Vlad Bondarenko, ReferOn: “With Refie we just wanted to add some more values in terms of emotions, more human touch”

Shows & conferences - 3 December, 2025

During the second day of SiGMA Central Europe, Focus Gaming News caught up with Vlad Bondarenko, Head of Product at ReferOn, to discuss its innovative new offering, Refie.

Bondarenko first outlined ReferOn's core business as an affiliate management platform, designed to "connect operators and affiliates," enabling them to "create and generate tracking links, getting reports, working with dynamic variables, postbacks and just to have the control over the affiliate traffic and affiliate traffic performance.

The conversation swiftly moved to ReferOn's latest development, Refie – a new feature aiming to inject personality and engagement into the often stoic world of B2B SaaS. Bondarenko explained that the igaming industry's B2B software can feel "quite data heavy, quite cold, and very serious." To counteract this, Referon sought to "add some more values in terms of emotions, more human touch.

Bondarenko revealed his inspiration came from a Ukrainian bank that successfully integrated gamification and mascot cats into its financial services. He said, "We just want to add some subtle human emotion to such serious systems." Refie, he clarified, is not a brand mascot or hero, but a concept that "emerged from our values" – namely clarity, control, connection, and data transparency. It acts as a "switcher" within the system, "switching features, we are switching the future, we are turning on all this stuff." He stressed that the goal wasn't entertainment, but rather to introduce "subtle emotion to such serious systems."

Currently in its testing phase, Refie is subtly integrated into ReferOn's onboarding screens, status pages, and main system pages. For instance, it appears "when you are looking for a report and there is no report there is a Refie." Whilst not a chatbot or an AI agent, Bondarenko described Refie as "just a first step towards something bigger," something that is "learning the system with our clients as well."

Looking ahead, Refie is envisioned as an "emotional pillar" alongside other technical advancements, paving the way for future gamification and potentially serving as "a face of that AI agent." This evolution also includes plans for users to choose their own avatars, allowing for personalised themes inspired by popular culture like Star Wars or The Witcher. Bondarenko noted that affiliates often don't bother with avatars in current systems, suggesting this new approach could foster greater engagement.

Bondarenko's ultimate ambition for ReferOn is for it to transcend the typical technical SaaS product. He declared, "I don't want to build ReferOn just as a technical, typical SAS product. I want to be more than just a typical SAS product. I want to be more emotion." His goal is to build ReferOn "as a habit" for clients, hoping they would miss Refie's presence should they ever switch platforms.