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Hazard.com Founder and CEO of the group Charles Gillespie began his entrepreneurial journey in the most appropriate way. With a big bet. Eighteen years later, Gillespie describes his decision as “almost beautifully stupid,” but it’s hard to disclaim that his gamble paid off.
Gambling.com Group is the world’s leading online gambling affiliate network, with a portfolio of over 50 media sites offering gambling content and fast connections to online casinos. Gillespie compares his business model to hotels.com in the sense that each services provide customers with the best local options to suit their needs, whether it’s a bed or a baccarat table. “Online gambling companies pay us to refer new customers to them,” explains Gillespie.
At its core, Gambling.com Group is a performance marketing company. It goals to drive what Gillespie calls “high-value traffic” to its customers. In the online gambling industry, high-value traffic means greater than just attracting high-stakes players; it also depends on customers who want to put a bet immediately.
“It’s about high intentions,” Gillespie says. “People are looking for things like the best sports book deals, the best online sportsbooks, and things that really show that the user wants to understand not only the options available, but what is best for their situation.”
Before Gillespie became the essential owner of the online gambling industry, he was its essential player. Growing up in North Carolina, the self-proclaimed “geek” spent his youth building web sites and eventually got here across people with a passion for online poker. Over time, Gillespie and his friends became quite good at this game; At one point, poker became his essential source of income for several years.
After establishing his first online gambling affiliate site in 2003, Gillespie decided to place all his strength into the industry. He began working at his company in 2006, leaving his Ruffin Hall dorm room at UNC à la Mark Zuckerberg, writing lines of code between classes. Unfortunately for him, the US government was less interested in the concept of legalized online gambling. In late 2006, Congress passed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which Gillespie blames for destroying the first opportunities of the domestic online gambling industry in the United States.
Despite the bad beat, Gillespie didn’t fold. Instead, he focused on realizing his dream. “We didn’t have a lot of money and we couldn’t do it in the U.S.,” Gillespie said. “So we decided to go to the next largest market in the world, full of people who love to gamble.” The 22-year-old postgraduate took the biggest bet he’s ever made by booking a one-way flight to China with just a few lines of computer code and a dream. Once he arrived, Gillespie hired 25 people to assist him and his co-founder create a million-page sports betting website.
“Starting our careers in China taught us how to learn quickly,” says Gillespie. “We cut our teeth in one of the most competitive business environments imaginable.” He recalls meeting a outstanding investor early in his stay in China, where the investor told him, “These people make American capitalists look like amateurs. They are infinitely more capitalistic and aggressive than any competition in the United States.” According to Gillespie, he was right. The unforgiving business environment taught the young CEO to narrow his focus. “If you chase too many rabbits at once, you won’t succeed. catch any of them,” he said.
After launching the company, Gillespie focused on the UK, the world’s largest properly regulated online gambling market. He moved away from sports betting in favor of online casino games. “We went all-in on the UK market and that’s when our fortunes started to change. We gained traction, started making significant money, and were given the opportunity to purchase the gambling.com domain name in 2011,” Gillespie said.
By then, Gillespie had given up attempting to determine tips on how to regulate online gambling in the US. He moved to greener and less congested pastures. So when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of online gambling in 2018, Gillespie was surprised. “We focused on the UK, Ireland and European markets,” Gillespie said. – That’s why we needed to turn the whole situation around. And they turned back, that is what they did. Moving away from seriously considering a European IPO, Gillespie pledged to bring his company back to the States, even if he had to attend a few years. Currently, the United States generates the majority of its $108 million in total revenue, which is $60 million. According to Gillespie, Gambling.com Group is the only U.S.-traded online gambling affiliate that was built fairly than bought. In retrospect, Gillespie believes that some of his early risks were naive and reckless. However, this risk taught him a helpful lesson that speaks to every entrepreneur: the best bet you possibly can make is on yourself.