From Omsk to CEO of GipsyTeam: How Andrei Antipov Turned a Poker Forum Into a Profitable Business

Poker in the CIS has seen its share of highs and lows: Roskomnadzor bans, sanctions, the exit of major brands, and endless regulation swings. But among those who managed to “survive” and even build a profitable business, GipsyTeam stands out — the largest poker community in the region. Today, it’s a full-scale ecosystem with its own media, marketplace, support service, education platform, and affiliate program.

How does a poker enthusiast from Omsk become the leader of the international poker ecosystem? Andrey Antipov, CEO and co-owner of GipsyTeam, tells his story in this short article.

This piece is a written version of Episode 4 of The Riddick Level podcast, a recap of the most interesting answers from the episode.

Andrei, you’re not exactly the guy who followed the classic management playbook. How did it all start?

I’m from Omsk. Back in the 2000s, everything revolved around computer clubs. That’s where I spent most of my teenage years. When online poker finally reached Russia, my friends started playing, and I joined in too. The first freeroll I played  (that legendary $50 on PokerStars), I lost right away. The second one went a bit better.

By 2010, I was already making money from poker, and for Omsk, that meant a really comfortable life. But honestly, I was never a talented player. I just quickly realized that poker gives freedom: you can work anywhere in the world, play, chat, and make money. It felt like the perfect success formula for me back then.

“At first, everyone started like that. I thought, damn, it’s cards, gambling, you can lose your apartment.”

Before becoming CEO, you tried quite a few different things.

Yeah, my path was… let’s say, all over the place. After a few years at the tables, I tried trading and lost everything I’d saved. Then I got into coffee and worked at Skuratov Coffee, where I was a barista, a roaster, and trained the team. That’s where I learned what real customer service means and how to work with people. Later, this experience helped me a lot when dealing with players, platforms, and partners.

When I moved to Moscow in 2017, some poker friends told me that GipsyTeam was looking for an affiliate manager. I accepted the offer and found myself “on the other side.” I’d known the forum since 2010, just as an active user: blogging, chatting, discussing poker stuff. My biggest advantage was that I understood the audience. I spoke the same language as the players.

What helped you grow into the CEO role?

Three things. First — understanding the player. I knew their pain points and motivations. That’s half the success in any product. Second — service culture I absorbed earlier. After the coffee shop experience, I started seeing every business through the customer’s eyes. Third — product thinking. Back at the coffee shop, I began building websites and developing an online store, then launched small projects, experimented, and made mistakes. I was always curious why something didn’t work and wanted to fix it myself.

The management (executives) gave me room to grow. They kept giving me tasks just a bit harder than the previous ones, like a video game where each level gets tougher, but way more interesting. At first, I built the support department. Then I connected it with the affiliate team, later got into the marketplace, and started working on metrics, processes, and optimization. Step by step, my responsibilities expanded. Over five years, I went from affiliate manager to CEO.

The poker industry in the CIS constantly faces Roskomnadzor bans and regulatory restrictions. What do you do when things go wrong?

At first, I panic. Then I write it all down. Make notes. Seriously. Once you start putting things on paper, the chaos in your head turns into a plan.

When the government started blocking poker sites, we decided not to play a cat-and-mouse game. We removed all links to poker rooms, even in old forum threads, knowing we’d lose income. Traffic dropped by a third, but within a couple of months, users came back. We bet on transparency instead of quick wins. Playing by the rules, even when it was painful, ultimately saved the project.

The same mindset helped us survive sanctions and frozen payments. The key is not to outsmart the regulator, but to keep the audience’s trust. In poker, that’s the only currency that never loses value.

“My first reaction is always: “Jesus, why? Why now? What did we do to deserve this again?” But then I pull myself together.”

Today, GipsyTeam is way more than just a forum. How have you evolved?

We’ve grown a lot. Now GipsyTeam is a full ecosystem, a place where players can literally live. They can read news, chat on the forum, find a coach, buy software, and get support — all in one spot. The main revenue comes from our affiliate program. We work with dozens of poker rooms: PokerDom, CoinPoker, RedStar, and more. But the real strength of the business is retention. It keeps people engaged. That’s achieved through a mix of service + community + growth opportunities.

We’ve got about 115 people on the team now. In the early days, the company felt like a startup — one person could be a support, an accountant, and a content creator all at once. In the past few years, we’ve built structure, documentation, processes, and a real hiring system. We learned how to grow talent internally. That was probably the hardest, but most important shift.

You tried expanding to Latin America and the US. What went wrong?

We rushed it. In 2022, we decided to launch three new versions of the site at once: English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on SEO, only to realize later that player behavior is entirely different in each region. In LATAM, for example, people barely read long news. They want videos and community engagement.

Now we’re taking a different approach: focusing on specific countries rather than languages, hiring local producers, and tailoring content to each culture. It was a costly mistake, but a valuable one — it showed there’s no such thing as a one-size-fits-all strategy.

“And we were like, what did we just get ourselves into?”

How do you see GipsyTeam evolving in the next few years?

Right now, about 75% of our traffic originates from Russian-speaking markets and 25% from abroad. I’d like to flip that ratio: 60% international and 40% CIS, and focus on regions where poker has a legal status, and we don’t have to fight constant blocks and bans.

We’re already testing AI tools for support and onboarding to take some load off the managers and improve conversion rates. At the same time, we’re exploring partnerships across Latin America (in Colombia, Mexico, and Argentina). And the long-term goal is to launch our own poker room within the next five years.

“Now I’m thinking we need to focus on markets where poker has some sort of legal status, where you can operate, and where you can find solid partners to co-create products with.”

GipsyTeam has weathered countless market storms, retained the trust of its players, and evolved from a forum into a stable, full-fledged ecosystem. The story behind that growth, the mistakes, the decisions, and the turning points, is what Andrei Antipov shares in the full episode of The Riddick’s Level podcast.