PROFILE
Who’s who: Edward Ihre This month: Codeta’s Founder and Executive Chairman
How did you first get involved with the gaming industry? I actually got involved in the industry already in 2000-01 as I was working as the Nordic Sales Director for
Sportal.com. Sportals business model was advertising money, but the issue was that no company (offline nor online) had any funds for online advertising at the time. This forced us to find other less traditional advertising money and I found this in the Nordics by advertorials for the then newly started online sportsbooks such as Unibet and Expekt by placing their odds in the huge number of daily articles we wrote for various sports. Remember that at the time the legal landscape was very different so if you as a website would carry any online gambling ads on your website, you most likely would get a call from the national gambling commission the same afternoon, forcing you to take it down. This was a way around it as it was deemed editorial content. That is how I got in touch with the gaming industry the first time and I jumped the fence fully when I in 2003 became CEO of (then) online betting exchange;
Parbet.com
What are you responsible for in your current position? We have managed to build a great team from the top to bottom, so I have the privilege to (only) oversee that our strategy with Codeta is kept and overseeing our most important questions in terms of product and brand.
What have been the biggest industry changes you’ve seen in your time? UIGEA no doubt. The industry was on such a high at the time so we all thought it was unstoppable. All that changed overnight. I was at the time switching jobs to Affiliate Director at PokerStars having just left the same position at
PokerRoom.com, the latter who just six months earlier been bought for ¤450m, but with a US-player base of 90%. Needless to say, the two companies (which at the time were of similar size) coped with the changes quite differently.
Favourite…
Movie: Platoon Music: Depeche Mode Pastime: Golf Book: Pillars of the Earth Pizza topping: Artichoke
What attracted you to this sector? I was (and still am) a sports fanatic and the sector was then all about sports (betting) so it was a combination of interest as I was an enthusiastic (not good) punter myself. I also was attracted to the industry since it was a money-making industry in contrast to the online companies I had worked for previously and where one could instantly see performance and results of ones work the very next day so a sense of instant feedback (from customers and actual results) was also a big part of what attracted me.
What were you doing prior to the gaming industry? I had worked at everything from IMG (International Management Group) to IEC in Sports (TV-sports rights company) but also as a consultant for a company specializing in primarily digital (TV) consultancy.
What are the biggest positive factors for your sector right now? I would say mobile as it opens up so many new and different opportunities for products, interactions and marketing. I would also say that technology within marketing (online) has changed drastically over the last 1-2 years where one CAN be very innovative and accurate in terms of finding target groups at the right time. Note that I am not saying that is being fully used.
And what are the negatives ones – the obstacles to growth? Different national legislations. Pre-UIGEA, one could conduct business and marketing with a very .com-approach. Now with a very fragmented approach due to various legislations, one cannot gain the full economies of scale as there needs to be constant adaptations to local markets and in some cases the total ban of not being able to do business in some. I would also mention that due to the lack of
marketing innovation of our industry, I would believe that people are becoming tired and bored of seeing all various advertising generated/being pushed by our industry as it is extremely repetitive but in most cases, for a lack of a better word, silly.
Looking at your entire career, what do you think was your dumbest move? Two things: 1) Thinking that starting a poker site in early 2004, was too late. 2) Not having built or created affiliate sites despite working in the affiliate space since 2005!
DECEMBER 2016 57
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