Q&A: Patryk Klimer, Mr Green's head of affiliates

Mr Green’s head of affiliates Patryk Klimer talks to eGR Digital Marketing about Mr Affiliate’s recent rebrand and why transparency is central to any successful affiliate programme

With a wealth of online gambling affiliate programmes to choose from it can be a daunting decision for affiliates to select which brands to promote. Often it’s a question of trust and reliability between affiliate and affiliate manager that sways the decision, and this is a reality Mr Green’s head of affiliates, Patryk Klimer, knows all too well.

Overseeing the online casino operator’s Mr Affiliate programme, Klimer currently leads a nimble team of just three affiliate managers; a factor he believes goes a long way in affiliate relationship building as their partners are able to put a face to the name. Klimer joined the company only three months ago from fellow Stockholm-listed operator Betsson and since taking up the Malta-based role has made some big changes in a short period of time.

Klimer was instrumental in the launch of a new HTML5-optimised Mr Affiliate website which is part of a much bigger rebrand for the programme, while also eyeing up a big push into social media to open up new communication channels with its clients. eGR Digital Marketing caught up with Klimer to discuss his future plans for Mr Affiliate and to ask him what he thinks the secrets are to a successful online casino affiliate programme.

eGR Digital Marketing (eGR DM): How would you sum up Mr Green’s approach to affiliation and what differentiates you from some of your competitors?
Patryk Klimer (PK): The difference between what Mr Green is doing right now and the previous companies I’ve worked for is massive. Mr Green is heavily affiliate-oriented. We want to be friends with affiliates which is why we have such a great revenue share model and it’s not in terms of whether we give 50% or 60%, that’s just a number. A lot of the money we are actually giving to affiliates is much higher than many of the major operators because the way we calculate net revenue is very simple and extremely fair.

My new guidelines for the Mr Green programme include the principle that there is only one gentleman in the affiliate industry. What I mean by that is we try to pay money on the first of the month when others are doing it on the 10th or 15th. So we have the quickest payments and try to reply within 24 hours to every affiliate query. I think we’re managing to be this gentleman.

eGR DM: So do these guidelines hold the secrets to a successful affiliate programme?
PK: Yes, because we are transparent, trustworthy, giving money as quickly as possible and able to tailor every scrap of design for every affiliate. There are plenty of affiliates out there that require huge fixed fees, for example, to work with them and Mr Green doesn’t have that kind of problem because they can get that money on the revenue share and they’re very happy about that.

eGR DM: How big is the performance marketing team at Mr Green? And how is it structured?
PK: We currently have three affiliate managers and a few more on the way. That’s the shape of the team and I want to keep it like that. I don’t need 20 affiliate managers because we only have one brand and one product. Garbo also comes under our jurisdiction but it’s not our main focus right now. It will be at some point but we are still working on the new website for Garbo which we want to polish before we start to sell it to affiliates. At that point I think Garbo will join the Mr Affiliate platform.

eGR DM: Does running an affiliate programme for a company focused on a single vertical make things easier for you?
PK: Focusing on one product as Mr Green does makes it a bit smaller, of course, because you obviously can’t sell to sports betting or poker affiliates. But that kind of focus on one brand is simply helping us maintain better quality on the work we are doing right now because it’s much easier to master one product than master two. Just like Apple is doing on one iPad rather than 25 different types of tablets.

eGR DM: What was your background before joining Mr Green and how did you get involved in affiliate marketing?
PK: I’ve worked in affiliation roles for about eight years and my last job was head of casino affiliation at Betsson Group where I worked for more than three years. I was there in the middle of the company’s big expansion phase when it grew from just over 100 employees to what is almost 1,000 right now. Following those years Betsson became a really big corporation and I decided that for me the best place to work is a smaller sized company as Betsson used to be. So I joined Mr Green which is another successful company that’s continuing to grow.

eGR DM: So your background is very much in casino affiliation?
PK: Not really because before I joined Betsson Group I was working for Gambling Affiliation which is an affiliate network. There I was looking after all the products.

