Detailled answer from RIVAL GAMING

[Igaming.pro]

Due to all negative post regarding Rival itself and due to posts regarding all casinos powered by Rival, i decided to email Rival and bring you answers you are expecting.

I wand to precise that Rival is aware about this post and allowed me to post in AGD this email below.

I hope that it will help you to understand exactly the situation

Hi,

Here is the answers to your questions:

Rival operators audit their own affiliate payments, this includes "White Labels". Rival's white label partner, Bonne Chance NV will process the payments on behalf of the operator only after such time that an operator approves the payment. Operators (WL and Standard), are fully responsible for their own affiliate payments, Bonne Chance NV has no financial interests in the amounts or style of commission paid to the affiliate.

Rival does not financially benefit from any decision made on progressive deductions, bad deposits or seizures. Though most online casinos in the industry do apply such a deduction, Rival asked its operators to consider all the recent issues and provide their desired solution so that Rival could technically implement it. Each operator will decide how they want to deal with each issue, it is not a Rival decision nor does Rival benefit from any decision(s) made.

Player payments are processed based on the protocols set forth by each operator. Each operator has varying protocols that are adhered to by the processing team at Bonne Chance NV. These protocols range from types of document requests, days spent in reversal period or player class. I am unaware of any overall delays in player processing but I am aware of some outstanding operator delayed affiliate payments. It's operator delayed, not Rival delayed. They must be still reviewing them. Nothing to do with Rival.

Processor Seizures: The US facing gaming industry is a risky environment. Prominent industry processors had funds seized by Mastercard. This was US gaming industry wide. Any operator that allows US customers should have experienced challenges recently. The processors are currently negotiating fines and there is a chance some funds will be recovered. This is a work in progress.

Checks: Check payments were initiated by a processor in Germany that had ties to banks in the US. The checks would post as completed but no more information was provided by the processor. The American counter-part ended up being investigated by authorities and of course some checks weren't honored. Obtaining this information was a challenge and there were some delays with player withdrawals affected by this. There was no way to verify whether a check was cashed or not.

Processors: Rival has a team dedicated to integrating new APIs, but processors are sometimes slow to respond to integration related questions. It may sometimes take 1-2 days for each question to get answered. Rival has been working with important processors for both the EU and US market but it sometimes takes many days to get simple questions answered. Processor integrations rarely go smoothly. This is a top priority for both Rival and its operators, Rival has no reason to delay processor integrations.

Lastly, I would like to mention that many posts on the forum blame Rival directly though many (if not all) of the issues posted are related to decisions made by its operating partners. Affiliates should know that Rival is a software provider and does not control its operators protocols.

Warm regards,

**Rival Gaming**

 

[KasinoKing]

Player payments are processed based on the protocols set forth by each operator. Each operator has varying protocols that are adhered to by the processing team at Bonne Chance NV. These protocols range from types of document requests, days spent in reversal period or player class. I am unaware of any overall delays in player processing but I am aware of some outstanding operator delayed affiliate payments. It's operator delayed, not Rival delayed. They must be still reviewing them. Nothing to do with Rival.

So.... Rival are saying that just by total coincidence ALL WL Rival casinos suddenly increased their cash-out times to the maximum of 5-days or more, all at the same time.
What are the chances of that happening, eh?

KK

 

[Igaming.pro]

i'd appreciate that you do not post false affirmations. As i already told, in Tradition, by example, players and affiliates are paid stricly as usual : there is no change at all.

 

[belgamo]

So.... Rival are saying that just by total coincidence ALL WL Rival casinos suddenly increased their cash-out times to the maximum of 5-days or more, all at the same time.
What are the chances of that happening, eh?

KK

I with KasinoKing on this one, it rival totally delaying payments and THEN the casinos telling the players they need faxback forms after 5 days or 6 days or reversing the cashouts back into their accounts so the player has to inquire WHY?. The faxback should be sent within 48 hours if nothing else, the reversing of funds should not happen. The not notifying of fax back forms needed and reversing funds is nothing but a further DELAY tactic.

