For this edition of Affiliate Spotlight, we caught up with WisePunters.com Founder Jan Kollar.
Jan is a seasoned sports betting enthusiast, who recently launched a community site with the aim of helping customers in a community setting. We track his journey from player to affiliate and discuss what he is hoping to achieve with the launch of his new affiliate site WisePunters.com.
AI: How long have you been an affiliate and player? How did you get into this industry more than a decade ago?
JK: “I first started as a bettor and, thanks to friends of mine who helped me, learned the basics of betting. This included Asian and European markets and the most common betting market lines, such as totals (over/under) and of course, arbitrage betting.
“About 10 years ago I first applied for the Skrill Ambassador programme, and I guess that’s how I got started in affiliate marketing. Though I had no traffic or potential to earn anything at that time, I found it was a great opportunity to earn money and keep a flexible work schedule.”
AI: What made you decide to start your own affiliate site now?
JK: “There were many reasons. But the idea was to try and help others learn what I know from years of playing at various operator sites.
“I wanted to give an idea on how to earn a living online and be financially independent, like I did back then I was young.
“At WisePunters, we have gathered a lot of experience and feel confident with the knowledge we have gained. We are now happy to share what we know with others, for their benefit too.
“We believe in doing good things to enable good things to happen, kind of like paying it forward in a sense. I honestly believe in living according to this method and it seems to have worked for me so far.”
AI: What do you think the industry is doing to promote safe gambling online and how are you looking to do this in your business?
JK: “As an affiliate, we advise customers about best user practices and seek to promote regulated and licensed brands. We review and play at these brands ourselves as customers.
“Stronger regulation and advertising rules is helping and good for our industry as a whole. More responsible customer service and VIP management are other ways that big corporations can help people to mitigate severe losses and get the right help when negative behaviours are being displayed.
“Education is key to providing a good customer experience. Understanding the fundamentals of betting and ‘science’ behind the odds is a good place to start. We really just want to educate people to do online betting properly and to also deposit safely when seeking entertainment brands online.”
AI: What do you think affiliates and operators should do to give customers a better user experience?
JK: “Bookmakers should treat customers fairly, avoid hidden costs and focus on solving customer complaints timorously. Affiliates, on the other hand, can help people to decide what is a suitable product or brand for them by educating them to the fine print of a brand’s terms of service.
“Transparency between the operator, affiliate and player is key.”
AI: Even though your website is fairly new, what do you want to achieve long term and what kinds of operators do you want to work with?
JK: “Our site is new and we are busy building momentum as we grow our community and add more relevant content and teachings.
“If WisePunters builds an audience interested in a common goal, it opens opportunities for us to learn from others as well. We are open to work with a huge scale of operators and busy getting to know a lot of the newer brands in the market too.”
AI: Your site is all about education. Why did you choose this way to promote operators and their offers vs a standard review website like other affiliates have done?
JK: “Knowledge is powerful. It can help develop new skills, and that can help you build a better life.
“Whilst we want people to make informed decisions and have fun for entertainment, you need to know about the risks too. We believe that education and knowledge helps people to reveal and explain the unknown and unexplained.
In our community, you can be better-prepared and aware of issues. It also helps to know what could lead to costly mistakes and should therefore be avoided. We strive to help people become informed about where to deposit safely.”
AI: What do you think the next big thing will be in affiliate marketing?
JK: “iGaming can always surprise you. The industry is changing fast and there will be many different things coming up, but I am most looking forward to seeing how virtual reality will change society and iGaming in the next few years.
“Nowadays we can see how esports is growing a lot faster than in previous years, so we are looking into that vertical alongside traditional sports and casino betting too.”
