They're baaaaaackkkkk

[Guard Dog]

Looks like the GP guys are back in business with their original affiliate program. At least they aren't hiding out, I suppose


Dear xxxx,

The team at Grand Privé Casinos is proud to announce the re-launch of Grand Privé Affiliates. The new program is now live and offers our affiliates a smoother, more efficient system that features accurate and reliable statistics, guaranteed uptime and complete transparency.

It has been more than two years since GrandPrive had to take the decision to close down the affiliate program. We were forced to take this step due to the fact that the Microgaming affiliate system was unreliable. The numerous inconsistencies in tagging and errors in resulting earnings affected the trust you placed in us and embarrassed us as an operator. This situation was also intensified by other factors beyond our control.

Once we closed the old program, GrandPrive was understandably lambasted by both forums and individuals, and at the time we were only able to make limited comment and unable to fully defend ourselves and present the true facts. However, we are no longer bound by any constrictions and can, for the first time say, to all our valued affiliates, we profoundly regret the deterioration of our relationship, and we fully understand the anger and hostility expressed towards us. If we had an alternative course of action open to us, we would gladly have taken it. The fact is we had no alternative and had to remain silent in the face of intense criticism. That time is now over and we can move ahead with confidence.

As you are well aware, GrandPrive was one of the earliest casino groups on the internet. It was one of the first to be regulated by credible regulators; one of the first groups to be approved by PWC for casino reviews, and we were in the first batch (of four) casinos to receive the eCOGRA seal of approval. For 10 years GrandPrive casinos have won rave reviews and the respect of players and forums.

To continue our tradition of excellence, we have selected the best software available in the market place. We are proud to introduce our new affiliate program, which offers the unique opportunity for you as an affiliate to work directly off the gaming server. As you know, no other program in the online casino world is able to offer you this. This revolutionary feature ensures that our affiliate system is one of the most efficient on the internet, giving you the most accurate and reliable statistics, guaranteed uptime and complete transparency.

We have moved your account across to the new GrandPrive affiliate system and have tagged all players ever associated with you to your account. Since 1 April 2010 all your players have been tagged to the new system and your payments from April 2010 up until now will be activated on 3 March 2011.Where players have already migrated to the new software, you are being credited with the appropriate revenue. In instances where a player may only in future move to the new software, you will automatically be credited with the associated revenue when this occurs.

We invite you to log in to the new site at Grand Prive Affiliates | BetGrandPrive.com Group Affiliates, update your details and ensure that your vital information, such as payment method, is correct. If you have forgotten your password, please click on the forgotten password link and follow the prompts. If you experience any problems please contact us – support@grandpriveaffiliates.com

Looking forward to working with you again.

Kind regards,
GrandPrive Affiliates Team

 

[KasinoKing]

I don't mind posting the reply I sent to that e-mail (I was as polite as possible):

BULL-SHIT!

I can't believe you would even send such an e-mail. Do you think we are all STUPID?
We've had enough of your LIES.
Piss-off.

Best regards,
Mark

Seriously folks, does ANYONE believe that crap they wrote?
Or does it just look like they've finally realised just how badly they shot themselves in the foot by screwing-over their affiliates and are now struggling financially?
Jeeeeeze!

KK

 

[dominique]

They have settled with most claimants - MOST - they haven't settled with me. They owe me a decent chunk of money. The latest offer I heard was 50 Cents on the Dollar...

 

[nobluff]

Got it as well, surely a prank?

 

[Renee]

We were forced to take this step due to the fact that the Microgaming affiliate system was unreliable. The numerous inconsistencies in tagging and errors in resulting earnings affected the trust you placed in us and embarrassed us as an operator.

As I posted at the GPWA, if a MicroGaming group like Rewards Affiliates can operate as one of the best in the industry with the 23 casinos and 6 poker rooms we now have, it can't be an MGS issue.

I'm interested to see if Microgaming will do something about GP tarnishing their name like this...

 

[Daera]

They have settled with most claimants - MOST - they haven't settled with me. They owe me a decent chunk of money. The latest offer I heard was 50 Cents on the Dollar...

I haven't heard anything from them since filing my claim with the eCOGRA audit. The only person I knew to speak to then was the people doing that audit, and of course that went nowhere.

