Affiliate Manager Interview Series: Daniil Rebrunov

**GPWA Daniel** · 20 October 2021, 10:23 am

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(This interview was originally published in the August 2021 issue of the GPWA Times Magazine.)

Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from and where did you grow up?
I was born in St. Petersburg (in Russia), but our family moved to Germany when I was a kid. I grew up in a city near Berlin and I’m still living here. I’m studying economics at our local University and work part time for Konung Partners/Konung Casino.

How did you end up working with Konung Partners? Have you always wanted to work in the gaming business?
Konung Partners is, for me, like a family project. My mum’s husband worked in the land-based gaming industry for decades and his dream was to work on an online project. Once he had a chance fulfill this idea, he linked up with our White Label SoftSwiss and took over this project with a couple of other colleagues. Only issues were, that they had some communication problems with SoftSwiss, as they don’t speak Russian, and the English skills were a bit less advanced then today (Laughs).

And this is where I was introduced to the iGaming world. First, I would just translate between SoftSwiss and the owners, because Russian and German are my native languages. Besides the communication between our White Label and the owners, I did other translation work on the website, like Terms & Conditions, Bonus Terms and other policies. So, I read tons of online gaming content and while doing the job as interpreter/translator, I slowly started understanding what this whole thing is about and got interested. At a certain point, I switched from doing just translations to other jobs, like preparing mailers, promotions and finally ended up in the position as affiliate manager. I never started at a concrete position; it was more of an organic process.

And to answer the second question: No, I never wanted to work in the gaming business before, because I didn’t really know there was something like a gaming business. For me, in the past, the gaming business consisted of some penny arcades in the corner. I didn’t even know that the online version of it is even bigger. I didn’t have any experience with online marketing either, so the online iGaming industry is my starting point, for everything I know about it, to this day.

What has surprised you the most about the industry since you started?
How much work and effort are behind a project that doesn’t even seem to be that big. From a customer’s perspective, everything seems to be simple. As a player, you visit a site, make a deposit, gamble a bit and blame the support for not winning (worst case) in a period of five minutes. But even for such a supposedly easy process, you need 24/7 support, an anti-fraud team, payment providers, terms and many others aspects to provide a good gaming experience. The background work of a project is immense and I never really thought about that before I took a look at it from the operator’s perspective. But I guess that’s typical for every industry, not just for iGaming.

Another thing that surprised me that I never really thought about is that the risks and chances of winning and losing exists on both sides, operator and consumer. People that have nothing to do with iGaming sometimes have stereotypes and could think that everything is a big fraud and you always lose. But the person on the other side of the laptop is gambling as well, because when a player wins $30,000 with a $20 deposit (real story), the owners have to pay it.

I think many operators can relate to that. I personally never realized that aspect before I started to work in the industry.

How do you think the iGaming affiliate business will change in next three to five years?
I don’t see myself as a specialist for political opinions, but I still think it’s obvious that the restrictions for iGaming will increase more and more over time and the government will try to profit from licensing online gaming as much as possible. I think that leads to an even bigger separation between huge brands that are already established for years and go for the licensed way, and smaller brands that will look for niches and its personal ways to act in a grey zone. These will have to be extremely creative in terms of marketing and promotion, as the possibilities seem to decrease with upcoming policies. Many other aspects, for example payments providers, cut their work with certain licenses. That makes it even more difficult to stay competitive, and may lead to even bigger usage of crypto alternatives, but that’s just an assumption.

What are some of the things you like most about your job?
In general, I like the creative part of my job, working on several promotional ideas, website tools and other campaigns. While studying economics, I realized I’m not made for a generic job, with zero individuality. I enjoy talking to people. That’s the main part of my job, to negotiate and find compromises. While this can also be quite exhausting, to be honest, as not everyone is nice to talk with. But that taught me how to handle different types of people and how important it is to take responsibility for your decisions. Another aspect I love about the job is that I had the chance to visit different cities and countries like Netherlands, Serbia, Portugal and hopefully some more in the future.

What should affiliates know about Konung Partners in order to effectively market its brands?
In general, we’re looking for long term-partnerships with affiliates. And sometimes it takes a bit of time to figure out what works for a certain project. Even if the desired results don’t come immediately, we have experienced that even some slight changes in positioning or advertising can have a good impact. Based on my personal experience, I figured out that affiliates who believe in themselves and their players’ values are mostly much more flexible in terms of commission and in other cooperation regards. So, let’s communicate with each other and try to find solutions to grow together!

We offer for every affiliate dedicated landing pages with the affiliate’s logo and I try to be available almost 24/7 on Skype, so ask me whenever you want, if you need anything!

What does Konung Partners do to help affiliates retain players and gain FTDs?
We have many features to keep our players motivated. First of all we have a VIP Program, so the players constantly get rewarded for their playing activity. Furthermore, we have various bonuses to offer: first deposit bonus, second deposit bonus, third deposit bonus, Monday bonus and Friday bonus. In addition, we send out several other promotions every week to ensure that players can pick their favorite ones. And on top of that, we have a retention team that looks for VIP players and makes specific personal offers to exclusive players.

The main markets for Konung Partners right now are Norway and Australia, as well as Canada and Russia, and a few other countries. How do these markets differ? Is there a plan to venture into other markets anytime soon?
It’s important to focus on the main values for each region that we offer. For example, we have Interac as payment method for Canada, and that could be a key point for deciding to deposit. Furthermore, Canadian players are very much into cryptocurrency. It makes sense to mention that we offer payment in cryptocurrency. We have even instructions for usage of crypto to simplify the process.

