PA T R I K S E L I N I N T E R V I E W
“I am not going to do anything in Europe,” he laughs. “If you want to be successful today in terms of investment, it is Asia. I’m looking into different options and one is to get some investors into a new entity in Asia. “What I ?nd most interesting in Asia is B2B,” he explains, describing the market as ‘the holy grail’. “If you do a proper B2B business there you are going to be so successful on every level. You have the growth, the player base – it’s still like it was over here 10 years ago.” This had some part to play in the decision to give the Bodog Poker Network the chance to make it big with Asian-facing ownership, but Selin remains wary of those who have tried – and failed – to crack the market in the past. “When it comes to poker in Asia, Bodog is small right now, but before I left we signed up with a major player who we are going to launch on the network hopefully before the end of this year. “The future growth [of the egaming industry] will come from Asia and you have to focus a lot more
“Some parts have begun to get boring but other parts have become even more complicated than they were before, so it’s more exciting in many ways” Selin on the online gambling industry
on getting Asian operators involved. Because of that it makes more sense to operate from Asia and we took it from a very small level to the top poker companies. Now it’s time to move to the next level.” While undoubtedly valuable, the weight of numbers in the Asian market cannot be relied upon to produce results, something that Selin is well aware of from his experience with Ongame. “When I worked in Ongame we had ‘Pokah!’ which was, at that time, one of the largest communities on the net with around 500,000 members, but we couldn’t transform it from playmoney to real-money... and God knows we tried,” he recalls. “Just ?guring out how to move it from one side to the other is tricky, and no one h ???????????????????????$?????????????????????????t?]?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????M???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????q]???????????????????????????????????????????t?????????q]???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????t?Q????????????????? ?????e??????????????????????????????????M?????????????????????????????????????????????????????)????=????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????q)????=????????????????? ?????????????I??????t????? ???? ?????????????????A????????q!?????????????A????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????)????????A?????e?????????????????e???????????????????????????????t?M????????????????????????? ?????e?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????]????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????5??????????e??aQ???Y????d??????????????????????????A????e??????????????????????????????????????????M????????????????????????????????????()??????????A?????M??????????????????????????????????????((??()???????????????((