Episode 92·11:26·16 Oct 2026

LinkedIn Is Cringe. So Why Does It Still Win Business?

with Eugene Camilleri, Director, Malta, Pateplay

Surya Palli

Founder of iGaming Real Talk.·16 Oct 2026

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LinkedIn can be cringe, repetitive and full of copy-paste content. Eugene Camilleri still believes it is one of the most useful tools available to people working in iGaming B2B.

In Episode 92, Surya speaks with Eugene from Pateplay about the way he approaches LinkedIn, why he refuses to spend hours planning posts and how a personal brand can turn into actual conversations and business.

Eugene says most of his posts take less than 10 minutes. The idea might come while he is in the shower, working or simply thinking about something in the industry. His bigger point is that people often overcomplicate content instead of developing a recognisable voice and saying something they genuinely believe.

The conversation also gets into memes, complaints and controversial posts. Eugene argues that criticism becomes more valuable when it comes with a solution. Memes can build attention and personality, but an audience built only around jokes and complaints is difficult to convert into anything commercially useful.

He also explains his frustration with mass sales outreach, particularly irrelevant messages sent without understanding whether the person receiving them could ever become a customer.

The episode closes with the business impact behind all that activity. Eugene says LinkedIn has improved his response rates, widened his network and directly contributed to business. For someone working commercially, he sees LinkedIn and industry communities as part of the job rather than something separate from it.

“LinkedIn honestly is cringe. It always was cringe though.”

“I've never sat down and spent more than 10 minutes on a post.”

“Either we can make it happen or we can make an excuse.”

“Be original. Have your own takes.”

“Being big on LinkedIn definitely helps with people speaking to you.”

“I have done a lot of business specifically because of my LinkedIn route.”

Key takeaways

Eugene thinks LinkedIn is cringe, but old LinkedIn was worse
Eugene has little patience for generic corporate posts and repetitive thought-leadership formats.
“LinkedIn honestly is cringe. It always was cringe though.”
What made him more interested in the platform was seeing people begin posting content that felt more human rather than repeating the same corporate formulas.
His daily LinkedIn post usually takes less than 10 minutes
Eugene rejects the argument that being active on LinkedIn means someone is not doing their actual job.
“I pump out a post a day and it never takes me more than 10 minutes.”
For him, consistency does not require a complicated content strategy. It requires having something genuine to say and actually publishing it.
Start with an opinion, not another generic industry update
His advice for someone trying to start posting is simple.
Think of something worth sharing and share it.
But he warns against producing another generic three-paragraph summary of iGaming news.
“Be original. Have your own takes.”
Complaining works only when there is something useful behind it
Eugene does post rants and criticism.
But he distinguishes between simply attacking something and explaining what is wrong while offering a possible solution.
“The big difference between complainers complaining and content is that you offer up solutions.”
For him, that is what turns a rant into content with actual value.
Memes get attention, but they cannot be the whole strategy
Eugene believes memes are powerful because they create emotion quickly.
But someone who only posts memes and complaints may build an audience without building commercial credibility.
The content still needs to be balanced with material relevant to the person's industry and work.

About the guest

Eugene Camilleri

Director, Malta, Pateplay

LinkedIn profile

Extended summary

Published by the podcast, not written by our newsroom.

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(00:00 - 00:37) Eugene: LinkedIn honestly is great. There is something there. Surya: People say if you're very active on LinkedIn that you're not doing the job that you're supposed to be doing. Eugene: I think you're right. That is an excuse. I pump out a post a day that never takes me more than 10 minutes. Surya: Either we can make it happen or we can make an excuse. Eugene: Teams is the worst IM platform ever invented. Surya: More awful than Skype?

Eugene: Honestly, Skype was infinitely better. Surya: Why do you hate payments people? Eugene: It's that sales tactic that I hate. Surya: How has your LinkedIn activity helped you in business? Eugene: Yes, I have closed a lot of business because of it. (00:37 - 01:21) Surya: We are here at iGB Live in London. iGaming Real Talk is excited to announce the next edition of Real Roadshow 2026. Very excited to bring the insights from the expo floor.

We spoke to leaders and experts from companies including Altenar, ST8, Endorphina, SOFTSWISS, My Gaming License, Tequity, Pateplay and many more. This series is brought to you by ST8, a single API game aggregator for regulated markets. (01:21 - 02:12) Surya: Hello and welcome back to another episode of iGaming Real Talk. I have with me Eugene Camilleri from Pateplay and we are here at iGB London. I've been in touch with Eugene for a long time.

