Affiliate Interview Series - Floris Assies

[GPWA Daniel]

(This interview was originally published in the February 2024 issue of the GPWA Times Magazine.)

Please elaborate on your experience as a self-described “third-culture-kid” and how it shaped your life both professionally and personally.

A “third-culture-kid” is a person that grew up between different cultures and because of that, I developed my own “third culture.”

In my case, it’s a combination of the culture of my parents, who are both Dutch, and the culture of the countries where I lived (Netherlands, Qatar and Saudi Arabia) during my childhood.

Culture is shaped by more things than merely the country where you grow up. Other factors of influence are social class of parents, peers, school, sports clubs, etc.

During my life, an international community was the norm. A very mixed group of cultures. This is in contrast to most people who grow up in one place with parents from that place and not being exposed to other cultures. Today, this is less special than it was in the ’80s and ‘90s.

I had an international upbringing because of my father's career.

At the age of 3 until till 9-years-old, I lived in Qatar from 1986 to 1989 and Saudi Arabia from 1990 until the start of the Gulf War. And from summer 1992 to summer 1994, I lived in an international boarding school in the Netherlands while my parents lived in Syria.

As a child, you consider anything you experience and see as “normal.”

It was at a later age in my teens while back in the Netherlands that I started to realize that a lot of things that I considered “normal” were not considered normal by my peers, such as the Arab/Muslim culture where men would wear “dresses” (long white robes called “thawbs”) and women would always walk a couple of meters behind the men. Also, five times a day people would stop doing what they were doing, in the middle of the road, and start praying.

Growing up between different cultures made me question what is “normal” from a young age. It made me very open-minded, and very easy for me to adapt to different situations.

I attended four different primary/secondary schools in three different countries and high school in two different cities. By the time I was 18, I had received mail to nine different addresses.

I don't feel I have roots. I don't really know my uncles, aunts or cousins. My oldest friendships date back from my time in university.

Hard to say how it exactly affected me professionally. I am very comfortable in international groups. Don’t know if other triads are due to grow up like this or my character or other factors that were of influence in my life.

In the Netherlands, I never felt really Dutch. I feel Dutch when I’m abroad.

The funny thing about culture is that you can only experience it in contrast to another culture.

How did you end up in Malta, and what aspects of the country made it significant for you professionally?

I met my wife in Gijon in Spain while walking the Camino to Santiago de Compostela in late spring 2011. It’s a famous pilgrimage. Paulo Coelho, a famous Brazilian author, wrote a book about it called “The Pilgrimage,” which was actually the inspiration for me to walk it. My original plan was to learn Spanish in Spain and travel to South America. But as John Lennon once sang, “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.”

So, faith seemed to have different plans. I ended up staying two years in Gijon. When I wanted to move on, she wanted a change of life and go with me and learn English. Obviously, South America is not the place to learn English so we decided to go to Australia instead. After seven months travelling (from Victoria up the east coast to Brisbane with a small camper van) and working a couple of weeks on farms, we had enough and missed Europe so we decided to go back, but didn’t know where. Not back to Spain at least, nor to the Netherlands.

Friends of ours had moved to Malta the year before and really liked it. We thought it was a good place to check out because of the English language and also because it was an EU country, so we were allowed to work. And it has a nice climate. We arrived in June 2014.

We both started in hospitality. I had no ambition to work in the gambling industry. But in 2017, while my partner was pregnant, I was made redundant. I was working as a warehouse manager at the time. Via my brother, who had also moved to Malta by then, I had an opportunity to take a link-building job. I had no idea what link building or SEO was, but I was assured that it wasn’t difficult and the money was good, so I took the opportunity.

Actually, it’s a funny story. I came to the office for what I thought was an interview, but instead they said “here is your desk” and I started that day. The training went smoothly and, in a week, I had almost reached the target for the whole month.

About two weeks later, the manager had resigned and the boss came to me and asked if I wanted the job. So, within a month on the job I was all of a sudden responsible for link building in four markets and a team of five link builders.

That jump started my career in SEO.

During my studies, I had an aversion toward marketing. I never really liked “creating a need.” I had done telemarketing in my early 20s and was always annoyed by commercials on TV and radio. That was my view of marketing.

But when I learned about SEO, I instantly loved it. It’s dealing with people that are already motivated and trying to search for what they want. It’s language, communication, psychology, user experience, PR and, on top of that, the cat and mouse game with Google.

