How should affiliates repond to Grand Prive's decision to end affiliate commissions?

[MichaelCorfman]

Last month, Grand Prive Affiliates announced it was closing and would stop paying affiliates. It also said that while the affiliate program was closing down, Grand Prive casinos would continue to operate with their existing player base. As a result, players that were recruited by affiliates will continue to generate revenue for the Grand Prive casinos, but affiliates will not be receiving the lifetime commissions they had expected.

How do you think affiliates should respond to Grand Prive's decision to end affiliate commissions? Many affiliates have already banded together to rogue Grand Prive in response. What else should affiliates do? Should they stick to blacklisting? Or should they e-mail player bases, or refuse to work with companies that have ties to Grand Prive, or take some other action? Please let us know what you think both by voting and offering your thoughts in this thread.

And if you have not seen the APCW video about Grand Prive, be sure to visit the thread www.gpwa.org/forum/apcw-reports-grand-prive-affiliates-178116.html to watch it.

Michael

[Integrity]

By the way, friends...

You can select more than one response!

[joeyl]

What does the GPWA heirachy think should be done?

If the majority of the membership decide they should be avoided, will the GPWA respect that decision?

If so..

What about other rogues, such as those who steal from players?

If the majority of the membership decide they too should be avoided, will the GPWA respect those future decisions. Will they be given opportunity to express their view about other possible rogues?

Rogueing and not doing business with a certain casino group for their actions is something I have been asking the GPWA to do for a long time, but was told taking action against rogues was not part of the GPWA remit.

If that is the case, it does'nt matter what "affiliates" say they are going to do, the GPWA will not be following suit.

If that is the case, while affiliates may not advertise the new casino, I take it the associated GPWA owner's sites such as Casinocity will be advertising the new Grand Prive casino.

Michael: This is a can of worms that has always needed opening, one I advocate opening, a drum which I and others have been banging, but have been ignored.

The day the "rogue casino" stiffs the affiliates, and not the player, was always going to come.

I will be watching this thread very closely, for obvious reason.

Here is another player's view, for those affiliates that do too care to see the Grand Prive thing from another angle.

[Dominique]

Ah jeez, I missed that it was multiple choices.

In that case, all of the above.


Joeyl, where have you been all these years? Rogue casinos have been screwing affiliates AND players alike forever. For all I know they don't pay the cleaning lady either.

[GamTrak]

Thanks for taking time to put this poll up Michael.

I think that the Grand Prive issues is something that needs to be dealt with swiftly and not get bogged down with (place your choice word here) of what has happened in the past and what needs to happen in the future.

We are not going to turn igaming into the perfect regulated industry and I DO NOT want to see this issue get tied up with folks asking that we rid the industry of crooks.

Lets concentrate on the problem at hand and then see how we can save the rest of the igaming world for another thread/day please. I'm not trying to start trouble, but I don't want to see another thread derailed either.

What is Micrograming, eCogra and others doing about this situation? What else can we as affiliate do?

[MichaelCorfman]

If the majority of the membership decide they too should be avoided, will the GPWA respect those future decisions. Will they be given opportunity to express their view about other possible rogues?

Rogueing and not doing business with a certain casino group for their actions is something I have been asking the GPWA to do for a long time, but was told taking action against rogues was not part of the GPWA remit.

If that is the case, it does'nt matter what "affiliates" say they are going to do, the GPWA will not be following suit.

If that is the case, while affiliates may not advertise the new casino, I take it the associated GPWA owner's sites such as Casinocity will be advertising the new Grand Prive casino.

Michael: This is a can of worms that has always needed opening, one I advocate opening, a drum which I and others have been banging, but have been ignored.

This specific poll and this specific thread is focused on Grand Prive, and I'd like to mostly keep it that way. However, I'd like to be very clear that my intention is for there to be a lot more activity and action on these types of areas in the future. Speaking specifically in terms of Casino City, we have a current project underway trying to identify rogue outfits, and our intention is to take a strong stance against them on Casino City. And our intention is to also try to help organize the GPWA as a community that has the tools and knowledge to more effectively share information and thus facilitate webmasters in general in those types of actions.

It is no accident that you see a video, a poll question, and many threads on the Grand Prive topic this week since it is a hot topic. But the true hot topic is the general issue, and what you see here this week is part of a migration on our part to a strong focus on these sorts of issues in general.

Michael

[Ziggy]

Trust is not given; it must be earned.

Grand Prive will have a long way to go to earn that again.

I think the stance webmasters have taken to join together against them was the only choice possible in the interest of the industry and players.

[Ricbyrne]

Although Casinos are not involved with what I do, I can share this with you!

Michael, after reviewing your list of poll options, you missed one! All of the above When you are dealing with a rogue site you don’t restrict your options, you hit them with everything available to you. If they have ties to other sites you penalize them also.

I was told long ago that if you want to kill a rogue site you go after the head of the snake, not the body, because it’s the head that feeds the body. In this case its any media that is feeding your list of sites. Having a player base is one thing, but players do come and go. In order for Grand Prive to survive, it will need new players. You need to direct your attention to that area and do what ever it takes to stop them. For example directories! Casino City has a directory! Are you still referring players to Grand Prive sites? Is it time to bring out the skull & crossbones warnings we discussed? How many directories are there with just GPWA Members? You can make a difference in a timly fashion.

