Jarkko Juusola, CEO of NSB Media Ltd, joins the latest series of affiliate interviews on Affiliate Grand Slam

Jarkko Juusola, CEO of NSB Media Ltd, says that they rely on Google organic traffic and that their aim is to be as high as possible with several different major keywords in the markets they are operating; they are currently targeting the Finnish market with SEO websites – follow his story below.

How did NSB Media Ltd take off? Is iGaming your only vertical?

NSB Media was founded in 2021 and the first website was launched in January. At the moment, iGaming is our only vertical but who knows about the future.

Tell us a bit more about your business model, concept, and culture.

Currently, we have SEO websites for Finnish markets but we are planning to open some new markets at the end of 2021 / early 2022. Since we rely on Google organic traffic, our aim is to be as high as possible with several different major keywords in the markets we are operating.

What sets you apart from other affiliates? What incremental value do your provide?

The competition in the iGaming affiliate business is really high. Therefore, the hardest working companies will have the best results.

Hiring new people is probably the only way you can scale-up your business so that is a key factor for any iGaming affiliates. We want to be the best place to work for any iGaming professional.

What does it take for an affiliate business to thrive?

Affiliate marketing, especially in the iGaming industry, is really interesting because you can see the results growing fast. You never really know what to expect from the next day or next month. This really thrives us forward.

How important is social media activity for your affiliate business? How difficult is it with Google’s constant updates?

Currently, social media is not a big part of our business. The customers in the affiliate business are looking for casinos and rarely are “fans” of the affiliate brands. This is at least the case for majority of the SEO websites. Streamers, however, have lots of fans and social media followers.

Being an SEO site is obviously hard due to constant updates from Google, but on the other hand that is why it makes this business so unique. If you don’t constantly study it, you will lose positions.

Google is constantly updating its algorithms. From Panda updates to Penguin updates. Put yourself in Google’s shoes – what can we expect in its next update?

At the end of the day, Google wants the best websites to be in top. They are not doing new algorithm updates for fun. They just want the best websites for users to be at the top or otherwise people wont use Google in the future.

Is there such a thing as iGaming SEO Specialists? Why is SEO important for gaming and how long does it take to see results from SEO?

Google has exactly the same algorithms for every industry and there are most certainly SEO specialists. SEO is really important for gaming, especially if you are running SEO sites. For instance, close to 100% of our customers come from Google. To see the results in SEO really depends how hard the competition is and how good you are at it. There are no shortcuts so it can take up to 1-2 years to get massive results.

The Finnish government has submitted proposals to Parliament, 23 September 2021, regarding the reform of the country’s Lottery Act, which is responsible for the regulation of the gaming market. What can you tell us about it?

It is hard to analyse before we get some more information how the new laws will be applied in practice. At best, it does not have too much affect on the affiliates but in the worst case scenario, it can really hurt a lot of companies. Also, I don’t see how the new regulations would serve the people.

How do you see the future of iGaming in Finland?

In the long-term, I do not believe in closed markets. At some point I believe there will be a licensed market the same Sweden has done it. However, it is hard to tell the timeline.

Have you ever been to SiGMA? SiGMA Europe, Africa, Asia, or Americas – which of these four expo shows did you attend in 2021?

This was my first ever SiGMA!

Read more about SiGMA Affiliate Grand Slam here.

SiGMA Asia 2022

After the exciting set of conferences that was Malta Week 2021, the SiGMA Group plans to take the world by storm with the golden steeples of Kiev and the snowy city of Toronto being hubs to draw the best and brightest of the iGaming world together. Our next expo takes us to cutting-edge metropoli of the United Arab Emirates for three days of networking, panel discussions and festivities. Stay up to date with the latest and greatest through SiGMA News.