Party Gaming Stiffs Affiliates, Says CAP

Published: Friday, February 24, 2006 Online-Casinos.com

PARTY GAMING STIFFS AFFILIATES, SAYS CAP

Online gaming company accused of failing to honour affiliate marketing relationships

Party Gaming's recent acquisition of Empire Online, and it's intention to integrate the players into its database, is creating anger in the affiliate marketing sector due to a refusal to recognise former Empire Online affiliate deals.

Lou Fabiano, editor and president of the affiliate resource site Casino Affiliate Programs issued a press release this week suspending the Party Partners certification by his organisation. The move comes in response to the acquisition terms outlined for Empire Online as the parent of EmpirePoker, a former PartyGaming licensee.

Referring to the Empire Online acquisition, the release says that the $250 million deal announced on February 15, 2006 includes migrating Empire Poker players to a consolidated platform that no longer honors the affiliate relationship that initiated the player relationship.

Under the new terms, affiliates who had participated in the Empire Online affiliate program will receive no compensation or consideration for the thousands of players they acquired for EmpirePoker.com. Fabiano says that this is clearly in violation of the terms and conditions affiliates had agreed to with Empire Online whereby they would receive compensation on the sales and value generated by their players for the life of their association with the poker room.

PartyPartners was well aware that a substantial number of the players at EmpirePoker.com were referred by affiliate webmasters and that an agreement to compensate the affiliates for these players was in effect at the time of purchase.

Fabiano said: "As a result of this predatory action by Party Partners, CasinoAffiliatePrograms.com is left with no alternative but to suspend their certification at CAP and advise all affiliates to cease promotion of all PartyGaming clients until a satisfactory resolution to this problem can be worked out. Our affiliate webmasters have made it clear that they want a fair compensation plan that recognises and rewards their efforts as previously agreed upon.

"It would be relatively easy for Party Partners to transfer all existing players and affiliate accounts to the PartyGaming platform and honor the existing terms and conditions. We are hopeful that PartyPartners will do the right thing and properly include their affiliate partners."