GP & eCOGRA...BS

[giggles7p]

Well, I received my "final report" back from these two "jokers"......I am owed nothing!!

I had earnings every month back in the day before them closing the program....but alas their "honest and dependable review" claims that all earnings stopped when the program closed.

BS....BS...BS....

I am so freaking mad right now i could spit fireballs. But expected this crap right from the start...

Anyone else hear back yet?

[thepokerkeep]

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release

eCOGRA REPORT ON THE GRAND PRIVÉ AFFILIATE PROGRAM INVESTIGATION

15 February 2010 - Following a number of Internet-based allegations concerning the closure of the Grand Privé Affiliate Program (‘the Program’) on 1 December 2008, eCOGRA's Compliance and Advisory Services department was engaged by the management of the company on 17 November 2009.

Pursuant to an independent and fair resolution of the issues involved, eCOGRA was tasked with:

1. Independently investigating the manner in which the Program was terminated and the reasons therefore;
2. Carrying out a full and independent review of the program software and data to confirm amounts owed to claimants;
3. Determining a fair settlement for claimants, taking into consideration the potential lifetime earnings of each affiliate’s respective players; and
4. Compiling a full and transparent report which will be publicly released on conclusion of the investigation.

According to our mandate, the following actions were taken in order to ensure the maximum number of affiliates were afforded the opportunity to submit legitimate and verifiable claims:

1. On 7 December 2009 both eCOGRA and Grand Privé issued widely distributed press releases advising affiliates of the opportunity to submit claims, and also urging affiliate watchdog organisations to assist in ensuring their respective affiliate members were informed of this opportunity;
2. After noting affiliate concerns regarding the limited reach of affiliate representative bodies and webmasters, Grand Privé management expanded the communications exercise by emailing every affiliate who had active players on the Program’s records during the 3 months prior to 1 December 2008 when the Program closed; and
3. An online Claim Submission Form for affiliates was made available from 7 to 31 December 2009 and claims were collated by eCOGRA.

Our investigation included confirming the accuracy and completeness of the database list of emails used in the expanded communications exercise in 2. above.

Our findings are as follows:

1. Termination of the Affiliate Program and reasons therefore

Following various meetings with management and an onsite investigation at the Grand Privé operational base during the months of January and February 2010, an inspection of supporting evidence allowed eCOGRA to substantiate that:

1. For commercial reasons, in August 2008 a decision to close the Program effective 1 December 2008 was taken.
   
   System problems were being experienced on an ongoing basis due to the Program using software in Beta testing. In order to maintain the integrity of the data three permanent employees were required to manage the Program software. In addition the software provider was required to spend an extensive amount of time assisting and troubleshooting ongoing system problems. This resulted in escalating costs, deteriorating service levels and reputational damage.
   
   Due to the high operational overheads and the relatively small portion of income being derived from the affiliate business associated with the Program, losses were incurred by the Program over a period of more than 12 months.
   
   After carefully considering alternative courses of action, management decided to close the Program in order to protect other areas of the organisation from further losses.
2. All affiliates were informed of the intended closure by email on 7 November 2008 and encouraged to move their accounts and players to the Villa Fortuna Affiliate Program, which used improved affiliate program software. A follow up email with the same message was sent again on 21 November 2008. Termination was conducted according to the termination clauses stipulated in the affiliate contracts.
3. During November 2008 management entered into mutually agreed compensation arrangements for related future player activity with the majority of affiliates who at that time had players considered to be reasonably active. We have however confirmed that certain affiliates were overlooked in this process.
4. On 1 December 2008 all affiliates were paid November commissions, and the Program was officially closed.

2. Review of the program software and data to confirm amounts owing to claimants

58 claims were submitted to eCOGRA, of which 7 were found to be invalid1, and 26 earned commissions during the period 1 December 2008 to 31 December 2009. The following steps were taken by two eCOGRA employees, both qualified Chartered Accountants with substantial industry experience, in order to substantiate amounts owing to claimants during this period:

1. A comprehensive completeness and accuracy audit on the affiliate database provided by the Program was conducted.
2. The relevant claimants’ information was located in the database and information used for the linking and tracking of players associated with the claimants was obtained, in part using information supplied in the claim submissions received from affiliates.
3. This information was used to manually source all players linked to the relevant claimants within the casino back office database.
4. The underlying data for the players linked to the relevant claimants was scrutinised to identify players who were still active in the period 1 December 2008 to 31 December 2009.
5. The actual commission amounts per affiliate were then recalculated using the gaming data, from 1 December 2008 to 31 December 2009, for the linked active players.

3. Determination of a fair settlement for claimants

We have been able to accurately calculate the commission accruing to each claimant for the period 1 December 2008 to 31 December 2009.

In order to take into account any potential future earnings, we have added to this amount an additional commission amount for any claimant’s players that were active during the 6 month period prior to 31 December 2009. The effect of this is that we have implied an average lifetime value for each of these players of at least 3.5 times the actual2 average lifetime of all Grand Privé players.

In our opinion, this is fair and reasonable compensation for the likely future earnings of these players.


We wish to thank all those representing affiliates’ interests for their feedback and support throughout the investigation. We would also like to note that the investigation team received the full cooperation of the Grand Privé management.


1Utilising all information provided by claimants (Name, Email, Banner Tag, Website, etc.), no records could be found in the Program database.

