Should Predatory Programs go to Conferences?

[mojo]

I wrote this big long thing but I think it would be better left to the Affiliates to say!

There is some discussion here: http://www.gpwa.org/forum/programs-n...tml#post558424

My personal recommendation (I discussed with Alex Pratt) was that programs not approved at AGD and CM would be disallowed and AGD and CM would be the authority. If programs don't have the decency to adhere to these standards then naturally there should be not conference priveledges.

Meanwhile they are hooking 500 other naive affiliates at conferences. That trickles down to our main concern, Players.

[joeyl]

Conference organisers won't do the boycott thing "first" Mojo.

The same people with blacklists and rogue pages, or those who make videos asking players and webmasters not to frequent this casino or that, do not believe in boycotts i'm told.

You've got no chance i'm afraid.

Sorry to say.

[arkyt]

The same people with blacklists and rogue pages, or those who make videos asking players and webmasters not to frequent this casino or that, do not believe in boycotts i'm told.

Can't burn bridges when they are sending money down the other lane. Its better to keep them at the table and look as if you are fighting the good fight. Accept free trips to foreign lands and gloss the big picture look really pretty. Yep; uh huh; thats the ticket.

I voted no, and I posted in the original thread that IMO the event organizer should be held accountable for who they bring (accept money from) to their conference.

[joeyl]

I don't see it in such black & white terms Arkty.

Those you ride so hard are'nt operating the controls. They are riding the same rollercoaster you are.

It's a bumpy ride at the back. & it's scary up the front too.

The controllers are who you really have a beef with. That's the casino managers, the software suppliers and the licensors.

[mojo]

I have every confidence that conference orgainizers have no desire to allow predatory programs at their conferences. It's hurtful to affiliates right? It is an AFFILIATE conference, right? They care, I know it!

Let's let some affiliate conference orgainizers chime in here!

The Safe and Fair Affiliate Initiative.

[casinobonusguy]

I cannot agree on letting CM and AGD decide who should come to conferences.I deal with playshare ,commission warehouse,partnerlogic and unibet .These have predatory terms on AGD but together they pay us $xx,xxx monthly with no issue.I realise i am long term affiliate and protected on Some terms because of the age of my accounts.I do not think there is one blanet rule that should be applied when deciding who can come and who should not attend.
Is there really anyone out there who does not know that these programs attend because they pay booth fees?
It is impossible to police an event like this and if alex had to listen to different voices on this matter he would be left with just handful of programs.
If you said ROGUE programs I would agree with you mojo but predatory means any casino with a negative carry over would not get to attend.

Judy

[matted]

We are all independent businesses. It is up to us to decide who we speak to and don't speak to. As well as our own due diligence when promoting something. Part of that DD may be speaking with other affiliates who will give the honest truth. Any affiliate who blindly follows what every Aff Manager says wont be in business long.

Having these programs at the generic conferences provides a venue for discussion. Shutting the door is a bad policy.

[thepokerkeep]

Having these programs at the generic conferences provides a venue for discussion. Shutting the door is a bad policy.

Shutting the door on rogue casinos is a good policy. If they truly want to discuss the issues, there are numerous venues for that - AGD, GPWA, Casinomeister....

Permitting them to continue to prey on new affiliates through their presence at conferences does no one any good.

The key word here is "rogue". As Judy pointed out, many programs have terms and conditions that "some" affiliates consider "predatory" while other affiliates find those same terms acceptable. If CM and AGD have "rogued" a program, there is obviously a good reason to avoid doing business with them. Those programs should be banned from setting up at the conferences.

I posted the following thoughts in the other thread - cross posted here for those who missed it;

In this industry it would be a simple process to vette the programs being allowed to participate at any given event.

Using AGD and Casinmeister as a starting point, any program that has been rogued by either of these forums could easily be blacklisted. Additionally, polling a handful of respected affiliates from each sector of the industry (poker, casino, sportsbook, bingo, etc) would be quick, inexpensive and give a fairly accurate list of the worst programs in the biz.

Of course, it's up to the event coordinator to want to take this road. There's no doubt that in the short term it would hurt the bottom line but the long term benefits could be huge.

