Former Wake Up executive says some iGaming operators hide every third deposit and media buying teams lose millions

A former Wake Up top executive says some iGaming operators conceal every third deposit from partners, while media buying teams can lose millions to cuts and advertiser disputes. The same account also puts some of the unit economics in blunt terms: one player acquisition can cost €150 and end up at €300 once extra costs are added.

1. Wake Up reportedly had 700 media buyers and operated without much public visibility. That matters because the agency model in iGaming often scales on relationships and volume, not on loud branding.
2. Building a media buying agency from scratch, according to the source, can turn into major losses. The text does not put a ceiling on those losses; it just makes clear that the burn can be severe before the model stabilizes.
3. One iGaming conference cost $10,000 and produced $1,500,000 in contracts. A single meeting at that event reportedly led to a $700,000 contract in the first month, which is a reminder that conference spend in this segment is often judged by pipeline, not by the badge count.
4. Some iGaming operators hide every third deposit from partners, the source says. For PSPs and affiliates, that is not a PR problem; it is a reconciliation problem, because the reported performance and the actual money flow stop matching.
5. The same source says media buying teams can lose millions because of cuts and disputes with advertisers. It also says teams sometimes walk away from potential $2 million per month because of conflicts over $5,000, which is exactly the sort of small-ticket dispute that can poison a much larger commercial relationship.

There is also a unit-economics warning here for high-risk operators: acquiring one player for €150 can cost €300 once additional expenses are included. The source also says iGaming operators create clones of products to re-monetize dissatisfied players, which tells you something about how aggressively retention and recycling are managed in this market.