I think this whole thing is a big joke.

 

[ConradHaack]

Hey Rene,

From what I understand Grand Prive were the first ones of MGS groups to pilot MGS' new affiliate system.
MGS have long been working on trying to develop a more complete package for their licensees. This would
save time and money for any parties that were looking to jump on board with MGS who didn't have the
time to dev their own affiliate back end.

So I believe that MGS has some part to play in everything that went wrong with Grand Prive's affiliate program.
When I was at Star Partner MGS wanted us to also pilot it for them back in 2008 but we wouldn't touch it even
with a barge pole because we knew of the many problems with the platform.

MGS eventually came to us to take ideas from us with what we had done with Star Partner 2 because I don't
think they had any idea on how to build an affiliate back end, that's how serious it became.

 

[ConradHaack]

As I posted at the GPWA, if a MicroGaming group like Rewards Affiliates can operate as one of the best in the industry with the 23 casinos and 6 poker rooms we now have, it can't be an MGS issue.

I'm interested to see if Microgaming will do something about GP tarnishing their name like this...

They are no longer MGS' problem, casino or affiliate program wise. Grand Prive are no longer on MGS's backbone,
they moved over to Proprietary Software shortly after they created Villa Fortuna but surely MGS should account
for that which happened while GP were using their affiliate system.

 

[GamTrak]

I've tried not to get all worked up over this or even post a reply because it's the reason that I basically quit this industry and am in a much better place today.

BUT, I do want to say that IMO Microgramming and eCOGRA has just as much responsibility for what happened and should NOT be seen as a victim. Although I do not believe MG wanted the situation to come down like it did, IMO they did little to prevent it.

I blame them for letting GP get away with what they did and they need to be held accountable just incase they are faced with another similar situation in the future.

They were eventually taken for a ride also, but it may have been avoided if they would have been more agressive in helping us when this all unfolded.

The affected affiliates presented a good case, but it was ignored by those that may have been able to assist us (I won't name names) and therefore IMO were part of the problem! As far as I'm concerned the only folks that did anything or even cared to stick thier neck out for us affiliates were the APCW!

 

[dominique]

Hey Rene,

From what I understand Grand Prive were the first ones of MGS groups to pilot MGS' new affiliate system.
MGS have long been working on trying to develop a more complete package for their licensees. This would
save time and money for any parties that were looking to jump on board with MGS who didn't have the
time to dev their own affiliate back end.

So I believe that MGS has some part to play in everything that went wrong with Grand Prive's affiliate program.
When I was at Star Partner MGS wanted us to also pilot it for them back in 2008 but we wouldn't touch it even
with a barge pole because we knew of the many problems with the platform.

MGS eventually came to us to take ideas from us with what we had done with Star Partner 2 because I don't
think they had any idea on how to build an affiliate back end, that's how serious it became.

This is true and I saw some of the mails going back and forth between GP and MGS regarding the mapping over of players, which was a huge disaster and cause affs to revolt in the first place. This was definitely the fault of MGS. I have no doubts whatsoever about that.

However, it was wrong of GP to just close the aff program. And it is wrong of them to still be withholding payment from affs and trying to settle for pennies on the dollar. They should pay what they owe before expecting new affs to start supporting them.

 

[Renee]

They are no longer MGS' problem, casino or affiliate program wise. Grand Prive are no longer on MGS's backbone,
they moved over to Proprietary Software shortly after they created Villa Fortuna but surely MGS should account
for that which happened while GP were using their affiliate system.

So you're telling me there was no choice for them to hire their own programmers to make their own affiliate system and get rid of the MGS one at all? Even as a last result to salvage their aff program?

I'm sure MGS didnt hold a gun to their head saying do or die?

I'm not saying that there weren't issues.. I just find it hard to believe that their only option was to close the aff program and "screw the affs" as affiliates have claimed many times over the last few years.

 

[dominique]

So you're telling me there was no choice for them to hire their own programmers to make their own affiliate system and get rid of the MGS one at all? Even as a last result to salvage their aff program?

I'm sure MGS didnt hold a gun to their head saying do or die?