What are the benefits for the conference promoter??

Trust, quality and value! High quality exhibitors will attract high quality affiliates!

The event gains the trust of the affiliates and the programs. As an affiliate, knowing that the attending programs have been vetted would certainly encourage me to choose to attend conference A over conference B where there was no screening process.

As a casino operator, I would feel much better about spending my budget on conferences where I won't be competing with rogue operations for the affiliate's time and business. A vetted conference adds value to any program in attendance. If I were an operator with a limited budget and could only afford to attend one conference this year, I would absolutely want to be at the one with the highest quality exhibitors.

Does an event organizer have an obligation to screen his exhibitors?

In my opinion, yes! Blacklisting rogues at all levels (including conferences) is in everyone's best interest. Protecting (new & veteran) affiliates from getting duped by fly by night operators should be a top priority for everyone in this business including event coordinators. If you want to run a quality event, you need quality exhibitors - period!

In addition, each conference should include a session on 'rogue operators'. Having speakers such as Andy (AGD), Brian (Casinomeister) and/or J Todd (APCW) on hand to help educate new affiliates before they fall victim to the likes of Playshare or Rome. The agenda could/should also include a list of all the currently blacklisted programs...

Benefits:
New programs, such as Shaun's, would be allowed to attend since they are not on the 'blacklist'.

Rogues would be encouraged to change their ways so they'd be removed from the 'blacklist' and be permitted to attend the next conference.

Blacklisting and banning rogue operators from exhibiting would directly impact their profit margins due to lack of exposure. The fastest, most effective way to motivate rogues to change their ways is to impact their bottom line.

Knowing that negative changes to T&C's could result in being blacklisted from future conferences, programs will be less likely to risk making those changes.

Event organizers who take this approach instantly gain credibility and respect. A bi-product of this approach is 'loyalty'... I know I would choose to attend an event that was promoted by someone who had my best interests at heart over any other similar event.

This approach is used in any industry where trade shows are held. Home shows, antiques shows, craft shows.... all the best ones are vetted.

Saying that we need to allow these 'rogues' to attend so we have access to them is complete bull-shit! They can come to AGD, Casinomeister or GPWA forums any time they want. Michael, Andy, Brian and J Todd are all accessible to them if they wish to correspond privately as well.

**** Edited to add - the name of this thread should be changed to " Should ROGUED Programs Be Allowed to Display at Conferences?"

[GCG]

Totally agree Pokerkeep

If you are a bad boy you should not attend class but wait outside and think about your mistakes that have hurt others.

[Nandakishore]

I cannot agree on letting CM and AGD decide who should come to conferences.

Exactly for this reason I have voted yes. I would have voted NO if the poll were for excluding rogue casinos.

[mojo]

If you are predatory you are thisclose to rogue.

Would you recommend your best friend to a 'predatory' program? Do you want webmasters sucked into this or do programs have to kill someone first before we do anything about it.

Predatory is not about having a negitive carryover. I use programs with neg c/o's. That's not the point. It's about retro terms without discussing it with us! Today it's negitive carryover that they slip in without telling us and guess what.. tomorrow they also add bundling. Again without telling us! Thank goodness for AGD. Scary!

Should we start a new poll? Rogue only? I say no. Let's get programs to step it up!

Edit to add: my mistake was posting this in public where predatory programs can vote.

[pgaming]

If we are bombed for promoting rogues then why are they allowed at conferences? Or why bother setting up rogue pages give them bad press only to have them show up.

Just a thought

greek39

[Shaun O'neill]

Mojo

Sorry to say that I have to disagree with you.

With regards to CM i have spoken to Bryan once I had a beer with him in Amsterdam two CAC ago since then I have never spoken to him again.

As far as I know my company (NordiCBet) has never featured on CM and we have been in business since 2002.

My affiliate program had been love about 6 weeks so far and to date both myself and Andy have been to busy to sort out my seal so in your mind I should not attend a conferrance???

I am sorry but that is 100% crazy, i understand you have issues with a couple of comapnies but to say things like this is crazy.

