Affiliate Interview Series - Nedyalko P.

**GPWA Daniel** · 3 November 2021, 9:43 am

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(This interview was originally published in the August 2021 issue of the GPWA Times Magazine.)

On your GPWA profile page you list your occupation as “professional bettor and punter.” How long has your main source of income been from gambling?

It has been my main source of income for the last five years. I am betting mostly on non-popular markets or players' specials. I have to mention also outrights. My favorite markets for football are over/under lines, corners and Asian handicaps. For basketball, it’s pretty much the same. Also, I want to give advice for starting bettors. Be careful with the main markets of a game, like money lines or double chances. Value is deep “down under.” The devil is in the details.

You have also been an iGaming affiliate for nearly 15 years. Please tell us how you got started as an affiliate. Do you consider yourself a part-time affiliate and full-time professional gambler?

I started back in 2015 with my first site toppix12fix.com. I had a deep knowledge of all the processes in any casino or sportsbook and wanted to test and see how it was delivered to players of any given bookie. The first six months were pretty hard as I did not have enough knowledge, but I started to read a lot of forums and asked friends of mine how and what to improve. I am keen in football, tennis and American sports. On a daily basis, I have written a lot of articles, it has been pretty interesting to me.

I am definitely a part-time affiliate and full-time professional gambler. When I watch any single game, I am having it in my mind looking through it and imaging it as: figures, odds, markets, volumes, exposures and income. Income for the bookie, for the affiliate and for the gambler. To be a good gambler means to know where is the value in any given moment of a pre-match or live event, no matter of the sport.

How did you get your start in gambling? What other jobs have you held in your life that did not involve gambling?

I started as a joke, sent my CV to a company who had office in Bulgaria, called titanpoker.com, and got invited to an interview. My first position in the industry was customer support for poker with English language. It was back in 2008. My previous jobs were in the tourism sector. I was working on the reception desk on several 4-Star hotels in my birth city, Sofia.

How much has being an avid gambler helped you as an iGaming affiliate and why?

Being hungry and cautious, brought me enough knowledge to know where and how to hunt for profit as gambler and commissions as an affiliate. I have been working many years as a sports trader and I know the mentality of all well-known groups like: high rollers, stake (bonus) hunters, value bettors, robot betting guys and the guys who we call them in the industry “markers” – because they mark all the mistakes on pre-match and live game. I must also not forget to mention the bettors who place stakes on fixed games.

The industry has changed dramatically since you started. How have you managed to survive this long?

Reading and getting knowledge from different sources. I am always open to know and learn more, how to be a better punter and smarter affiliate. Also, first thing in the morning, I open the gpwa.org forum to see the new trends, which programs have closed and which are delayed with payments.

Speaking of our forums, since joining the GPWA in 2017, you have been very active and always willing to offer your advice and expertise. Tell us why you are so generous with your comments and how the being part of the GPWA community has helped you and your business.

The first and most important reason is to help people. I know how hard it was for me back in the days, even when I started betting and gambling in betting shops in Bulgaria. The right info can save you troubles, money and make you more focused on the other things you do or you are devoted to.

When it comes to payments, I am getting really mad. There are a lot of decent people in the industry, whom affiliate programs do not trust or just take their traffic and players and stop paying them at some point. Like for example, last year there was a massive problem with Skrill, when coming to withdrawals to BG Bank accounts. There was a thread, I have created in order to prevent people to lose money and nerves like I did.

Being part of the community helped me to be more accurate. When I need advice or just to see useful information, I follow several members who have more experience than I do. The forum is not about taking, but giving and sharing your knowledge and experience. Gpwa.org helped me to grow my business in several ways. I bought and created the site nedbets.com, have learned a lot about SEO, backlinks and crypto culture as a whole.

My business has grown bigger because I know now more and more people, who are keen and full of enthusiasm in all they do and never give up.

What's your approach to SEO and drawing traffic to your sites?

In the beginning, I hired an SEO agency. That was just too much money so then I started to do SEO on my own – the old traditional way – with content, backlinks and good keyword density. At some point, I found it difficult and time consuming to devote my spare time to my projects. I was looking around for other sources of traffic, like social media, mainly Facebook.

