hi guys welcome viewers i'm here with adrian and mark from excitable gaming craze affiliates um how are you guys doing today hi tim good morning um pretty good pretty excited for this interview and explaining everything that relates to excitable gaming and the tracer physics of course likewise welcome tim and thanks for for this opportunity no problem at all thank you for joining us as you say we can talk uh plenty about the brand plenty about what's coming up kind of uh in the gaming industry obviously we've got ice coming up ahead uh to start off with um a good intro would be could you give us please uh sort of background and information into crazy affiliates well um if i may start crazy philly started when grace play started actually trace play is the main brand which was the first brand actually we have under crazy affiliates actually mark came up with the name which is pretty cool then i came up with the crazy phillies to adapt to grace play and this was back in august 2019 and there's the correlation between the names there and um it turned out an instant hit basically for both the brand and the program itself and i think uh that our best our best weapon is this transparency that we offer into uh crazy phillies program and uh there's there's nothing to hide from anyone so it's it's it's it's quite it's quite easy to work with us uh that would be our main strength when it comes to the race affiliates program i remember dealing myself a lot with with affiliates back then since i had some some backgrounds in affiliation during that time and well it's it's it's kind of a great a good a good affiliate program that nowadays nowadays indoors endorses a lot of much other brands within and it's going good actually i mean we have many many partners working with us already the portfolio is even getting bigger every week and targeting different jails and um yeah pretty much everything going smoothly right now yes um and uh one is to say that as adrian said correctly we started off with crazeblade.com so pens case affiliates needed to be needed to be there to to actually start attracting affiliates and enrolled into their program it seems that the brand was really really well received in fact nowadays from grace play we operate uh another three brands on the same on the same uh affiliate affiliate program um and uh we're seeing a really nice growth uh mountain month uh year on year hoping to keep this the heat uh the heat on uh whilst we concentrate on uh new projects uh in the coming months uh the months pretty much yeah so and something to add on that aspect is that uh we only we are looking for uh for long-term partnerships in regards to the affiliate program uh that are willing to share uh any burden in the industry with us and the industry throws burdens all the time unfortunately and of course there are a few try to get rich from the you actually make a deal with them but for obvious reasons we are not into that kind of relationship with anyone markets evolve and the affiliate program needs to evolve and adapt to these evolutions um sometimes even on a monthly basis and that's why is sometimes one size that should not fit all right however we are open for opportunities with everyone we have a great affiliate team um they are ready to uh they are ready to speak with anyone deal with anyone so yeah we're hoping for business all brands different jobs so it sounds good plenty going on and obviously an emphasis on the kind of long-term partnerships there um for the for the both of you um as you know as you're kind of speaking to us today what are your day-to-day roles with the company yeah yeah my my role is pretty much uh marketing uh across the board so from uh from the nitty-gritty perspective i'll do i'll do the retention the retention marketing for all our brands um of course i involve myself a lot in the acquisition stage of things so we work a lot with affiliates directly to try to improve their conversion as soon as they send us traffic um but also we touch base from a retention perspective with our affiliates so we will help those partners that maybe are not doing so well on a particular month and we try to i mean accommodate them as a business but of course also us to to keep improving on uh on the profitability of the deals thanks also to targeted uh retention retention activities that we do um in partnership with our with our affiliates so yes i mean my role would be definitely retention numbers data um covering uh every aspect of crm but of course as we keep growing my main responsibility started to evolve more now into business development in terms of new opportunities in new continents so we are in the process of expanding our efforts in latin america for instance so there it's much more complicated to find partners you need to work a lot also on the ground so it's a broader marketing exercise that is a little bit different from what i'm doing at the moment but um what i'm trying is to combine the two and make it work it seems that uh it's work it's working pretty well from from the numbers that we see from from a day to day yeah um from my end i mean i've always been on the tech side of things um developer i've been been doing development since 13 years now i think so i kind of think i can take care of more the technical aspects of stuff and um some design now we also have a dedicated designer so i'm kind of alleviating a bit my my responsibilities from from these aspects and taking more control on the general day-to-day running of the company and yeah try to coordinate employees new new business opportunities with mark um events like us like ice and various other aspects that requires intentions on the day-to-day basis of the company and one needs to add that a very important point about us as founders of the company is that although we have different roles of course adrian is the tech uh guy of the company and i'm more the marketing guy that doesn't mean that we don't uh that we don't work closely together i mean he is actively involved in marketing as i am actively involved in the tech side for for improvements for uh whatever needs to be done from a technical perspective adrian is also very much involved with all marketing we discuss a lot of support nitty gritty stuff uh operational stuff that we we have to solve day-to-day and that is our strength i mean we try to be as flat as much as possible as an organization even with our stuff everyone is uh encouraged to uh