Thanks for joining us, Martyn. I know you started off in journalism, what made you pivot away from that to the iGaming sector?
Yes, so I studied journalism at Southampton Solent University, and I specialised in magazine journalism. I left early and then got offered a job at the local newspaper, so I quit my studies, started as a reporter chasing after stories on the streets of Southampton. They put me through my sort of official qualifications, so I got my NCTJ accreditation through the newspaper, did that for a couple of years and then moved to London and worked on the PR side of things for a couple of years.
Moving into content marketing and PR when I founded Ghostfoundry in 2017 allowed me to see the "other side" of the coin. I realised that, while the industry was evolving, the affiliate/comparison space was still stuck in an old, biased way of doing things.
Before Comparasino, my wife and I had another website we ran together. We launched a successful comparison site, sold it, and used those proceeds to build Comparasino. It wasn't a pivot away from journalism so much as an evolution – using those same principles of objective information and "giving the reader the facts" to build a better tech product.
And how do you feel about the promotional side of it? As a former journalist and in terms of your current advertising partnership with ITVX now?
As a former journalist, I’m sensitive to the advertising vs. editorial line. That’s exactly why the Comparasino Recommendation Engine doesn't influence matches based on commercial deals. We’ve kept the journalistic "separation of church and state" within our tech.
ITVX is a milestone for us. It allows us to speak to a national audience about safer, data-driven ways to play. We aren't just "promoting casinos," we’re promoting a smarter way to find them, which feels like a natural extension of the public service role I enjoyed in journalism.
I think affiliates are still heavily reliant on SEO and there are few companies that are moving away from that. Some have, some are looking at paid media, but we approached it like we're building a brand, and we knew that TV would be a big part of that. We had little experience in it, so it's been a learning process, being patient and waiting for the right time to do it. TV's not cheap, we've had to use SEO to build a foundation and to see it finally go live and happen in real time was a big moment for us.
Were you always aiming for ITVX or were there other channels you were looking at?
Channel 4 was originally the platform we were looking to partner with. At the time they just had better programming, and we spoke to them years ago but had to pause it while we helped manage the business. ITVX was a deliberate goal because the vetting process is so rigorous. To get on air, you must prove your compliance credentials.
We wanted a channel that reflected our status as a UK-focused brand. While SEO and PPC are table stakes, TV provides a level of trust and brand authority that digital-only channels can’t match. It’s about being where the average player is, not just where the searcher is.
ITVX is a milestone for us. It allows us to speak to a national audience about safer, data-driven ways to play
But since then, ITVX has come forward as the platform of choice for streaming. They have great programming; they worked very closely with us as first-time advertisers to onboard us and explain the whole process. So, it came together with the right platform at the right time – they were terrific to work with and understood how new we were.
Do you think that might be a reason why a lot of legal operators are not doing as much brand awareness and advertising?
I think for the black market, SEO is very much their playground. Illegal affiliates have discovered how to stay one step ahead of tech giants like Google. Those black-market sites, whether they're affiliates or operators, they can't do what we're doing.
They can't go to ITV and say they want to run a TV ad because they wouldn't pass ITV's vetting; they wouldn't pass Clear cast which has to certify all the adverts that get made – they just wouldn't get it through. Although it's a heavy investment from our side, we still see it as an advantage that we're able to do it in the first place. They’re stuck with search and limited to that, they could get some social and digital marketing but even with that, that's getting clamped down even harder now. So, it's only a matter of time before you start to see them.
The UK market is incredibly competitive and expensive. Many legal operators have moved toward a retention first model because the cost of acquisition (CPA) is so high.
And what do you think companies like yourself can do to combat these illegal affiliates?
Our approach is to play a different game. The big challenge with SEO currently is that you can be doing everything right, you can have a well-built website, the content can be flawless, but Google might never rank your pages. We hope that ultimately Google understands that we're a trusted entity and then ranks us, this isn’t guaranteed but helps by moving away from Google and building a brand using TV advertisements. If we advertise well and on the right platforms, to the right people, we're going to build a flow of traffic to the website that's not just reliant on search results and it protects us from the dominance that were seeing in these black-market sites.
The best way to beat illegal affiliates is to provide a better, safer experience. Illegal affiliates win when the legal market feels boring or restrictive. We use our platform to explain the risk of playing at unlicensed sites. By strictly only working with UKGC-licensed brands, we act as a firewall. If we can capture the player’s intent first and guide them to a licensed match through our engine, the illegal affiliates lose their lead. It’s impossible for unlicensed operators and affiliates to undertake big branding activity like our ITVX ad campaign as they can’t pass the vetting process. So, we can use this to reach players in ways unlicensed operators and affiliates can’t.
The best way to beat illegal affiliates is to provide a better, safer experience. Illegal affiliates win when the legal market feels boring or restrictive
Are you looking to expand outside of the UK or set up in another country?
We are 100% focused on the UK and I think it's a mistake I've seen others make over the years: they start in a market, they do well in that market and then think, 'oh we'll just replicate that in three other different jurisdictions' and triple the size of the business in a couple of years. It's so competitive and it's difficult, you have to be focused on your vertical – are you casino or are you sports, and then you have to focus on a specific market.
The UK is the most sophisticated market in the world and there is still so much to do here. Our current focus is scaling the ITVX campaign and refining our Recommendation Engine. That said, our tech is built to be market agnostic. We have a blueprint for how a data-driven, licensed-only comparison site should work. If we do expand, it will only be into markets with a robust regulatory framework that matches our GC-standard ethos. But that’s not on the agenda right now.
The 40% remote gaming duty that's come into force from April is a real challenge for operators, and affiliates. We've had to spend a lot of time working with our partners, renegotiating commercial deals, understanding how they're going to adapt to the changes, what it means for their business, what it means for the proposition they're going to be offering to players, but we're comfortable that they will adapt. Casino players, their demand hasn't changed because of the tax. There's plenty of players out there that are looking for new sites to play at, and they want a good experience.
And just to finish, how responsible are corporations like Meta and Google. How can they do more in response to this issue?
You can always be doing more can't you? I mean, yes, it is frustrating from our side when you see stuff ranking in top positions when it shouldn't be there, but I would imagine it's in their best interest to fix this issue. It’s a common misconception that there are no rules. Google and Meta have very strict certification requirements where you must prove you hold a UK licence, or, if an affiliate, secure approval before you can run an ad. The issue isn't the policy; it’s the sophistication of the bypass.
As someone who has been in the industry a long time, I can see that it’s much harder for these platforms than it looks from the outside. Illegal operators use cloaking – where the Google bot sees a harmless-looking blog, but a UK user sees an unlicensed casino. They use mirror sites and evolving code-words to slip past automated filters. These companies are managing billions of ads. Even with their AI, illegal affiliates are agile – they pop up, burn an account and move to a new domain in hours. It’s a constant game of whack-a-mole.
I mean Google is allowed to put websites wherever it wants to. Yes, I can write interesting content but it's ultimately up to them where it wants to position its pages. If I want to take control of getting traffic to my website, I must do that through channels that allow me to have more control and that's why we're focusing on branding now. Google can't take my brand away from me and nor can it take away people that are searching for my brand.