How common is that some affiliate providers will close Your account for no reason?

[Caffrey]

Hi!

As i am pretty new in affiliate marketing field i was just wondering how common is that some affiliate providers just closes Your account for now reason? I just read from other forum about situation when guy has some monthly players registered in casino through him affiliate link and one day he was just got e-mail like this:

"As we are sure you are aware, there is been significant regulatory intervention within the gambling industry over this past year, with a substantial proportion aimed at the relationship of Operator/Affiliate.

Therefore, we have taken the decision to reduce our number of active affiliate accounts. Unfortunately, after review by our Affiliate Compliance Department, we have been requested to terminate our relationship. We ask for you to please remove any promotional material for our brands, including offers and links. Any commissions owed to you will be processed with November payments.

We would like to thank you for your co-operation and wish you best for the future.

Kind regards,
The BigWin Affiliates Team"

So i was wondering which are guarantees or what are experiences? Can affiliate provider in one day just decide to gut You out, is this somehow regulated or not and if for example i am facing this kind of situation in future, can i do anything about it?

Because from business side of view for example if i bring about 1000 players to one casino and they must pay me over 20% of NGR and for example i am away from this field for example 6-12 months and dont bring lot of new players, then from their point of view this seems logical that they dont want to share their money, but in my point of view i have promised lifetime revenue share etc and i have worked a lot to get people to register in specific casino, so i dont think its really fair to just close account etc. It seems more like scamming these who are bringing them people.

Is this big problem in affiliate field, how to avoid it and whats your experiences?

Thanks a lot!

 

[TheGooner]

It is far more common today than 2,3 or 5 years ago. Today many regulated markets hold programs to be responsible for affiliate claims - and so programs are picking and choosing who to work with and it IS based on regualr activity.

IF you are away for 6-12 months, and your website is out-of-date, incorrect, or just over-promising or using wrong banners then that's a problem in regulated markets.

My website does fairly well as far as affiliation goes - it's probably in the top 1% for lifetime earnings in the industry - but we've still been given the raised quotas / closedown treatment from places like Ladbrokes, Coral, Interwetten, and BoyleSports.

IF you are working with unregulated markets / operators then it's less likely, as there is little monitoring or restriction. However, they are still likely to impose minimum activity limits - so if you are not earning each month you are still risking closure.

 

[pco]

in my point of view i have promised lifetime revenue share

lifetime means something different in the affiliate industry, usually it comes with a bunch of T&Cs which define that they can close your account for several reasons, or by retro-actively (rogue) changing them to whatever they want.
it's sad, but it's the reality.

i also really hate it, i have been promoting certain brands on the left and right trying to convert for them, and then they close your account... this pushes me more and more to the offshore industry.

 

[melcb]

@TheGooner has explained it nicely, back in the day it was not so common, now with stricter regulations on casinos affiliates have to comply to the same compliance standards and sometimes its just easier for a program to limit their affiliate base so as not to risk the potential of being fined for not being compliant. I have to admit it must be difficult for them to monitor. LCB is a large network on one of the leading affiliates in the industry and even we get these type of emails.

 

[Caffrey]

Thanks for everyone for explaining the situation at the moment.

I am working with Europe market at the moment mostly - some small countries in Europe. At the moment my strategy is to work with about 3-5 online casinos and then when time is right i am planning to expand this circle. Whats Your experiences guys, is it better to focus in few casinos or is it better to take as many casinos as possible on board?

Does anyone know is there some books etc. for specificly casino affiliate area also which You can recommend to get more knowhow.

My start at the beginning is mostly based actually in e-mail marketing in specific countries, i have about 3 casinos at the moment on-board, one i have about 40 registrations, one i have about 10 registrations and one i have about 3-4 registrations, so not really fast beginning, but plans are to build up few websites etc and also have some ideas about making Europe based general gamblers related site.

Any good knowhow will be appreciated and thanks again for everyone for expressing Your opinions and experiences.

 

[melcb]

To promote 3-5 casinos definitely makes life easier, you can focus on those brands and try to optimise them best you can on your site with quality content etc also updating would be a breeze. One drawback is if you rely on only a few and one or two pull out of a big market or the shut down etc you lose a big chunk of your earnings. When promoting many casinos you have your earnings spread but less focus and time for each brand.

I suggest reading and getting to know SEO better and focus on good content, think about the user.

 

[Biti]

It depends on what you call a "real reason". I've accounts at quite some programs, not working with every program actively and I see a lot of programs closing accounts, downgrading commissions or forcing retro-actively all kind of crap terms.

Promote just 3 or 5 casinos makes life easier, but it's also a risk to put your eggs in just a few baskets. It's workable if you choose good brands, in for the long run and are able to negotiate some better terms.

I think next years we'll see more of this, including brands stopping their affiliate program or brands stopping their operations.