I started reading all the blogs and spent hours on YouTube and pretty quickly I taught myself as much as I could about on-page SEO and link building.

I must say I really enjoyed it since the first day. Of course, it wasn’t always fun and easy. But it was satisfying and rewarding and I never regretted it.

Your past work experience includes everything from bartender to English teacher to digital marketing to SEO and content writing. How did each of these positions shape who you are today and how have they all helped you as an iGaming affiliate?

Connecting the dots. Each role gave me experiences that each ended up being very valuable in what I am doing now, trying to build a business. It created synergy, where the whole has more value than the sum of the individual parts.

• Hospitality: taking care of the customer. Being “in service” of the customer.
• Teaching English without credentials or experience: I can learn and do anything if I want
• HR relocation expert at Dupont: How big international (American) cooperation company culture is

Having done many different kinds of jobs that can be done without a degree (cleaning, factory work, construction, data admin, sales), I learned what hard work is. Working long hours made me be able to relate to what a lot of people go through in their daily life. I think that is essential to become a good manager. I don’t think you can be a good boss or manager if you have to manage people doing a job that you never experienced doing yourself (or something similar).

Having worked in many different industries gave me good birds eye view. I am also very holistic in my thinking. I think it helped me become creative and a process thinker.

At the top of the “About” section on your website you write, “Today, a company must take a stand for sustainability in the world and not simply provide lip service when the subject is brought up.” How did your extensive travels influence your dedication to sustainability?

As a child growing up in the Middle East and having spent time in India and China in my mid-20s, I have seen real poverty and pollution, the kind that most people in western Europe only know from TV. I’ve experienced it with all my senses and it had a big impact.

One of the things that can still make me emotional is remembering walking in India through the streets and having children follow you begging for money and asking for food and my Indian friend telling me not to give money because it doesn’t help them. For those who have seen the movie “Slumdog Millionaire,” well, it’s exactly like that. That was hard. In Dutch they say “je krijgt eelt op je ziel,” which means “you get calluses on your soul.”

These experiences, and having had such a privileged life, gave me a strong urge to want to contribute to making the world better. So that is where my passion for sustainability mainly comes from. Also, my mother’s upbringing helped and there are other things, of course, but the stories get very long if I get into all the details.

The more I have come to understand how the world works, the more frustrated I’ve become with how we humans behave and human nature. But we can’t blame anyone for being who he/she is and acting the way they do. Everyone is a product of their life and we just try to make the best out of it based on the values that we have learned through our life experiences. But I am convinced there must be a better way because of what I’ve seen and the people that I’ve met.

What motivated your decision to champion transparency and sustainability in the online gaming world through BetterWorldCasinos.com?

There are several factors. I always have been looking for how I can contribute to making the world better. Around the year 2000, my small SEO and content marketing agency was doing well. I had a couple of clients and business was OK. Often people asked why I wasn’t building my own affiliate site. I knew how hard the competition was and that I would only succeed if I would find a good niche.

In all my jobs over the last 10 years, I was always looking for how it could be done more sustainable. Sustainability in gambling always was mainly about responsible gambling and a bit about diversity. But sustainability and ESG is about so much more. There is a lot of greenwashing, companies seemingly doing the right things, but for the wrong reasons. They are doing it not to actually do good for society, but only for compliance, brand reputation and marketing.

I’m a big fan of investigative journalism and I have been a paying member of Follow the Money and “de Correspondent,” two great journalistic publishers. The last few years I’ve spend a lot of time studying economy, trying to understand what is and why we have the neo-liberal capitalism. And I have come to the conclusion that the cause of most problems is shareholder primacy and profit maximization.

It had its value and brought us to where we are now, which is as much good as bad, but we have to come to realize that it’s time has come.

There will always be a demand for gambling, as it seems to be in the nature of people. And if there is a demand there will be supply. The only way is to regulate it otherwise there will be a lot of harm. Gambling in itself is not bad or harmful.

What if the gambling business could be about entertainment instead of profit maximization? It requires a paradigm shift. We can remove the stigma of gaming if we would be sincere about offering great entertainment responsibly.

All these things together created the idea for Better World Casinos. Shine light on the industry. Because where there is light there cannot be darkness.

I think there are a lot of people that want to do good. And I think a lot of consumers/players are willing to choose casinos that want to do good over those that do not care.

We can raise a lot of awareness and give the new generation workforce the option to choose employers that care.

Please provide more details about your foundation, Peas Unlimited, and its role in giving back to society.

