Casino Cautions: Casino Affiliate Programs
Published: Friday, June 24, 2005 Online-Casinos.com
CASINO CAUTIONS: CASINO AFFILIATE PROGRAMS
Affiliate bitterness
Several successful and prominent affiliate marketers were clearly less than pleased,
and were letting everyone know it at the recent GIGSE conference in Montreal.
The cause of all the bitterness is apparently some unilateral decisions being
taken by big online casino groups like Vegas Partners and Fortune Lounge that
adversely effect the rewards that affiliates receive in terms of their agreements
with the casinos.
"They (the casinos) assure us that we are in a partnership, yet they make
these one-sided decisions without even consulting us. That is not a partnership
as far as I am concerned and I will be reacting appropriately to this latest attempt
to reduce rewards for sending players to their sites," one angry marketer
told us.
Exacerbating an already ugly situation is the fact that the casinos concerned
in the changes are making them retroactive, widely regarded as unfair and unprofessional
especially in light of the excuse apparently being offered that it would be too
difficult in an accounting sense to do otherwise where some arrangements are based
on the "lifetime" value of players sent by affiliates.
Another prominent affiliate marketer and portalmaster said that he would be pulling
the offending programs from his sites, concluding: "At the end of the day,
it's all about mutual trust. If a casino changes its program from a given date,
clearly broadcast, that's fine. But if it applies this to players sent under a
previous contract, it may be contractually legal or it may not, but it tells me
I cannot trust them to treat me right in the future."
Big money is said to be involved - up to $600 000.
It is understood that several affiliate collectives such as the GPWA and CAP are
becoming involved in the dispute, and it is likely to be an item high on the agenda
at upcoming affiliate conferences.
