Introduction
Johan Styren’s path to co-founding Dilanti Media, the Malta-based affiliate marketing firm he started in January 2018 alongside Valentin Alsen, runs through two established European gambling operators, Unibet and LeoVegas. His career is built less on a single break than on a steady accumulation of operator-side experience, with each role adding to his understanding of customer acquisition in a heavily regulated industry.
Building an Acquisition Foundation at Unibet
Johan Styren began his acquisition career at Unibet, where he served as Head of Acquisition Development, responsible for customer acquisition across products and markets. Unibet’s scale gave Styren exposure to acquisition challenges across multiple product lines and regulatory environments.
This period also put Styren on the buyer’s side of the affiliate marketing channel, evaluating which affiliate partners delivered value versus which generated traffic that converted poorly. That perspective, gained years before founding an affiliate business of his own, later informed his approach at Dilanti Media.
Leading LeoVegas’s Malta Subsidiary
From Unibet, Styren became CEO of LeoVegas’s Malta-based subsidiary, a role he held for roughly five years during a period of rapid growth for the mobile-first operator. He oversaw product launches and market expansion, operating under the governance and reporting requirements that come with running a subsidiary of a listed company.
During his tenure, Styren was closely involved in LeoVegas’s sportsbook launch, timed to coincide with Euro 2016 — a launch covered in more detail in a separate piece on the lessons Styren drew from that project.
Founding Dilanti Media
By 2018, Styren was ready to build something of his own. Alongside Valentin Alsen, former head of SEO at Catena Media, he founded Dilanti Media, a Gżira, Malta-based affiliate marketing firm spanning gambling, forex, and cryptocurrency. Having worked on both sides of the acquisition relationship as the operator paying for traffic and later as the company delivering it Styren brought a dual perspective to affiliate marketing.
The decision to found rather than join an existing affiliate business reflected a specific bet: that a technology-first approach, informed by operator-side experience, could compete with the industry’s established players. That approach involved building a proprietary platform rather than adopting off-the-shelf tools a longer path, but one the company has continued to build on since.
A Career Built on Related Roles
One notable feature of Styren’s path from Unibet to LeoVegas to Dilanti Media is how directly each role built on the last, rather than requiring him to start over in a new domain. That continuity contrasts with career paths in the industry that move between operators, suppliers, and adjacent verticals without a clear throughline.
Styren’s roles have stayed within a connected area how operators acquire and retain customers, and how that knowledge could be applied to build a company with each subsequent role building on the base of experience from the one before it.
Conclusion
Styren’s combination of B2C acquisition experience, listed-company operational discipline, and hands-on product leadership has continued to inform Dilanti Media’s strategy since its founding. The company has grown to a team of 11–50 people.