Sure rival got hit by processors, bank changes and the MC thing, but they should do one hell of a better job in transparency of the facts.

Player can understand small delays if THEY know exactly why it is happening and that they will still get paid. You have no clue how many HELP ME complaints I am getting about the super long cash out times on my forum. Rival is going to have some serious damage control to do.

 

[Guard Dog]

I am glad Rival made an announcement of sorts. However - from many affiliate's statistics, it was obvious that over the last 2 months something has happened across ALL Rival Casinos.

I promote a lot of different Rival Casinos (almost all of them) and it happened across all casinos at the same time. I don't think this is just a coincidence. Something happened that is very wrong. This was before the MC issue, BTW, so it may not relate to that.

But - something happened and since the ONLY common denominator is Rival - I would love for Rival to take some responsibility. Either Rival is hurting like the affiliates are (because there are way less players and deposits all of the sudden).... or something shady is happening. I choose to think the latter is not true (i.e., shady stuff).

So - what is the real deal? Why the problems starting 2 months ago?


And... speaking to the 'Rival is the savior of USA affiliates' comments that I recall from before. They are not. RTG is. The conversions for RTG casinos outweigh Rivals by an astounding amount in my records and I hear the same from many, many affiliates.

 

[bonustreak]

So this is a case of pointing the finger at each other. As Andy said Rival is NOT the savior of US gaming, RGT has pulled ahead big time for that and the players feel more secure in RTG brands. Rival (as a whole) went down hill about 6 months ago and it has been a steady decline since.

I am so glad that we are finally being told that it is actually up to each operator and how they want to run things, in other words Rival(the software provider) really don't give a chit how things are done as long as they are paid the licensing fees they are due each month. SO we will see rogue operators pop up now and nothing will be done about it.

Folks all I can say is if you promote a Rival brand it is time to pick and choose.

 

[bonustreak]

I have been contacted by a casino manager who stated that this is not a letter from Rival and that Igaming.pro has been given 24 hrs to explain herself here. I have no idea if this letter is real or not but I can say that IF this is a lie fabricated by Igamingpro I am stunned to say the least and it will be a nail in the coffin for this casino! Not to mention ethics!

 

[Igaming.pro]

I confirm that this message was wrote by Rival and Rival allowed me to post this message here; i'm not a liar.

More, i think that reps know today that this message is not a scam because Rival contacted some of them.

I have to add that about 17th March, we all received message from Rival explaining that we couldn't longer issue wires in dollars and that several wires to ewallets were blocked week before (meant 8-13 th march), these was been rerouted to EU accounts at all affected ewallets. Rival added that not expect any important delays in payments to players/affiliates, there may be 1-2 day delays.

As you can read, it meant that delays were experienced between 8-13 th march and were solved since. We could also understand that, in the worst case, this affected payments for 1 or 2 days only.

Even if my english is not fluent, explanations given by Rival didn't seem to make appear a real processing problem but only 1 or 2 days delay. More, i understood that principal goal of this email was to inform WL that there was some processors delay met the week before.

Then, as you know, about 20th, I emailed Rival and i posted here their message about 21 th.

Unfortunately, Rival contacted again all its operators about 22th march, yesterday. Message was explaining that several of USD ewallet wires were blocked by the bank on the 9th, 11th and 17th March.
Rival precised that the block was discovered only on the 17th and that it caused some small delays in certain ewallets processing. Email precised that wires had been resent from their EU bank account on the 19th and that only Quicktender payouts should be slightly delayed until Tuesday or Wednesday of this week (means until 22 or 23 th March).

So, when owner of Rival wrote me 20 th, he wasn't still aware of problems detailled in email sent by accounting Rival services about the 22th.

