Regarding Sportsbet & IASbet - Rogue Activity from Sports Betting Affs in Australia?

[Gamblemaster]

Hi Guys

Does anyone else know of Rogue Activity from Sports Betting Affiliates in Australia? I have received an email yesterday from IASBet.com advising the following -

"
Dear IASbet.com Affiliate,

We refer to your affiliate agreement with IASbet.

The purpose of this email is to provide you with written notice pursuant to section 13a of the agreement that IASbet is terminating the agreement, effective 31st May, 2013. Please immediately cease using all of IASbet.com’s banner ads, logos, links, trademarks and other IP from that date.

Any affiliate commission owing to you at this time will be paid by the 15th June, 2013.

Although we are not required to provide reasons for the termination, we do note that you have failed for an extended period to comply with section 6.1.d which states:

If you do not deliver 1 new active account within a period of three months (billed months) we may terminate this Agreement immediately by delivery of written notice to you.

We wish you the best with your future endeavours.

"


This followed an email from Sportsbet advising -

"
Dear Affiliate,
Over the last 90 days you have sent less that 4 new customers to Sportsbet and as a result will not be paid Affiliate commission for the month of April, as per clause 5.2.2 of the Affiliate agreement:
Affiliates are now obliged to refer no less than 4 new Customers (as defined) to Sportsbet (in each 3 month rolling period) under the Program (as defined) which place a bet with Sportsbet within 90 days. Should this requirement not be fulfilled, Sportsbet may: (1) reduce the commission rate to the affiliate or refuse payment for the applicable period and / or end the Affiliate Agreement (clause 5.2.2);
The affiliate statistics and reporting will be updated by the 15th May 2013, to reflect April's commission forfeiture.
To get advice and feedback on how to best hit your targets in future months, please do not hesitate to contact the Affiliate team at xxxxxxxxx.
We look forward to working with you closely in 2013 and beyond in a mutually beneficial commercial relationship.

"

This looks like the Australian Affiliates are taking the same route as other Rogue Affiliates and pushing us out one by one - has anyone else had these?

Thanks

Gamblemaster

 

[CygX1]

brrr. This does not sound good if the terms are retroactive. Maybe you should edit the thread title to better reflect which companies are affected by this.

IAS is fully owned by Paddy Power, so this might be relevant to their affiliates as well. Let's not hope so.

Thank you for the heads up.

 

[Gamblemaster]

Thanks for your advice there and I sure hope that Paddy Power does not follow this path. I am going to make myself look really stupid now but "how do I edit the threat Title as you suggested? "

brrr. This does not sound good if the terms are retroactive. Maybe you should edit the thread title to better reflect which companies are affected by this.

IAS is fully owned by Paddy Power, so this might be relevant to their affiliates as well. Let's not hope so.

Thank you for the heads up.

 

[Gamblemaster]

Should this activity with these Affiliates make these guys be listed as Rogue Affiliates on Affiliate Guard Dog?

 

[CygX1]

how do I edit the threat Title as you suggested?

Contact GuardDog if you decide to do so.

 

[Webzcas]

There is more information concerning this here SportsBet Affiliates Licence to Steal Commissions | Australian Webmasters Affiliates Association

 

[AussiePunter]

I just had my March 2014 affiliate commissions removed because of clause 5.2.2, not referring 4 customers over a 3 month rolling period.

Every other bookmaker I promote on the same site, with the same amount of clicks has at least 4 but most have over 10. I'm lost now as I was counting on that commission.

 

[Guard Dog]

They will be dealt with at least on a 'status' basis here at AGD. I'll take a look again tomorrow. I used to have some contacts there, but they have done a lot of changing since that time.

 

[pinkytoe]

IAS and Sportsbet are both owned by Paddy Power IIRC and they have scummy terms in their affiliate agreements, similar to Paddy Power.

For Oz, just promote, Sporting Bet, Bet365, and whatever other reputable operators are there. There is far better option in Oz today than before so don't support the operators who are not playing fair.

