How super affiliates are sharpening their recruitment strategies

Words by Scott Longley

It is a measure of the distance that many of the bigger affiliate businesses have travelled in recent years that recruitment should even have become an issue. Helped along by a tidal wave of M&A, the affiliate sector has evolved to the point where some of the bigger super-affiliates now employ hundreds of online marketing experts running thousands upon thousands of websites.

Led by the hyper-acquisitive Catena Media, companies such as Raketech, Better Collective and Gambling.com Group have moved far away from the one-man-band model of the affiliate industry’s distant past. The affiliate sector has consolidated into a much more professional beast and the term HR has entered into its lexicon.

“Hiring two-to-three people for a small affiliate business is one thing; hiring 20-30 or 200-300 people is completely different,” says Charles Gillespie, founder and chief executive at Gambling.com Group. “When we opened our office in Dublin the first thing we did was hire a senior HR person to lead the recruitment. Getting in talented HR personnel and equipping them with what they need is essential for effective growth.”

One such example of the HR talent within affiliates these days is Camilla Wissing Bille, vice-president of HR at Better Collective, and in her view developments within the sector have led to a more professional work environment. This clearly has an impact on its recruitment processes.
“Our recruitment operations have grown to be much more organised since we started almost 15 years ago, and the talent we are able to obtain through it are reflecting the same professional standards,” she says.

What typifies a super affiliate isn’t just scale; it’s a cultural change and that will affect how a business goes about finding the talent to continue to grow and also the type of person recruited. Even if, as Wissing Bille says in the case of Better Collective, this is about maintaining the formula which has worked to make the business a success in the past, it still provides an HR challenge. “The cultural fit is a large factor in our preliminary recruitment processes,” she says. “Additionally, a strong onboarding process assures us that all of our employees are continuously aligned with the Better Collective values and ideals.”

“Hiring two-to-three people for a small affiliate business is one thing; hiring 20-30 or 200-300 people is completely different” – Charles Gillespie, Gambling.com Group

Still, the skill set needed by an augmented affiliate business will develop and evolve, says Michael Cleavely, director at Triple Seven betting and gaming recruitment specialists. “As companies grow, the business will lean to those more experienced in larger environments, with a certain level of politics (especially immediately post-consolidation), and infrastructure management needing the right navigation,” he says.

“Experience in business mergers and acquisitions is of great benefit, so someone who has been through that process via an exit or an entry will add value. We know there are plenty of people with that experience within big operators with the sector knowledge to boot.”

Stepping on toes

Inevitably, as an affiliate grows the recruitment process will begin to encroach upon the territory of its clients, particularly in certain business areas. This is mainly in marketing and technology.

“It is much more heavily-weighted towards SEO and Web Dev than your average operator, so the requirements are generally not as diverse,” says Chris Miller, managing director at BettingJobs. “There are less legal and compliance teams in these companies than for operators or suppliers, as another example, and you don’t get teams such as trading or risk management. The teams generally are a bit smaller.”

But the consolidation trend with the sector cuts both ways as far as the flow of talent between goes. “The movements at the operator level are actually much more beneficial for us,” says Jon Squires, chief executive at iBus Media. “Several of our key accounts have merged, meaning that good people have chosen to look around. We’ve taken on a few mid-level specialists from well-known brands.”

Camilla Wissing Bille, vice-president of HR at Better Collective

The state of flux created by the wave of M&A has resulted in a very fluid recruitment landscape, says Miller. “The model is very hot at the moment after what felt like a few years when it was in decline,” he says. “There are lots of companies investing in that side of the space, whether it be affiliate businesses being created for the purposes of developing to be acquired, but operators are also getting involved heavily, with many launching a new vertical within their company to focus on this area.”

Nowhere is the competition for talent between affiliates and operators fiercer than in Malta with Catena Media, Raketech, Gaming Innovation Group’s Innovation Labs and many other affiliate organisations based on the island.

“We are based in Malta and the market for talented staff is competitive, which means relocation and remote working are vital for recruitment,” says Scott Collins, corporate responsibility manager at Raketech.

As he points out, Malta is the online gambling hub of Europe but with few employees being native to the island, it means these businesses are mostly recruiting from elsewhere. “We have a lot of staff who relocate to Malta from all over the world and our experienced HR team know how to make this huge life change as smooth as possible,” says Collins.

But not everyone is convinced that fighting over limited resources in a relatively small location is best for their business.

“Once you reach about 15-20 people, you can stop hiring the generalists and start hiring specialists” – Charles Gillespie, Gambling.com Group

“The affiliates trying to hire in Malta are really struggling,” says Charles Gillespie, chief executive of Gambling.com Group which itself is based in Dublin. “Everybody who lives in Malta and wants to work for a gaming company already works for a gaming company. There is wage inflation due to a lack of talent. It is a real struggle for them and you see them taking out these massive advertisements in the airport and around Sliema to persuade more people to apply.”