I'm not saying that there weren't issues.. I just find it hard to believe that their only option was to close the aff program and "screw the affs" as affiliates have claimed many times over the last few years.

Exactly, that's where they started going wrong. But the initial furor happened long before they closed the aff program, and it was due to Micro's inadequate, non functioning new aff program. Micro should have consulted Rewards, really.

In any case, GP should be paying affs for the players sent, all of the time the players played because all that time GP collected the profits.

 

[Renee]

Exactly, that's where they started going wrong. But the initial furor happened long before they closed the aff program, and it was due to Micro's inadequate, non functioning new aff program. Micro should have consulted Rewards, really.

In any case, GP should be paying affs for the players sent, all of the time the players played because all that time GP collected the profits.

Sorry Dom, I'm confused.. I understand your post as saying they had no choice? They could either have the MGS software or nothing at all? Is that right?

 

[Daera]

Affiliates complained and complained about the new affiliate software from the get go. Why did they continue on with it?

WHY didn't they go back to using the old Referspot software? Many times we brought up that they should go back to the old Referspot program until the bugs in the new system are worked out. Couldn't they have at least run both programs side-by-side until the bugs were worked out like some other programs have done?

I believe that even though MGS might have put out a program that wasn't ready for prime time, Grand Prive knew that going in. They seemed to like testing things out for MGS. Why is that? To be able to say they were the first to have certain MGS products? A price break? Stupidity?

Grand Prive is completely responsible in my opinion. They made all the decisions to go with what they did knowing they would be the beta testers of this new program. They chose not to do anything about it once they it launched and seen all the problems from their side, and from the affiliate complaints.

It wasn't MGS that chose to pull the rug out from under our feet and close the doors, it was Grand Prive.

 

[ConradHaack]

So you're telling me there was no choice for them to hire their own programmers to make their own affiliate system and get rid of the MGS one at all? Even as a last result to salvage their aff program?

I'm sure MGS didnt hold a gun to their head saying do or die?

I'm not saying that there weren't issues.. I just find it hard to believe that their only option was to close the aff program and "screw the affs" as affiliates have claimed many times over the last few years.

I'm sure they considered dropping MGS' system and I am sure they had a choice but we can only speculate as to why they may have chose not to. A migration into a new system may have been to costly for them at the time etc. there could be a number of reasons for them deciding not to but we will never know until GP come out into the open with everything that happened. Maybe MGS promised them the moon earth and stars to fix whatever was wrong but couldn't deliver in time.

Did MGS hold a gun to their heads, to take the system? No, I don't think so but I do believe what might have happened is that MGS offered their affiliate system to GP from the get go and they took it to save time and money before they opened their doors and I don't think that they may have been fully aware of all the problems and thus all of the issues experienced by affiliates ensued. If they did now about all of the issues with the system and still chose to go ahead with the testing at the risk of their program's integrity, then that was a very poor business decision.

No I'm not saying that I sympathize with them and with what happened at all, I would definitely never agree with what they did by closing the affiliate program. I don't think that I hinted to that? I was only trying to point that from what I could tell from how all of it transpired (I merely wanted to share that information with you) that MGS definitely should be accountable to some degree with all of the problems that existed.

The reason why I believe this is that GP wouldn't have known where to begin looking to fix the issues and I doubt that MGS would have allowed anyone other than their developers to fix the problems. You know how they are about Casper.

 

[dominique]

Sorry Dom, I'm confused.. I understand your post as saying they had no choice? They could either have the MGS software or nothing at all? Is that right?

No, they were knee deep in with the micro system. I also don't know why they didn't simply reactivate the old Referspot system. It functioned perfectly well, and as far as I know they owned it.

The decision to close the aff program, IMO, must have been a knee jerk reaction because they had been under heavy attack from affs for a long time by then.

It was definitely the wrong thing to do and no way am I defending this.

What I am saying is that I had occasion to view the exchange between MGS and GP re. the MGS system, and there is no doubt in my mind that MGS failed miserably, was unable to fix issues, and was completely unresponsive to the fact that GP was being raked over the coals by affiliates all over. GP likely was losing a ton of money over this.

This does not excuse GP from what they did, but MGS also screwed up royally here.