to to push on their ideas uh even if they are not related to their to their direct responsibilities and this is how we are growing uh on a daily basis and we hope to keep it that way definitely [Music] as we go along yeah you mentioned ice and we're approaching sort of q2 2022 but how do you look back on uh sort of the start of this year but 2021 as a whole for the company and the industry more widely as well well i think 2021 was a very important year for us we made uh big decisions i mean from literally a team of four people we are now i think we are actually we are a team of nine um one another affiliate manager is going to join us later on this week so that would count us to nine uh some other decisions were exploring new opportunities in the curacao markets and with with with the addition of sports as well uh with another brand of course and we also launched our second brand in 2021 so that would be in total of an additional two brands in 21 to 2021 alone and i mean even by delegating me and mark delegating a lot of our responsibilities to others uh that helped us also concentrate on other stuff that will help us even grow further in 2022 so uh i mean a year of growth uh certainly kind of for online gaming you know it's it's been a lot of growth in the last couple years would you say there was slightly slower growth maybe across the industry than in 2020 or do you think still it's it's still you know kind of that growth rate is uh still impressive enough kind of consistently well um we have to understand that for us being a company that probably just went over the startup stage of course each year we experienced a big growth compared to the initial years when we started operating yeah in general if we're going to speak about the industry definitely 2021 had a lot of challenges from the licensing perspectives a lot of things changed germany netherlands so we had to reinvent also our jail strategy because of specific licensing changes of course we had to invest much more in other aspects of our of our offering in terms of player protection for instance which something that not it's not a cliche it's very close to us because we see ourselves as an entertainment company of wall so we want to offer a product that is like safe for our for our customers first and foremost um and we strive to keep improving those elements of our of our portals of our websites uh on a daily basis um of course there are there were other challenges related to acquisition person in fact we are in the process of starting diversifying our acquisition channels so not to be completely dependent on on affiliation and start getting more business directly via organic seo via programmatic via ppc um and other and other collaborations with other people so yes i mean the challenges are always there it's uh as i say challenges bring also opportunities um and because we had to see and discover new jails nowadays we are getting really nice numbers from specific that we weren't really strong in in the past so yes i mean 2020 on a whole was a little bit better than 2021 but in reality 21-1 also bought big challenges that today in 2022 we are taking to fruition and we are starting to see the the results so yeah sure um a couple of follow-up questions that will come from off the back of that one and then the first one is as you mentioned kind of licensing and different geolocations and geostrategy um currently in terms of markets what are kind of the biggest markets for you guys well at the moment uh we're seeing exponential growth in the canadian market uh together with the new zealand markets um we're doing pretty pretty well there uh we are in the process of expanding our operations in latin america as i spoke already so there's a very very clear strategy there where to go what we're going to offer but of course we are in the stages where we are collating and getting what we need to make a proper and successful market entry um so those would be those would be our uh main markets and main objectives for for 2022 2023 um as i said i mean whenever close the door for potential new opportunities um and other licensed markets that might be of interest to us uh in the coming months so we're of course not excluding i mean the industry is going there at the end of the day so pretty much pretty much we have to explore all the possibilities in licensing markets licensed markets and go go get the best out of them and insert and start making i don't know start having the opportunity to access these kind of markets in the most profitable way because of course there are certain areas where makes a market maybe less profitable than other and uh we will have to evaluate each and every aspect of it you mentioned a few markets there and and latam is always interesting new zealand's an interesting one but i couldn't help but kind of jump out in my mind canada because right now canada you mentioned it it's you know there's a huge rush towards canada and obviously ontario's opening eye gaming i mean what are your expectations from from that market in particular well i believe that canada as you said has enormous opportunity for a lot of years we've been hearing this about few operators managed to breach the canadian market uh seeing really good numbers and comparing it to other traditional markets that are that are really strong luckily we are we are investing in a diversified acquisition channel strategy and that is bearing beringa's fruit results yes i mean it's not your typical it's what it is it's not your typical jail jail to tap so as i said i don't know germany back in the days it was quite straightforward you have specific affiliates you get those you start you start running canada is not that straightforward but with patience and the proper acquisition mix i believe that it's a great job for for for everyone yeah absolutely uh so looking ahead kind of uh in terms of 2022 and kind of the rest of this year we mentioned uh you mentioned challenges earlier that kind of 2021 brought up um what are the biggest challenges ahead this year but at the same time what are the kind of um what are the main trends for kind of operators and affiliates to really watch out for as well well i mean the main challenge will remain always licensing basically i mean all these markets that we once used to run freely kind of yeah using the mga license are now being uh licensed by the government of those chairs and it will make life a bit harder for affiliates