explained.
“Our main markets are the Nordics – Sweden, Norway, Finland are the main markets and there is U.K., there is Germany, there’s quite a number of our main target markets, but we’re looking at emerging markets as well, so there is way for expansion”, she added.
Sam Fowler of The Goat Agency delivered an insightful presentation on influencer marketing, a strategy he believes is particularly effective for online gambling brands. Fowler’s reputation and subject matter managed to attract a big crowd, with a number of questions coming from the audience at the conclusion of his talk.
“[Influencer marketing is] effective because, lets be honest, it takes us back to the 50s and 60s of people just nattering away, ‘I’ve just bought this, I’d recommend this, I’d recommend that’ and that’s the beauty that we can get from influencers from the gambling industry as well”, Fowler explained.
“We have that on an online platform now and it just feels that we’re not making the most of those people that are leading the conversation and especially with brands as well, there’s so much that we can do out there and there’s so much conversation that can be had”, he said.
“That’s why peer-to-peer comes into it, because it needs to build the brand affinity and the affiliation, with the user and the brand itself and take them away from other brands of course”, Fowler added.
The Rewards Affiliates program has been around for 20 years and their Program Manager, Renee Mate, has been with the company for the last 15 of those years. Mate is one of the industry’s most recognized faces (and biggest cheerleaders!) and she is proud to be a part of a program that treats affiliates fairly and prides themselves on transparency.
“Something that’s quite big in the industry at the moment is admin fees and a lot of programs will charge an admin fee off the gross and then calculate the affiliate percentage”, Mate explained.
“Other programs are offering 50, 60, 70 percent, but if you work it out its really more like 30 percent, 35 percent, whereas we don’t charge any admin fees and so our percentages are a true percent of the rev share that affiliates are receiving”, she confirmed.
After receiving consistent positive feedback from both delegates and sponsors, Clarion is confident the re-branded iGB Affiliate London has been an outstanding show and succeeded in kicking off the year on a positive note.
“I think that the London event is the opportunity at the beginning of the year, to get involved, to work the first major show of the year for the affiliate market”, Naomi Barton, Group Director at Clarion Events, told CalvinAyre.com.
“And then we have the next one in our series which is in Amsterdam with iGB Live and we have the third which is going to be Berlin this year”, she confirmed.
“So it’s a great way to start off the year in terms of making deals, networking, getting in touch with the industry and just a really good kick-off”, Barton said.
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