In the third part of this iGB L!VE 2025 speaker interview series, Gentoo Media head of SEO Emilio Takas looks back on his journey from dial-up internet to leading the affiliate’s sports strategy. He reflects on how YouTube shaped his digital instincts, why team building matters more than keywords and what it takes to thrive in the new era of AI search.
Gentoo Media head of SEO and iGB L!VE speaker Emilio Takas’s obsession with the internet started very early. Thanks to a dad who worked at a major Greek telecommunications company, Takas had one of the world’s first pilot PSTN connections when he was six.
He was hooked on the digital world the moment he was connected. Fascinated by the possibilities technology provided, Takas soon picked up a VHS camera, running around and documenting family events. He went on to study electronic and communications engineering at the Technological Educational Institute of Athens.
“I started working as a designer and a developer back in 2003, a time when I also began to seriously explore and invest my energy into understanding how SEO worked, testing ideas, building websites and learning how to grow visibility online,” Takas recalls.
I felt the need to create a space where I could share my knowledge about video editing and review the gear I was using to make my content, aiming to teach and connect with others around the world
“It’s fun to do the impossible”
Takas first entered the iGaming space in 2007, but his career has spanned a range of industries over the years. In 2016, encouraged by friends, he started a YouTube channel sharing video editing tutorials and gear reviews, aiming to “teach and connect with others around the world”. It began as a side project, but everything changed overnight when a well-known YouTuber reposted one of his videos, sending his follower count soaring past 20,000. Today, the channel has over 36,000 subscribers.
Takas now sees his hobby as an essential part of deepening his knowledge in the digital landscape: “Through that process, I have gained a deep understanding of how the influencer world works and how online content creation really functions behind the scenes.”
It was only over the last six years that he shifted his SEO career focus to iGaming. Before his current role at Gentoo Media, Takas was the head of SEO at KingBet Media, the local hero in the Greek market. There, he managed both internal and external SEO professionals and trained the content team to perform at their full potential. Within two years, the affiliate’s non-branded organic traffic jumped to 1410% compared to when he just started and achieved first position for top iGaming keywords in the local market.
Invited by a former colleague, Takas has also co-authored the first-ever iGaming SEO book, which came out this March. When asked about his favourite quote to be included in his chapter, Takas’s is by Walt Disney – “It’s fun to do the impossible”. Describing himself as “a stubborn guy”, Takas sees challenges as motivations and says he would stop working on a project if things become static. But luckily, being in the iGaming affiliate sector, where no two days are the same, he is having a good run.
SEO on its own doesn’t mean much without full support from product, tech and content
More team spirit
As Gentoo’s head of SEO for the sports vertical, his role centres around driving the affiliate’s conversion and retention strategies. Believing that “the real edge in the sector comes from turning first-time visitors into loyal return users”, he works closely with the product team to constantly test new ideas and develop user-friendly features.
What he enjoys most is the people. Though algorithms and keywords are crucial, Takas says that team building – the theme of his panel at iGB L!VE 2025 – is the “most critical part” of his work.
As SEOs, it's our responsibility to help colleagues who aren’t familiar with SEO understand why it matters and how to apply it properly
“As a head, your job is to keep the ‘locker room’ united, set clear goals, share a strong vision and create the right conditions for everyone to perform at their best,” he explains. “When the team spirit is right, there’s no limit to what you can achieve. But SEO on its own doesn’t mean much without full support from product, tech and content. That’s why close collaboration and agile processes are what truly make or break a project.”
He stresses that it is SEO specialists’ job to help colleagues who aren’t familiar with the subject “understand why it matters and how to apply it properly” in relation to the business’s overall strategy. At Gentoo, all projects are documented and accessible to stakeholders, supporting transparency and smoother execution in cross-department workflows.
The focus has to be on building a strong product, diversifying how you acquire traffic and making sure users not only visit your site but choose to stay with you for the long term
Doubling down on sports
The “SEO is dead” myth has been circulating in the space for a few years now, but Takas is adamant that it is still alive – it’s just no longer what it used to be.
“With AI Mode, AI overviews and constant shifts in the SERPs driven by sites that rank briefly and then disappear, the game has changed,” he says. “Now, if you are looking to win in the long term, the focus has to be on building a strong product, diversifying how you acquire traffic and making sure users not only visit your site but choose to stay with you for the long term.”
In a previous iGBA feature on football brand-building strategies, Toke Theilade, head of sports at Gentoo Media, shared that although the company was traditionally casino-focused, it is now “shifting more towards sports”. Working closely with Theilade, Takas is playing an essential part in driving this change. Although he can’t reveal much for now, Takas promises that Gentoo’s sports vertical has big innovations ahead, driven by the same “stubborn” curiosity that first hooked him to the internet at age six.
Emilio Takas will be speaking at "Cracking the SEO Code: Building Aligned, Agile, High-Impact Growth Teams" and "Features, Feeds, and Funnels for a Smarter Betting Journey" on 3 July 2025 at iGB L!VE 2025.