Brainz Magazine Exclusive Interview
Sebastian Erfurth, COO of Casino.online, has successfully been creating iGambling Projects for over a decade. Progressing from the basics of SEO to leading a strong, agile team, Sebastian´s positive attitude and tireless energy encourage others to work hard and succeed.
You’re an igaming veteran with big SEO experience, speaker at igaming conferences, and the COO of Casino.Online. How did you end up in the gaming industry and what has your journey been like until today?
For a long time, my only experience in the gaming industry was purely as a fan - I’ve been interested in gambling for as long as it’s been legal for me to gamble, after all. Professionally, I worked as an SEO specialist back when the position first started coming into prominence, and combining my expertise in Google optimization with my passion for gambling felt like a logical next step. I started out with my own company before being allowed the opportunity to work on Casino.Online.
Quite a few years have passed since then, and looking back, I’m happy to say that Casino.Online has become precisely the type of website my young, college-aged self would have loved to use. I think it’s precisely because I approached it first as a gambler and second as an SEO specialist that the site has gained such a large following and so much acclaim from users around the globe. While my journey to where I am now has not exactly been a straightforward one, it shaped not only me, but Casino.Online itself in many ways.
Can you tell us more about Casino.Online and what makes you stand out from other gaming services?
Our primary goal regarding Casino.Online is to make it a comprehensive and all-encompassing resource regarding all things online casino gaming. Back in my day, most casino sites were nothing more than exaggerated clickbait, and unfortunately, this trend has continued to this day. Sure, you need the big, eye-catching buttons and banners to attract users and maintain the business, but in addition to that you also need integrity and honesty. When every single casino reviewed on your site is described as the best ever with no downsides or cons, then none of them are, and we see that as a problem.
We’ve never lost sight of our true goal - not only are all of our reviews detailed and honest (we even specify explicitly when we don’t believe a casino is trustworthy), but we’ve got a plethora of resources, guides and articles to assist players in making their informed decision. We offer a bonus filter which can help you narrow down the casinos in order to find the bonus that meets your needs. We have detailed articles about individual games, payment methods, bonus types and more. Recently we’ve started expanding into even more ways to communicate with our audience, such as more languages and a blog with more casual “edutainment”-type articles.
There is a constant debate about online casinos and there are many who question the credibility of online casinos. How do you decide which casinos you want to work with?
It’s worth noting that many of the casinos we review are based on user feedback. We monitor not only our inbox, but also search engine trends for various new and rising operators. When we see a genuine interest in one, we review it - even if it’s only to tell our players to stay away from it.
With that said, we’d never brand a casino as being untrustworthy without thoroughly testing it for ourselves. We don’t believe anyone’s word, and we personally verify things such as the bonus offerings, payment options available, support features and responsiveness, etc - and we encourage readers to do the same. We’re very transparent in teaching our users how and where to verify a site’s licences, what to do when they’ve been scammed and more. The only ways to combat fraudulent online casinos is to be honest about them, and to teach players how to avoid falling into their traps.
What is the best thing about being a part of this industry?
The iGaming industry is one of the most competitive ones out there - new operators spring up pretty much every day, and with them come new affiliates looking to grab a piece of the pie. On top of that, the online casino industry usually wins players on a first come, first serve basis - most people don’t play at more than one casino, and whichever affiliate leads them to it wins. No second chances. It’s a brutal environment… And while it may not paint me in the best light, it’s the exact kind of environment that I thrive in.
I don’t like being complacent or bored, I need to be challenged in order to be truly productive. When you start doing the same thing over and over again, you lose that little spark of creativity which helped you succeed in the first place, and in an environment this competitive, a new affiliate will quickly grab your spot. So I always push myself, and the team, to keep innovating and growing. It’s very rare for us to have the exact same tasks two weeks in a row, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Have you encountered any major challenges during your journey and how have these affected you?
As I mentioned, challenges are pretty much the name of the game when you work in an industry as competitive as iGaming. Pressure from the competition is ever-mounting, making us constantly iterate on our content, rewrite our texts, rework our designs and alter/remove our elements in order to constantly serve the best possible user experience - even if the definition for it changes day to day.
But even if we were the only affiliate out there, our job would be far from easy. Google is changing their search algorithms literally all the time, and overnight we can find a page that ranked at 1 falling all the way to the second or third page, which is essentially a death sentence - so we need to investigate and figure out what caused this, then implement the necessary changes ASAP to restore our ranking. On top of that, many countries with few limits on gambling have recently started implementing restrictions - the German Glücksspielstaatsvertrag shook not only our site, but the industry in general, and provided a major challenge that we had to work extremely hard to solve.
What makes you feel ‘out of your comfort zone?’ How do you handle these types of situations?
Surprisingly, despite being the leader of my team and holding very regular internal meetings, I don’t consider myself a natural at speaking in front of a crowd. Some people can stand in front of a mic and talk for hours without a single note, but for me, even being coherent was a skill that I needed to learn and then practice a lot. And while I’ve gotten very good at it after years, I still feel a bit anxious when I need to speak at a conference, and do my best to prepare for it as much as possible.
I write and rewrite any talk I need to give over and over and over, and then practice it until I’m confident I can give it without faltering - and then I practice some more. Of course, there are things you can’t prepare for, such as questions that you may be asked from panelists and the audience. To prepare for that, I try my best to research the industry as a whole as much as possible, even outside of my niche, and when something grabs my eye, I take a note of it. Those notes have been instrumental in helping me prepare interesting answers, even when I don’t know the questions beforehand.
So, what’s the next big goal or project for Sebastian and how can someone get in contact with you?
Our goal is nothing short of ambitious - we seek to be the biggest affiliate brand, plain and simple. I’ve never been the type of person to just shrug and accept a “good enough” second or third place, and honestly, neither are most people in the team, so we’ve been working very hard towards that lofty aim. Our first target is Europe, and as we’re making great progress towards it, we’ve set our sights on Asia. Honestly, even after we secure the crown, we’re probably going to keep working just as hard in order to keep it. But that’s an issue for future Sebastian to think about.
As for getting into contact with me, my LinkedIn is public and is the best place to reach out - especially now with physical events slowing down once more. When the world stops being on fire, however, I make regular appearances at pretty much every major iGaming conference around the world, so it wouldn’t be hard to track me down for a chat at all.
For more info, follow Sebastian on LinkedIn, Instagram and visit Casino.Online!