More, for some operators it was fully transparent if there was not current withdrawals with quicktenders or swifts, what is exactly the case of Tradition Casino and it explains why I didn't see any delays in our payments from Tradition.
Last, Tradition Casino is focused in Europe, so our major transactions are made in euros. It probably contribute to confirm to me that there is not current processing problems.

I'd like to add that i'm sorry if this thread caused hot discussions with WL operators or misunderstanding.

My goal was to reassure affiliates with a personal message from Rival itself : even if some affiliates prefer RTG it's not my point of view, Rival has best games than RTG and could be become a leader if it could provide updated informations to WL, not only informations on past problems.

 

[rubyroyal]

Hi all,

I just want to confirm that several of our USD ewallet wires were blocked by our banking partner on the 9th, 11th and 17th. This is part of the VISA/MC crackdown and seizures. We together with Rival only found out about the block on the 17th. This caused some small delays in certain ewallet processing. All wires have since been resent from our EU bank accounts on the 19th.

Please note, at this time, we can no longer process wires in USD currency. Please be advised that this affects affiliate payments and wire transfers in USD. We are currently working on ways to be able to process USD wires in the very near future. Please can those affiliates using wire transfer as a payment option change their payment details.

Only Quicktender payouts should be slightly delayed until today or tomorrow of this week. Our support team has informed players about the delay and we are working hard on getting these payments released. To date, not many players have been effected and we are talking with each individual player to make sure the funds are received in due order.

Regards

 

[TheGamblingGuru]

I have been contacted by a casino manager who stated that this is not a letter from Rival and that Igaming.pro has been given 24 hrs to explain herself here. I have no idea if this letter is real or not but I can say that IF this is a lie fabricated by Igamingpro I am stunned to say the least and it will be a nail in the coffin for this casino! Not to mention ethics!

I'm curious how that casino manager would know or not know for sure whether it was real or not? Did they elaborate on that aspect of their accusation Streak?
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[bonustreak]

There is no one being called a liar, all that was stated is that there was a couple suggestions from operators that this letter is not from Rival. I understand that the QT and wire issue is a fact and it is being worked on.

I will ask that the person that said this to me come forward because I never give out name.

 

[Igaming.pro]

This affiliate manager already contacted me by PM and he apologized : Rival directly confirmed him that the email posted was from Rival. There is not more to say about the misunderstanding i think : it's ok for me, even if some people thought it was a scam from my part

 

[Nicolas-Johnson]

my apologies

I'm sorry for any miss understanding I may have helped create.

This is the situation:

March 17th, we got an email from Rival saying there would be slight delays due to Rival WIDE issues, which have already been explained in this thread.

March 21st, Tradition casino posts that they have no delays and that any player delays are due to individual operator issues. This was based on an email from Rival themselves. This was indeed incorrect.

When I contacted Rival about this contradictory information, on the 21st/22nd, they replied right away with a vague answer, which I interpreted as them denying sending this email. This was my erroneous interpretation, and I apologize for this.

I was left to wonder what was going on. Then latter on during the night of the 22nd, I got contacted by Rival confirming that the email from tradition, containing false information, did in fact come from Rival themselves.

I did get an apology and an explanation from Rival, as well as a solution they are going to implement so that this unfortunate situation does not happen again.

I apologize for not having handled this better.

Kind Regards,
Nicolas Johnson

 

[TheGamblingGuru]

I'm sorry for any miss understanding I may have helped create.

This is the situation:

March 17th, we got an email from Rival saying there would be slight delays due to Rival WIDE issues, which have already been explained in this thread.

March 21st, Tradition casino posts that they have no delays and that any player delays are due to individual operator issues. This was based on an email from Rival themselves. This was indeed incorrect.

When I contacted Rival about this contradictory information, on the 21st/22nd, they replied right away with a vague answer, which I interpreted as them denying sending this email. This was my erroneous interpretation, and I apologize for this.

I was left to wonder what was going on. Then latter on during the night of the 22nd, I got contacted by Rival confirming that the email from tradition, containing false information, did in fact come from Rival themselves.

