Laurent Malka is one of the first people I met in the online gambling industry, our initial meeting was at GiGse 2005 to be exact. He’s one of the best digital marketers in our space, a widely respected expert in affiliate management and someone who understands iGaming better than most. Malka’s experience in iGaming spans from his time at The Nation Traffic and Euro Partners followed by the launch of his own company, Wingate Ventures, amongst other projects including operating several online casinos.
It wasn’t until l saw his post in the Stephanie Wynters Mastermind Group on Facebook that I realized Malka had started a new project to better the lives of anyone generating or buying traffic. I wanted to learn more about Malka’s latest venture, TrackingDesk, especially because I can relate to tracking headaches as an affiliate due to my time at Casino City. The timing is also appropriate, seeing as the LAC is around the corner and affiliates are ready to step things up for 2015.
We all know its not as easy to make a buck in today’s iGaming market as it was 10 years ago, so making the most of your traffic is essential. Affiliates can absolutely squeeze more revenue out of their existing campaigns with better tracking and less time spent on the arduous task of data management – whether TrackingDesk is the answer to all your problems or you just need a nudge to step up your tracking, hopefully you’ll learn something from my interview with Malka.
Thank you for joining me and sharing your knowledge, Laurent. Lets start with the background on this project- how & why did you decide to create TrackingDesk?
After the casinos were sold in august 2013, we found ourselves with many large traffic sources. We had the possibility to either refer them to some friends or monetize their traffic. Several millions hits per day, from over 30 countries required a complete turnaround in the way we were operating until then. Pushing a brand over which you have complete technical control is a serious challenge, but pushing 20 brands over which you have very little technical control is a very different game. So when you find yourself with 20 brands to promote, over 30 countries and each brand has at least 5 different landing page per country, you quickly find yourself drowning under data. No matter how you try to handle this, unless you have a system in place that enables you to manage this traffic in a simple and agile manner, that reports in a granular way results and performances, there is NO WAY you can have a positive ROI.
So my team and I started hunting for platform that could get us to the right position. Unfortunately (and fortunately), we didn’t find anything that would match our requirements. So we were left with the only option to integrate various systems together. From analytic platforms, tracking software, landing page management, geo targeting databases to reporting software. Eventually, we manage to connect everything together and we started operating.
I took a step back and I started breaking down the features and matching them with various type of users – Affiliates, Media Buyers, Agencies, Enterprises. Eventually, I realized that there was a serious gap in the market. Large corporations and enterprises had access to heavy (and expensive) platforms, while small agencies and affiliates were left with basic tools. So I made up my mind, gathered a team and started designing TrackingDesk.