Nordic Affiliates - iGaming Voice by Yeva

Nordic Affiliates – iGaming Voice by Yeva

Added: December 19, 2022

Nordic Affiliates – iGaming Voice by Yeva

This week AffPapa got the chance to talk to the co-founder of Nordic Affiliates, Havard Lehn, who shared his insights on the challenges of expanding in emerging markets and the strategic methods of sourcing qualified traffic as an affiliate.

Yeva: Please tell us about your OnlineGamblers.com website. What is its main focus, and what do you have to offer to the player?

Thanks for taking the time for a talk, I am happy to be a part of the AffPapa community finally. We have been following you guys closely, and I do think you are doing a great amount of good for the industry.

OnlineGamblers.com is our US-focused site, focusing on Licensed North America. US on us.OnlineGamblers.com and Canada Ontario Licensed on ca.onlinegamblers.com. We do believe that there is room for education in the US when it comes to online gaming/gambling, and we are hoping to be able to fill this gap with interesting information for the players.

We are focusing heavily on educating the players on how to gamble responsibly, but also how the whole process of gambling online is compared to offline. We have our own academy where we take up all the topics that might be interesting, from the process of opening an account, do a deposit, verify your identity and do your first withdrawal. Sustainability is what is on our mind for this project, we have a clear long term vision for this site.

In the US we have taken a bit different route than our usual old-school SEO tactics, where we are more active in forums and trying to bring more education to the market in ways of not just written content. We think that Video content will play a huge part in this project moving forward. We have also been exploring a bit of the possibilities to adapt the projects towards Web3 and the MetaVerse but are struggling to find a great approach, I guess that’s how it is with all new things.

But one thing is for sure, we will never stop exploring, adapting, and trying to create the best possible experience for our visitors. We will always aim to bring something to the table for the players, and the first part of OnlineGamblers will be education. We will provide a one-stop shop for all the information needed to start gambling online in the US.

Yeva: We can see on your website that one of your priorities is to send qualified traffic. And the secret to qualified traffic is finding players who genuinely love the game. Can you share what marketing strategies you apply to attract the right audience?

We sure do, we have always believed in a win/win partnership with our business2business clients. And our part is to make sure that the leads coming from our sources are there for the right reasons. We want to send players that would love to gamble online, and that has a healthy relationship with gambling online. Long term this will be beneficial for both parties.

At the moment we have an old-school approach, where we mainly target heavy keywords rather than a very broad reach. This ensures that it is easier for us to understand what the players we are sending to our partners are looking for in the first place. Not only is this great for building long-term relationships, it also makes the onpage work a lot easier when you can identify what keyword searches the customers are coming from.

Yeva: How do you choose which operators to highlight on your affiliate sites? What are the top features you prioritize?

In the US we have been mainly looking at the product and the brand reputation, given the fact that there are not too many operators I do think there is a lot that still can be done in terms of product. The players will become more and more aware that a good product will make it a lot more entertaining, and also create more loyal customers. I am really looking forward to seeing how the landscape is in the regulated US in a couple of years when there are more operators to choose from.

Yeva: It’s a tough task to start out as an affiliate in the ever-growing iGaming industry, Havard. Can you share what challenges you had to face along the way?

It is really quite simple, a great idea and a lot of hard work is all that you need. I think that there is still space in the affiliate landscape but you need more than ever to be creative and not just do what everyone else is doing. If you are ready to put in the work needed it can be done.

We have just started a couple of new projects which we identified as possibilities in the market. One is a Crypto-Focused site towards the Scandinavian Speaking market: Krypto Casino and the other one is a PayNPlay focused website: Uudet Pikakasinot 2023.

The reason why we chose these focuses was due to market research, and we saw a great possibility. So I would recommend anyone trying to start as an iGaming affiliate to do market research to identify the possibilities. Think outside the box, and try to niche the first project as much as possible and you will see a lot higher success rate than if you are going broad for the first project. That’s my best tip for new entrepreneurs.

Yeva: You are now concentrating your efforts on the US Regulated market. Are there plans to expand into further GEOs in the near future?

We are always looking into new markets, and I would point out LatAm as a favorite in 2023. As mentioned earlier we are also looking into how we can do something in Web3 and the MetaVerse in the future, as there will most likely be both great challenges and possible exciting business opportunities there. But LatAm you will probably see us taking a move towards during the next coming year.

Yeva: What about socializing with other industry members? Does your team participate in any events to meet up with iGaming enthusiasts and discuss industry-specific know-how?

We do, I myself try to go to as many conferences as possible. It’s always a pleasure to meet the people behind the Skype name, it makes the working relationship a lot easier for both parties. In our industry, we are mainly working on trust, so this has always been something that we value a lot.

In 2023 I will go to LAC, iGaming Next in NYC, EGR Power Affiliates in Marbella, Sigma Dubai, and G2E. Most probably also some other conferences, but the ones above I will attend for sure.

Yeva: We’d want to learn more about you in person now that we’re almost done with the interview, Havard. What brought you to iGaming? Any other passions outside the industry you’d like to share with us?

I have always had a passion for iGaming, and started out playing poker when this boomed. Later on, I moved on to RakeBack affiliation, and then I figured out it was time to move to Malta to start working full-time in the industry. I moved to Malta with a clear goal, I was going to learn as much as possible about the industry, and have a great time while doing so.

Company: Nordic Affiliates
Interviewee: Havard Lehn
Date: 19.12.2022

Nordic Affiliates