He's a very well-known guy on LinkedIn and in the community, so I'm very excited to dive into some of those things today. Eugene, welcome to the show. Eugene: It's nice to be here. Surya: Is it Eugene or Eugene? Eugene: It's Eugene. Surya: So you're Maltese? Eugene: Half Maltese, half Russian technically, but I was born and raised in Malta. Surya: Half Russian? Eugene: Yeah.

People are always surprised when I start speaking Russian out of nowhere because I don't sound or look like I should, but I do. Surya: Yeah. Camilleri is a Maltese name, but sometimes you do look Russian. Cool. Let's talk about your LinkedIn game. You're very native on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the place to be for iGaming B2B. What are your thoughts on how you do LinkedIn, as well as what you're seeing on LinkedIn from the iGaming industry?

(02:24 - 03:15) Eugene: What I, to the death of me, will never understand is people who just spit out straight ChatGPT or Claude posts. You have a lot of them. What's even more annoying than the post is the comments. LinkedIn honestly is cringe. It always was cringe though. Another thing that baffles me is people who say, “LinkedIn is so much like Facebook. I miss old LinkedIn.” Old LinkedIn was rubbish.

I only chose to be more active when I saw people actually start posting human content and not the same “seven differences between a leader and a boss.” As for me, honestly, sometimes my content looks like it's planned, but I've never sat down and spent more than 10 minutes on a post. People might say, “Eugene is always on LinkedIn.” I pump out a post a day and it never takes me more than 10 minutes.

It's just a random thought I'll have in the shower that I'll get out of the shower, dry off and post. Surya: Okay. You write it yourself? Eugene: Always. Always and exclusively. (03:15 - 04:21) Surya: There's a misconception, or maybe it's an excuse, that I hear a lot. People say if you're very active on LinkedIn, it means you're not doing the job that you're supposed to be doing. What do you have to say to those people? Eugene: Honestly, I think you're right.

I think you're spot on. It is an excuse. LinkedIn does not take much of your time. Usually you can do it while having something else in the second window. Let's face it, all of us work with two, maybe even three monitors. LinkedIn is just something you do while you work. I don't know anybody who's active on LinkedIn who doesn't also do their job. If you're not good at what you do, you're not going to be big on LinkedIn. Surya: That's an interesting one.

Either we can make it happen or we can make an excuse. Eugene: Exactly. People love nothing more than coming up with excuses not to do something. I started my activity at the beginning of 2025. Before that I had maybe 500 connections. So it's not that difficult. Start today, not tomorrow. Stop putting it off. As long as you have an honest voice, you're engaging and you're actually somebody who's fun to listen to, you'll get there.

(04:21 - 04:40) Surya: Is there any structure or any ideas? How do people start? Because starting is the most difficult part. Eugene: Sit down. Think of something you want to share with the world and share it. Honestly, don't make it three paragraphs about some generic iGaming news. Be original. Have your own takes. If you're capable of doing that, you'll be big enough. (04:40 - 06:15) Surya: There's another thing that happens.

If you complain, if you do memes or funny things, obviously you're going to have a lot of engagement. But from a marketing perspective, if someone is always posting memes and complaining, maybe the perception becomes that this guy is always complaining and isn't serious enough. What do you think about it? Eugene: I segment my content. Some of it, as you know, is memes, and they're usually memes I make myself. Some of it is genuine ranting about the industry.

But there's one thing saying, “That conference was terrible.” It's another thing writing exactly what you didn't like and exactly how to fix it. I think the big difference between complainers complaining and content is that you offer up solutions. For example, when I said I didn't really like how an event was positioned, I suggested shuttle buses. I suggested infrastructure around getting there. I didn't just go, “I didn't like that. It was too far,” and leave the post there.

That's a very big difference. Obviously, you have to balance it out with some industry-relevant content. If all you're doing is posting memes or complaining, you're going to get an audience, but you're not going to convert that audience into anything worthwhile. Surya: Yeah. That's very important. Eugene: But I think memes are one of the strongest ways to evoke an emotion. Surya: Absolutely. Eugene: It's light content. If you get it right, you're going to get it really right.

But it's hard to get it right. (06:15 - 06:46) Eugene: Sometimes all I do is take a pretty picture and post, “Uninstalling Microsoft Teams.” It does pass through a genuine complaint. I'm sorry if anybody from Microsoft is watching, but Teams is the worst IM platform ever invented. Surya: Did you buy a stake and it didn't go up or something? Eugene: No. I just think it's an awful, awful messaging platform. Surya: More awful than Skype?

