- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
It’s a ripple effect that will go through the industry. Casinos and affiliates suffering from less conversions, casinos passing more of the burden to affiliates, affiliates searching out casinos that still keep the partnership intact, and so on and so on.
Will be interesting to see who the survivors are. My bet is on those who give affiliate incentives in order to corner more of the market.
I can’t agree more Dom.
for those not able to see the dollar for the dime in front of them …… let me fill in the blanks.
1. players are treated right. with the utmost concern given towards getting them money when they cashout. …….. then … comes deposit concerns. NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND. Get it right!.
2. take care of those who take care of you! Meaning its your affs that will carry you thru the hard times. Get it right!
3. profits are going to fall off. Understand that fact and get used to it. This isn’t a forever situation ……. unless you don’t heed the above! Then its almost guaranteed. We affs have long memories and I for one won’t let it be forgotten easily when a program uses its partners that are the main reason they’re making any money at all …… as a means to increase their bottom line. I doubt I stand alone in this position.
Dominique wrote:Will be interesting to see who the survivors are. My bet is on those who give affiliate incentives in order to corner more of the market.Roger that, I wish I did better with CR, they deserve the exposure. Someone over there realizes affiliates are the key to sucess, and now is a better time than ever to give up a little to gain a lot, instead of walking over $100 bills to pick up pennies.
Consider this:
If we arbitrarily dump all the programs who lessen affiliate incentives by implementing negative carry-over or by bundling what might happen to the business climate? (Obviously it’ll be the smaller programs forced into this first).
Many affiliate programs/casinos would likely go belly up or taken over by a small group of large affiliate programs/casinos, leaving us with a small handfull of programs to choose from – something of a monopoly?
What then? How healthy is the gambling affiliate business going to be when there is something of a monopoly…
Anybody here who has experience in other industries will attest to the fact that monopolies are not good for our bank accounts. They can lessen commission percentages, etc., without worrying the competition will scoop up affilite website space as a result.
It’s competition for our website space that brought us such lucritive incentives in the first place…
Fergie wrote:Consider this:If we arbitrarily dump all the programs who lessen affiliate incentives by implementing negative carry-over or by bundling what might happen to the business climate? (Obviously it’ll be the smaller programs forced into this first).
Many affiliate programs/casinos would likely go belly up or taken over by a small group of large affiliate programs/casinos, leaving us with a small handfull of programs to choose from – something of a monopoly?
What then? How healthy is the gambling affiliate business going to be when there is something of a monopoly…
Anybody here who has experience in other industries will attest to the fact that monopolies are not good for our bank accounts. They can lessen commission percentages, etc., without worrying the competition will scoop up affilite website space as a result.
It’s competition for our website space that brought us such lucritive incentives in the first place…
Fergie, I applaud your effort to see both sides of the coin, but you would be doing yourself a solid if you did what was best for your business at the current time, and just reacted accordingly as things evolve. Think of it like a poker game, they might have pocket aces, yet trying to make you think they are weak. They also might have 2-7, and are trying to buy the pot, thats up to you to decide and make a good read. It just seems in reading your posts that you have no doubt that this is just to survive, and I would just caution the credence you give to moves done by programs. I am not saying your wrong, because I don’t know either, just that if you believe everything done by programs is in the interest of survival, or even in the interest of affiliates, you will cost yourself money, no matter what business you are in.
My post was intended to introduce other possibilities than those mentioned: To pick brains.
Lots of grey areas to consider.
Hi again all,
I for one won’t miss the the smaller programs that give themselves the edge.
worrying about what may or may not happen is rediculous. the major programs playing / treating their affs right off the bat beats the hell out of accepting BS terms which are implemented under the excuses of current times by smaller programs. Right now i’m down to one major sponsor …. hopefully two once the second gets payment to me. (the second bundles but I’ve got too much invested in them to walk away).
