ReferOn has completed a management buyout, with former General Manager Alex Bukin acquiring the iGaming affiliate management platform and taking over as Chief Executive Officer.

Bukin said the deal is intended to support longer-term product and market plans: “This is an important moment for ReferOn and the beginning of a new chapter for the business. The management buyout provides us with the long-term focus required to continually advance the platform. We remain committed to product development, strengthening our offerings for partners, and supporting ReferOn’s continued growth across key markets.”

ReferOn reported that in its first 12 months post-launch it recorded 35.7 million clicks, 2.4 million registrations, 18,000 affiliates, and 136,000 active trackers. The company also said it was named “Best Affiliate Platform” in 2025 and 2026 by industry stakeholders.

The company said the ownership change will not affect day-to-day operations and that existing support and partnerships will continue. It also pointed to recent product updates including Refie, described as a built-in interface layer, alongside features such as dynamic reporting, Company Grouping, Sub-Affiliation, Independent Deal Calculation (IDC), two-factor authentication (2FA), and mobile optimization.

As part of the transition, ReferOn said its leadership team remains in place, with Vlad Bondarenko moving from Head of Product to Chief Product Officer and David Harris moving from Operations Lead to Chief Operations Officer.

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TAG Media and Gamblitude have launched affie.ai, a guided decision-making engine designed for iGaming affiliate managers. The companies said the product will make its debut at SBC Summit Malta, running 28–30 April.

At the event, affie.ai’s Elaine Gardiner, Alana Weldon and Wojtek Sznapka will demonstrate the platform to operators interested in becoming one of five launch partners. The companies said they are offering a “No Strings Attached” six-week trial to five operators.

affie.ai is positioned as a decision layer rather than an affiliate tracking platform or dashboard. TAG Media said the product is built on strategic frameworks the company has used across “50+ programme launches” over the past decade, while Gamblitude provides the data and analytics layer. Gamblitude was founded by former STS chief technology officer Wojtek Sznapka and former STS chief sportsbook officer Piotr Cerlak.

The companies said affie.ai provides data-informed recommendations covering deal structures, partner performance, programme optimisation and commercial risk insights, with the goal of reducing time spent on reporting and spreadsheet-based analysis.

Elaine Gardiner, Co-Founder of affie.ai says: “After 17 years managing affiliate programmes for operators including Cherry Casino, Ninja Casino and Rizk, I know what good decision-making looks like in this role and I know how rarely it’s supported by the right tools. affie.ai takes the strategic thinking our team applies every day and makes it available on demand and at pace: specific to your programme, specific to your data and ready when the affiliate manager needs it.”

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ReferOn has launched a built-in crypto finance layer designed to automate affiliate payouts and centralise crypto payout workflows inside its platform. The company said the feature supports crypto payments through its licensed partners’ payment gateways and is available now.

ReferOn said the layer is intended to replace manual, fragmented finance processes with program funding, real-time visibility into funds, automated crypto payouts, and audit-ready transaction history with exports. The company is positioning the release at affiliate teams that manage high payout volumes and frequent reconciliation work.

The update introduces a dedicated finance page for each affiliate program, including program funding and balance visibility, integrated top-ups with deposit address management, and a transaction journal with filters, detail views, pagination, and CSV export. ReferOn also said the automated payout flow records conversion data (rate and amounts), syncs statuses, and creates transaction records instantly.

On controls, ReferOn said each automated payout requires explicit confirmations and 2FA before being triggered. The company added that the feature is built to support audit and compliance needs through traceable transaction logs and one-click CSV exports.

Vlad Bondarenko, Head of Product at ReferOn, commented: “In all honesty, manual crypto payments are a disaster waiting to happen. When teams are afraid of entering the wrong address, making a double payment, or organising ever-growing spreadsheets, the team environment turns conservative and reactive. Our new crypto finance layer eliminates this confusion by providing managers with a comprehensive, centralised hub that automates the manual via integrated payment partners. This feature isn’t about offering affiliates a fancy new payment method or automating for the sake of it, it’s about freeing you up to run a revamped financial operation.”

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