Interview with Anastasiia Poliakova – Head of Affiliates at Casumo

Anastasiia Poliakova, our Head of Affiliates was pleased to share her thoughts about the results for Casumo in 2022 in the interview for Gamblorium. We were happy to share our plans for the future, discussed which countries Casumo has offices in and if we have plans to expand.

Gamblorium: Hi Anastasiia! Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions! Your company was founded in Sweden, so we think the readers of Gamblorium will be interested to know about Casumo. But first, let’s talk about you. You have been working in the world of Gambling for a long time now. How did it all start? How did you get into the affiliate marketing industry? 

Anastasiia: Firstly, thank you for your interest in Casumo! 😊 It’s a pleasure to share more about who we are, our values and of course, our plans! 

Another year at LAC 2023 has just been and gone and for me personally, I’m starting to feel like an old-timer! 

I’ve met so many amazing professionals during the last five years, many of whom have turned into good friends. This is what makes me look forward to all the upcoming networking events! 

But it all started in 2017, when I was searching for a job in my home country, Ukraine. Even though I was fairly confident with English, being an English language teacher didn’t feel like something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I was searching for something versatile, something that would include a lot of socialising, as well as challenging me. 

And that’s when I started to work for one of the affiliate networks, providing traffic for multiple verticals including iGaming. In 2018 I attended LAC (it’s mad to think five years have passed since then!), where I got to experience the world of online casino up close for the first time. I remember the people I met seemed very busy and very passionate about what they were doing.

I met a lot of Affiliate Managers, who were all really positive about their work; the role felt exactly like what I was looking for: developing and improving the brand, a lot of communication and a lot of travelling – my cup of tea! Also, I knew very little about the inside of a casino, but for me that was exciting and an opportunity to learn.

Fast forward to today and I’ve been with Casumo for two years, following my first job offer with a smaller casino brand which led to my move from the Ukraine to Malta in 2018. I moved across three casino brands before arriving at Casumo where I now manage a team of five amazing humans! I’m 100% confident that changing jobs and relocating was the best decision I ever made 😊 

Gamblorium: 2022 is over. What was it like for Casumo?

Anastasiia: I am searching for the right word here… and the one which comes to my mind is, dynamic!

Being an established brand has a lot of advantages and we know from quantitative research that players love our brand! But that doesn’t mean we can stand still; we need to be innovative and keep developing our product, processes and have a growth mindset in everything that we do!  The player’s experience is at the core of the business: easy KYC processes, interactive website on both mobile and desktop, and the best Customer Service, which by the way, we know we have because we recently won an award for it! We are so proud of that!  We have a lot of exiting news for both players and partners in 2023. Sweden will be the first market with some great developments from Casumo – watch this space!

Gamblorium: Let’s talk about your brand, Casumo was founded in Sweden in 2012, right?

Anastasiia: Sweden has always been a special market for us. We are a Swedish brand, our founders are Swedish, we even have Swedish Fika at our Malta HQ!

But Casumo is mostly known for its innovative and customer focussed approach. Our goal has always been to design, improve and re-invent the future of online gaming. 

We now hold licences in Malta, the UK, Ireland, Sweden, and more recently we obtained our Ontario licence.

Gamblorium: What types of games do Swedish players prefer most at Casumo? Is it fair to say that they like slots most of all? Could you list the top 5 most popular slots among Swedes in 2022 on your site? 

Anastasiia: Yes, I’d agree that Swedish players prefer slots. Push Gaming and Play’n’go will definitely be among the top performing ones for us in Sweden.  

Gamblorium: Last year, Casumo celebrated its 10th anniversary. We wish you further success and prosperity! It’s great that your company teamed up with Pragmatic Play to release your own game Casumo Bonanza to mark the anniversary. Based on its design, this game reminded me of the slot Sweet Bonanza. Please tell me more about your game. What are the differences in features in comparison with Sweet Bonanza? 

Anastasiia: Thank you! We had a great party in Malta to celebrate 10 years! Personally, I love Casumo Bonanza! It’s very ‘Casumo’ there’s no chance of our players forgetting where he/she is playing this game. It’s got some great features and the graphics are brilliant.

Gamblorium: At the moment, your company has three offices: in Malta, Macedonia, and Gibraltar. Also, looking at the company’s LinkedIn page, it is clear that many of your employees are working from Poland and Spain. Do you have some sort of segmentation in your company by departments? For example, affiliate managers work in the Malta office, support representatives work in Macedonia, developers work in Poland, and so on. How big is Casumo’s team? Do you plan to expand in the near future? How is it possible to get a job at Casumo? 

Anastasiia: We have just under 250 employees at Casumo. Most of us are based in Malta. We have an amazing office, which looks like a huge jellybean from the inside! A lot of colours, fun breakout areas for socialising, and lots of office parties; we work hard and play hard. It’s always buzzing! 

We also have offices in Macedonia and Gibraltar. The office in Macedonia is brand new. I haven’t been there yet, but my colleagues tell me the place is stunning! My team, together with most of the marketing ‘Sumos are based in Malta, which we love as we like to be in the office together as we have so much fun and create a great vibe! 

We’re always on the lookout for new awesome people to join our ‘sumo family! Our positions are updated here , so you can check if anything looks like the right match for you and our Talent Acquisition Team will be happy to provide you with all the details. 

Gamblorium: Your Malta address is the same as that of Burstit Limited, which operates other Swedish-licensed brands, Dunder and Kazoom Casino. However, those brands and Casumo have separate Swedish gaming licenses. What do you have in common right now? What unites you apart from working under the same roof? 

Anastasiia: We’re the same Group. The same Marketing, Creative, CRM teams. Dunder only has its own team when it comes to Product; alongside Kazoom they are both on a separate GIG platform. If you’d like to discuss any one of those two brands, feel free to reach out to me! 😊 

Gamblorium: Anastasiia, thank you very much for the interview. It was fascinating. I can’t wait to share this information with our readers. I also know that you are from Ukraine and actively supporting your country in this difficult time. That’s why I want to say “Glory to Ukraine!”. 

Anastasiia: There is no place like home. Unfortunately, we learnt that the hard way in 2022. The country has the most beautiful people, places and culture. I can’t wait to be able to go home and will be forever grateful to all the brave men and women defending my homeland. Glory to the Heroes!

Interview originally published on Gamblorium.com.