Eugene: Honestly, Skype was not great, but it was infinitely better. (06:46 - 07:45) Surya: Okay, cool. Why do you hate payments people? Eugene: I don't. It's a common misconception. I've got very, very good friends in the payments sphere. What I don't like, and this is not the agent's fault, it's their trainers and sales managers, is when they just give them a scraped list of email addresses. They don't check if you even need payments.

Some business types don't need payments. They just send the same copy-pasted message to 400 different people. It's that sales tactic, if I could even call it that, that I hate. Not payments in and of themselves. Surya: I saw something in your URL. “Payments people go away.” Eugene: Yeah. LinkedIn.com/paymentspeoplegoaway. Surya: Did you get any backlash from payments people? Eugene: Absolutely.

But the people who come and tell me, “You're being unfair,” are usually the people who don't do these practices. I tell them, “No, no, no. You guys are okay.” It's the nameless, faceless hordes from small providers who just spam with the same irrelevant stuff. That's what I don't like. (07:45 - 08:22) Surya: That makes sense. How has your LinkedIn activity, personal branding, helped you in business? Eugene: Honestly, I meet and get introduced to a lot of people.

Being big on LinkedIn definitely helps with people speaking to you. I've noticed that my response rate when I do send a cold DM is a lot better now than it was when I had 400 connections. Even if somebody cannot be a client because they're a payments company or a media company, they can still introduce me to people. It always helps widening your network. And yes, I've done a lot of business specifically because of my LinkedIn route.

(08:22 - 09:39) Surya: You're also very active in our iGaming Real Talk community. You're probably more active than me and most others. How do you keep up with everything? Has that got you any business from the community as well? Eugene: I've met some very, very good people through the community. They're not clients, but they're still helping me. They can introduce me to people. The community is a great one. I'm actually part of three and I'm active in all three of them.

I see it as part of my job. When you're in commercial, most of your job is networking. These communities provide a way to do that from my desk in the AC. I could be sitting in my underwear, just writing stuff, and I'm still actively networking like I'm at a conference, which is great. Surya: Thank you for being part of it and actually providing value to everyone. This is the power of communities today.

Every additional member can provide additional value to the whole community itself. If there are some unusual conversations, I don't even have to jump in. Someone else usually jumps in and they kind of moderate themselves. It's a great way to share value on a daily, real-time basis. Eugene: Of course. (09:39 - 10:34) Surya: When it comes to your position at Pateplay, I don't even know what your position is. Eugene: First of all, it's pronounced Pateplay.

The name comes from the Bulgarian word for duck, and that's why the duck is our logo. I run Malta. I mostly deal with Web3, MGA and Curaçao. As for Pateplay, amazing provider. And I'm not just saying that because they pay me. I think they're getting a lot better at branding now. We've got some brilliant marketing people. Surya: I only know the brand because of you. I didn't know about it before. Eugene: For a while that was the case with most people.

But now our marketing team is really stepping up. They're stepping up the content game. We've partnered on events and now we're finally ramping up brand awareness. I think we're doing a bang-up job. (10:34 - 10:48) Surya: Do company pages still have relevance on LinkedIn? Because the reach is almost... Eugene: I mean, zero. I don't see their statistics. But they are ramping up. They're getting noticed, which is very good.

(10:48 - 11:03) Surya: Is there anything else you want to share with the community or the gaming space before we close off? Eugene: I'm working on something, but I don't want to tease it just yet. I will drop it and you guys will be one of the first to hear about it. But not just yet. Watch the space. (11:03 - 11:20) Surya: Thank you so much, Eugene, for coming and sharing your thoughts as honest, real and raw as always possible. Eugene: Unfiltered. That's how I do it.

Surya: That's it, guys, for today. Thank you for watching. Do share your thoughts in the comments below and follow him if you're not following yet. And I'll see you on the next one.

