I recently dropped Nine.com as I faced the same performance issues. ie. there was no performance over two years which was a anomoly given I run campaigns successfully for a bunch of bookmakers. The site had a comparable exposure to similar sites but on the other sites the return was healthy.
I am sure the guys there will tell you that some affiliates made $xxx,xxx per month, and that might well be the case, but my gut feel is that the mean earnings at nine.com would be far lower than other comparable sites.
Is this indicative of the fact that sports betting punters dont really care for scantily clad babes when all they want to do is get a good value bet?
I know that when I go to affiliate conventions and see affiliate managers fawning over their booth babes I dont take them seriously.