I have now worked in the gaming industry for over 10 years but my interest and involvement in gambling started when I was much younger. Besides playing 5p slot machines well before I was legally old enough to do so my first real experience gambling came when I was about 13 and a friend of mine introduced me to a card game called ‘3 card brag.’ Undoubtedly it was this game that got me interested in poker well before the poker boom came about.
First Poker Adventure
The year before I started University I went travelling. It was the same year I discovered Ladbrokes online poker and thankfully that site paid the way for most of my travels.
Not only did I find success playing poker on Ladbrokes, but it’s also actually where I first met Jamie. A mutual friend of ours mentioned that he also played online on Ladbrokes (as Burberry1) and we soon struck up a virtual friendship.
It was quite uncommon that anyone else at our age and within our circles of friends was playing online poker at this time. So we formed a close friendship relatively quickly as we clearly had very similar interests in football, poker and UK online casinos.
University Gambling
Online poker naturally led me to explore playing live tournament poker in the Casino’s when I was at University in Leeds. The Napoleons and Grosvenor casinos would hold 2 or 3 tournaments a week, with low stakes buy-ins starting from £5 re-buy tournaments.
The problem with playing these tournaments regularly was that I spent so much time in the Casino’s and was slowly drawn to the dark side of gambling…Despite being told that roulette was the devil’s game (all the numbers on a roulette table add up to 666) I was not strong-willed enough to stay away.
Visits to the casino became more frequent and didn’t depend on whether there was a poker tournament going on that day or night.
Being a student I didn’t have access to much money and after my student loan disappeared as quickly as it came in there was little to fall back on. Looking back this was probably a small blessing in disguise. I learnt about the dangers and pitfalls of gambling from an early age, well before I had any significant income or savings to blow.
By my last year at University, I felt I had got the gambling bug out of my system but I badly missed playing online poker which I hadn’t done that much off whilst at University. General poor internet quality and excessive drinking really got in the way of that hobby.
Working in Gambling
Jamie had started a job role in marketing for a company which had just launched a new Online Bingo and Casino site. I was desperate to get involved. And when he found out they were looking to expand into poker and needed someone with a strong product knowledge he kindly put me forward for the role and it was my first job in gambling having previously been working for an investment bank in the City.
Various Gambling Ventures
I won’t go into much detail about each role I have worked in over the last 10 years, you can ask me on stream instead, however here is a short summary of each job and how it led me to launch Fruity slots.
UK Marketing Manager For William Hill
The Poker Farm – At the time of the largest poker staking companies in Europe.
Matchbook – Head of Marketing
Founder Betabonus
After launching Betabonus I was keen to expand my portfolio of sites but knew that competition for online casino affiliates was extremely tough and saturated. Much like the online operators, only the biggest and well-funded sites were doing particularly well and growing whilst smaller affiliate sites were left by the wayside.
It was only a chance encounter whilst watching live poker being streamed on youtube that I came across the online casino streaming channels. It didn’t take me long to get me hooked.
Youtube Became my Netflix
I was skipping my regular Netflix series to watch Rocknrolla’s degenerate but highly exciting live streams and whilst working during the day I was tuning into Nick Slots to keep me entertained.
It didn’t take me long to decide that this was a perfect time and opportunity to launch Fruity Slots. Twitch and YouTube provide a modern way for viewers to engage with streamers and enjoy the highs and lows of gambling through other people’s real and live experiences.
Not to mention it would give me and Jamie a credible and excusable reason to actually gamble every week, something we both love!
I’m not going to beat around the bush on this subject. This is a business. Fruity Slots is a business. BUT it’s a business we LOVE. We love gambling, we love winning and we hate losing. This is real.
We’re Honest About What We Do
However, make no mistake about it. We can afford to stream and gamble because of the business nature of what we are doing. This is how all the successful casino streamers are able to gamble every day, sometimes for hours on end. With exclusive casino bonuses and affiliate revenue, streamer’s have a fall back to supplement losses and put the edge closer in their favour.
We don’t want to fool our viewers. Gambling is dangerous. But it’s that danger and excitement that drags most of us in. We want to create great content for our viewers. We want to give back to our followers and we want you all to enjoy what we are doing.
So far I have thoroughly enjoyed launching the channel with Jamie and creating the brand content but at the same time, I’m extremely nervous about it all. I’m nervous to gamble nearly every day. It’s scary. I tilt and I can tilt badly! Keeping that degenerate side of me locked in a cage is something I have not been able to control well!
The mental side of losing money and not chasing those losses is the hardest thing to beat. Turning off the computer and being normal with my wife and kids after losing thousands of pounds online, good luck with that. I hope I can do it.
Well, that’s enough of my ramblings. I hope that gives you a little picture of my gambling background and how Fruity slots was created. Now back to collecting some bonuses for my next stream…
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