(00:00 - 00:37) Eugene: LinkedIn honestly is great. There is something there. Surya: People say if you're very active on LinkedIn that you're not doing the job that you're supposed to be doing. Eugene: I think you're right. That is an excuse. I pump out a post a day that never takes me more than 10 minutes. Surya: Either we can make it happen or we can make an excuse. Eugene: Teams is the worst IM platform ever invented. Surya: More awful than Skype?
Eugene: Honestly, Skype was infinitely better. Surya: Why do you hate payments people? Eugene: It's that sales tactic that I hate. Surya: How has your LinkedIn activity helped you in business? Eugene: Yes, I have closed a lot of business because of it. (00:37 - 01:21) Surya: We are here at iGB Live in London. iGaming Real Talk is excited to announce the next edition of Real Roadshow 2026. Very excited to bring the insights from the expo floor.
We spoke to leaders and experts from companies including Altenar, ST8, Endorphina, SOFTSWISS, My Gaming License, Tequity, Pateplay and many more. This series is brought to you by ST8, a single API game aggregator for regulated markets. (01:21 - 02:12) Surya: Hello and welcome back to another episode of iGaming Real Talk. I have with me Eugene Camilleri from Pateplay and we are here at iGB London. I've been in touch with Eugene for a long time.
He's a very well-known guy on LinkedIn and in the community, so I'm very excited to dive into some of those things today. Eugene, welcome to the show. Eugene: It's nice to be here. Surya: Is it Eugene or Eugene? Eugene: It's Eugene. Surya: So you're Maltese? Eugene: Half Maltese, half Russian technically, but I was born and raised in Malta. Surya: Half Russian? Eugene: Yeah.
People are always surprised when I start speaking Russian out of nowhere because I don't sound or look like I should, but I do. Surya: Yeah. Camilleri is a Maltese name, but sometimes you do look Russian. Cool. Let's talk about your LinkedIn game. You're very native on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the place to be for iGaming B2B. What are your thoughts on how you do LinkedIn, as well as what you're seeing on LinkedIn from the iGaming industry?
(02:24 - 03:15) Eugene: What I, to the death of me, will never understand is people who just spit out straight ChatGPT or Claude posts. You have a lot of them. What's even more annoying than the post is the comments. LinkedIn honestly is cringe. It always was cringe though. Another thing that baffles me is people who say, “LinkedIn is so much like Facebook. I miss old LinkedIn.” Old LinkedIn was rubbish.
I only chose to be more active when I saw people actually start posting human content and not the same “seven differences between a leader and a boss.” As for me, honestly, sometimes my content looks like it's planned, but I've never sat down and spent more than 10 minutes on a post. People might say, “Eugene is always on LinkedIn.” I pump out a post a day and it never takes me more than 10 minutes.
It's just a random thought I'll have in the shower that I'll get out of the shower, dry off and post. Surya: Okay. You write it yourself? Eugene: Always. Always and exclusively. (03:15 - 04:21) Surya: There's a misconception, or maybe it's an excuse, that I hear a lot. People say if you're very active on LinkedIn, it means you're not doing the job that you're supposed to be doing. What do you have to say to those people? Eugene: Honestly, I think you're right.
I think you're spot on. It is an excuse. LinkedIn does not take much of your time. Usually you can do it while having something else in the second window. Let's face it, all of us work with two, maybe even three monitors. LinkedIn is just something you do while you work. I don't know anybody who's active on LinkedIn who doesn't also do their job. If you're not good at what you do, you're not going to be big on LinkedIn. Surya: That's an interesting one.
Either we can make it happen or we can make an excuse. Eugene: Exactly. People love nothing more than coming up with excuses not to do something. I started my activity at the beginning of 2025. Before that I had maybe 500 connections. So it's not that difficult. Start today, not tomorrow. Stop putting it off. As long as you have an honest voice, you're engaging and you're actually somebody who's fun to listen to, you'll get there.
(04:21 - 04:40) Surya: Is there any structure or any ideas? How do people start? Because starting is the most difficult part. Eugene: Sit down. Think of something you want to share with the world and share it. Honestly, don't make it three paragraphs about some generic iGaming news. Be original. Have your own takes. If you're capable of doing that, you'll be big enough. (04:40 - 06:15) Surya: There's another thing that happens.
If you complain, if you do memes or funny things, obviously you're going to have a lot of engagement. But from a marketing perspective, if someone is always posting memes and complaining, maybe the perception becomes that this guy is always complaining and isn't serious enough. What do you think about it? Eugene: I segment my content. Some of it, as you know, is memes, and they're usually memes I make myself. Some of it is genuine ranting about the industry.
But there's one thing saying, “That conference was terrible.” It's another thing writing exactly what you didn't like and exactly how to fix it. I think the big difference between complainers complaining and content is that you offer up solutions. For example, when I said I didn't really like how an event was positioned, I suggested shuttle buses. I suggested infrastructure around getting there. I didn't just go, “I didn't like that. It was too far,” and leave the post there.
