Alexander Berezhnoy, Director of PARI Affiliates

Publication date: 13 May 2025

Meet the new guest of 3S.INFO! Today in iGaming Heroes, we have Alexander Berezhnoy, the director of PARI Affiliates! How can one progress from a junior employee in the marketing department to the head of a leading affiliate program without losing a single team member along the way? What team-building activities are more effective than mere “motivational” events, and what is the “most important” aspect in the affiliate industry?

– How did you get started in the affiliate and iGaming industry? What was your entry point, and how did you end up in the role of head of the PARI affiliate program?

I stumbled into digital marketing by chance. During my final years at university, I realized that I would be interested in pursuing a career in marketing (I was actually studying to become a GR specialist). I tried to land junior positions in the marketing departments of large companies, but for various reasons, it just didn’t work out. At one point, I received a call from the HR department of a company asking me, “Would you like to do media buying?” With the expression of a girl from Balashikha studying French*, I agreed to the interview. That’s how my journey in digital marketing began.

Initially, I focused on driving traffic for mobile subscriptions, primarily working in the adult sector where I bought traffic and created my own creatives, which provided me with valuable experience.

After that, I spent several years in the dating industry, including working with some of the largest advertisers in that vertical. My fluent English allowed me to engage with Tier 1 markets. Following that, I had a brief stint in Nutra for a couple of months; it was my first and last encounter with that field. In 2020, I finally joined iGaming as a senior affiliate manager, where I quickly delivered results and became the head of the department.

*Famous meme from the Russian-speaking internet.

– Were there moments when you wanted to give everything up? Like thinking: “Screw it, this definitely isn’t my thing”?

When it comes to digital as a whole, I can hardly say I ever had thoughts of leaving the industry. Instead, I often considered leaving companies because I didn’t see opportunities for my development and growth within them. That changed when I arrived at my current position, where I found a “match,” and I’ve been working hand in hand with the team for the past five years. Since childhood, I’ve been passionate about cars and have many ideas related to the automotive business, but the time for that hasn’t come yet.

– When you took charge of the PARI affiliate program, what was the first thing you changed? Did you update the team? Upgrade your workspace? Hang some motivational posters on the wall?

Since I was promoted to the position of senior manager, I have influenced the direction of the affiliate program from the very beginning. We were among the first to raise the base CPA rate to 5,000 rubles, which allowed us to attract a significant amount of traffic and compete more effectively with offshore operators. Since then, all metrics have increased substantially (as has the cost of acquiring players in our market). Fortunately, I didn’t have to replace any team members; my focus has been solely on expansion. Since then, not a single employee has left, and I consider this one of my key achievements as a manager. We manage without motivational posters on the walls, but we do meet regularly for team-building events, which mainly take place in pubs and steakhouses.

– What is the most memorable case with partners? Perhaps a drama, an unexpected deal, or someone new joining the team?

Many interesting things have happened over the years. Once, when there were more traffic sources available in the Russian Federation, a webmaster joined us on a RevShare basis. He was buying traffic in bulk, primarily from IG (a product of Meta, which is recognized as extremist in Russia), and then processing it on Telegram. In short, he was a capper, but he was so successful that he quickly rose to the top of our webmasters in terms of volume, attracting up to several thousand FTDs per month. He won all the contests we held at that time to stimulate traffic. By the way, he still works with us today; while those volumes are no longer there, he continues to receive RevShare for all the remaining players.

On another occasion, a webmaster was so impressed with the work of our manager Artyom that he recorded several rap tracks about our affiliate program using his own poetry and neural networks. The whole office listened to them!

– What advice would you give to those currently on the path to becoming a leader? What really works, and what is just bullshit?

Perhaps the most important thing is to take care of your team and to understand their needs. This pays off tenfold in the long run because a happy employee is an effective employee. It always takes me a long time to hire and select people, but I have never been disappointed in my choices.

When it comes to processes and management style, giving advice can be counterproductive, as everyone ultimately develops their own set of best practices. All I can say is that scrums and agile methodologies don’t work well in the affiliate business, and trying to impose strict processes can actually hinder progress. And, most importantly, you need to be result-oriented, regardless of your position. Let’s utilize our accessible resources to their fullest potential!

– What are you preparing for the MAC? Will it be impressive? Or at least beautiful and with flair?

We probably won’t be surprising anyone with the construction this year, but we are preparing many interesting activities for our current and new PARI partners, so stay tuned!

We would like to remind you that on May 20 and 21, 2025, we will be meeting in Yerevan at the MAC Affiliate Conference. The 3SNET team is looking forward to seeing you at booth P19!

– A quick commercial break: Why PARI? Why should you drive traffic here? Why should people place bets with you?

We strive to be as flexible as possible. If an affiliate has the capacity and quality, we are always ready to agree on individual terms and provide everything necessary for launch and scaling. I believe mentioning real-time capabilities and creative assets here would be redundant. A strong brand and a focus on long-term partnerships are what define us. As for the B2C segment, we offer clients a wide range of bonus offers, contests, and an exclusive VIP loyalty program – PARI Secret.

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