Some other players really like to use online banking, so it’s good suggest direct banking or cash-to-code, which is similar to Paysafe Card, and that’s also very popular here. I try to lead the player as good as possible, so there are less distractions.

There are some other markets we’re interested in, like Poland, Vietnam, Japan and some African countries, but the realization of these plans are just future ideas. We have no ambitions to lay out the conditions for venturing into another big market right now.

How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected you both professionally and personally?
To be honest, the pandemic didn’t affect me that much, in professional or personal way. My profession was online all the time and even before the pandemic I had the opportunity to work at home. Most of my hobbies I do at home anyway and the fact that I couldn’t go to clubs, get horribly drunk and regret it the next day is more of a blessing for me. But, of course, I know that I’m extremely lucky to have an environment that is quite unaffected by COVID-19 and I still hope that it will end soon so the people that don’t have the opportunity to work online can work again and don’t suffer.

Tell us about your typical work day.
I get up, drink a cup of coffee and start checking emails. Then I look for potential partners the whole day. When I’m not looking for partners, I check statistics for current partners, evaluate them and think how I can optimize existing partnerships.

I’m still involved in creating promotions, and mailers and translations sometimes, but that’s spontaneous and I don’t have a schedule for that. All in one, nothing exotic (Laughs).

What are some of your hobbies?
I have one big hobby and that’s music. I’m teaching myself to play the piano and I make beats. Most of the time I produce trap/rap and lofi (hip-hop) beats, but I try to figure out how orchestral music works as well. Maybe you will see me composing background music for some slots one day, who knows? (Laughs).

What’s the most impactful book you have read?
Shame on me, but I’m not that much of a reader. My mother always blames me for it. Last two books that hooked me are The Picture of Dorian Grey from Oscar Wilde and a book about Taiwanese Buddhism, but I’m not done yet, so I’m still waiting for the impact.

What's your favorite movie?
Don’t have one. I’m more into series than movies and I’ve been a big anime fan since my childhood. My favorite series could be Games of Thrones, if there wasn’t that catastrophic last season.

If you could have dinner with three people, living or dead, who would they be?
Tupac, Rumiko Takahashi and Scott Storch.

**Cash Bonus** · 20 October 2021, 3:00 pm

Good and interesting interview with Daniil Rebrunov. Thanks for sharing. I'm also certain that there'll obviously be more restrictions for our industry and the greedy government will try to profit as much as it possibly can from licensing online gaming, as you said.

**GPWA Maria** · 20 October 2021, 9:59 pm

Thank you for the interview Daniil!

**drifter8** · 20 October 2021, 11:38 pm

Amazing interview. Thanks for sharing .

2pac was an amazing person, poet, rebel and rapper - maybe the best R&B and poet globally for all times!!

**CasinoGuy3** · 21 October 2021, 1:21 am

Thanks for sharing this interview, it is interesting.

**CatalinAMG** · 21 October 2021, 3:18 am

Originally Posted by drifter8

Amazing interview. Thanks for sharing .

2pac was an amazing person, poet, rebel and rapper - maybe the best R&B and poet globally for all times!!

Great interview indeed. Tupac is also one of my all-time favourite rappers.

**Dan Konung** · 22 October 2021, 6:36 am

Originally Posted by CasinoGuy3

Thanks for sharing this interview, it is interesting.

Nice to hear that!

**Dan Konung** · 22 October 2021, 6:39 am

Originally Posted by CatalinAMG

Great interview indeed. Tupac is also one of my all-time favourite rappers.

Originally Posted by drifter8

Amazing interview. Thanks for sharing .

Originally Posted by drifter8

2pac was an amazing person, poet, rebel and rapper - maybe the best R&B and poet globally for all times!!

Thanks guys, glad to hear that. And I see you are men of culture as well

Originally Posted by Cash Bonus

Good and interesting interview with Daniil Rebrunov. Thanks for sharing. I'm also certain that there'll obviously be more restrictions for our industry and the greedy government will try to profit as much as it possibly can from licensing online gaming, as you said.

Of course they do it just for the sake of safety

Once again, thanks for all the nice comments. I was really nervous, as it was my first interview, but I'm really happy you liked it!

**gil.langelaan** · 22 October 2021, 10:16 am

Thank you, Daniil, for sharing your thoughts. That was very interesting to read!

**drifter8** · 25 October 2021, 1:40 am

I want to add sth - " The picture of Doria Grey" is one of my favorite books for all times.

For those who have not read this, go and find it. A masterpiece by Oscar Wilde.

Few more words about 2Pac Shakur - his all time favorite songs of mine " Letter to my unborn child" and " Battle of a dead soldier".

He was definitely from another dimension and his lyrics...

All eyez on him !!!

**Dan Konung** · 25 October 2021, 6:54 am

Originally Posted by drifter8

I want to add sth - " The picture of Doria Grey" is one of my favorite books for all times.

For those who have not read this, go and find it. A masterpiece by Oscar Wilde.

Few more words about 2Pac Shakur - his all time favorite songs of mine " Letter to my unborn child" and " Battle of a dead soldier".

He was definitely from another dimension and his lyrics...

All eyez on him !!!

And in contrast to his image (and to most todays rappers), he was very educated and well spoken, a true activist!

**drifter8** · 25 October 2021, 7:26 am

2pac had a mission and was never aftaid to speak loud what he thinks and how he can live.

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