From his early days in digital marketing to leading one of the most dynamic affiliate networks in iGaming, Martins Lasmanis brings nearly two decades of hands-on experience and strategic insight to the table. In this edition of Community Voices, Martins reflects on the evolution of the industry, the bold moves that shaped Media 24’s growth, and how the company is embracing AI and a product-first mindset to stay ahead. Dive into his story of resilience, speed, and smart risk-taking — and what it takes to build a future-ready affiliate powerhouse.

Can you tell us about your journey into the iGaming industry, how your role and experiences have grown over the years, and what key lessons you’ve learned along the way?

I started in digital marketing about 18 years ago, focusing on SEO. I remember spending my first two weeks just reading everything I could find online. A lot of it turned out to be useless, but it gave me the basics. From there, I worked at a few companies, launched and sold my own digital marketing agency, and later became a freelancer.

In 2016, an affiliate marketer reached out to me through a mutual connection who recommended me based on previous work. I joined his company in 2017 as an employee. That move felt like a risk, but I saw potential.

I spent about four and a half years there. Over time, I started to see big opportunities in markets the company wasn’t willing to explore. Eventually, I decided to leave, sold my shares, and took a break. In May 2022, I joined Media 24.

One key lesson I’ve learned is that long-term consistency often matters more than one brilliant idea. And when you’re scaling fast, being agile and willing to adapt quickly is sometimes more important than being perfect.

After 8+ years in iGaming, what are the biggest changes you’ve seen in the industry, and how has Media 24 kept up with them? What key things have helped Media 24 stay strong?

Even though the industry never stops evolving, the fundamentals of affiliate marketing haven’t changed much. What has changed is the pace of Google updates. They are a constant source of stress for many SEO-focused affiliates. They now come one after another and sometimes have a big impact.

And now when AI begins to reshape how people search, affiliates will need to rethink how they attract organic traffic. In some cases, we’ve already seen that AI-driven results take away up to 30% of traffic from organic searches. Its growing impact means we should prepare for fundamental changes coming ahead.

What’s helped us most is staying extremely focused. We ran at a loss for almost two years after starting the company. It is often the reality when you are starting a SEO based business. It was incredibly stressful, we nearly ran out of money for salaries at one point. But we kept going with one plan — to make it work.

Now we have grown to 60+ websites, 300 partners and a team of over 50 people. And we didn’t aim for perfection, we aimed for progress. That speed-first mindset helped us significantly.

In a competitive industry like iGaming, looking back, can you think of an idea or plan that felt very risky at first but ended up being a big success for Media 24? What did you learn from that?

One of the riskier moves was our “plant seeds everywhere” strategy. We decided early on to enter almost every market where sports betting was popular. Around 90 GEOs in total. In some cases, the numbers said we shouldn’t bother doing that. But we trusted our instinct.

In that way we were able to quickly identify promising markets, then double down where the data started to make sense. It taught us that data is crucial, but so is intuition. Especially in an industry where emerging markets can surprise you.

It also helped us distribute risk. With presence on so many markets, external factors like Google updates or website blocking had a much smaller impact on the overall business. That made Media 24 much stronger and agile in the long run.

Does Media 24 use new technologies like AI? If so, how does using these technologies help the company get stronger or better at what it does?

Definitely. AI-powered tools have already helped us a lot. For example, we noticed a content formatting task that took our managers hours every day. It was repetitive and added up to dozens of lost hours weekly. So, we built an AI-powered algorithm to automate it. Now it takes just minutes, saving our team days and weeks of work each year.

We’re watching AI closely and see a lot of potential. A few months ago, we started developing an AI-first mindset across the team, setting up bi-monthly meetings and workshops to explore how we use these tools and what’s possible. It’s already changing how we work, and we hope to build up on that. The goal is to figure out how we can optimize our work processes and eliminate as many routine, repetitive tasks as possible. We want to free our employees as much time as possible to think, to create, to be proactive, and to create value.

