Now that the AskGamblers Awards have entered the voting phase, we can say that this is going to be a tight race among so many great contestants! In other words, another thrilling season of the AskGamblers Awards is well underway with the situation being quite unpredictable.
Online gambling enthusiasts who are up-to-date with what’s been going on in the industry already know that the AskGamblers Awards virtual ceremony is scheduled to take place on June 17, 2021. And, we are also looking forward to hosting our annual charity event on the same day, only this time it will be organised online.
Prior to the main event, we will once again give our partners a chance to be part of the AskGamblers Charity event where we traditionally raise money in support of a good cause. It is worth mentioning that BitStarz Casino was one of our partners who contributed to the astonishing €66,900 that we managed to raise last year, all in order to support Serbian charity organisations.
Receiving multiple AskGamblers Awards only proves how hard BitStarz affiliate team has been working during previous years, all in order to ensure that all their affiliates have everything they need to be successful.
With BitStarz being in the race for the AskGamblers Award in the Best Casino category, and as they were among the top 3 bidders for the ROW (rest of the world) market in 2020, we decided it was time to talk to Srdjan Kapor, Head of Affiliation & Acquisition at BitStarz to find out what their expectations from the Awards are, and to see if they are ready to take part in our charity event on June 17.
Standing shoulder to shoulder with Gunsbet Casino and Betsson Casino, BitStarz Casino climbed to the top 3 places on our list for ROW markets and received package exposure on the AskGamblers website throughout June 2020. Now we’d like to know one thing – is BitStarz going to participate in the AskGamblers’ charity event this year as well?
Haha, great question! Well, we’re always happy to contribute to various charities and we really appreciate the fact that AskGamblers is generously auctioning out valuable positions where the proceeds go to a great cause. I’d say the chances are quite high of us participating again.
What does BitStarz do for charity?
It’s actually quite substantial. Besides money spent on various charitable projects by the company itself, BitStarz is also matching donations made by employees to philanthropic endeavours.
With that said, we’re not really the type of people who do any PR or marketing surrounding our charitable work. I’m not saying that people shouldn’t do that, because we prefer that to not doing any charity work at all.
But we’re firm believers that true charity is being good when you think nobody is looking and never expect anything else in return, and that’s why we never had the desire to try to make any PR in connection to any donations we make.
What is your opinion of our initiative, how do you like the concept, and to what extent do you think we are making an impact on the industry?
Anything that is charity related we’re strong proponents of and we think the concept is really good too. It’s a charity auction that is relevant to the industry itself, which makes perfect sense.
I think you’re making a positive impact on the industry in the sense that you’re promoting charity, but I think rather than thinking about making a positive impact on the industry, the focus should always be on making a positive impact on the people in need, which you are doing.
When it comes to AskGamblers Awards, BitStarz was chosen to be the Best Casino in 2017, then received the Players’ Choice award in 2018, with Srdjan nailing the Best Manager award for the year 2020. Now that you have already proved to be the best (more than once!) tell us – what does it take to stand out, maintain that reputation, and still be among the top iGaming brands?
Well first of all we have to say it’s a big honor to have won all these awards. We have the utmost respect for you guys, so all of these awards constitute major highlights in BitStarz history as far as we’re concerned.
I think a few things are important here. First of all, we never had the desire to grow exponentially, and thus have had the advantage of maintaining a close-knit start-up feel, both in terms of our service to our player but also in regards to company culture.
When you’re slowly scaling up, controlling every step of the way carefully, you have more focus on quality over quantity and that’s how we like to define ourselves. We’re not your Wal-Mart or McDonalds, we’re your neighborhood place where you have a more personal relationship with both players and staff. We never desired to be anything else than that.
Besides, it all starts with fantastic people and BitStarz is packed full of them. Our recruitment process is quite elaborate and we put equal emphasis on personality and knowledge/experience. It’s proven to be successful so far and we wouldn’t have gotten this far if it wasn’t for our team.
In the world of iGaming that’s constantly changing and evolving, you seem to be at the top of your game. Please share how hard is it to keep balance where you stick to your values, constantly strive to improve your service, and bring the best possible product?
This is a challenge that we all face, and you really have to be on top of all these constant changes in the industry. Our fundamental values as an operator will never change as it is what defines us as a company. I always believe that you should be flexible and be able to adapt, but your core values should be the foundation, and foundation doesn’t change.
As far as service and product I really think it has to do with hiring the right people. Support is something we take extremely seriously as it’s there you really can make a big difference as a casino. Normally this is seen as an entry position, but at BitStarz you need to be highly qualified to be able to get a position amongst the support heroes.
For the product it’s the same there, it’s all about the people. We have a diverse group of people with all kinds of backgrounds, from a lot of different countries and people with a lot of various experiences. Many of us come from major casino operators where it’s very hard to get your voice heard and your ideas to materialize.
At BitStarz, everyone’s opinion is valuable and if the idea is good, it’s good, regardless of who it came from.
What are your expectations from the AskGamblers Awards this year?
Well, we always hope to win something, but we’re not greedy. We’ve won a lot of your Awards as you guys pointed out, and we know that the competition is always fierce. We’re going to be over the moon if we win something but we’re not going to be disappointed if we don’t. All we can say is that we hope the best company in each category wins!
Thanks for the interview, Srdjan, we wish you the best of luck!