Would I have entered into promoting them if I’d known the bundling was to come …… not a chance.
as a result. ….. I now only promote one of their properties. Now I ask you …… was that a wise decision on their part considering I know only promote one property?
bb1webs wrote:Now I ask you …… was that a wise decision on their part considering I know only promote one property?Not a chance Steve, you know the game. However, the affiliate program might not know this. They will look at what they pay to affiliates when they bundle, compared to what they would have paid out if they did not bundle. This is a tangible savings that they can see on paper. What they do not see is the lost revenue from you by regressing down to only 1 of their properties. So naturally when they look at it on paper, it looks like the bundling move is a profit center for them. Problem is the lost revenue is almost impossible to fit into the equation, even if they are smart enough to try, so it is a moot point.
Fergie wrote:My post was intended to introduce other possibilities than those mentioned:It makes a lot of sense to try and think about all parts of the equation. If you make knee jerk reactions based alone on the almighty buck; you will often find yourself behind an eightball of one sort or another.
Bonusgeek wrote:Someone over there realizes affiliates are the key to sucess.I agree affiliates are ONE key to success. But above and beyond that IMO is the way the properties they represent treat their players. Receiving 10,000 players that leave because of issues is less important than receiving 100 players who stick around becuase they are treated well. A good affiliate program is secondary to a good casino/property IMO. And similarly, 25% from a program representing good properties, even if they bundle, is better than 50% from one that doesn’t have good properties – over the longer term at least.
Not having a dig, just adding some perspective
True, lousy casinos have lousy retention and hence are never good to promote.
Not really the point of discussion here though.
Who says smaller places will fold first? That is often not the case in these situations at all. The smaller, trimmer outfit has a definite advantage, quicker reaction time and more flexibility. If I had to choose whether I wanted to be a smaller outfit or a larger one now, I would definitely pick smaller.
Mostly I see the industry in a bind until June or thereabouts, by which time I see new ways of processing being firmly in place. How they choose to bridge that time will greatly impact their future.
I can’t see their books and don’t know their individual problems. There is a lot of affiliate hostility now due to missing payments and I think it is largely misplaced. Obviously the programs can’t discuss what they are doing about payments, or the new processor will end up on a banking blacklist in no time. So they have to sit and take the fire.
It is a bad environment, and like with all situations in this world where creatures are deprived of the usual way of doing things along with a greater scarcity of food ($), there is a lot of agression, as well as other over reactions such as withdrawal (not answering posts) and self preservation (such as changing T&Cs).
IMO the ones that will come out ahead are the ones who keep their cool, continue to foster good relationships and work together to make things livable.
The real danger of times like this is that they may set precedent for future behavior, and carry over into less turbulent times. Ever tried to repeal a “temporary tax” ? Things have a way of establishing themselves, and we do have to protect our turf for that reason.
Breach of contract is not the solution. If we allow it, we make our beds for the future and all the work we have done for the last few years to stabilize our sector of the industry is down the drain.
Where do I place the real blame? With the DOJ of course, who is achieving exactly the chaos they wanted to achieve, having the industry infight and self destruct.
And, yes, with the casino owners, who had ample warning and didn’t get solutions in place in a timely fashion. I have no doubt they are working their butts off now to make things work again, but heck, this should have all been put in place long ago. I sure hope there are some lessons learned.
Hi again all,
ya I agree. if its not on paper …. the bean counters can’t see it.
What amazes me however is that you’d think the people above the bean counters …. the ones who at least at some point in time had the savvy to take a risk based on their intuition …. are now not trusting their instincts.
I agree with Dom. Times will change. and its proven that some affs will forgive and forget. Big mistake if you ask me …..
to use my now favorite quote from our esteemed leader …….
fool us once … shame on us …. er … we won’t be fooled again
lol. silly as it is …… there’s some wisdom in that mis-guided quote.
This morning I received confirmation from VA that the bundling changes are indeed retroactive.
This change is from 1st of March onwards for all affiliates (and all players). It would be nearly impossible to do it any other way.
It’s time to take down all of their properties. Even if I promote just one casino, they may cross-market the others. So a winner at one casino can still wipe out everything. If enough people remove their casinos, maybe they will rethink this whole bundling concept all together.
time to drop them.
