Affiliate Industry
Exclusive Q&A with Alex Windsor, Director at Apps4 web media Limited

- Let’s begin with some introductory details about yourself. How did you enter the gaming sector?
I first got in to the gaming sector back in 2012. I was working in a call center at the time in a very different role that I do now; I was in B2B sales.
I was looking online for some info on betting apps and couldn’t really find what I wanted so thought why not make a website about it. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing at first. I started out with a WordPress site and just began slowly adding content. From there I really got in to marketing and started to read up online, visiting forums, downloading online courses, and generally reading whatever I could get my hands on to further my knowledge.
1 website eventually grew to 2, then 3, then 4 and I ended up with 12 sites in total, all aimed at the UK market.
- Did your professional background in mobile communication industry help in the gaming sector? On this topic, how important do you think it is for a potential gaming entrepreneur to have hands-on experience some other unrelated field?
Yes I would say by background did help. I’ve always been a big fan of technology so this definitely made things a bit easier for the transition from sales to marketing. I have always been a bit of a tech geek and love apps, mobiles, tablets, computers and anything with a screen and buttons on.
I saw the potential in mobile betting very early and knew it was a good niche to get in to as apps were very much the thing of the moment back in 2012.
I wouldn’t say experience plays a massive role. I had absolutely no idea about marketing when I got in to the industry initially. I would say a desire to learn, innovate and try new things is a few must have traits if anyone wants to succeed. We all need to start somewhere. You also need a never say die attitude and a hunger to work, work and then work some more.
- What is the background of founding Apps4web Media? Enlighten our readers with some stories, please!
Apps4 web media is actually my 2nd iGaming company. I sold my first portfolio of sites in 2015 and had 2 years out of the industry due to a non-compete agreement.
As soon as I was allowed to work again I registered the company and immediately got to work. I really missed working on sites, going to conferences, and chatting with other people in the industry.
I actually couldn’t wait to get started again and registered the company at 12.01am the day my non-compete expired. I had always worked on my own in the past but this time I decided I wanted to put a small team together. I now have 5 full time employees and we work with several other companies as well for design needs.
As well as running our own sites, we also do link building and marketing for other iGaming companies. We work with some of the biggest companies in the world and its an area we are currently growing and recruiting for.
- For the uninitiated among our readers, could you describe the major services that Apps4web Media provides?
The main services that we offer is affiliate marketing. We have over 12 sites that we run, most are now in the US, but we also have sites for the UK, Spain, and Italy.
As well as content for our own sites, we also provide content for a lot of other affiliates as well, on top of the link building services that we do also.
- On to affiliate marketing now. The field is quite crowded, especially in the gaming sector. How do you manage to carve your niche amidst such tight competition?
The market is a lot more crowded than it was 8 years ago that’s for sure. When I first started out, there was only a handful of sites promoting in the niche I worked in so there wasn’t a lot of competition. Fast forward 8 years and the landscape is a lot different. There are some enormous iGaming companies now with hundreds of sites and staff that just fill and dominate the SERPS.
Standing out from the competition is not an easy thing. I have always been good at offering my own unique spin on content and topics. I look for areas that other sites don’t cover and try and offer genuine help and experience. The UK market is very saturated now and its extremely hard to launch and make a new site successful.
- What are the major revenue streams for Apps 4Web Media?
Our main revenue stream comes from the agreements with have from operators. In the UK this is through rev share, but in the US its all CPA agreements.
We are also doing well with our link building services. A lot of our clients we have worked with for several years and appreciate our timely service and professionalism.
- You started out in the UK and then entered the US market. How is it going in the US? Could you share some stats? In how many states are you licensed to operate now?
The US is such an exciting market to be in right now. It seems like every week there is a new state that has just legalized sports betting, or is just about to.
So far I am really happy with how things are going over there, but we can always do more. Our main site gamble-usa.com is our largest site and covers all the states, although it is still fairly new. The market is that diverse and you really need to almost treat each state as a separate country. What you can and can’t wager on varies from state to state and whilst sports betting is being legalized in most states, online casino and poker is only available in a handful.
The company is licensed in 6 states at the minute, those being New Jersey, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Colorado, and Michigan. We have an application pending with the Virginia lottery that we hope to have available soon.
Because of these big state by state differences, we have launched state specific sites in a few states. In Indiana for example, we have our gamble Indiana site and gamble Colorado for the Colorado betting market. Tennessee is the latest state we launched a state specific site with gamble Tenn but this is still very new.
There are also states like Iowa and Illinois where no license is required that we operate in. For Illinois we have another new state specific site called gamble Illinois, which again is pretty new. There just literally aren’t enough hours in the day to do as much as we want with the sites.
- What are the good, bad and ugly, if any, about doing business in the USA?
The good is definitely the speed at which the market is moving. The US has a population of over 330 million people and they are nearly all sports mad. The legalization of sports betting only come back in to effect in 2018 so the market is still brand new.
