Entain partners suspended my account without any specific reason

[Vivabonus]

Hello there!
Recently I got a message from Entain Partners compliance team of my account (vivabonus) suspension. When reading the explanation of it, I could find find anything relative or specific. Below I am copying text that was sent by them

We have identified via our monitoring process that the website vivabonus.com where you are promoting Entain brand content (INSERT REASON)
We would like to respectfully remind you of your obligations under clause 5.5, 5.9, 5.13, 5.14(m) of the Affiliate Agreement you warrant that “you shall not, nor shall you authorise, allow, assist, or encourage any third party to…directly or indirectly engage in benefit from any act or traffic that involves any Prohibited Activity”.
Prohibited Activity means an actual or attempted act by you, any Customer or any Third Party Promoter (when applicable), which is reasonably deemed by us to be:
(a) in breach of any Applicable Law;
(b) made in bad faith; or
(c) intended to defraud us or any Site or circumvent any contractual or legal restrictions, regardless of whether such act or attempted act causes us or any of the Sites any damage or harm

In addition to that, they were bombarding me with the requests of affiliate account verification, where all the details have been provided and account verification was done. After it was done I got another request to change the beneficiary name - also confirmed from my side. Then they sent the same request once more, which I did not answer as I find it unprofessional. In the end I receive the suspension notice. It seems like they were looking for a reason to suspend the account, which is disrespectful in terms of partnership relationship.
I was extremely surprised by it as we do have regular commission earnings by promoting Bwin casino.

If any of you experienced the same difficulties with this affiliate program thanks to share it.

 

[ddm]

your site is not compliant.
eg homepage. i see bonuses, but no terms , or terms within 1 click
also no doubt you are promoting unregulated stuff in US, which will irk entain.

their terms are pretty predatory imho, wouldn´t bother promoting them at all if i could help it..

 

[AussieDave]

your site is not compliant.

That's the reason you've been flagged. No point bitchin about it, fix it. Or as ddm suggests, drop them.

 

[Vivabonus]

Well, I am "bitchin about it" becuase this is not the reason they suspended us. They just wrote that the account has been suspended because in September they asked us to change the "Play" button to "Visit" button. I advised that it would break the website concept (as making a single case change would break the structure) and I asked them to advise where exactly it is indicated in their Terms and Conditions that this change is so vital. Again, I asked them for explanation and clarification plus I did provide them an example where on AskGamblers the button says "Play" where they do not seem to bother them (I did not say - "No"). See the email conversation below:

Their request:

Hi Vivabonus,

I hope that you are doing fine and all is good.
My name is Kobi Nachmani (have already since 15 years experience in the gambling industry) and I am contacting you on behalf of Bwin Entain Partners (https://www.entainpartners.com/).
The reason, I am contacting you is because our compliance team found below the infringement in connection to our licenses by your website/URL.
https://vivabonus.com/review/bwin-casino/
Please change from your website the wording “Play Now” and "Visit Now” to >>> “Bet here” and “Join Here” as you can see in the screen shot and in the URL below.

My answer:

"Hello,
Our website is built in that way that "Play Now" button and "Visit Now" are set by default at all casino listings.
Changing that, would mean changing the concept of all website.
If this is misaligned with your compliance, please, provide me a statement from your Terms and Conditions where you state these requirements.
On AskGamblers.com the site indicates "Play" button as well:"

In the end they just suspended our account without any additional communication. I would be ok with that if there would not have been any pending commission earning, which I am sure are there as we are getting it on a regular basis.

Again, this kind of behaviour is unprofessional from my point of view and should be considered by any other partner who is dealing with them.

 

[ddm]

so they have at least 10 ways to fuck you, and you don´t address them

then you "bitch and whine" here

they are not professional? you´re not even TRYING to be.


good day.

 

[hand2mouth]

My company also received a similar email message from Enter tain Partners today. The letter is confusing and we're not sure what they are demanding.

I've forwarded the message to my lawyer. Awaiting his response.

