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Emil Ekvardt
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February 11, 2021
Thomas Wolf from Online.Casino
In this article, we are interviewing Thomas Wolf – the editor-in-chief of Online.Casino. He shares what makes online.casino stand out from competitors and how they have grown in recent years. Moreover, Thomas discusses how the gambling industry will change in the upcoming years and provides an outlook of the industry.
How would you describe Online.Casino to someone who does not know what you are doing?
– Online.casino is an international casino comparison site that helps players make more educated choices when joining an online casino.
– The majority of our traffic comes from gamblers using Google to search for promotions, specific casino reviews or something else that’s casino related (and that we have an answer for).
– There are a few things we do, to try to differentiate us from the thousands of competitors in our niche:
- Our casino reviews are honest and written by real people who have a genuine love for casino gaming. However, just a small part of our reviews are written text about the casino. The biggest part is just data that we have collected from the operator. Also, we allow user reviews so players can share their gaming experiences with each other.
- The O.C rating (what we call our rating system on online.casino) is set by an algorithm that scores each individual element of the casino. These individual scores are later converted into the total O.C score, which is the one you see in the top lists on our site. This means that our ratings are not for sale, which is the case at many casino sites today. You can read more about us and the O.C score here.
- Our casino database holds tons of information about every aspect of the casinos we have listed on online.casino. If you check out any review on our site, you can easily find all the details you need and more. For example, we don’t just list casino bonuses and what wagering requirements they might have. We also include ALL terms & conditions in our reviews, so you don’t have to scroll through a mile long wall of text at the casino site before you start playing to find out if the casino has a max win or some other term that’s quite fishy.
- We take pride in delivering high-quality gambling industry news.
How did you end up in the casino industry?
–After spending many years working as a journalist for different magazines and newspapers I got a job offering through a friend who worked at Jackpotcity Casino. For Jackpotcity I did a lot of in-depth interviews with gambling industry people and articles that would later end up on the many platforms they control.
– Then in August 2019 I jumped ship and joined the guys at online.casino, where I’m now the editor-in-chief and oversee all the content of the website, and write the majority of news articles.
What made you want to start working for online.casino?
– I’ve felt for some time that there is a need for more data-driven comparison sites that are unbiased, so when I got the offer to join online.casino and assist in the creation of something brand new I had to take the chance.
– As with all start-ups there are massive risks to consider, but I felt the mission statement really echoed with my views and I have not regretted my decision yet.
What personality traits make you a skilled Editor-in-Chief? What have been your biggest challenges?
– I would say you need to be very structured and goal oriented to work in the gambling niche. Especially working in a start-up environment where you need to work long hours for a bunch of years before you can start to harvest the fruits from your hard labour.
– In some sense you need to see where you want to be in 2 years time, and then keep working towards that goal month by month, and this is something I’m very good at.
– Then of course when working for a start-up I guess you need to be able to learn new skills.
– For example, before joining online.casino I’d never dabbled with search engine optimization, which is something I really enjoy now and try to think about when writing content for the website.
– The biggest challenge for me has been dealing with employees, as I’ve never been in a management position before. However, after a while it gets easier and I feel pretty good about it now.
How have you changed as a person from running the business?
– If anything I think I’ve become a better planner, as I really need to maximize the time I have to work. I try to do the majority of important tasks in the morning, cause I know that in the afternoon there will always be people pulling my arm to assist on other things.
– Then when I get home I try to not work at all, and after 21:00 I turn on flight-mode on my mobile, as I would probably go nuts if I had the slack notifications running all night.
What are you most proud of?
– I’m really proud about the fact that we see lots and lots of direct traffic to online.casino, without doing much external PR at all. For me this is proof that we’re providing something that players are looking for, and are willing to come back for again and again.
Where do you want to be in 5 years?
– Personally I’d like to have achieved a few of the goals I have set for myself, including learning how to kite surf, spending more time with my family and been on a few trips to exotic destinations like Mexico and the Easter Islands.
– On a pure business level I’d like to see online.casino cemented as one of the main trusted casino sites out there, together with giants such as AskGamblers and CasinoMeister.
– I’d also want our site to have a good amount of registered players (a login feature is currently in the making) and an active casino complaints resolution center.
How do you think the online gambling industry will change in the coming years?
-I’m sure we will see a lot of changes in the coming years, but here’s my main predictions:
- More and more countries will regulate online gambling. Some will do a great job and some will over-regulate, creating a tough climate for operators to run their business. This will lead to many smaller casinos closing up shop.
- Due to harsh regulations, we will see more and more operators going down the Curacao or Costa Rica route.
- Pay N Play casinos are the future. As soon as the technology is ready in more markets than the nordics and some EU countries, this will be the standard for casinos moving forward.
- I don’t think VR-casino will ever be a thing. I could be wrong, but I don’t think so. It’s too complicated.
Personal and professional where can people find you online?
– To reach me you can either send an email to [email protected] or if you’d like to connect on a more personal level you can always reach me on my Linkedin page