Scaling with soul: Hub Affiliations’ talent-led growth

Charles Herisson, co-founder of 2025 Rising Star winner Hub Affiliations, grew up loving sports, games and poker. As a teenager, he trained as a professional rugby player and was selected for a team that won the Australian league. Yet Herisson isn’t smug about his athletic past; in fact, he stresses that he was “a very bad player – very, very bad”.

“I started rugby when I was 14 years old, which is very late to start a sport,” he recalls. “I was very bad at it, but played in a very good team, which was rough. This taught me that whatever you think you are doing well, you should always be humble enough to understand that there is no limit to the level other people can reach.”

This mindset eventually led Herisson to further successes. With “maths, media, technology and ambition” in his DNA, he worked as a journalist before building a telecommunications company. A serial entrepreneur and investor today, Herisson’s portfolio spans multiple fields. With an appetite for “high-performance environments where innovation is the differentiator”, however, iGaming has become his favourite niche.

No quick wins: the founding story

Through two of his rugby teammates, Herisson met Francesco Maddalena, a fellow entrepreneur who proposed creating an affiliate company. They started with a shared frustration: in an industry where companies are incentivised to seize quick wins, long-term trust is fragile, and compliance often comes after profits.

“We saw a clear gap: operators don’t just need traffic. They need aligned partners who understand compliance, brand protection and long-term customer value,” Herisson says. “So we built Hub Affiliations as a regulated-scale affiliate: people-first, compliance-first and quality-first.”

Launched in Naples in March 2020, the early years were tough. The duo had to reinvest everything, building technologies and workflows from scratch. While Maddalena took on operational leadership, Herisson focused on investment strategy and international expansion. Now six years on, Hub Affiliations generates more than 20,000 first-time depositors per month, supported by a core team of around 20 staff and a network of 50 journalists producing editorial content. The group operates 10 owned media assets reaching around 20 million annual visitors and collaborates with more than 1,400 affiliate partners in its network.

People-first culture

Amid rapid expansion, Herisson insists the company’s biggest achievement isn’t its financials but “creating a place where performance and humanity coexist”. Its internal philosophy draws inspiration from two contrasting cultures, combining the Japanese obsession with perfection and Neapolitan practicality. Teams are encouraged to pursue the best results while moving quickly and improving processes gradually.

“In fast-moving performance markets, many companies scale by squeezing people or cutting corners,” Herisson explains. “We’ve done the opposite: we built an environment where young talent feels valued, protected and empowered to win. When you build a real meritocracy, results become a by-product of culture.”

The focus on people and culture has also informed Hub Affiliations’ M&A decisions, including acquiring Sporticos last September in a multi-million deal. While financial metrics such as EBITDA and profit may look good on paper, Herisson prioritises personal compatibility between leadership teams.  

“You have to ask yourself: Do you want to go on a beautiful holiday with these people or not? If you want to go on holiday with them, the acquisition makes sense. Because when you feel comfortable with these people, you like these people. You open your heart to them, and in that way, you can do business with them.”

On the 2025 win

For Hub Affiliations, the decision to enter the 2025 iGB Affiliate Awards was more about accountability than vanity. Herisson sees the Rising Star category as a mirror reflecting the same morale of a growing affiliate business, where people, compliance and quality are not “nice-to-haves” but the infrastructure. If done well, he adds, the initiative can help shape the industry’s best practices by normalising compliance as an edge instead of a burden, spotlighting people-first organisations and elevating operational excellence.

Last year’s Britpop-themed awards ceremony is burned into his memory. Apart from celebrating with his team, the win also carried personal significance.

“Stepping on stage in London with my son, Martin Herisson (below: middle left), is a memory I’ll carry for life. I’ve attended many international awards, but that night had a unique energy: the music, the atmosphere and the highest standard of the industry all in one room,” he recalls. “Winning in London also brought me back to a chapter of my life when I lived there with my family. It felt like the past and future meeting at the same moment.”

Beyond the moment, the win delivered tangible business benefits. Internally, the recognition boosted team morale and attracted new talent to the business. Externally, Herisson says it accelerated credibility by shortening the “who are you” phase and opening doors to new partners.

Building from success

Despite the momentum, Herisson believes the biggest challenge fast-growing affiliates face in 2026 is maintaining company culture while adapting to technological change, particularly AI. Rather than digital clones of employees, he sees AI systems as tools that must be actively trained and guided.

“It’s not just leaving the job to ChatGPT and saying okay,” he explains. “It’s coaching it to do tasks in the best way. The first answer you get from any AI service is usually very low-level. You have to help the AI build better answers, better processes.”

This year, Hub Affiliations plans to re-enter the awards, with a special interest in the Affiliate Employer of the Year category. Herisson says he is “obsessed” with creating the best workplace culture, which also extends to its partner network. One example he highlights is a 21-year-old tipster who now earns more than €1 million annually through affiliate activity. The young entrepreneur left formal education early but found success through the platform’s mentorship.

“He didn’t complete his studies when he was 14 years old,” Herisson says. “But he has a lot of desire to work hard. Now he is super happy and is opening a new pub with the money he made.”

Winning again or not, Herisson doesn’t see the awards as a trophy-collecting lucky draw.

“If an award platform helps push the sector toward higher standards, more transparency and more sustainability, then it’s worth participating,” he explains. “It’s about setting a bar, then proving year after year that the bar is real and that the model can scale without losing its soul.”