I started doing internet marketing back in 2000. My first education as a programmer allowed me to look for a job in the high-tech industry and I immediately got into a company that was one of the first operators in the online dating industry. I quickly realised that the most interesting thing was in the marketing department, I was lucky that a person had come to the company who had been earning money on Internet traffic for a couple of years.
The first 2 years can be considered as a school that allowed me to learn what they will never give at the academy - how to make money on the Internet. Having gained experience in all aspects of Internet marketing at that time, I became an affiliate. I have been quite busy with SEO, email, all kinds of "guerrilla marketing", bringing traffic from wherever possible. I was quite good at SEO skills, it was possible to promote fairly simple sites to high positions on competitive requests, and I actively used it.
In 2005, my friend and partner in other projects built a poker site, which in a short period became the largest in Russia and it quickly became clear that until that time I was wasting time in less profitable industries. We quickly built an affiliate site for backgammon, which immediately became one of the largest in the industry. Understanding how the online business works, it was easy enough to join the gambling industry, I bought a lot of traffic and sent it to various online casinos. Also, there were a lot of successful consulting projects, one of them is the development of the Russian poker market for 888.
In 2019, we began our, at the moment, central project - Playcasino.com. Having bought, perhaps, one of the best domains in the online gambling market, we immediately decided to do everything correctly. We have invested a large enough amount in the project to build and develop a really serious portal for players.
We run the site in English, German, Spanish and Arabic. We focus on markets that speak these languages and which are legally operated. Now the countries of South America are considered potential markets, we are trying to work for them too. In fact, it is difficult to predict what will be a successful market tomorrow, because the regulations and requirements for operators in different markets are constantly changing.
We are just trying to do our job at a high level. It is important to invest in really useful content and design, to give players reliable information about the industry. We are not interested in building something short-term, to just bring a certain number of players, earn some money and keep everything on a “low fire”. We can quickly produce quality content.
You just need to be able to live with this. History teaches us that despite the constant complications of regulations, the industry lives and the strongest survive. It is more difficult for operators, but the quality of operations is also increasing as a result.
We can say that now we are engaged in SEO, although, after 20 years in online marketing, I do not like this concept, as such. We are just building a quality website with useful information.
We invest quite actively in our projects; historically, the investor team has not changed. We are a group of like-minded people who have achieved some success in business, trust each other and know how to work together, which is very important. In the gambling industry, such projects are in demand; at a certain stage, the possibility of selling is, of course, being considered.
You need to competently do your job, be able to work with players, monitor your popularity, invest in a product. The CRM department is very important in such a business, it is very important to learn how to ensure player retention.
Required skills change over the years, becoming more and more difficult. But people who succeed in working persistently without losing their hands always succeed. In 2020, to succeed, you need to have money for investment.
You have to walk fast, together with time changes.
I have never dealt with Asian markets, maybe in the future.
I would have liked to know how profitable the online gambling industry is right from the start!
I’ve always been afraid of snakes!
It often happens that we come across non-professional affiliate managers who do not understand anything not in the product, not in the traffic. In such cases, our dialogue ends quickly.
Since 2006, I’ve attended almost all the main events. More, of course, to relax a bit and meet with friends, less for business. But in such events there is a very important aspect - in conversations over beer, many ideas and new acquaintances pop up.
I haven’t attended yet, but it seems that the time has come! In Manila it’s interesting, not quite sure that enough people will fly there. It's time to get to Malta, now it is the centre of the industry.
I love big cities. In NY, London, Amsterdam, I feel at home and never get tired of those places. The beach and the sea I have at home - in Tel Aviv.
Master and Margarita by “Bulgakov”. It’s my favourite book since I was 17 years old. Now I practically do not read fiction, more books about psychology and the meanings of life. Recently, a book about sleeping has made an impression - Why we sleep (Matthew Walker) and Lost Connections (Johann Hari) about the causes of depression
I feel great in Berlin, London, NY. I can move anytime to these cities without any problems.
I’ve been boxing since childhood. I loved football very much and supported FC Milan. Andrey Shevchenko personally gave me a T-shirt of FC Milan with his autograph on it and in response I gave him the Andriyshevchenko.com domain.
CONTACT INFORMATION: Email: gil@playcasino.com