Affiliate Spotlight: Carousel Group Head of Marketing Edu Huarte

Affiliate Spotlight shines a light on the latest affiliate sites from around the world.
This week we chat with Edu Huarte, Head of Marketing at Carousel Group, who describes what the affiliate side of the business brings to the world of sports betting.
Affiverse: Can you tell us more about Carousel Group Affiliates and how you are positioning your programme?
Edu Huarte: We have been causing a stir in the market since our launch in 2017 simply because we have been very quiet about our plans. However all that changed in November when Carousel Group Affiliates was made public by Affiverse.
At SiGMA we finally made public the new MGA licensed brands we will be launching and the incredible domain names we’ve acquired. For those who haven’t heard, they are SportsBetting.com and RaceBook.com, targeting sports and racing punters across the globe.
AI: How important is your affiliate programme when it comes to driving players to your news brands, SportBetting.com and RaceBook.com?
EH: Although we are investing heavily in other channels such as SEO, SEM, ad networks and sponsorship deals, the majority of our year 1 marketing budget is dedicated to affiliates, so it’s an absolutely critical channel for us.
We have already registered interest from more than 70 affiliates, however we are now working on structured deals in key markets with some key partners and will start on-boarding affiliates soon into our new platform
AI: What markets will you be targeting with Carousel Affiliates and your B2C brands? Why have you identified these as having the most potential?
EH: Phase one of our roll-out plan is focussed on Scandinavian and Central Europe along with Latin America. We have developed multi-currency and multi-lingual sites to better target key demographics and we are already planning to acquire licences in markets such as UK and Sweden.
AI: What do you look for in an affiliate partner? And how do you work with your partners to help them create engaging, valuable content around your brands?
EH: There’s no one-size-fits-all, especially when it comes to Affiliates! While we prefer partners with a successful track record in our target markets, we are also interested in bringing in affiliates that offer new or interesting value propositions.
We are building out a very strong marketing and content team at our headquarters in Madrid, Spain and are very much looking forward to working closely with our affiliates to create unique offerings to give SportsBetting.com and RaceBook.com the kinds of players that brands like that deserve.
AI: How will you ensure your affiliate partners are promoting your brands in a compliant and responsible manner?
EH: One of our key values at Carousel Group is corporate responsibility, which means paying special attention to how our brands are positioned in the market and helping to improve the image of online gambling in general. We will provide our affiliates with clear rules as to how to work with our brands and work pragmatically with them to deal with any problems that may arise as global regulations and market sentiments shift.