I would say the bad is that sports betting isn’t legal in all states. There are over 20 states now with some form of legal sports betting but these states aren’t all open to affiliates. Some only have in person sports betting, whilst others only have 1 operator that is run by the lottery. As more states open up it will get better and better.
The ugly would be the licensing process. I am not against licensing at all as I think it is a good way to regulate the market. My issue is as a UK business we have to jump through a lot of hoops in some states. No application is the same, they vary from state to state. NJ for example is very easy to do. PA was more complicated. Most states you need a registered business address so things take a bit longer than say the UK where anyone can be up and running in a few hours.
- We believe there are others who would be planning to enter the US gaming market in some form. What are the common mistakes that European gaming entrepreneurs could do well to avoid in the USA?
The market is so new in the US for both affiliates and operators so we are all learning and all making mistakes. My biggest piece of advice is don’t take too much on. Focus on one state as each state has different rules about what you can and cant bet on, and also what forms of gambling are available.
- With the arrival of vaccines, Covid-19 is slowly moving out of our daily lives. Looking back, was the outbreak a problem or an opportunity for gaming industry as a whole?
Our sites all focused on sports betting so we were affected quite badly. A lot of Affiliates and operators I have spoken to, whose main verticals were casino and poker, have actually come out having done very well. Most sport was stopped including football and horse racing which had a huge impact on the UK economy as a whole. The same thing happened in the US with sports shut down.
Thankfully things seem to be getting better now and hopefully we are near the end of this dreadful period that the whole world has gone through.
The pandemic may have actually sped up the legalization of sports in a lot of states in the US. Like everywhere, governments are looking for ways to recoup the money they have laid out during the pandemic and raising funds through taxes is a very good way of doing this. Several state have actually pushed forward with looking to legalize sports betting as they are relying on the tax benefits.
- Finally, what is your take on the role of automation and AI in the affiliate industry?
I’m always a tad skeptical about AI. I think it will definitely have its benefits to some industries but affiliate marketing, I am not so sure. I have seen content written by an AI that is very very good.
If Machine learning can be used to help spot and detect early problem gamblers then I am all for it in that respect.
Affiliate Industry
Affiliates in the US Sports Betting Market – Has The Game Gone Cold?

A lot has changed since the US Supreme Court struck down PASPA (The Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992) as being unconstitutional, effectively ending Nevada’s near-monopoly on sports betting in the country. With every US state now free to legalize and launch its own sports betting market, in-person, online, and mobile sports betting grew at a neck-breaking pace.
This explosive growth saw the emergence of ‘affiliate companies’ – marketing agencies specializing in performance marketing and promoting licensed sports betting operators. However, as the market entered a new phase and growth slowed, some affiliates have been seeing mixed results in the past year.
We sat down for a chat with Shmulik Segal, Founder and CEO of Media Troopers, an advertising agency specializing in sports betting and iGaming in North America, to hear his views on the gambling marketplace and what the future holds for affiliates. Segal takes a realistic approach and acknowledges the days of insatiable growth are gone, but he still sees great potential in the market.
Looking at the bigger picture, how bad were things for affiliates in the past year?
Segal: “I won’t tell you the past year hasn’t been challenging for marketing agencies like ourselves. Looking at 2024 earning reports of publicly traded marketing agencies in the gambling industry, the results are a mixed bag, Segal says. “While some of the largest players in the space saw their US revenues drop by over a third compared to 2023, the earnings of others just flatlined.”
What causes you to be optimistic then?
“But on the flip side of the coin, there were also companies that saw double-digit growth in earnings,” Segal compares. “So what does that mixed bag of results tell us? Although the days of explosive growth are over, the market is certainly not on a one-way street. I still see tons of opportunities for companies that are adjusting and doing the right things.”
So what are the main challenges the affiliate market is facing?
“I can divide the challenges into two main categories: objective and subjective. Objective categories would be anything that’s ‘man-made’, such as legislation (new states that open up), increased regulation (restrictions on advertising, increased taxation), the evolution of technology (Artificial Intelligence and further mobile personalization), competition (both operators and other marketing channels and companies), and all other factors that are created by governments, companies, and individuals,” he explains.
“The subjective factors are more geographical or permanent. Let’s take sports betting as an example. According to the American Gaming Association’s state tracker, Out of 51 potential jurisdictions across the country (50 states + Washington DC), 38 have legalized sports betting. However, only seven states have legalized iGaming.”
So, how do you treat these challenges differently?
“As an affiliate, you understand the fundamental difference between the two types of challenges: your level of control. While you can mitigate objective challenges, you must adapt to subjective ones.”
How do you stay relevant as an affiliate amidst these challenges?
“The first thing we must always keep in mind is that we make a living out of providing our customers with additional value, i.e. unique knowledge and expertise that the operator doesn’t have and fits perfectly into its marketing mix. We must provide our customers with a competitive, cutting edge.”
“Case in point: we constantly strive to be ahead of the curve in everything we do. Our technology platform constantly adapts and upgrades to include more powerful AI tools for segmentation, targeting, and personalization. A huge part of our media teams’ job is to look for the ‘next big thing’ be it a fresh marketing channel or a new source that will enable us to expand our reach and tap into new markets.