Believe me! You all have the resources to bring Grand Prive to its knees, but do you know how to use your resources to achieve the desired goal? This is an excellent test to demonstrate if webmasters/affiliates when united, have any clout!

[pgaming]

Well I dumped Grand Prive then Referspot two years ago. Requested the account be closed and keep the earnings, bad habit of mine when dealing with sketchy programs.

Although my player base was two the click to conversion ratio was phenomenally inaccurate. Over a two year span, if I recall correctly, there was a mere 2 downloads. Since then I believe Grand Prive was already forging their path towards affiliate annihilation.

Believe me they really worked hard with seducing affiliates. It worked, I new few who were not promoting them. How unfortunate this could not have been dealt with two years ago. But I suppose small voices seldom get noticed.

How does one respond? Grand Prive has committed theft and their hands are very bloody with greed and self-serving appetites that would rival any all you can eat buffet.

Then there are the players WOW! Hard too image all those players in the hands of this group. I certainly won’t be wagering there. A good message to pass along, who knows what Grand Prive is capable of.

Grand Prive is a whack job!

I would choose all of the above and then some. Be interested finding out who is marketing them now?

greek39

[bb1web]

Hi all,

to me there is no second choice. They've got to burn to the ground and the ashes kicked into the wind.

It will be the greatest mistake of affiliate history (at least in gambling) to not drive these casinos completely out of business and in an absolute relentless manner.

Every single aff should be participating.

as for the player situation.

I don't get it? It has always been my experience that the affiliates get cheated out of their due earnings long before the players. With maybe exception to a super-affiliate.

affs are the first to get cheated and the last to get paid. That's how I know which casinos to send players. Its when they stop paying the affs is when I know the players are soon to be next.

that's my take.

[arkyt]

I never worked with this group, so its tough to say what I would personally do, but generally and thinking collectively I say ALL of the above is just a start.

IF I had been working with this program and had been supplying them with a steady stream of action then they cut me off like this I might have to consider legal action. Further I would expect any organized association claiming to stand for affiliates to support such action(s)...

[pgaming]

Thinking…there are plenty of hard line tech forums who would love here about this issue.

I wonder what the Black Hat community has to say? Or are they even cut out as well? I know there are tons of affiliates over at Digital Point.

Would be interesting and likely would help the cause.

But I think top priority should be enlightening the players for the right reasons. There is a significant potential players might get the shaft as well.

greek39

[bonustreak]

All of the above is my vote as well. We have been informing players doing link exchanges for our blacklisted site and doing what it takes to get the word out.

[penny-slot-machines]

Speaking specifically in terms of Casino City, we have a current project underway trying to identify rogue outfits, and our intention is to take a strong stance against them on Casino City. And our intention is to also try to help organize the GPWA as a community that has the tools and knowledge to more effectively share information and thus facilitate webmasters in general in those types of actions.

This sounds very positive, Michael.

I'm certainly looking forward to seeing the progress on these issues.

[LiveCasinoPartners]

...... Its when they stop paying the affs is when I know the players are soon to be next....

Your 100% right on that one bb1web. It's the ethics that lacks, which will eventually drive home to all affected by them. I can't believe that they intend on running another program after this.

[Ricbyrne]

Here is another very effective tool that gets the word out! I can tell you from experience that Sites hate bad press! Potential depositors are known to search sites on google and other search engines. If you want to make this a joint effort, it will definitely have a great negative impact on them.

Write a negative review on Grand Prive and post it on your website. I find that if you used the full name its easier for the crawlers to pick it up. So reference GrandPrive.com. If many webmasters do this, it will flood the search engines. When this site is googled, all the bad press will come up. A potential depositor, or even a current depositor will think twice and hopefully avoid this site.

Webmasters here have the advantage of having some GPWA Members, that can guide them in the area of using keywords, in their review of Grand Prive, that will increase the likelihood that a search engine will pick up your post.

Hope you find this helpful!

[Rhino]

With MGS pulling out, I'd say that this is a case of "damned if we do, damned if we don't" for Grand Prive when it came to deciding whether to cheat affiliates.

Grand Prive would've obviously known affiliates were going to be p1$$3d with making this decision (otherwise they really are stupid).

In my opinon, Grand Prive cut affiliate earnings, probably cut staff members too, just to try and survive with the loss of US players. Tells you something about the size of the casinos, how much they relied on the US market, costs in running Grand Prive, and the business mentality of the owners.

Damned if they do, Damned if they don't.
Screwed themselves every which way.
Everyone loses out on this one, affiliates and Grand Prive.

[robertmedl]

...just to try and survive with the loss of US players....

to clarify, no microgaming casino or poker room lost existing US players. instead, they lost the ability to attract new US players in the future.

[ALEX777]

All of the above!

[abscident]

I never worked with this group, and I'm happy I didn't.
What they are doing is pure theft. Unfortunately, I don't think an affiliate has many things he can do in such situation, but a collective action can have much better results.