I believe you can only make change if you practice what you preach. To show that I’m not in it for the money and am all about making change, I knew I had to cap salaries and profits, otherwise I’d be a hypocrite.

Peas Unlimited is a name I came up with around the year 2010. It’s a philosophy. To plant peace and nurture, it so it can grow and become a movement. Read more on peasunlimited.org

My notes on what I think needs to change in society go back to the year 2000 when I wrote a draft manifesto in which I stated that education, water, food, energy, healthcare, internet and shelter should be free for everyone. And that the solution should always be “think global, act local.” We need to build communities that guarantee these basic needs.

So, it has always been clear to me that if I could find a way to create surplus wealth, I would use it to invest and support projects that work towards these goals.

Some things that inspire me:

• B Corp
• Steward Ownership
• Infectious generosity
• Sustainable development goals

Do you gamble online or at land-based casinos?

I enjoy poker a lot. Mainly real life, I hardly ever played online. But I haven’t played for a long time because I seriously lack time to do a lot of things that I enjoy. I have to make careful choices.

The occasional time I would go to a casino, I enjoy any game, blackjack, roulette, slots. Bingo, not so much. And I am not a sports person. I mean, I enjoy doing sport but not spectating. So, sportsbook is therefore also not my thing.

I hardly every gamble online. Only because of professional reasons I have had a couple of accounts in the past and made some deposits.


What are some of the most common misconceptions about SEO?

I feel there are people way more qualified to answer this. Even though I have had moderate successes for my clients, I often suffer imposter syndrome and have sometimes have the feeling that I have no idea what I’m doing.

If I had to answer this question, I guess the biggest misconception is that SEO is a tick box exercise. There is not a one-size-fits all solution. There is a reason most answers to SEO questions start with “it depends.” Success in SEO depends on many factors. And SEO in iGaming is hard because there is so much money to be made that it has attracted the most talented.

What advice do you have for individuals aspiring to enter the iGaming industry, especially those interested in combining business with social and environmental responsibility?

In my humble opinion, there is only one advice that a person should ever give and that is to never give advice. Life is complex and each person's situation is unique. What worked for me might not work for someone else. So, I try to refrain from giving advice ever.

What are your hobbies? What do you do when you are not working?

I’m raising a beautiful daughter, which takes up most of my time, besides work. I enjoy sports and if I have the time I do it every morning. And while I do sports, I listen to podcasts about a wide range of topics. I love the outdoors, hiking, running, swimming, cycling. I love gardening and eating homegrown strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes, herbs, etc. And I like reading and writing about life, society, philosophy, spirituality and sometimes fiction. Last year I started a blog (philosoflourish.com) where I sometimes publish things that I wrote.

But of all these things, I hardly get to spend as much time on as I would want. Life is busy. A day consists generally of 30% sleep (including going to and getting out of bed) 30% work, 10% sports (including time to warm up, shower, etc.) and in the remaining 20% you need to do admin and chorus and planning. Then there are only a couple of hours per week left for social life like meeting or calling family and friends. And then when there is time left, I use it for hobbies.

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

I'd drive them from the coast to the highest peak and back and along the way have a local lunch with broad beans (Asturian Fava) and a chuletón (local steak) as second. And we would end the day at a local bar in either the capitol, Oviedo, if it's a cloudy, rainy day, or in the port of Gijon if it's sunny, and eat and drink some more.

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

Alan Watts and Sadguru - I regularly listen to these. Their observations and thoughts about the world and life are very inspiring and insightful. But they have very different personalities. Would love to hear these two exchange thoughts.

Elon Musk - One of the most controversial people of our times. Would love to pick his brain and determine for myself if he is a good person.

Jeff Bezos - Same as with Musk. Just really curious to see what kind of person he is.

Freddie Mercury - IMO maybe the best artist who ever lived. He died way too young. I wish I had a chance to hear his voice while being in the same room.

I think getting all these people around the same table would lead to an epic conversation.

[edgarf76]

Interesting!

[CasinosBroker]

Great interview!

[NoDepositCasinos]

Awesome interview (and life journey)!

[onlinebetdotcom]

A great way to get into link building. I am jealous of the travels includes Australia

[newcustomeroffer]

Freddie Mercury - IMO maybe the best artist who ever lived. He died way too young. I wish I had a chance to hear his voice while being in the same room.

Agree 100% - what a legacy he's left us with his music, just a huge shame he went so soon.