Our commercial teams work closely with existing and potential operators to find new ways to bring value to players, be it new games, news, or promotions. And it goes without saying that our compliance team takes great care of ensuring we adhere to the highest standards of safe advertising and responsible gaming.”
“But no less important,“ he concludes, “is the operations team that ties all the pieces together and executes everything. That’s one of the biggest challenges, given operations can be slow-moving, we constantly need to improve our execution to keep up with the changes the other parts of the team bring.”
What about other types of challenges? The ones you can’t mitigate?
“When it comes to subjective challenges, however, you have much less control, and this is where companies must brace themselves and adapt quickly. Case in point, there are 38 sports betting states, while a portion of the remaining ones, such as Hawai, Utah, Texas, and California, won’t introduce sports betting or iGaming in the foreseeable future.
With fewer states regulating gaming in the foreseeable future, is the market bound to shrink?
“I don’t see it that way. Long gone are the days when a new market opened every few months. What would you do? You can’t ‘magic up’ more states. But you can certainly adapt and brace yourself to improve and grow your share in existing markets, which is exactly what we are focusing on doing,” he explains. “Along with acquiring new players through new and existing markets, we are constantly looking for new channels that will bring our customers (operators) loyalty and higher lifetime value.”
You are talking about increasing share and value, does that mean there are no new opportunities?
“We see huge potential, with opportunities constantly coming to knock on our door. North Carolina and Vermont were the two new markets that launched in 2024, and we are already seeing a lot of growth there. For example, North Carolina, which only went live with sports betting in March 2024, but by the end of the year, already clinched ninth place in the Top 10 sports betting states, reporting revenues of over $583.
This is why we treat every state as a standalone ecosystem with its unique set of challenges, requirements, and potential. The next exciting challenge (and opportunity) we are preparing for is Missouri, which legalized sports betting at the end of 2024 but has yet to launch. We have already been hard at work since the ballot was approved in November, so we can hit the ground running and start sending our MO sportsbook partners newly depositing customers from day one.
What about organic growth in existing markets?
“There’s certainly that also. While every new state that launches sports betting can potentially bring a spike in growth, we are certainly seeing organic growth and improved results across the board year after year. Take as an example the Super Bowl. In 2025, legal US bets on the Super Bowl grew 10% year-on-year. Or March Madness, on which best are expected to grow 13% from last year.
So, is there still organic growth in existing markets? For us, it’s a big, fat yes.”
Are you planning on staying within the iGaming and sports betting markets in the near future?
“That’s a very good question I ask myself every day, Segal smiles and immediately corrects himself. “Actually, scratch that. I ask myself this question many times over the course of a day in the office.”
He elaborates: “iGaming is tangent to other gaming verticals, and sports betting has an overlap with a whole universe of sports and its related verticals. Every website in these verticals needs traffic, and we know how to provide it. So new opportunities knocking on our door. But how do we capitalize on these without losing our focus and commitment to our core business? We keep our ears and eyes open, but never lose focus.”
Affiliate Industry
MetaBet inks Gentoo Media partnership to enhance flagship sites

MetaBet, the pioneering provider of sports betting engagement tools, has partnered with Gentoo Media, a leading affiliate, to integrate its cutting-edge sports betting widgets into two of Gentoo’s flagship websites, World Sports Network (WSN) and Time2play.
MetaBet’s proprietary widgets are designed to nurture engagement, increase sportsbook conversions, and maximize affiliate revenue, all through seamless integration with just one line of code. With market-setting load speed and contextual placements, MetaBet’s products will empower Gentoo to focus on what they do best.
WSN and Time2play are trusted platforms for sports betting and casino enthusiasts in the US and Canada. Between them, they have captured an audience of millions of sports fans on the back of expert reviews, exclusive offers, and accurate content. As Gentoo amplifies its presence in the US, MetaBet’s innovative technology will be a key element in their success.
MetaBet Founder, Mark Phillip, said: “Partnering with Gentoo Media, a data-driven company with a new name but long track record, is a testament to our market-leading status. Our technology, leveraged through their trusted platform will enhance engagement and conversions to accelerate Gentoo’s growth strategy within the US and beyond.”
Affiliate Industry
AGS Announces Expiration of Hart-Scott-Rodino Act Waiting Period for Acquisition by Affiliates of Brightstar Capital Partners

PlayAGS, Incorporated (NYSE: AGS) (“AGS” or the “Company”), a global gaming supplier of high-performing slot, table, and interactive products, today announced the expiration of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended (the “HSR Act”), in connection with the previously announced agreement for the Company to be acquired by affiliates of Brightstar Capital Partners (“Brightstar”) for $12.50 per share in cash (the “Proposed Transaction”).
The HSR Act waiting period expired at 11:59 p.m., Eastern Time, on December 9, 2024, satisfying an important condition necessary for the completion of the Proposed Transaction, which is expected to close in the second half of 2025, subject to other conditions and regulatory approvals.
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