I used to run four Facebook groups with nearly 100,000 members and did get a lot of retention and players/people converting from there. Unfortunately, it was only for six months, just before the hit of COVID-19. Luckily, I have made a stable base of players who are bringing me decent income. Over the last two years, I have concentrated on my betting activity and helping people. I know with the most appropriate programs for them.

What traits do you look for in an affiliate manager and affiliate program?

At first, I go directly to the affiliate managers and ask them as many questions as I can. It is the most important thing, communication between people. If they are not responsive from the beginning and they just ignore you, what will happen when conversions and payments come?

Then I research on my own about the program and bookie. Are they reliable enough? How and do they pay players and affiliates? Is it in a regular and friendly manner?

Also asking about the tracking of their links and cookie duration, these are essential tools for our business. Last step is to create an account at the casino/bookie and to check their CS department.

How has COVID-19 affected you personally and professionally?

I have been working for myself for five years now, so basically it was not a big issue to be out of the office or to stay more at home. I am definitely getting to spend more time with my family.
The only change is that the conferences stopped and have been delayed. There, I have met and I will meet plenty of interesting people from all over the world: Italy, Israel. Turkey, Serbia, Russia, Romania and many more.

What do you do to stay in shape – both physically and mentally?

I go to the gym three times per week and make do some street fitness outdoors, too. As for my mental health, I like to go outside of our capital to different cities or historical places. Also, reading many different books, mostly biographies of successful people, keep me on the surface. After the darkest night comes the biggest and brightest sunshine.

If someone were visiting you for 24 hours and had never been to Sofia, where would you bring them and why?

I would take them to the Vitosha Mountain and show them how beautiful Sofia is at night. I like to see everything from different points of view.

I would also take them to special places to eat Bulgarian food and to listen to Bulgarian traditional music. The Balkans is amazing place, with good people, music and food.

The third place will be The Bells Monument. It is something left from the communist regime with many bells from different countries. When you go there and you hear the “voice” of each bell, it is pretty purifying and clears your mind and soul.

If you were stranded on a desert island, what three items would you take with you and why?

First, a picture of my wife and son. I love them very much and cannot live without them. Second, would be a book. I cannot live without reading. I would will take Shōgun by James Clavell.

Third, an icon of St. Ivan Rilski, the patron saint of Bulgarians. I believe that there is something bigger than us in the universe, some call it God, others Allah or Buda. By the way, if some of you who are reading my interview come and see the biggest monastery in the Balkans, it is called Rilski Monastery in the Rila Mountain.

If you could invite any five people, living or dead, to dinner, who would they be?

Leonardo da Vinci, Niccol?Machiavelli, Albert Einstein, Michael Jordan and Diego Maradona.

Name three things that people reading this magazine don't know about you.

Besides English and my native language, Bulgarian, I speak Italian and Russian. When I was little, I wanted to study Japanese too, but there was no time for this.
I played basketball professionally for five years, but an injury in one of my legs stopped me from this amazing sport. Nowadays, I play only for fun and entertainment.
I am one of the biggest fans of Stephen King. He is the author with the best imagination ever. In all of his new books he surprises me a lot. Most other authors out there are pretty predictable and do not want to offend anyone.

**gm2891** · 3 November 2021, 11:51 am

Top man, drifter8, thanks for the interview!

**ocreditor** · 4 November 2021, 4:04 am

Ned dear friend, you're one of a kind!! Great read

**chaumi** · 4 November 2021, 9:15 am

Great interview, Drifter8. It's really interesting (and clever) to see that you have used betting involvement and experience to generate an affiliate income stream too. I suspect the details of that would be even more illuminating

And your descriptions related to Bulgaria are enticing. Sunny Beach with a day trip to Sofia some 40 years ago is the best I managed, clearly there are some great reasons for making another visit at some point.

**themilann** · 4 November 2021, 10:14 am

Great interview and kudos to Ned!

**GPWA Maria** · 4 November 2021, 11:28 pm

Thank you for the interview!

**CatalinAMG** · 5 November 2021, 12:12 am

Awesome interview!

**Cash Bonus** · 5 November 2021, 11:29 pm

Excellent interview, Ned. Your answer to what traits do you look for in an affiliate manager and affiliate program was well said. You have to know who you're dealing with, as there are too many crooked programs ripping their partners off.

**drifter8** · 7 November 2021, 11:00 pm

Thank you all for the kind words

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