Blue Square Closing - ALL your customers are gone!!

[footballaffiliate]

Ouch! This has to be one of the worst moves in affiliate program history!! Not only will I NEVER trust the new owner of Blue Square once it is sold, will I also NEVER trust Betfair anymore.

Surely immediate rogue status must now follow!

Email just received:

Dear Blue Square Bet Affiliate,

As of 1am Tuesday April 2nd 2013 the Blue Square Bet Brand and customer accounts have been sold to Betfair.
Contracts including those relating to the Blue Square affiliate program were not included in this sale. As a result of this development we are terminating, with immediate effect, all Blue Square Bet affiliate partnerships. In accordance with our terms and conditions please accept this as formal notice of termination.

Any revenues owed from your Blue Square Bet customers will be paid up until April 2nd and final affiliate payments in relation to Blue Square Bet activity will be calculated and paid between the 5th and 15th of this month as per the normal payment run.

We sincerely regret the abruptness of this announcement and any inconvenience that it may cause.
It has been a pleasure working with you and we wish you all the best for the future.

An official press release will be issued in due course, if you have any queries please contact your affiliate manager.
Kind regards,
Blue Square Bet Affiliate Team

 

[societyofslots]

I signed up with blue sq a few years ago.. And never promoted them because they just didnt seem to a) care or b) care - how proved right am I.

But yes that blows bollox big time.. In theory this could be a new precedent.. Every 2 or 3 years company X could just set up company Y, Sell to company Y, say goodbye to affiliates and hello to millions in extra income for doing not a lot.

mmmm

 

[lizas]

So they sold only Blue Square Bet ?
or Blue Square Casino too?

 

[footballaffiliate]

I think they're disposing of the sportsbook, possibly going to 888Sport - don't get me started on those rogues!

I had promoted Blue Square strongly and has made a fair bit of money in past years. Most of my players have now dwindled, but i'm not happy that Betfair effectively now have a list of hundreds of customers I referred that they'll send mail shots to and reactivated their activity. Some of these players I referred were losing 5 digit figures, so top value players.

Just goes to show though that you can only trust the money you're making right now, and in a way you've got to write off those historical players as they could be robbed from you tomorrow.

Good affiliate managers at Blue Square though. Feel a little sorry they're having to convey the message of others at the top. Yes, it is a term in their T&Cs that most affiliate programs can drop you overnight, but what the guys at the top don't realise is that sh!t sticks, and once you've tarnished your reputation and brand then you'll lose 95% of any trust - just look at BWin, Unibet, 888Sport - they struggle to recruit good affiliates and only now survive by picking up fresh naive affiliates at the conferences who don't read these forums or understand their bad history.

 

[Engineer]

I got the same email.

I spent years building a player base with Blue Square Casino and now it's just gone?

This is ridiculous. When a company is sold, the affiliate accounts need to be included.

Betfair is already considered a rogue outfit for a stunt they pulled with players a couple of years ago. This just proves that they haven't changed at all.

 

[CygX1]

This is not the first terrible stunt by Betfair. I can just be glad to never have sent Blue Square much traffic.

Betfair is probably even worse than Bwin now, taking money from players and affiliates alike. What a bunch of crooks.

 

[CygX1]

Does this also affect Circus Casino and Grosvenor Casino?

 

[slotplayer]

I looked at them when I was looking at Virgin and went with Virgin. That was 2007 I think.

 

[bonustreak]

Seems to be the norm now .. companies reaming us affiliates!

 

[Guard Dog]

BetFair... this just doesn't surprise me. I think we need to alert this out as it won't be part of any Terms and Conditions alert. Agreed?

 

[Engineer]

Yep... completely rogue.

 

[PaaskeUK]

I was just about sending nasty email back to Graeme Hoyne , but oh well not even worth it!! I will just say SCUMBAGS! all from here.... Didn't convert well with me despite promoting them very hard especially around Euro last year.............Betfair not worth it this is just a joke with all those crooks out there like 888 etc.... Another sad day to be affiliate. Is it even worth it anymore.... I guess it still is. I am instead also looking on Black hat SEO now making some good earnings on day doing amazon, youtube etc... only way forward in this world. Looks very hard making full time earnings on gambling affiliate or am I wrong??

 

[KasinoKing]

I thought BetFarts couldn't sink any lower... I guess I was wrong again...