eGR DM: What first attracted you to the role at Mr Green?
PK: The brand itself is exceptional and very marketable. But what really attracted me to accept the role was that I got complete freedom in shaping the entire affiliate programme. So I’ve been able to essentially almost build it from scratch, which was an opportunity I just couldn’t turn down.

eGR DM: How would you sum up the strength of the online casino market? Do you feel it’s in a strong position?
PK: Online casino is a great thing for casino lovers because they can play from everywhere. It’s much safer for customers to play online these days as well and I think the regulatory changes are great and I’m hoping other European countries and the rest of the world will soon be regulated so we can move on and enjoy the new possibilities.

eGR DM: How has the regulatory shift in Europe towards a dot.country model changed things?
PK: In the UK I don’t think it’s changed that much. The competition is just as strong as it used to be, there’s plenty of smaller operators emerging and the regulation allows us to work so much easier with social media, TV advertising and all other types of marketing. I genuinely think it’s helping to establish
brands to a wider audience.

eGR DM: What’s your view on affiliate marketing in general? Do you think it’s still as important to the online gambling market as it was a few years ago?
PK: I think that affiliate marketing is getting much more mature and it’s also consolidating in online casino. From the one side we have massive companies such as Reef Media and then rising stars including Catena Media which started from low levels and now has many substantial Dutch and Scandinavian websites. And there’s more of those types of companies emerging all the time and they’re consolidating. There’s still space for new entrants but there certainly are not as many cowboys as there were a few years ago. The negotiations with affiliates have helped things become much more professional which has helped affiliate marketing to mature.

eGR DM: Why did you decide to launch a new website for your affiliate programme?
PK: It was my first project which I immediately put on the white board when I joined. The previous one was a few years old and after looking at other examples out there I realised that it wasn’t particularly exciting. Since I obtained ownership of the affiliate programme I wanted to make something new and create a website that reflects the values of Mr Green and Mr Affiliate and stands out from the competition. We used the NetRefer platform but we worked a lot on the design and the first thing you see is a shot taken from our latest TV advert which is very seductive. We wanted to portray that we are strong and professional, while making it a key selling point to new affiliates. The feedback so far has been outstanding.

eGR DM: Is this part of a broader rebrand of the affiliate programme?
PK: Yes, after the launch of the new website there was time to build more social relationships with our affiliates so we launched a Twitter channel. We then revamped all our communications, our banners and newspaper ads which should start to show up in the press soon. The way we communicate has changed and I wanted to build a single ecosystem so that people will just know straight away that it’s us without telling people too much information. It goes back to this ‘one and only gentleman’ story.

eGR DM: Has this rebrand coincided with changes to the programme itself?
PK: Mr Affiliate is generous and this won’t change. We don’t plan any kind of terms and conditions changes and I’m extremely proud that only a few days ago we got platinum certification from the Affiliate Guard Dog forum which is known for its criticisms and deep focus on specific programmes. We managed to achieve every requirement from them so our terms and conditions are affiliate-friendly. We
focus on on-time payments and affiliate managers who are quick to respond, which goes a long way in this sector.

eGR DM: You have also ramped up your social media presence. Do you plan to expand onto channels beyond Twitter?
PK: I don’t know how other operators are approaching this but social media is something I want to double-up on because it’s not an invasive regular communication tool. There are plenty of affiliates out
there that just don’t like to read email and prefer Twitter which they can switch on anytime they want. It will also help us to expand, for example, because of the retweeting of affiliates which are then promoting Mr Green.

eGR DM: What can our readers and your partners expect from Mr Affiliate during the rest of the year?
PK: For me there’s lots of internal work which I have to do because of various programmes we’re in the process of completing. Outside of that I want to finally integrate high-quality HTML5 banners and push HTML5 across our entire business which I think will help us to stand out. I also want to continue our exceptional co-operation and partnerships with our affiliates and expand the business to a much more global one. But as with everything, there’s never enough time.