Investing in Arbitrage Teams

Can you share your experience in digital marketing and the role of arbitrage teams in your investment strategy?

I have over 17 years of professional experience in digital marketing. I remember well the times when digital advertising actively adopted buying models from traditional media, and when the emergence of Programmatic auctions and automated bidding strategies felt like a genuine revolution. I clearly recall Google Ads rolling out CPA optimization and smart bidding, setting a completely new standard for campaign effectiveness.

Throughout my career, I’ve gained diverse experience working on both client and agency sides, managing projects across B2C and B2B segments. Additionally, I have firsthand experience in media buying and traffic acquisition, which eventually allowed me to progress to a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) role.

Over the past 8 years, I’ve been deeply involved in the iGaming industry. My experience in strategic planning, analytics, and project management naturally led me toward investment activities. Currently, within the fund, I’m responsible for building an investment portfolio in the Martech vertical, where arbitrage teams have become a key strategic component.

Why arbitrage teams specifically? Such projects enable quick hypothesis testing, rapid scaling of successful campaigns, and swift profit generation. Although this area involves elevated risk, arbitrage teams are instrumental in achieving our target KPIs promptly and significantly enhancing the overall profitability of our investment portfolio.

What led you to focus on arbitrage teams as an investment opportunity?

Arbitrage teams genuinely excite us because of their remarkable flexibility and agility in navigating rapid market changes. What makes these teams especially valuable to our fund is their unique ability to quickly test new ideas, enter fresh markets, and rapidly evaluate the performance of new offers—including exclusive ones we provide specifically for them.

To fully unlock this potential, we’re very selective about the arbitrage teams we partner with. We carefully analyze their historical and current ROI metrics, dive deep into their traffic acquisition strategies, and personally interview key members to ensure they have exactly the right expertise and mindset for success.

Ultimately, investing in arbitrage teams enables us to get immediate feedback and see clear results within the first few weeks. Their potential for high short-term returns and quick recovery of invested capital makes these partnerships extremely attractive and perfectly aligned with our fund’s strategic goals.

How do you assess the current state of the arbitrage traffic market?

Currently, the arbitrage traffic market is experiencing a fascinating stage: it has become mature, highly professionalized, and significantly more competitive. Media-buying rules are tightening, and powerful internal media-buying teams within major iGaming operators have emerged, noticeably reshaping the competitive landscape.

Initially, this might seem challenging, but in reality, it represents an excellent opportunity for strong, technologically savvy, and creative teams to stand out. Today, arbitrage teams that aren’t afraid to experiment with new alternative traffic sources, innovative buying strategies, and actively explore entirely new geos are gaining the upper hand.

I firmly believe that competition drives growth: it motivates teams to move faster, dive deeper into analytics, and implement advanced automation tools. Nowadays, simply being proficient at traffic buying is no longer enough to stay on top. It’s crucial to build strong partnerships, invest in human capital—your team—and in the cutting-edge technologies that ensure their effectiveness.

What key factors, including historical performance metrics and market reputation, do you consider when selecting an arbitrage team for investment?

When selecting arbitrage teams, we adopt a comprehensive approach, carefully evaluating multiple factors. First of all, we focus on how long the team has been active in the market, their operational stability, expertise, and overall reputation. Additionally, we closely analyze current and historical ROI metrics, stability and fluctuations in traffic acquisition and revenue, as well as their ability to scale campaigns and manage growth effectively.

Special attention is also given to teams facing temporary challenges, not just those already performing perfectly. In fact, we actively seek projects that might currently be experiencing difficulties but have clear growth potential. In such cases, partnering with our fund becomes particularly valuable, as we provide the necessary infrastructure, access to new markets, and strategic resources to help teams overcome obstacles and achieve their full potential.

What benefits do arbitrage teams gain from partnering with investment funds?

In the industry today, investment in the form of money alone is no longer the primary value, especially when we talk about arbitrage teams, where liquidity typically isn’t an issue. Many arbitrage teams are already financially self-sufficient and usually seek additional capital either to increase their working capital or expand into new verticals.

The main advantage of partnering with PIN-UP.INVESTMENTS comes from our robust infrastructure, expertise, and strategic resources. Our company encompasses multiple brands, affiliate programs, and portfolio businesses with their own advertisers. Thus, we can provide arbitrage teams with exclusive offers, access to experienced media-buying specialists, optimized financial operations, assistance with legal issues, recruitment of necessary personnel, management of accounts, and app setups—essentially addressing any specific challenges the team may face.

Moreover, instead of building departments from scratch, we can help teams acquire fully operational units, enabling faster growth and efficiency. Ultimately, partnering with our fund allows teams to quickly overcome their operational challenges, accelerate scaling, reduce overall risks, and optimize their costs. This approach helps arbitrage teams achieve stable growth, which is crucial for projects characterized by higher risk levels.

In your opinion, how will the arbitrage traffic market evolve in the next 3-5 years, particularly with the integration of new technologies like AI?

This is a great question, especially since arbitrage traffic is one of the most dynamic and rapidly evolving verticals within the digital industry. However, even now we can identify several key trends likely to shape its development in the coming years.

With the integration of artificial intelligence, arbitrage teams will significantly enhance their analytical capabilities and automation potential. AI-driven tools will evolve beyond basic funnel splits and standard analytics, moving toward highly personalized insights. For example, AI tools will soon identify precisely which offer elements users respond to most strongly, automatically adapting creatives—from ad copy to video promotions—in real-time.

Analytics in arbitrage will become deeper and increasingly segmented, enabling more precise audience targeting. We anticipate the rise of no-code automated platforms and AI-driven tools, empowering media buyers to scale effectively without extensive programming skills or large in-house technical teams. As a result, arbitrage teams will likely shift toward strategic partnerships, forming long-term collaborations with major advertisers and investment funds to achieve stability and unlock new growth opportunities.