2The actual average lifetime value of players is confidential information which we are unable to disclose.

[Anthony]

During November 2008 management entered into mutually agreed compensation arrangements for related future player activity with the majority of affiliates who at that time had players considered to be reasonably active. We have however confirmed that certain affiliates were overlooked in this process.

Is there anyone here who actually received a mutually agreed compensation arrangement November 2008?

[joeyl]

They closed the aff programme because they could'nt get it to work properly?

I trust they manage the player accounts a bit better, crikey.

[GamTrak]

Well, i'm pissed because eCOGRA has failed miserably in this task! According to them I'm owed less than 1k! WTF?

I'm not going to say much right now, but I will once I get a reply back from my rep. where I asked a couple questions.

It's clear to me that Grand Prive' provided eCOGRA with bogus/fake information and they took it as truth.

Either they provide me with my stats or I will never believe this investigation.

Is there anyone here who actually received a mutually agreed compensation arrangement November 2008?

Nope.

[Daera]

Our investigation of the Grand Privé Affiliates Program is now complete, and we regret to inform you that you that no commissions have been earned by you subsequent to the closure of the Program on 1 December 2008.

Please find attached our Final Report relating to the investigation, which includes the steps taken to review commissions owing.

eCOGRA appreciates your cooperation in filing a claim and providing information that assisted us in fully investigating this issue.

I feel the same as Giggles. This was my best affiliate account for a long time, including right before they shut down the program. My earnings did seem to drop when they switched to the new affiliate program. I guess that "Beta Software" as they mentioned could be to blame. Either way, I feel we were screwed, ALL OVER AGAIN by this. They should have just left well enough alone then to bring this up all over again and out of only 58 claims... come back with this response. Grrrr!

[giggles7p]

Daera you got the exact same "letter" i recieved, word for word....think they could of spared some "respect" for us and wrote all 58 of us individually? Guess not....i guess one "CRAP" letter is just as good as 58!!!

I am sooooo livid!

F**KM******ERS>>>>SH**>>>>BULLSH*****>>>>SON OF A B**** BAST****

[Webzcas]

Only 26 affiliates were owed commissions apparently, according to the PR released by GP via Lyceum Media.

Here is the thread on CasinoMeister concerning this:

http://www.casinomeister.com/forums/...tml#post349173

[Dominique]

It seems to me that players were untagged pursuant closure of the program.

My alotment is less than one month's revenue.

[GamTrak]

It seems to me that players were untagged pursuant closure of the program.

My alotment is less than one month's revenue.

That makes sense as to why we are not getting the true settlement that we are entitled to. What now?

[theGman]

Its a joke - in addition i am pretty sure that i had a balance in the account that was never paid to me . What can you do ?

Continue blacklisting all of their known properties , the one issue that affiliates have is that we will not know if they open up a new Casino using different company details. This is going to cause a lot of hurt to the smaller operations as i am now only going to be promoting listed companies who can not perform the kind of shenanigans that these guys have just pulled off

Ecogra - give me a break

[nitro]

It's clear to me that Grand Prive' provided eCOGRA with bogus/fake information and they took it as truth.

Because they wanted to...it seems they kind of dislike affiliates.

[Caruso]

I guess this is why AGD was pushed out the picture?

The resolution comments are full of holes (can't be arsed to disect them right now).

[Dominique]

I would like to know:

If you are one of the affected affiliates, does a portion of your players date back to Referspot, the program that was absorbed by Grand Prive?

[pgaming]

Just freaking ridiculous what GP hates is the truth as does Ecogra. They lie, cheat, and steal and this should be the message delivered throughout all corners of the web. I would even welcome any players or webmasters to fully sabotage GP.

The standard is lie, cheat, and steal something no webmaster asked for. GP has spoken loud and clear this is their standard code of conduct. If so I be obliged to follow their example I hope others do as well.

greek39

[GamTrak]

I would like to know:

If you are one of the affected affiliates, does a portion of your players date back to Referspot, the program that was absorbed by Grand Prive?

For me it does! I had been with them (Referspot) for some years before they switched to Grand Prive. I think I signed up with Referspot in 2001 or 2002.

At the very LEAST I want to be paid a settlement amount that is the same as I received for the entire year of revenue BEFORE they closed the program. Nothing less will be acceptable to me. That does not account for lifetime earnings as I'm willing to just forget about that part in order to move on!

[pdjoe]

For me it does! I had been with them (Referspot) for some years before they switched to Grand Prive. I think I signed up with Referspot in 2001 or 2002.

Same here Robin. No settlement for me.

[nitro]

Just freaking ridiculous what GP hates is the truth as does Ecogra. They lie, cheat, and steal and this should be the message delivered throughout all corners of the web. I would even welcome any players or webmasters to fully sabotage GP.

The message that is being delivered here is that it is ok to screw over affiliates.

[GamTrak]

Same here Robin. No settlement for me.

Hey Joe! Good to see you!

I remember back in the day how hard you and others worked for this brand and it's sad to see us get bent over like this!

[joeyl]

They've taken your stats away, so you can't prove anything right.

Then it's going to become you versus ecogra's integrity. That's a long and winding road. Don't go down it. It's a built in derail.

Can you show previous payments from this firm in comparison to the amounts offered now are higher?