Joonas Karhu’s journey from the poker table to the CEO role at Bojoko reflects a deep understanding of player psychology and the iGaming landscape. Under his leadership, Bojoko has grown from a trusted affiliate in the UK and has made big strides in Canada over the last few years.
We previously spoke with Karhu about his path from poker player to CEO of one of the most notable iGaming affiliates in the world. In this interview, Karhu shares how his poker background influences Bojoko’s strategic growth, how he and his team have built a player-centered brand, and whether Bojoko will ever venture into the poker space.
What would you say are the main lessons from your days as a poker player that have shaped your approach as CEO of Bojoko?
There are a few key lessons from poker that I apply daily as CEO. One of the biggest is the importance of calculated risk. In poker, every move you make involves weighing potential rewards against possible losses. I’ve taken that same approach at Bojoko—we’re deliberate about which markets we enter and how we position ourselves in a very competitive industry. We don’t jump into anything without assessing if it truly aligns with our strengths and if it offers genuine value to players.
Another major lesson from poker is reading odds. In poker, you constantly evaluate odds to make smart decisions, and in business, it’s similar. Knowing the probabilities or chances of success is crucial to avoid unnecessary risks. For instance, in expanding Bojoko, we evaluated how each market fit with our strengths and values. This “odds-based” thinking keeps us focused on opportunities likely to yield the best results and helps us avoid those that don’t align with our vision.
Poker has also taught me the importance of patience and adaptability. It trains you to stay calm under pressure and to think several steps ahead. In business, things don’t always go according to plan, and you need to be ready to adapt. At Bojoko, we’re constantly refining our platform based on player feedback, and we’re not afraid to make changes if they improve the user experience.
Finally, poker taught me a lot about reading people and understanding motivations. That’s essential when you’re building a brand around player trust. Having a general idea of what players want is not enough; you must fully understand why they value certain features or approaches. By keeping that focus, we’ve been able to create a platform that genuinely resonates with users across different markets.
You mentioned your expansion to Canada, which seems to have been a great success. What was your approach to establishing credibility there?
Expanding into Canada was a big move. Establishing ourselves took time and a lot of learning, and we didn’t want to rush it. We’d already built a strong, reliable brand in the UK, so we took our time to understand what aspects of our approach could translate well and where we’d need to adapt. Canada isn’t a carbon copy of the UK market, and building trust required more than just replicating our UK model—it required real attention to Canadian player preferences and behavior.
The success we’d seen in the UK gave us a solid framework to start with, namely transparency, user-driven reviews, and a commitment to quality. We then adapted that framework to meet the specific demands of Canadian players, who are in a very different legal situation. Only Ontario has a license, contrary to the UK, which is highly regulated. This meant we had to take extra care and ensure that every brand we listed on Bojoko.ca was safe and trustworthy.
Building trust in a new market takes time, especially when players are unfamiliar with your brand. We focused on partnering with licensed, reputable operators and took a very deliberate approach to transparently showcase each casino’s strengths and weaknesses. There was no instant success; we had to be patient and play the odds, but as Canadians became aware of us, we kept growing.
It’s been a journey, but the feedback from Canadian players has shown us that our approach works. When players see detailed, user-centered reviews and get real, transparent insights from others in their community, they know Bojoko is a platform they can trust.
On the topic of successes long in the making, Bojoko achieved record-breaking traffic and FTDs in Q3 of 2024. What do you think contributed to this growth?
Q3 2024 was our strongest quarter yet, which was a fantastic milestone for us. I attribute this to our ongoing commitment to empowering our users. Players are drawn to clear, straightforward information, and with our quick filters, finding the right gambling site is easy. We are not just another affiliate pushing specific brands because they pay listing fees. We don’t sell any positions.
Instead, we prioritize the brands we believe will appeal the most to our users. We take input from our experts and then look at actual user data. We also allow our users to filter every list on our website so that they can ensure the gambling sites they see have all the features they are looking for.
Being a gambler myself, I found it important to set up an environment that was by players for players, and this has clearly been a winning formula.
We can’t let you go this time without asking an obvious question. With your poker background, why do you not yet have a poker vertical? Do you see Bojoko covering poker sites in the near future?
I can’t really comment on business decisions like this, but I can say that it would be a natural step for us. Poker is still very close to my heart, and I know there’s an appetite for it among players. However, poker is quite different from casino games—it has its own dynamics and requires a unique approach to content and recommendations.
If we decide to add a poker vertical, we’d want to expand the team with poker players. We have successfully invested in actual experts for casinos, betting, and bingo. We would like our readers to know that they are reading the assessment of an actual poker expert. Establishing a new vertical tales time, and you can be sure that if we roll out poker, we will give it our all.
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