Agree or Disagree? iGaming CEOs React to 2025’s Biggest Trends

The iGaming industry is full of strong opinions, especially when it comes to traffic, monetization models, AI, branding, and market strategy. But what happens when two industry leaders look at the same trends from different angles?

For this article, we asked Martins Lasmanis, CEO of Media24, and Jessica Millis, CEO of CasinoRIX, to react to five key statements shaping 2025. No scripts – just honest choices and the reasoning behind them.

Question 1: The Future of Traffic: Quality or Quantity?

Martins Lasmanis, CEO of Media24 chooses: 

Option 1: Focus on quality traffic: fewer leads, higher conversion, long-term partnerships. 

In iGaming, chasing traffic for the sake of volume is a trap. Sure, you see huge numbers on your dashboards, but with no real engagement this is nothing more than vanity metrics. We focus on quality traffic because that’s what our SEO strategy delivers. The numbers may be smaller, but the engagement and conversion are far higher. Long-term, this kind of traffic is what operators value most. That’s why we won the ‘Quality Traffic of The Year’ award from AffPapa in 2024. To summarize, we’d rather have fewer users who actually convert and stay than millions who leave after a click.

Jessica Millis, CEO at CasinoRIX chooses: 

Options 1 & 2: We prioritize high-quality traffic, but whenever there’s an opportunity to scale volume, we take it.

Of course, our main focus is generating high-quality traffic. This approach preserves a win-win model for both the operator and us as an affiliate. It’s impossible to build a stable business on large volumes of traffic with low LTV.

At the same time, we continuously monitor the market, because from time to time quick opportunities emerge that don’t require significant resource investment. For example, over the past year crash games have been trending. There’s a lot of traffic, and extracting it isn’t very difficult, but player quality is low. Still, operators are willing to take this traffic under lower partnership conditions.

Question 2: Traffic Monetization Models – Immediate Gains or Long-Term Growth?

Martins Lasmanis, CEO of Media24 chooses: 

Option 2: Long-Term Growth – Revenue Share (or Hybrid Model). Steady earnings over the years, offering long-term stability but carrying risks due to potential changes in market conditions.

Affiliate marketing is built on strong partnerships, and our experience has taught us that operators value affiliates who think long-term. That’s why we choose revenue share most of the time – it’s the fairest model for everyone involved. When operators earn, we earn too. Of course, this approach demands significant investment at the start. We ran at a loss for almost two years while building the volumes needed for sustainable growth. We invested in content, SEO, entering new markets, and experimenting. But after those early investments, we’ve built solid revenue streams and, even more importantly, credibility and strong relationships with our partners.

Jessica Millis, CEO at CasinoRIX chooses: 

Option 2: We operate with a long-term strategy.

Our strategic vision is built on RS or Hybrid models. We invest our resources knowing that our revenue will grow gradually but with a compounding effect. In the long run, this always leads to more stable and stronger financial results.

However, due to the specifics of our industry, we can “test” all new partners. One possible approach is to start a new cooperation on a CPA model for the first 2-3 months and evaluate conversion results and partner stability.

Question 3: AI in Marketing: Creative Partner or Creative Threat?

Martins Lasmanis, CEO of Media24 chooses: 

Option 1: AI is a tool: it enhances creativity and speeds up production.

These days, whether to use AI tools or not is no longer the question. The real question is how to implement them effectively into your workflow. One thing is clear – you can’t rely on AI, or any other technology, to replace expertise. For us, recent developments in AI have helped speed up operations, the hiring process, and repetitive tasks. We treat it as an assistant and run regular workshops so the team can use it as an extra pair of hands. Operational speed is one of our advantages, our superpower. And AI is a great tool to boost it even more. But the voice, tone, and creativity always come from our team.

Jessica Millis, CEO at CasinoRIX chooses: 

Option 1: AI today is not about creativity – it’s a super-assistant for routine tasks.

We actively use AI tools across all departments of the company. This helps us optimize many processes and significantly speed up the team’s workflow. AI has definitely become a technology that is irreplaceable in our work.

As for creativity, AI still has a long way to go. We constantly remind our specialists: don’t forget to use your own head 🙂

Question 4: The Real Battleground: Brand Awareness or Performance Marketing?

Martins Lasmanis, CEO of Media24 chooses: 

Option 1: Brand always comes first: awareness builds trust that converts later.

This is one of the hardest questions to answer with a single option. But if I had to choose, I’d go with the brand. Affiliate marketing has changed a lot over the past few years, especially in how we build products. Today, you have to think about delivering as much value to the player as possible. It’s not just about driving traffic. It’s about retaining it. Getting a new user can cost five times more than keeping an existing one, especially a user who might be interested in different operators and offers. And retention isn’t driven only by bonuses or promotions. It’s shaped by how the user feels about your product and your brand. Brand awareness builds trust, and trust converts. Performance marketing is important, of course, but brand is the foundation that sets you up for long-term growth.

Jessica Millis, CEO at CasinoRIX chooses: 

Options 1 & 2: We stand for diversification.

Building a brand is essential from the very first days of launching a company or project. It’s a long-term investment that brings solid results over the years. But this task requires a lot of time, so in parallel we take advantage of opportunities for faster results.

Our view is that diversification is always necessary – both in projects and in traffic channels we work with. This allows us to achieve quicker outcomes and navigate turbulent periods more steadily.

Question 5: The Affiliate Model: Diversify or Specialize?

Martins Lasmanis, CEO of Media24 chooses: 

Option 2: Specialize: niche focus builds deeper expertise and stronger reputation.

We believe in specialization because depth beats breadth. Our focus is sports betting, where we know the audience, the market, and the operators inside out. At the same time, when we started, our strategy was to plant seeds everywhere, entering every country with sports betting. Over time, we concentrated on the markets with the most potential, investing more in content, marketing, and local experts. This approach has allowed us to stay a niche expert while maintaining a presence in 70+ GEOs.

Jessica Millis, CEO at CasinoRIX chooses: 

Option 1: Diversification

We support a more flexible model and a deeper approach. You need to be specialized in a specific direction, but at the same time diversify the methods you work with. Continuing the previous point – we don’t put all our eggs in one basket. For a business to grow under different circumstances, it must have several distinct directions.

Afterword from CasinoRIX

This conversation shows one clear pattern: sustainable affiliate growth comes from discipline, not shortcuts. Both Martins and Jessica choose quality traffic, long-term monetization models, and structured use of AI as a support tool, not a replacement for expertise.

Brand, performance, specialization, diversification – they are not opposites but moving parts of one strategy. You build a brand for trust, use performance channels for speed, focus on what you know best, and still keep enough diversification to stay resilient. From our perspective at CasinoRIX, the affiliates who win are those who think in years, measure beyond vanity metrics, and choose partners who share that long-term view.