Speaking to iGaming Expert, Wojtek Stellmach, CEO of Bugsy Empire, outlined how the agency’s technical depth and compliance-first mindset have become key differentiators in the US market.
Ahead of the upcoming SBC Summit and the Affiliate Leader Summit, he also shared how building server-to-server infrastructure, avoiding common whitelisting pitfalls, and embedding compliance into creative workflows are essential for sustainable growth.
As a marketing agency serving iGaming clients, what were the initial challenges you faced in the iGaming marketing space?
The biggest challenges for us were the sheer variety of clients we encountered.
We work with everybody from fast-moving, inexperienced start-ups to massive corporate machines with rigid processes, steep structures and long approval processes. Some clients give us full autonomy and trust us to make every decision, while others need three separate meetings just to approve the colour of a CTA button. Company goals also vary wildly. Some are laser-focused on short-term acquisition, whilst others care more about long-term brand equity or user LTV. Risk tolerance, internal politics, ego dynamics, tech stacks (bespoke vs. off-the-shelf), and even branding maturity all come into play when working with a new company.
Additionally, a prescribed formula never works, especially within DFS, Sweepstakes and similar, regulatory-focused products. There is no blueprint. While the overarching strategy might look similar across clients, each implementation ends up being completely bespoke.
What ties this all together is unpredictability — long stretches of silence from a partner can abruptly shift into an all-hands-on-deck rush to go live. This is often with the added pressure that everything is already behind schedule, while the agency waits on client-side feedback or action. In these moments, it’s availability and adaptability that keep everything moving forward.
Given that the majority of your clients operate in the US sweepstakes space, how do you approach building the right partnerships in this area? How do you navigate the trade-offs between speed of growth, data control, and staying ahead of compliance requirements?
Our approach has always been quality over quantity. We have never wanted to be a cold B2B service provider. Instead, we are a genuine partner invested in the long-term success of the business.
We pride ourselves on transparency, often advising clients to take a route that goes against our own short-term commercial interest, sometimes even against our own income. This space rewards bold thinking, but only when it’s grounded in sound analysis and data-backed decisions.
We also operate with a deep respect for the regulatory landscape. The goal is to fly as close to the compliance boundaries without ever stepping over the line. Not just technically, but ethically too. Speed of growth, data control, and compliance are not separate challenges; they constantly intersect, and we help clients find the balance point.
The Social Sweepstakes space is proving particularly challenging at the moment. Staying up to date with ongoing adjustments is crucial—not only due to their direct impact on entire states, but also because ad networks are reacting in real time, imposing new rules from one day to the next. This keeps our AdOps, Strategy, and Creative teams on constant alert, ready to respond immediately.
It’s also good to keep in mind that we don’t operate in a vacuum. Our clients are part of broader ecosystems that include affiliate networks, media publishers, tech vendors, and legal advisors. Whether we manage those relationships directly or not, they affect outcomes. So we treat those external partnerships with the same level of care and coordination as the paid media itself.
With ad platforms increasingly favouring algorithm-driven bidding, how do you ensure creative strategy still plays a central role in your performance marketing efforts?
That’s the game now. Algorithms decide who sees what—but it’s creativity that determines whether someone stops scrolling, clicks, or at least registers a glimpse that leaves a memory trace (which is crucial for post-impression-based platforms like Snapchat and TikTok).
We treat creativity as a data stream, not a one-off deliverable. Every piece gets demoed, tagged, and tested against a performance framework that we built in-house. As sweepstakes and iGaming offer unique emotional hooks like urgency, exclusivity, or the thrill of winning, we lean heavily into storytelling that feels native to the platform.
We also make competitor analysis part of our creative cycle. We track what others are testing, spot emerging trends, and adapt formats that are resonating without blindly copying. From UGC-style hooks to punchy reels and modular templates, we constantly evolve what we put out.
The goal is never just to look good in a vacuum. It’s to outperform everything else on the feed.