He says Gambling.com took a strategic decision back in 2015 to invest in Ireland and the firm now has its largest office there. “We have just leased office space for 83 people and do not expect to struggle to fill it up. There are loads of young graduates in Dublin eager to work and salaries are reasonable.”

Cultural fits

As befits the digital nature of the affiliate world, the importance of company culture gets a lot of mentions from participants. At Oddschecker, for instance, head of recruitment Claire Wheeler says the focus is on hiring the right people both technically and culturally. “As we get closer to 100 people, it is key for us to maintain our positive culture and shared sense of focus and ambition, which is central to our recruitment,” she says.

The sentiment is echoed by Wissing Bille at Better Collective. “For us it’s not so much about forging a culture, it’s about maintaining it,” she says. “Better Collective has always had a dynamic and social culture, which has helped us reach our achievements. This is why cultural fit is a large factor in our preliminary recruitment processes.

Scott Collins, corporate responsibility manager at Raketech

She adds that a strong onboarding process assures that all of the company’s employees are continuously aligned with its values and ideals. “Since our industry is moving very fast, our new recruits must already thrive in dynamic workplaces. As a result, the so-called honeymoon phase for new employees is short-lived, and they quickly acclimate themselves to our deeply engrained work culture.”

A lot of this is about managing the challenge of scaling up a business. “Corporate culture has to change as an organisation grows,” says Gillespie. “That said, the stronger the culture is the easier it is for new people to see how things are done and fit in. We do not actively cultivate a specific corporate culture but Kevin [McCrystle, chief operating officer] and I do lead the business with a certain set of core values in mind.”

He adds that when adding scale to the business, it is often about adding specialised roles. “In the beginning, as a start up, the entrepreneur would have to do every job in the company,” he says. “This is just how it works when you are small. You don’t have the luxury of being able to specialize.

“Once you reach about 15-20 people you can stop hiring the generalists and start hiring specialists. This is basic economics and results in a massive productivity increase. But for it to work you have to have enough work for each of the specialists.”

At the same time, the hope if the company won’t lose the entrepreneurial spark for which the affiliate sector is particularly renowned. “I think entrepreneurial flair can bring great energy to a growing affiliate business and see opportunities that larger companies may miss,” says Cleavely at Triple Seven. “Growing companies should aspire to utilise their attractive nature to these types of individuals and grab the best – it’s essential to grab market share.”

Adding new people to the mix brings with it both opportunities and challenges. Says Cleavely: “Many businesses will experience churn and the loss of good people during times of such change despite great effort. Those once faithful can start to lose touch with management as the business grows if they don’t feel that their earlier and ongoing contributions are recognised as they were before. New people will naturally add a new dynamic and cultural edge and want to make an impact, especially at senior level.”

Brand positioning

Largely as a result of the rise of the tech giants, ‘employer branding’ is a phrase that gets bandied about as companies look to ape the facilities provided by tech giants such as Facebook and Google. The focus on campuses, for instance, is all about forging environments that don’t conform to standard notions of the workplace environment.

“New graduates want to feel as comfortable in the office as they do at home,” says Squires from iBus. “All social media are channels to get this message out, to help the potential candidates imagine themselves in our company.”

“First contact is also highly important, and we’ve got a smart HR team who’ve hired some fantastic people. The job descriptions need to be very accurate, and the starters are onboarded well and we check in with them to make sure that their jobs match the position they applied for. Our most loyal new starters are always personal recommendations from our existing team members, and this is a safer and cheaper route than agencies.”

Collins says Raketech follows a similar process. “We like to encourage our employees to recommend friends, family and contacts for open roles and this generally works well for both parties,” he says. “As an employer already knows the person has a good idea of the company from someone they trust and we trust our employees to recommend someone who fits well with our culture.”

LinkedIn has, of course, become the number one recruitment tool across many sectors and the world of affiliates is no different. “For us, tools such as LinkedIn are invaluable as it allows us to tell the market about us, but also identify talent that we feel could add value to our business and reach their own true potential,” says Wheeler at Oddschecker. “We are increasingly choosing to use tools such as hired.com and the creation of our company video has been central in telling people more about us.”

This is particularly important when it comes to translating the business for those coming from outside the gaming sector. Wheeler says it is about diversity. “We also find that experience from other industries is extremely beneficial,” she says. “For us, the more diverse our workforce can be, the better our products are so we’re keen to consider applicants from all types of backgrounds.”

A similar approach has been adopted by Better Collective. “It really depends on the roles we are looking to fill,’ says Wissing Bille. “For some, it makes a lot of sense to recruit people from within the industry. However, as the industry matures and requires new operational arms, it can be a strength to recruit from outside of the industry and gain new perspectives from other, already mature, markets.”

Gillespie at Gambling.com agrees, saying that the company only looks for specific gaming experience in roles such as SEO and account managers. “Everyone else can just learn on the job.” That is arguably a fair description for how the affiliate sector as a whole is learning how to manage the tricky transition from small concerns to multi-national businesses. How it develops from here will be down to the quality of people it employs.