The iGaming Odysseus: Sailing Through Industry Storms with Marcin Kumiega

Archaeology and iGaming seemingly inhabit two different worlds: one reconstructs vanished civilizations from the material traces they left behind, while the other is a relentlessly modern online industry that has hardly—if at all—entered the halls of academia. Yet Marcin Kumięga sees an unexpected overlap between the two. Both, in their own way, require us to sift through fragments, identify patterns, decipher an unfamiliar system, and make sense of an environment in which there is rarely enough certainty to proceed by instinct alone.

We couldn’t ignore such a peculiar mindset, so we invited Marcin to our podcast. He kindly agreed to embark on an Odyssey of our own to navigate an industry that has become increasingly labyrinthine. In this episode, we speak about tax woes, a resolute shift to multichannel, and user acquisition challenges.

At the same time, Marcin mentions another curio: AEO, Answer Engine Optimization, a relatively new technology that may potentially replace traditional SEO. Though we are advised not to hurry things: the precepts and rules of visibility are indeed changing, with zero-click environments taking hold, but it is still hard to define what exactly affiliates should do in order to turn AEO to their advantage.

Our next milestone is attribution: according to Marcin, the industry has more information at its disposal than ever before, yet an abundance of data can be its own kind of maze. As Marcin argues, when it comes to iGaming attribution, the Bronze Age may be only a few keystrokes away—not because we lack information, but because we have accumulated so much of it that separating meaningful signals from the noise has become a problem in itself, and—

Oops. We’re retelling the entire thing, and this is so uncouth on our part… Why don’t you press play and look for yourself?..