In an interview with AffPapa, Håvard Lehn, Co-Founder and CEO of Nordic.Partners Group talked about bringing esports to AffPapa Cancun through Nordic Partners Gaming and what iGaming can learn from esports communities.
Yeva: AffPapa and Nordic Partners Gaming are bringing esports into the conference experience in Cancun. How did this collaboration come about, and what made it a good fit for both sides?
We’ve known the AffPapa team through the iGaming industry, and when we started talking about bringing NPG to Cancun, it felt like a good opportunity to do something a bit different.
Most conferences follow a similar format. You have meetings, panels, networking, and then you move on to the next event. We wanted to bring something people could actually take part in.
For AffPapa, it’s a chance to introduce esports to their audience in a more engaging way. For us, it’s an opportunity to show what NPG is about and bring the two industries together in a setting where people can experience it for themselves.
Yeva: Nordic Partners has recently expanded into esports with Nordic Partners Gaming. What opportunities do you see at the intersection of esports, affiliate marketing, and iGaming?
I think there’s a lot of potential here, especially when you look at how these industries approach audiences.
In affiliate marketing, we’ve spent years understanding traffic, conversion, and how to connect the right people with the right products. Esports has built something quite different. It’s about communities, personalities, and people following teams and players because they genuinely care about them.
I think there’s a lot we can learn from that. And for brands, there’s an opportunity to build relationships with audiences rather than simply buying exposure.
That’s one of the reasons we started NPG. We wanted to understand that world from the inside and see what we could build by bringing our iGaming experience together with people who really understand esports.
Yeva: Esports and iGaming have been connected for years, but the two industries still operate quite separately. What’s holding back closer collaboration?
I think part of the problem is that both industries have been looking at each other through a fairly narrow lens.
For a long time, the relationship has mostly been about sponsorships. An iGaming company puts its logo on a jersey, an esports team gets funding, and that’s more or less where it ends.
But esports is much more than advertising space. There are communities, content creators, players, and an entire culture around competitive gaming.
I also think there’s a knowledge gap. People in iGaming don’t always understand how esports works, and people in esports don’t necessarily understand iGaming’s commercial side.
That’s something we’re trying to bridge with NPG.
Yeva: From your perspective, what does a successful partnership between industries with different audiences and business models need to get right?
First of all, both sides need to understand what the other is trying to achieve.
I’ve seen plenty of partnerships where everything looks good in a presentation, but nobody has really thought about what happens after the announcement.
You need to be clear about the value for both sides, understand the audience you’re trying to reach, and be willing to invest time in building something that actually works.
And I think you have to respect the differences between the industries. What works in affiliate marketing won’t automatically work in esports.
You can’t just take the same approach and expect the same results.
Yeva: What can traditional iGaming businesses learn from the esports industry, particularly when it comes to audiences, community building and engagement?
I think the biggest lesson is that you can’t buy genuine engagement.
In esports, people follow a team through wins and losses. They know the players, watch the content, discuss the matches, and feel part of something.
That’s quite powerful.
In iGaming, we’re very focused on performance metrics, which makes sense. But sometimes I think we spend so much time looking at acquisition that we forget about the relationship with the audience after that.
Esports is a good reminder that building a community takes time, but when you do it properly, people have a reason to keep coming back.
Yeva: What would need to happen for esports to become a core part of the iGaming industry’s marketing and partnership strategies, rather than an occasional activation?
I think the industry needs to stop treating esports as something you try once and then measure after a couple of weeks.
If you want to build a presence in esports, you need a longer-term plan. You need to understand the audience, work with the right people, and create content and experiences that make sense for that community.
Of course, there also needs to be a commercial return. I’m not suggesting companies should invest without measuring results.
But the way you measure success has to reflect what you’re trying to build. Not everything is going to translate into immediate conversions, especially when you’re entering a new audience.
And for iGaming companies, responsible marketing and making sure you’re reaching the right adult audiences have to be part of that strategy from the beginning.
Yeva: At AffPapa Cancun, attendees will have the chance to challenge FreeZe in Counter-Strike 2. Why do you think interactive experiences like this belong at an iGaming conference?
Because it’s much more interesting to experience something than to have someone explain it to you.
You can spend twenty minutes talking about esports, or you can sit down, play a round of Counter-Strike against someone like FreeZe, and immediately get a sense of the skill and competition involved.
And I think that’s what makes it interesting for a conference like AffPapa.
People are there to meet each other and discover new opportunities. Giving them something to do together creates a different kind of interaction.
Plus, I’m sure a few people will arrive thinking they’re pretty good at Counter-Strike. It’ll be interesting to see how that goes when they play FreeZe.
Yeva: Looking beyond the Cancun activation, what are your longer-term ambitions for Nordic Partners Gaming and its role in connecting esports with iGaming?
First, we want to build a competitive esports organization that can stand on its own. That’s important to me. We didn’t get involved in esports just to create another marketing channel for Nordic Partners. We brought Fabian on board because he understands this industry, and we want to build something serious around the team, the players, and the people behind it.
At the same time, I think our iGaming background gives us an interesting perspective on the commercial side of esports. We understand partnerships, affiliate marketing, and how to build businesses around audiences. The ambition is to bring those things together in a way that makes sense for both industries. We’re still early on, and we still have a lot to learn. But that’s also what makes it interesting.
Company: Nordic.Partners Group
Interviewee: Håvard Lehn
Date: 22.10.2026