If you could give one piece of advice to someone wanting to build a successful company in iGaming today, what would it be?

Focus on building something future-proof. That means strong partnerships, transparency, and a long-term mindset. In affiliate marketing, a lot of your success depends on trust. Both with users and with operators.

Also, don’t wait for everything to be perfect before launching. Start fast, learn fast, and improve as you go. The ability to move quickly is still one of the biggest advantages you can have in this space.

What are the main future plans for Media 24, and what kind of impact do you hope the company will have on the iGaming world in the years to come?

Our focus is on becoming a product-driven company. We’re seeing a shift in the industry, many affiliates are building tools and user experiences that go far beyond what was considered enough a few years ago. That’s the direction we’re heading as well.

The new generation of players wants better experiences. We hope Media 24 can play a leading role in creating what the future of affiliate marketing looks like. Agile, technological, and always focused on the user.

For iGaming operators, success depends not only on content and marketing but on their ability to stay online when it matters most. We spoke with a SOFTSWISS expert, Deputy CTO Denis Romanovski, to understand what’s really at stake during high load events, what mistakes others make, and what architectural decisions allow platforms like the SOFTSWISS Game Aggregator to consistently deliver 99.999% uptime – even at peak moments.

When a platform fails under high load, what are the main negative consequences for operators?The fallout hits three fronts at once. First of all, you lose revenue. Every failed bet is a direct GGR gone. In a one-minute outage during peak hours, you could lose tens of thousands of euros before you even spot the issue. Second, frustrated players flood the support team with refund claims and bad reviews. Most of them switch to your competitor. Getting those players back costs far more than keeping them happy in the first place. And third, in the scramble, tech teams try to spin up extra cloud capacity at premium rates or engage pricey third-party consultants. Those crisis-mode costs often hit the usual infrastructure budget for weeks afterwards.

So in short, downtime isn’t just an IT problem – it’s a full-blown business crisis that affects finance, marketing, and customer experience.

How does SOFTSWISS prevent those failures? Which patterns are most effective for operating without breaks?

Our resilience comes from layering proven patterns. We run Kubernetes in multiple regions – Europe, Latin America, and South Africa – so player connections go to the nearest point of presence. Databases replicate asynchronously, enabling instant failover if one zone degrades.

We develop containerised microservices, which means that some of our features and tools run in isolated pods. Rolling updates and canary deployments let us push fixes to a tiny slice of traffic first; if any metric goes beyond the threshold, Kubernetes automatically rolls back.

Static assets and game binaries are cached on regional Content Delivery Networks to reduce the load on central servers. Players receive data from the closest edge node with round-trip times of under 100 milliseconds, even on 3G connections. We also have an efficient system for DDoS Defence. Our stable partnership with Cloudflare provides multi-terabit scrubbing. Malicious traffic is cleanly filtered at the network edge, leaving genuine players uninterrupted.

But one more piece is just as crucial as technology: the team behind it. You can invest in the cutting-edge hardware and build the best architecture, but if engineers lack experience working under pressure, reaction times slow down, and players notice. 

SOFTSWISS brings together experienced SREs, database experts, and network architects with deep knowledge of real-world stress situations. This means we don’t just detect issues quickly – we fix them before operators lose trust.

Together, these layers of design and expertise ensure that, no matter what stress tests occur, our platform consistently delivers on its 99.999% uptime promise.

From an operator’s standpoint, what scenarios trigger the greatest anxiety during traffic surges – flash promotions, major sporting events, or something else?

Operators worry most about the unknown spikes. Scheduled events are planned for, like a Champions League kickoff or a midnight bonus reset. But unexpected surges, for example, when a progressive jackpot hits 10 million euros or a social-media post goes viral, can triple traffic in hours, if not minutes. These are the moments when lobbies freeze and players see spinning wheels that never load. 