How are you adapting your targeting strategies across channels, as traditional cookie-based programmatic declines and platforms like Meta and Snapchat lean on pixel and server-to-server integrations for data capture?
This is one of the clearest areas where client maturity levels diverge. Some brands have full server-side infrastructure already in place, while others are still struggling to get basic client-side events firing correctly. That disparity means we never approach tracking or targeting with a fixed playbook. We assess what’s realistically possible, and build from there.
For the more advanced setups, we always find ways to refine the integrations and squeeze out better performance. Whether it’s improving deduplication accuracy, passing richer event metadata, or segmenting traffic more intelligently, there’s always room to push further.
For less technical clients, we’ve built middleware solutions that bridge the gap and make server-to-server setups achievable without needing deep dev resources. Many brands are used to agencies tapping out when things get too technical. We do the opposite. We go all the way down the rabbit hole with each ad network. It’s up to the brand how deep they want to go with us. Our ability to solve hard technical problems is a core part of our value. It’s what makes the rest of the strategy work; and it’s what consistently pushes us above the rest.
In the US sweepstakes space, how do you navigate compliance-sensitive keyword restrictions when building creative and copy for various platforms?
We treat each platform like its own jurisdiction. What works in one market might get you flagged on another, so we build flexible messaging matrices that give creators room to operate within clear boundaries. We avoid hard gambling terms and lean into language around entertainment, social play, or collecting rewards. We might lose that 0,1% CTR going softer, but it costs less in the long run than losing the entire Business Manager.
Compliance is never an afterthought. It is built into the creative briefing and review process from day one. In our experience, it pays to stay on the soft side of compliance. Temporary bans and suspensions may seem minor, but they can derail campaign momentum, reset learning phases, and trigger platform scrutiny that takes weeks to recover from. We would rather protect continuity and performance than gamble for short-term wins that come with long-term costs.
What whitelisting pitfalls do you most commonly see across social and programmatic channels, and how do you proactively prevent compliance-related account suspensions?
This is one of the few areas where a standardised approach is not only possible, but essential. There is a right and wrong way to do it. Business managers need to be linked to the correct legal entities, backed by the right corporate KYC documentation, verified payment methods, and adequate credit limits. The most common pitfalls come from missing these basics. Clients often don’t have the proper paperwork in place, or underestimate the importance of having high enough credit limits, which leads to payment rejections, damage to credit score, and throttled daily spend.
We also move fast when things do go wrong. Learnings from one client are immediately deployed across the entire portfolio. If a policy flag or restriction hits one account, we adjust everything else that same day. That collective awareness is one of our strongest safeguards. That being said, we always strive to get things right the first time.
You attended SBC Summit Malta earlier in June. What was your experience like, and are there any key takeaways you’d like to share?
I consider SBC events a top priority in my yearly calendar—especially in a landscape that’s become oversaturated with events. I’ve walked away from every SBC Summit with concrete deals that were initiated and closed on-site.
SBC Malta 2025 was no exception. It brought in a strong pipeline of real clients, who are already turning into live partnerships this month. What I value most is the structure of the panels: focused, in-depth discussions on specific topics that go far beyond the surface-level statements you hear on bigger stages elsewhere.
SBC delivers a platform where you can genuinely learn, connect with purpose, and make things happen.
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For more information on Bugsy Empire, you can visit their website here.
Want in on the Affiliate Leaders Summit at SBC Summit 2025? Apply for a complimentary pass for full access to the expo floor, all sessions, evening networking, and free catering!
SBC’s Affiliate Leaders community brings together a vital segment of the iGaming industry, empowering affiliates to connect, share insights, and explore challenges and opportunities within the sector. Built around information exchange, Affiliate Leaders offers exclusive benefits, including speaking opportunities at SBC events, interview features, VIP dinners, and complimentary access to all SBC events globally, amplifying affiliate voices in the iGaming discussion. Apply for membership.
Source: iGaming Expert
