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Having secured a licence from the Malta Gaming Authority, igaming operator Campeón Gaming Partners has set about adding four new gaming brands in the second half of 2019, as well as finalising the deals of new licensed operations for both Sweden and the UK.
We caught up with Marinos Shiapanis – the firm’s Co-Founder and CMO – to discuss the “extra push” provided by the Malta licence and waiting for the “final green light” from both Spelinspektionen and the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), as well as treating its affiliates as partners by pursuing mutually beneficial relationships, despite too many instances of CPA abuse.
SBC: You recently secured a licence from the MGA; why was this such a priority?
Marinos Shiapanis: Acquiring an MGA licence was one of our top priorities since the launch of our 1st brand, CampeonBet.
We hope that with the licence our brands will be more accessible to players everywhere. Additionally, we want to provide a safe space where players can be reassured about gaming fairness, responsibility, and security of personal data.
The MGA licence brought stricter procedures to guarantee safe gaming zones. We want all of our brands to be equipped with the best tools to cater for the best possible platform; an MGA licence will be an extra push for us to help us to continue to grow and evolve, and ultimately provide a great product for our players.
SBC: How close are you to launching these new domains?
MS: Our site designs are ready and our marketing strategy is in place, we are just waiting for the final green light of designated authorities and partners for the sites to go live.
CampeonUK will hold an MGA and UKGC licence, it will be our flagship brand in the UK, and our plan is that our other brands will follow suit during 2020. For the Swedish market, we will have SvenPlay, and in the meantime we will have a product that is based on Pay N Play under the Sven family.
SBC: What are your current acquisition strategies, for both sportsbook and casino players?
MS: For sportsbook players, we offer all main events in our platforms with highly competitive odds, along with a very comprehensive catalogue of sports events, including all the popular games. This plethora of choices allows for our strategies to be more attractive. Additionally, sportsbook players enjoy custom-made offers, so each promotion is shaped based on their needs and likes.
For casino players, we have successfully partnered with the best gaming providers in the industry, and we are constantly trying to add more variety to our catalogue. Players will find the latest launched games and with the best quality.
Additionally, we run weekly offers for all our users based on player’s activity and patterns, and we offer daily promotions such as the cashback bonus that are highly attractive, and players get to enjoy their games for longer.
We try to understand the need of the players, and currently our approach is very ‘player-centred’. This is the core of our strategy, and we aim to continue operating in a similar way in other domains with better tailored promotions.
SBC: Has the rising cost of user acquisition led to any changes in terms of how your affiliates select their commission models?
MS: Definitely, the rise of the players’ acquisition over the last few years has affected the way affiliates select their commission models.
Affiliates want to ensure they gain the highest profit they can, and we on the other side want to make sure that we get the best ROI from all of our partnerships. We believe that the common line stands somewhere in between these two factors and a cooperation that leads to a win-win model.
Nevertheless, we see more and more affiliates moving towards the CPA model preference with very high CPAs and very low triggers. Unfortunately, too many of these relationships have become one-sided, with multiple instances of CPA abuse.
However, we do still believe that our affiliates are our partners, thus we always aim to pursue a mutually beneficial relationship, especially since we have proven have established brands, and we have demonstrated reliability and ability to provide a high revenue share to all of our partners.
SBC: Finally, can you summarise Campeon’s key company goals for the second half of 2019?
MS: The first half of 2019 was about preparation, retention and acquisition. The second half of 2019 will be about expansion and growth. We are planning to launch CampeonUK and SvenPlay in the upcoming months, along with two other brands by the end of 2019.
We are also expanding our network capacity, our affiliate network, payment providers and software developers with the successful addition of Yggdrasil and Microgaming, which will allow us to provide better and more product-oriented services across all of our platforms.
Finally, we are also entering new licensed domains; as a result we need to have remarkable products for these more regulated and highly competitive markets.