The fear is not theoretical. I think every operator is familiar with this feeling when you see the queue at the support service filling up with complaints. Every frozen second undermines the player trust that operators spent months building. That’s why they need a reliable tech partner with proven protocols for handling traffic spikes and a track record of keeping the software running without downtime.

Can you walk us through a real “crash test” you’ve seen: what operators see on their dashboards when systems go down?

I can describe a typical scenario that happens in one form or another quite often. Let’s say it’s a Saturday free spins sale on a new slot, paired with double loyalty points. Traffic can jump from 5,000 to 15,000 concurrent users in ten minutes. On the dashboard, CPU usage rises above 90 per cent, Redis cache miss latency jumps from 5ms to over 50ms, and the error rate exceeds 5 per cent. Players see “502 Bad Gateway” errors or simply blank game tiles.

Behind the scenes, operators struggle to issue refunds, while marketing watches their promotional budget turn into failed KPIs. That kind of slippery slope, where one service slowdown affects another, can turn a simple spike into a full-scale outage.

Another case we had at SOFTSWISS involved a live stream event run by one of our operators. They hadn’t properly forecasted the traffic surge, and the load hit fast. We saw system strain building within minutes – API response times climbing, queues backing up. Our team had to act quickly to rebalance and optimise the infrastructure on the fly by adding resources and redistributing load.

Are there any general recommendations or lifehacks operators can use to ensure the stability of their platforms under high load?

Sure – stability is not just about servers and code; it starts with the way people work together and the processes they follow. Regardless of the platform, there are some crucial questions and data points operators should agree on with their provider’s technical account manager before any big launch. 

First, operators need to track traffic dynamics closely – how many players arrive, how many register, and how many stay in play. They should share these forecasts with their provider and flag any risk of actual traffic far exceeding expectations.

The provider, in turn, will map its load models against planned promotions or events. That way, capacity gets reserved in advance instead of scrambling when reality outpaces the plan. At SOFTSWISS, for example, we continuously monitor load on our core components and build in redundancy to absorb traffic spikes.

Operators also need clarity on which SLAs guarantee that extra capacity or failover will be authorised the moment it’s needed. When seconds count, no one should be hunting for the required approvals.

Finally, a new brand or promo campaign must be introduced gradually. Operators can start with low-traffic markets or off-peak windows, verify performance in real‐world conditions, and only then ramp up traffic. This approach will let them avoid unpleasant surprises when the big day arrives.

Nevertheless, high-load incidents do occur. If this happens, blaming is the last thing to think about. However, the tech partner must provide a copy of its post-mortem playbook with root cause analysis, updated runbooks, and clear remediation steps.

Following these checkpoints, operators can trust their tech partner to handle any traffic surge. Potential failures that once threatened to crash the system become routine operations, no matter how intense the load.

In this edition of HIPTHER Community Voices, we talk with Victoria Trofimova, the CEO and co-founder of Nordcurrent, the biggest game studio to come out of Lithuania and the Baltics. Since starting the company in 2002, Victoria has led Nordcurrent from a small team to an international gaming success story — all without external funding.

She shares how key decisions like focusing on mobile games, building a diverse team, and staying true to their creative vision helped shape Nordcurrent’s growth. We also dive into how she’s helping put the Baltics on the global gaming map, supporting young talent, and what advice she has for the next generation of women leaders in tech.

Nordcurrent has grown into a Baltic powerhouse since its  founding in 2002. What were some of the pivotal moments that  shaped the studio’s identity and success—especially as a bootstrapped company?

One key moment was our decision to focus fully on mobile gaming early on. That shift, around 2010, allowed us to scale globally with titles like Cooking Fever, which became a long-term success story. Another pivotal step was building and retaining in-house capabilities, from development to marketing, while staying self-funded. Being bootstrapped taught us discipline, resilience, and how to make bold yet thoughtful decisions without external pressure.

You’ve scaled a 360-person team across multiple countries.  What have been the biggest challenges—and advantages—of  growing Nordcurrent without external funding?