 

[melcb]

with UK compliance rules you cannot have call to actions with a sense of urgency - 'Play now' is not compliant
The 'now' is a sense of urgency. You would need to update your CTAs to 'Play' only

 

[ddm]

very good tip ^

 

[gm2891]

I think that "play now" does not apply to everyone as there are sites with over a half mil visitors with CTA buttons Play Now! , and not even a single bit mentioning bonus terms.

 

[Zizek]

Why is not Entain blacklisted? Or are they? Hardly any other program stole more.
They stole as Sportingbet, then as Bwin, then Betboo, Giocodigitale, Ladbrokes and now Sportsinteraction (SIA). Oh yes, I missed Gamebookers.

 

[MissExposé]

@Zizek Entain Partners are predatory on AGD.

 

[payme1day]

If you take UK traffic you require a #AD to make it clear, visit button (as said above NO urgency via words like now, or exclamation marks, limited time offer etc.) and the crucial bonus short terms must be visible in the offer detail.

This standard of conduct will soon spread to other markets, so it may be a good idea to emulate the 'strict' UK standards elsewhere to future-proof the site.

You cannot blame the affiliate programme for taking these actions especially if you have had previous communications instructing you to amend things. They will love to have any valid excuse to shut accounts and avoid legacy commissions, plus possibly avoid a fine for themselves. So you have to be squeaky clean.

Don't forget, many of these casinos and affiliate programmes use live monitoring of the web provided by companies like RightLander to constantly look for non-compliance.

 

[Zizek]

If you take UK traffic you require a #AD to make it clear, visit button (as said above NO urgency via words like now, or exclamation marks, limited time offer etc.) and the crucial bonus short terms must be visible in the offer detail.

This standard of conduct will soon spread to other markets, so it may be a good idea to emulate the 'strict' UK standards elsewhere to future-proof the site.

You cannot blame the affiliate programme for taking these actions especially if you have had previous communications instructing you to amend things. They will love to have any valid excuse to shut accounts and avoid legacy commissions, plus possibly avoid a fine for themselves. So you have to be squeaky clean.

Don't forget, many of these casinos and affiliate programmes use live monitoring of the web provided by companies like RightLander to constantly look for non-compliance.

Probably wrong thread?
This has nothing to do with noncompliance or with UK. Sportsinteraction affiliates are thieves as whole Entain group.

(SIA does not accept UK traffic nor they demanded anything about compliance that was not fulfilled. They simply stopped paying and responding.

 

[payme1day]

Probably wrong thread?
This has nothing to do with noncompliance or with UK. Sportsinteraction affiliates are thieves as whole Entain group.

(SIA does not accept UK traffic nor they demanded anything about compliance that was not fulfilled. They simply stopped paying and responding.

No, I was responding to a few posts further back up. Fair enough not relevant to UK in your case.

 

[Zizek]

AD compliance is not relevant even for UK.

They started to ignore me as Ladbrokes, which was purely UK brand.
Coral... the same.
Bwin, although not pure UK brand, same kind of behavior.

Entain/Bwin are who started all this mess. And they keep on going through expansion from stolen money.

 

[payme1day]

AD compliance is not relevant even for UK.

They started to ignore me as Ladbrokes, which was purely UK brand.
Coral... the same.
Bwin, although not pure UK brand, same kind of behavior.

Entain/Bwin are who started all this mess. And they keep on going through expansion from stolen money.

Yes, it absolutely is. As well as UKGC rules you need to adhere to the CAP and ASA rules and stipulations, if you take UK players. Your affiliate programme should advise you on this and they will check where their brand appears via tools like RightLander and then contact you if they consider anything to need amending.

Any UKGC licensed brand is under these guidelines, even if you advertise primarily to other merkets with their brand.

 

[Zizek]

No, it is not relevant for Entain. They simply steal. Under any from random pretexts. It makes sense to be compliant with honest bookies in the UK like bet365, or bet365 or..... ahem bet365.

With Entain it does not make sense, because they are simply thieves who before at least made up some excuses why they steal, now they just shadowban you and fo.