and operators alike in continuing doing any kind of promotions there unless you have the license and you will be you will be forced out unless you have the license and that would mean a big challenge to first try and apply for the license then get the regulations then adapt your platform adapt your affiliate set up your actual brand to it so that's a big challenge in itself right there um from a marketing perspective uh as we as we as we see every day the usps between brands and casinos across the world is uh is really really narrow if events is existing at all because sometimes i start believing that it's all the same product out there that the only difference would be how the marketing team can offer a real personalized experience to the players we hear a lot about this we we attend the webinars about this we hear a lot of nice nice words and plans but to actually do it to actually go and be laser sharp targeting your players and giving them ultimately what they need and what they want it's the biggest challenge from a marketing perspective but i believe who does that right will take the majority of the market in every jail because this is something important uh in every in every location we operated we are pretty much doing a good job in that aspect because our retention numbers uh compared to uh to what their experiences with other companies are are really really good um since that players are appreciating our approach uh of uh literally conversing with them it's not a question of you receive a bonus it's a ticket or leave it on a friday night no there's a conversation there is a relationship and we actually know uh what uh what our players appreciate and want in terms of promotions so that is one of the biggest challenges because as you know you have to manage this whole marketing operation and make it as efficient as possible and of course i mean we have to keep eye an eye on artificial intelligence trends because they offer tools that help us maybe automate and do a better targeting marketing job uh across the port and i must close by saying that uh cryptocurrencies probably are also an area that we need to really keep an eye on that's a challenge in itself because uh because again uh sometimes there's a hype sometimes the hype goes so we need to see a little bit how the crypto how the crypto world will find its place uh and uh and the gambling industry in a permanent in a permanent way ideally yeah exactly a few interesting takeaway points though obviously you mentioned crypto uh licensing the personalization and and the key point there is you say kind of um action as well as maybe talking about it you know actually delivering that personalized experience as you say um bearing in mind kind of everything we've discussed industry related but also with your brand's excitable gaming crate's affiliates looking at the company itself uh what are the targets for 2022 and kind of the upcoming months well um crazy affiliates it will remain trace affiliates and it will house probably much more brands in through this year maybe even next year much more than that and excitable gaming um we have quite ambitious plans um which let's say acceptable gaming is the is the main is the modern company why crazy is the affiliate program for the brands that are managed by excitable gaming now excitable gaming wants to uh broaden its its verticals into even having its own platform and um exploring new markets exploring new ideas new licensing um even new marketing strategies uh why not and um with new psps testing everything i mean the ambitions are there the um the plans are there we already started executing some of these plans and we are quite moving fast in them as well so we're expecting like in quarter three to quarter four uh we will be in a position to even announce some exciting news from excitable gaming so get posted on that and yeah i mean things looks great um we're adapting and we're also evolving in the technologies we use for for our clients b2b and b2c eventually um it's been great to get your guys take on the kind of on the company and in the industry more generally i've got one final question for the both of you uh and it's quite a short question if you had one wish it could be absolutely anything for the company uh what would it be well yeah it might sound a bit cheesy but we don't really have wishes um we plan things uh tim and we actually execute what we plan and uh the wish or uh way forward as adrian said for for the next months and next years will definitely be the proprietary platform that we're developing um we aim to have not just a good competitive platform but if possible the best platform out there with the best functionalities uh available to operators we operate ourselves we know what uh platforms uh needs to be good because we see the shortcomings and the various platforms we worked with and we aim to tap and fix fix that market gap in the gaming industry by offering something that is really really uh foolproof uh for for hopefully uh our next uh clients as we go along yeah i mean as mark said the action is bigger than the actual wish i mean of course they have big emotions i mean ambitions and wishes but if you sleep on them and you don't act i mean they're pretty much useless so having said that my one and only wish at this stage uh would be that the investment we're actually doing i mean you asked for a wish so i'm giving you a wish um is that it's it's return on investment would would be there instantly without any hiccups so you know the perfect flowers and rainbows that would be my wish so i know it's gonna it's not going to be like that there will be ups and downs of course and that's why we together taking all these kind of things that the industry tauruses us and also from from here i would like to give a big shout out to our team because of course with their hard work and otherwise we wouldn't be in this position as we are today and personally also i would like to uh give a big shout out to my wife deborah who's also our cfo and she personally supports me throughout the day throughout the week throughout the month ups and downs i mean uh that's that's the spirit of a good team so let's what we wish would actually come through i joined him absolutely uh the two two different answers but two two equally good ones so thanks very much guys and uh thanks very much for your overall answers and thanks for joining us on the j huddle today thank you very much