I didn't have a lot of players at Blue Square, but I did have one or two good quality loyal ones and have been earning an average of £200 - £300 a month for the last few years. It really grinds my gears that BetFair will now be getting that money for doing NOTHING!
And I'm only a small-time affiliate, they will be getting £10,000's a month from ALL the affiliates they've raped.
This really is the worst case of thievery I have EVER seen as an affiliate.

KK

 

[slotsaff]

Betfair are a complete digrace to this industry - no-one replies to emails (not mine) and they just don't pay affiliates unless you hammer them.

They shouldn't be allowed to attend the affiliate conferences as it's a shambles they way they think they can do what they like.

 

[baldidiot]

It's like betfair don't even want affiliates.

Irritatingly though (for sports) if you promote exchanges and/or get exchange specific traffic it's kind of hard to get away from them.

 

[slotsaff]

They definitely want affiliates though - they just emailed me!

 

[footballaffiliate]

I thought I was angry! - This move has definitely created a lot of anger across the affiliate industry. These companies think too short term - one day they will regret having created bad images and will try come crawling back to affiliates. Just look at what people like 888 and BWin have done. They'll realise that the good guys like bet365 who treat affiliates well will absolutely hammer them in the market place if they turn their backs on affiliates.

I think Blue Sq casino stuff is still going, but given this move who on earth would take any chances in promoting any Rank product given they've allowed this to happen.

It's confirmed to me Betfair are crooks. I will be doing my best to be anti-betting exchanges from now. Let's face it - once you factor in the commission you have to pay as a punter and quite often don't get even odds that bet365 will offer you, there's no point betting with Betfair. They've already had to pull out of Germany, Greece and other countries because their business model doesn't work there with the tax implications, so it's only downhill from here. Hope they go bust and get the kick in the teeth they need for being such a bad corporate.

Do have some sympathy for the BlueSq affiliate team - nice guys personally. The decision was taken above their heads and I think they'll all now struggle to keep their own jobs if no one works with them. The Rank casino and games products aren't exactly the greatest on earth.

 

[footballaffiliate]

https://www.bluesq.com/
"Betting Just Got Better"? - Really? Someone should ask the UK trading standards whether this statement is factually correct -

One day you were a punter with Blue Square - a friendly, traditional bookmaker, with fixed odds on markets. Now you've got to navigate your way through a betting exchange and avoid all the experienced sharks trying to offer you low odds and arb against you! LOL

 

[Vladi]

If I was seriously impacted by this (and I am not) I would be talking to a lawyer to clarify whether Betfair has any legal obligation to continue to pay the affiliate program commissions. For example, are affiliate commissions a contractual debt that would be transferred with the sale? If not, then should Rank be paying a termination value based on the sale price divided up pro-rata based on the player value? These companies are in regulated jurisdictions and there are remedies available.

This is from the terms at Grosvenor which last I looked were almost identical to Blue Square.

This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of England and any action relating to this Agreement must be brought in England and the Affiliate irrevocably consents to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

Also, although a load of bollocks that would not be enforceable legally, make sure you notify them and file an objection to your final payment in relation to this term:

If the Affiliate disputes the commission due as reported, it shall within a period of thirty (30) days send an email to the Company on affiliates@rankinteractive.com and indicate the reasons for such dispute otherwise the Affiliate shall be deemed to have accepted the payment in full and final settlement of the commission due for the period concerned.

They try to avoid any liability by saying the agreement may be terminated at any time by either party and then say:

The Affiliate will be entitled only to commission earned up to the effective date of termination. The Company may withhold the Affiliate`s final payment for a reasonable time to ensure that the correct amount is paid. No commission shall be due to the Affiliate in respect of any money wagered by the Affiliate’s referred players after the effective date of termination.

Again a lawyer could tell you whether this is complete bullshit or not.

 

[Vladi]

I didn't have a lot of players at Blue Square, but I did have one or two good quality loyal ones and have been earning an average of £200 - £300 a month for the last few years. It really grinds my gears that BetFair will now be getting that money for doing NOTHING!

The thing is - Betfair didn't do nothing. They paid for them.

Seeing as Betfair is supposedly not buying the affiliate program, Rank should be giving you the share of the money they received for each player at whatever your affiliate commission rate is. Rank are the bad guys here.