GG Group Media - iGaming Voice by Yeva

GG Group Media – iGaming Voice by Yeva

Added: December 27, 2022

Alanas Ivšinas, the Chief Sales Marketing Officer of SmartCasinoGuide, SmartBettingGuide, and Apuestas.Guru recently spoke with AffPapa and shared his insights on various industry trends and events, their impacts on the affiliate side of the industry, and how to take advantage of emerging technologies such as cryptocurrencies.

Yeva: Could you give us a brief overview of both SmartBettingGuide and SmartCasinoGuide and what you offer?

Would like to start not from what we offer but from our main mission. We guide players, so it means that the main thing and our mission is to give our customers correct information about the brands we are promoting and to avoid situations when we encourage something that is not up to date. Having said that, we are focusing only on high-quality products which means that operators can’t expect from us big volumes, so it’s quality over quantity.

Yeva: What are the primary distinguishing features of your affiliate business? What draws the player to your website?

As it’s said above, we are giving only correct information and trying to renew it on daily basis. Having a few people on the team who are the core of our business in terms of checking every brand on our site to refresh everything, check everything click by click, from every country. F.e. Sometimes brands are forgetting to tell us that they have restricted one or another country, but having these resources in-house we can know already that we should restrict the brand on our assets. That’s why we will better check everything twice before showing it up on the site. In addition to that, we are trying to hold our exclusivity for partners, as we don’t onboard tons of new brands on a daily basis. Trying to focus on 2-3 new partners per month.

Yeva: The World Cup is a major event that has captivated the whole world, including the iGaming industry. What do you offer players this time around, and what do they want to see more of? Does targeting popular events like these attract a broader audience to your website?

It`s a time to shine our new future flagman brand for the LATAM market https://apuestas.guru/. There is no secret that sports betting sites are seeing much more traffic on their assets during these worldwide events, so knowing this fact we needed to prepare for the event properly: collect exclusive welcome offers, update the information, and onboard new agreements with our existing and future partners. As it is now, it goes quite well and I’m very curious to see results after the world cup.

Yeva: Speaking of trends, you’ve placed a strong emphasis on cryptocurrency and crypto casinos. How has your player audience adapted to this? What do you offer in this field?

This niche is very specific, so we are trying to strengthen our position with the new projects we are launching right now. Don’t want to reveal them yet 😊 We see that the competition is growing, so we need to use new tactics and methods which will be surprisingly new for everyone in the industry. Furthermore, we are trying to give as much detailed information to our players as possible and trying to adjust it to player needs. In general, our players are following our recommendations, so we can say that we have adapted well.

Yeva: Are there differences between reviewing regular casinos and crypto-oriented casinos? How do you choose which operators go up on your website? Do you take into account player feedback?

We take into account all details and feedback and also weighting this we are deciding whether to work with the specific brand or not. There is quite a big difference between fiat casinos and crypto casinos. The main one is that crypto casinos are very open to innovations and fiat ones are trying to stick to old-school methods, so accordingly they are missing flexibility in certain quick decisions. Nowadays there are big debates about who is a crypto casino and who is not. In my option, you don’t need to be purely crypto depositing way casinos to call it a crypto casino. You can have also options to deposit with FIAT which gives flexibility for players to make more actions. I’m always saying to brands who want to work with us, that you need to prepare first the product and only after come to us. We are not a testing company to see your issues and tell you what to fix, however, we are always open to discussing opportunities. How do we choose? Giving the priority to brands who are fully ready to take the traffic with all working payments gates, games, registration form and its flow, having a CRM team in-house, good welcome offer and some other factors. Also, it’s important if you have a sportsbook that it’s given to players not just to show off, but as a good product to play and do bets. I’m mentioning all this because we are testing everything on our own before going live (most of the payments the brand has, registrations from most of the countries and etc.), so we are taking our tasks seriously. We are positioning ourselves as one of the strongest teams in this field, and that’s why our results are much higher than average ones.

Yeva: What approach would you suggest to operators in the beginning stages of a partnership?

Be honest.

Yeva: During the AffPapa iGaming Awards in June, SmartBettingGuide was named “Sports Affiliate of the Year.” Do you believe that events like this offer some fun and a healthy level of competitiveness to the industry?

Yes, it was very entertaining. Was a big pleasure to participate there. All the time you can take something positive out of events like this.

Yeva: What is your favorite aspect of your current position as Chief Sales Marketing Officer, Alanas?

The most favorite thing is the challenge. When I joined that team, so we were a small team of up to 10 people and now we are growing on a daily basis, accordingly reaching over 30, but it’s not something where we will stop. Knowing this, I like when we are trying new things, projects which are very challenging. As I’m saying, what is going to happen if you fail? Firstly, try, and only after you can say whether it was a successful try or not. All in all, we all are having all the freedom we need to test our things and that moves forward to be result oriented.

Yeva: Lastly, let’s get off-topic for a bit. What do you prefer to do in your spare time?

A few years ago, I was telling that a little party has never killed anybody, but nowadays I would go for something without a party. I like traveling and to see new things. We need to be thankful for all innovations which are surrounding us, that we are not in the Middle Ages, so even when you`re traveling you can pretend to be a digital nomad and mix work with pleasure 😊 also I like to spend time with friends and family.

Company: GG Group Media
Interviewee: Alanas Ivšinas
Date: 27.12.2022

GG Group Media, SmartBettingGuide, SmartCasinoGuide