I did get an apology and an explanation from Rival, as well as a solution they are going to implement so that this unfortunate situation does not happen again.

I apologize for not having handled this better.

Kind Regards,
Nicolas Johnson

What was the 'false information' Nicolas?
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[bonustreak]

The false info was that he contact me here at AGD to say the letter was not from Rival and it turns out that the letter was actually from Rival. Are we all confused yet

SO it is back to the individual operators on how they handle things according to Rival.

 

[Nicolas-Johnson]

The false info was that the player payout delays are operator based.

They are not.

Additionally, I though the email posted was not sent by Rival. It was. I apologize for this.

Rival made a mistake in the statement they sent to Tradition.

Player payout delays are Rival wide. Only possible exceptions are those who process their own payouts; sloto, box24, betUS. Sorry for the confusion.

Kind Regards,
Nicolas Johnson

 

[TheGamblingGuru]

The false info was that the player payout delays are operator based.

They are not.

Additionally, I though the email posted was not sent by Rival. It was. I apologize for this.

Rival made a mistake in the statement they sent to Tradition.

Player payout delays are Rival wide. Only possible exceptions are those who process their own payouts; sloto, box24, betUS. Sorry for the confusion.

Kind Regards,
Nicolas Johnson

As that may certainly be true....it is still also true though that As Rival states in that letter, that the individual casinos basically have Carte Blanche authority and full discretionary power to place whatever protocols and choices they so decide in regards to timelines in order to make player payments and that affects how fast each one pays it's players as well......correct or not?

Rival Statement: "Player payments are processed based on the protocols set forth by each operator. Each operator has varying protocols that are adhered to by the processing team at Bonne Chance NV. These protocols range from types of document requests, days spent in reversal period or player class".
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[Nicolas-Johnson]

As that may certainly be true....it is still also true though that As Rival states in that letter, that the individual casinos basically have Carte Blanche authority and full discretionary power to place whatever protocols and choices they so decide in regards to timelines in order to make player payments and that affects how fast each one pays it's players as well......correct or not?

Rival Statement: "Player payments are processed based on the protocols set forth by each operator. Each operator has varying protocols that are adhered to by the processing team at Bonne Chance NV. These protocols range from types of document requests, days spent in reversal period or player class".
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Having a certain level of discretion is different from 'Carte Blanche', which means free range. We do not have full discretionary power. We can't just say; pay all players without: confirmation deposit/docs/days spent in holding time/etc. There are options; not free range. Exact details of the options is something I can't give.

We are working right now with Rival to bring our payout time down to 48 hours, as well as improve other processes.

Kind Regards,
Nicolas Johnson

 

[TheGamblingGuru]

Having a certain level of discretion is different from 'Carte Blanche', which means free range. We do not have full discretionary power. We can't just say; pay all players without: confirmation deposit/docs/days spent in holding time/etc. There are options; not free range. Exact details of the options is something I can't give.

We are working right now with Rival to bring our payout time down to 48 hours, as well as improve other processes.

Kind Regards,
Nicolas Johnson

Ok Nic, here is the way I broke down that statement from Rival, just so we are both on the same page here...

Rival stated: "Player payments are processed based on the protocols * set forth by each operator"

Now if those "protocols" are set forth by each individual operator, then they are in-fact 'Carte Blanche'. I'm not going out of my way here my friend to dis-agree with you but that is so clear to me I see no reason whatsoever to try and split hairs on it there..8)
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[casinobonusguy]

Lately I have been receiving many emails from Rival managers asking me to give them better positions on my website.

What surprises me is that one manager yesterday was happy to hear we are removing a couple rival .He actually seemed thrilled that his competition was being pulled by us and not to his benefit lol .Personally I do not like to see managers gossiping and putting down their competition.If the only way you can sell us on your casino is to knock down the competition you are not a good sales person and you may as well find a new profession .