When you think about a multimillion dollar company, you will probably think about many layers of management, leaders, supervisors, and employees. Big companies often have different divisions and mostly, you will not know everyone's name. In fact, you might even encounter people you have never met at the company holiday party.

Multimillion dollar businesses do not have to be faceless, though. They can be like a big family, where everyone knows each other and where leaders know their employees' names. As a matter of fact, a company that does operate like a big family, can have increased productivity.

Reza Shojaei
Reza Shojaei

Value Marketing started as small team

When the idea of Value Marketing got started in 2017, at the end of a dinner at a restaurant, Reza Shojaei had no idea what this new business could become. Shojaei had been an avid poker player for over a decade, and interested in the iGaming market in general. The face-to-face sales business he was in back then simply did not spark as much passion anymore.

During the night at the restaurant, Shojaei and some of his partners identified a big problem in the iGaming market: unreliable online casinos and resources. The iGaming market has been growing rapidly since the mid-90's but ever-changing rules and regulations can be hard to keep up with, and not all countries regulate online gaming as well as others.

As the idea of Value Marketing and solving a big issue for players came about, the team decided from the jump that the business was going to be 100% customer focused. The players would always come first, and providing them with useful tools and valuable resources was going to be their main priority.

  • From the very beginning, we wanted to help people and to help the iGaming market in general to become better and safer. So, we decided to get started with Value Marketing to provide players with up-to-date, correct information that is valuable and that they can use, Shojaei says.

The team started out as small, and consisted only of a few people, who were dedicated and passionate about iGaming and online casinos. As the tightly knitted affiliate team started out, they only had an idea of how to make the iGaming market better. They did not know that in a couple of years, a small business would have grown into a multimillion dollar business that operates all over the world.

The two major brands have taken over the world

Value Marketing created two brands under its umbrella: CasinoTopp.net and CasinoTop.com. As Shojaei himself is from Norway, CasinoTopp.net was the brand that was going to operate on the Norwegian market, and it was the very first market they entered.

  • Norway does not offer gaming licenses for online casinos, and while Norwegians are allowed to play at online casino sites, they are not regulated in Norway the same way as in many other places in Europe. What we wanted to do was to provide the Norwegian players with free resources and useful tools that they can use to pick a safe and secure online casino to play at, Shojaei says.

CasinoTopp.net started by making sure each piece of information, such as reviews, articles, news, and guides, were unbiased, trustworthy, and up-to-date. The most important thing was to make sure that the readers would want to come back over and over again.

  • I have always said that when you lead the business with the customer in mind, the money will follow naturally. Our focus was simply to ensure that our readers and visitors on the site are happy with the information they are provided with and that they will want to recommend us to their friends and family, Shojaei says.

Unlike many other affiliate sites of the same market, Value Marketing made it paramount to only recommend casino sites that they would recommend their own friends and family. This way, the site was only filled with the most reliable sites that provided the best possible gaming experience.

In only a few years time, CasinoTopp.net had grown to be the highest ranking iGaming affiliate site in Norway. This prompted Shojaei and the team to expand their markets, and to start taking over the world one country at a time.

CasinoTop.com was founded next to cover eleven other markets. They included, for instance, Finland, Denmark, Spain, India, Japan, and New Zealand, among other countries. One by one, Value Marketing started covering each country, with the same values and goals in mind, as they had for CasinoTopp.net.

As the markets grew and were added onto the list, Shojaei had to hire more like minded people to help. After all, the company needed writers, editors, designers, and other professionals that would help Value Marketing create sites for each market and country.

  • One of the biggest challenges was that each country has their own rules and regulations when it comes to online gambling. We needed to find people who were just as passionate about iGaming as the rest of us, and who were familiar with the market of their own country, Shojaei explains.

Ultimately, the team kept on growing, and today, Value Marketing has altogether about 30 people in their ever-growing team. The professionals are from all over the world, and they are all on the top of their field. A small team of a few people rapidly grew, and now as the multimillion dollar company keeps on taking over more and more markets, new professionals are added to the team when needed.

The importance of motivated and inspired people is paramount

Value Marketing has grown to be a multimillion dollar business in a few years. It now operates all over the world, and the purpose of the company is to create a huge iGaming network.

  • We network a lot and connect with new people and businesses constantly. It is important, because if we want people to know us, we have to know them, Shojaei says.

Shojaei wants the network to be strong and reliable, and Value Marketing only associates itself with the best of the best. This goes for both collaborators and employees. Shojaei stresses the importance of hiring freelancers and people who are motivated and passionate about what they do.

  • It is important that you have good and motivated people working with you. At the moment, we have about 30 people working for us, and the are all skilled professionals in their field. Running a multinational business is time-consuming, so I have to know that I can trust that each one of them knows their job and does it on time, Shojaei says.

Like a big family

Shojaei is not about the faceless interaction many big multimillion, multinational corporations experience. Instead, he knows everyone and is in touch with everyone on a regular basis. This way, he can ensure that every person working is happy, motivated, and likes their job. According to Shojaei, it is important to challenge employees and freelancers, and give them opportunities to grow.

  • When you have motivated people working, everything runs seamlessly. I can trust my employees and freelancers, and they trust me and Value Marketing, Shojaei says.

Knowing your employees could be the one of the keys to success

At the end of the day, good employees are important for any and every business. In most cases, the employees are the first contact between your service and your company, which is why you want to ensure that they represent your business in the best possible way.

  • If you do not like your job, there is a good chance you will not do it properly, either. Or at least, your motivation will run out quickly, and going to work will become dragging. We hire people who love what they do, and that is why they stick around and we can create new things together, Shojaei says.

Shojaei knows all of his employees and freelancers, and ultimately, Value Marketing is like a big family. Despite the fact that they all operate on different time zones all over the world, they keep in touch over Skype, email, or other means throughout the workday.

In fact, remote working can easily get very lonely for many, which is why it is excellent to have a communicative team behind you. Value Marketing provides their employees and freelancers the sense of a team, which makes working more inspiring.

What does the future hold?

The goal of Value Marketing is to create a huge iGaming network to cover all the important countries in the iGaming world. At the moment, they service altogether 13 countries, with more of them added to the list on a regular basis.

As more markets are added, the team grows. The company will soon have even more dedicated employees, who will all in their own part help grow the business. This is ultimately what good team spirit is about: growing together. Shojaei has high hopes for Value Marketing and its two brands, and we can only expect to see the best from them.