The biggest challenge has been growth pacing. We had to build sustainably, without shortcuts. But that’s also been our advantage; we’ve kept creative control, built long-term trust with our team, and stayed focused on profitability and product quality. It’s a different rhythm, one that favors deep thinking over hype.

Diversity in gaming is still lagging behind. What concrete steps has Nordcurrent taken to drive inclusion, and how do you embed this into studio culture, hiring, and leadership?

We don’t overcomplicate it, we hire the best people who want to build great games with us. We don’t separate or label by gender, background, or title. If someone brings talent, drive, and a collaborative mindset, they belong here. That approach has naturally led to a diverse team, including strong female leadership across departments. We focus on creating an environment where everyone is treated equally, trusted, and heard.

You’ve spoken about attracting global talent to Lithuania and the Baltics. What makes the region appealing—and what misconceptions do you often have to overcome when recruiting internationally?

The Baltics offer a great work-life balance, strong tech ecosystems, and a tight-knit creative scene. But we still need to overcome outdated perceptions; for example, that it’s cold, isolated, or lacking opportunity. The truth is, Vilnius and other cities here are dynamic and are increasingly being recognized for innovation.

In such a saturated gaming market, how does Nordcurrent approach innovation and stay relevant without falling into trend-chasing?

We listen deeply. To players, to data, and to our instincts. With over two decades of experience, we’ve built a rich internal library of what works, what lasts, and what connects. Innovation for us isn’t about reinventing the wheel every time. It’s about layering insight, emotion, and cultural nuance onto strong foundations. We don’t chase trends, we ask how a game fits into people’s lives. That’s why titles like Airplane Chefs resonate. They’re familiar yet fresh, culturally rich but globally accessible. Years of learning has given us the confidence to trust our gut and the clarity to know when to try something bold.

From mobile hits to console and PC publishing—how has your portfolio strategy evolved, and how do you decide what kinds of games to invest in today?

Our mobile success gave us the freedom to diversify. With Nordcurrent Labs, we now publish PC and console games that align with our values: original IP, strong storytelling, and long-tail potential. We look for teams with vision and grit, whether it’s cozy games or narrative-rich adventures.

You recently acquired River End Games and the Cinemaware catalog. What’s the strategic thinking behind those moves, and what can players expect from these legacy properties going Forward?

River End Games brings deep narrative talent and AAA craftsmanship, which complements our publishing ambitions. With Cinemaware, we’re reimagining classics for a new generation. These acquisitions aren’t about nostalgia only, they’re about unlocking untapped creative value in ways that feel both respectful and bold.

How are you helping to nurture the next generation of game developers in the Baltics, and what role do you think studios should play in education or early talent development?

We take this responsibility seriously. As the largest Lithuania-born game developer, we feel a strong duty to help grow the industry, not just our studio. We actively collaborate with the Lithuanian Game Developers Association, support local game jams, and organize major meetups that bring the community together. Our goal is to make the gaming industry more visible, more accessible, and more appealing, especially to young people who may not yet see it as a real career path.

It’s not just about hiring talent, it’s about helping to create it. We believe studios should take an active role in popularizing the industry, opening doors, and building a future where game development is seen as a creative and respected profession.

You’re leading a company that’s rooted in Eastern Europe but competing on a global stage. How do you balance local values with global ambitions?

We don’t see it as a conflict. Our roots give us authenticity and resilience, and these are qualities that resonate globally. We build games that are grounded in strong craft and cultural richness but are universally relatable. Staying true to who we are has been our best strategy for going global.

And finally—what advice would you give to aspiring women leaders in tech and gaming who want to break into this industry and rise through the ranks?

Own your voice. You don’t need to fit a mold to lead. Surround yourself with people who challenge and support you. And remember, leadership isn’t just about a title, it’s about taking responsibility, lifting others, and staying curious. Tech and gaming need your perspective, and there’s room for you at the table.