That's a very big difference. Obviously, you have to balance it out with some industry-relevant content. If all you're doing is posting memes or complaining, you're going to get an audience, but you're not going to convert that audience into anything worthwhile. Surya: Yeah. That's very important. Eugene: But I think memes are one of the strongest ways to evoke an emotion. Surya: Absolutely. Eugene: It's light content. If you get it right, you're going to get it really right.
But it's hard to get it right. (06:15 - 06:46) Eugene: Sometimes all I do is take a pretty picture and post, “Uninstalling Microsoft Teams.” It does pass through a genuine complaint. I'm sorry if anybody from Microsoft is watching, but Teams is the worst IM platform ever invented. Surya: Did you buy a stake and it didn't go up or something? Eugene: No. I just think it's an awful, awful messaging platform. Surya: More awful than Skype?
Eugene: Honestly, Skype was not great, but it was infinitely better. (06:46 - 07:45) Surya: Okay, cool. Why do you hate payments people? Eugene: I don't. It's a common misconception. I've got very, very good friends in the payments sphere. What I don't like, and this is not the agent's fault, it's their trainers and sales managers, is when they just give them a scraped list of email addresses. They don't check if you even need payments.
Some business types don't need payments. They just send the same copy-pasted message to 400 different people. It's that sales tactic, if I could even call it that, that I hate. Not payments in and of themselves. Surya: I saw something in your URL. “Payments people go away.” Eugene: Yeah. LinkedIn.com/paymentspeoplegoaway. Surya: Did you get any backlash from payments people? Eugene: Absolutely.
But the people who come and tell me, “You're being unfair,” are usually the people who don't do these practices. I tell them, “No, no, no. You guys are okay.” It's the nameless, faceless hordes from small providers who just spam with the same irrelevant stuff. That's what I don't like. (07:45 - 08:22) Surya: That makes sense. How has your LinkedIn activity, personal branding, helped you in business? Eugene: Honestly, I meet and get introduced to a lot of people.
Being big on LinkedIn definitely helps with people speaking to you. I've noticed that my response rate when I do send a cold DM is a lot better now than it was when I had 400 connections. Even if somebody cannot be a client because they're a payments company or a media company, they can still introduce me to people. It always helps widening your network. And yes, I've done a lot of business specifically because of my LinkedIn route.
(08:22 - 09:39) Surya: You're also very active in our iGaming Real Talk community. You're probably more active than me and most others. How do you keep up with everything? Has that got you any business from the community as well? Eugene: I've met some very, very good people through the community. They're not clients, but they're still helping me. They can introduce me to people. The community is a great one. I'm actually part of three and I'm active in all three of them.
I see it as part of my job. When you're in commercial, most of your job is networking. These communities provide a way to do that from my desk in the AC. I could be sitting in my underwear, just writing stuff, and I'm still actively networking like I'm at a conference, which is great. Surya: Thank you for being part of it and actually providing value to everyone. This is the power of communities today.
Every additional member can provide additional value to the whole community itself. If there are some unusual conversations, I don't even have to jump in. Someone else usually jumps in and they kind of moderate themselves. It's a great way to share value on a daily, real-time basis. Eugene: Of course. (09:39 - 10:34) Surya: When it comes to your position at Pateplay, I don't even know what your position is. Eugene: First of all, it's pronounced Pateplay.
The name comes from the Bulgarian word for duck, and that's why the duck is our logo. I run Malta. I mostly deal with Web3, MGA and Curaçao. As for Pateplay, amazing provider. And I'm not just saying that because they pay me. I think they're getting a lot better at branding now. We've got some brilliant marketing people. Surya: I only know the brand because of you. I didn't know about it before. Eugene: For a while that was the case with most people.
But now our marketing team is really stepping up. They're stepping up the content game. We've partnered on events and now we're finally ramping up brand awareness. I think we're doing a bang-up job. (10:34 - 10:48) Surya: Do company pages still have relevance on LinkedIn? Because the reach is almost... Eugene: I mean, zero. I don't see their statistics. But they are ramping up. They're getting noticed, which is very good.
(10:48 - 11:03) Surya: Is there anything else you want to share with the community or the gaming space before we close off? Eugene: I'm working on something, but I don't want to tease it just yet. I will drop it and you guys will be one of the first to hear about it. But not just yet. Watch the space. (11:03 - 11:20) Surya: Thank you so much, Eugene, for coming and sharing your thoughts as honest, real and raw as always possible. Eugene: Unfiltered. That's how I do it.
Surya: That's it, guys, for today. Thank you for watching. Do share your thoughts in the comments below and follow him if you're not following yet. And I'll see you on the next one.