 

[AussiePunter]

For Oz, just promote, Sporting Bet, Bet365, and whatever other reputable operators are there. There is far better option in Oz today than before so don't support the operators who are not playing fair.

The problem is I have been an affiliate since 2009 and I'm not a whale. I've sent them hundreds of customers and now I'm going to lose them all because I've had a slower than usual start to the year, only with SportsBet I might add. I'm getting record signups with Ladbrokes, LuxBet, Bet365 and others. Even IASBet is outperforming SportsBet and I rarely promote IAS. Their conversion rate is shocking too.

Year to Date Stats

Ladbrokes - 1:20 - 24 signups
LuxBet - 1:22 - 15 signups
BetEzy - 1:18 - 22 signups

SportsBet - 1:145 - 2 signups

So because of their horrible ratio or inability to convert my traffic any more, they're going to take the customer base that I've spent years creating? Isn't there something I can do?

 

[tryme1]

You could take legal action. Most (all?) affiliate programs are working on the presumption that they can retroactively change terms at will and that - aside from some forum posts that will soon get forgotten - no one will challenge them over their actions.

I have made a promise to myself that the next time a program does something like this to me, I will sue. I'll have to represent myself, of course, but I will do it.

 

[AussiePunter]

You could take legal action. Most (all?) affiliate programs are working on the presumption that they can retroactively change terms at will and that - aside from some forum posts that will soon get forgotten - no one will challenge them over their actions.

I have made a promise to myself that the next time a program does something like this to me, I will sue. I'll have to represent myself, of course, but I will do it.

Oh, if only it was that simple. When PaddyPower took over this was part of the new affiliate agreement I had to sign and fax/email back to them. At the time I was doing that many new customers consistently, and like I said above, I still am with almost every other program on my site - only those I don't promote at all have fewer numbers, but SportsBet are getting the same amount of traffic as Ladbrokes, Luxbet, BetEzy etc. all which as listed above are well over the 4 signups per 3 month requirement.

I'm really stuck. I don't want to lose my client base, but why should I promote such a shitty converting site with terms like these? I hope to come to some kind of understanding with them, I've been with them since 2009 for goodness sake. It's made me really depressed and stressed out. I need the income from all of my sponsors to survive. Losing one will make things really diffiuclt, that's why I was considering selling the site a few years ago. I've put some effort in and now it's making more than triple it was with very little effort on my part. I have health problems and a young family that make long hours pretty much impossible for me.

 

[tryme1]

Just re-reading their emails. Pretty evil in my opinion. I would suggest you contact your affiliate manager directly (call him or her up, don't email) and discuss this. If this isn't just a cash grab on their part, then showing them that your traffic is converting with their competitors and trying to figure out why it isn't converting with them would be a sensible way forward.

I seem to have just used the word 'sensible' in conjuction with a gambling affiliate program, though...so I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

[AussiePunter]

I think I understand why their conversions are so poor compared to other sites, they have session only cookies. I'm almost at a loss for words, I don't remember them saying that was changing. I also would have expected them to let me know that I wasn't going to be receiving commission for the month due to this clause, instead of letting me find out when the deposit didn't show up. I'm going to try and contact the affiliate manager, Nell Bond is who I have communicated with in the past, however whenI emailed him I got an auto-response saying he was on vacation. Does anyone have the contact details for an affiliate manager at SportsBet Australia who may be able to help me out here?

It's not even a large amount of money, but I was counting on it.

 

[Vladi]

Session cookies are standard procedure for Paddy Power so it probably changed when they took over.

 

[AussiePunter]

Well, IASBet.com and IASBetAfffiliates.com are no more.

All customer accounts have been migrated to Paddy Power's other Australian purchase, SportsBet.com.au - I have submitted a ticket on the 31st of August, 2014 @ 06:35 PM asking whether or not my existing clients from IASBet.com have also been migrated to my SportsBet affiliate account but I'm yet to get a response.

Last month was my worst month in over 4 and a half years, mere months after 2 overseas operators took over my 2 highest earning affiliate programs.

Does anyone have any info on the IASBet/SportsBet situation for affiliates?