I will be attending any events that I wish to, we have even gone as far as being the Silver Sponsor for the Affiliate Super Summit in Swden in Nov.

Shaun

I wrote this big long thing but I think it would be better left to the Affiliates to say!

There is some discussion here: http://www.gpwa.org/forum/programs-n...tml#post558424

My personal recommendation (I discussed with Alex Pratt) was that programs not approved at AGD and CM would be disallowed and AGD and CM would be the authority. If programs don't have the decency to adhere to these standards then naturally there should be not conference priveledges.

Meanwhile they are hooking 500 other naive affiliates at conferences. That trickles down to our main concern, Players.

[Shaun O'neill]

Mojo

I just though of another point that I wuld liek to add:

If on your mind the CM and AGD are the voice does that mean that the GPWA have got it wrong a sthey took my cash??

Thanks

Shaun

I wrote this big long thing but I think it would be better left to the Affiliates to say!

There is some discussion here: http://www.gpwa.org/forum/programs-n...tml#post558424

My personal recommendation (I discussed with Alex Pratt) was that programs not approved at AGD and CM would be disallowed and AGD and CM would be the authority. If programs don't have the decency to adhere to these standards then naturally there should be not conference priveledges.

Meanwhile they are hooking 500 other naive affiliates at conferences. That trickles down to our main concern, Players.

[thepokerkeep]

Just to clarify some points made earlier about conferences losing too much money by banning rogues...

AGD has just 3 programs rogued.
Red Hot Revenue, Gramd Prive and Villa Fortuna - Rogued!

They have 8 marked as predatory.
AU, Hot Pepper, Partner Logic, Unibet, CW, Hype, Playshre, VIP - Predatory!

There are 67 AGD approved programs and 3 awaiting evaluation.

CasinoMeister has a longer rogue list, but - the list is by casino not program - and many of them are out of business.

Conclusion - Of the hundreds of programs in this industry, banning a handful of rogue casino programs will not cripple an event.

[Shaun O'neill]

I think Alex may not agree some of those listed i think spend a fair bit.

Also if it was up to Mojo I would not be allowed to attend an event....

Shaun

Just to clarify some points made earlier about conferences losing too much money by banning rogues...

AGD has just 3 programs rogued.
Red Hot Revenue, Gramd Prive and Villa Fortuna - Rogued!

They have 8 marked as predatory.
AU, Hot Pepper, Partner Logic, Unibet, CW, Hype, Playshre, VIP - Predatory!

There are 67 AGD approved programs and 3 awaiting evaluation.

CasinoMeister has a longer rogue list, but - the list is by casino not program - and many of them are out of business.

Conclusion - Of the hundreds of programs in this industry, banning a handful of rogue casino programs will not cripple an event.

[thepokerkeep]

I think Alex may not agree some of those listed i think spend a fair bit.

Also if it was up to Mojo I would not be allowed to attend an event....

Shaun

Shaun,

I disagree with Mojo about that point as well.

In my opinion, this is not about hurting the little guy or the new programs that have not been evaluated yet. It's about taking action against the worst programs in the industry.

That's why I propose that instead of allowing only approved programs to attend, ban programs that are clearly marked as rogues.

[pgaming]

Dam Pokerkeep you took the words right out of my mouth lol. I would certainly agree and you make some very valid points.

Shawn I cannot see your program getting the axe thrown at it unless it was by accident. Throw me a PM this morning if you have time.

I think were talking about the really severe rogue places Cpays comes to mind.

greek39

[mojo]

Shaun,

I disagree with Mojo about that point as well.

In my opinion, this is not about hurting the little guy or the new programs that have not been evaluated yet. It's about taking action against the worst programs in the industry.

That's why I propose that instead of allowing only approved programs to attend, ban programs that are clearly marked as rogues.

Sorry if I implied they would have to be approved by CM or AGD. That is not how I feel or what I meant at all. Rather what Terry says above. If one is not on the rogue list they are good to go.

Also if it was up to Mojo I would not be allowed to attend an event....

Not true, unless you are on a rogue list. Sorry for the misunderstanding!

[Shaun O'neill]

Mojo


You just wnat to rogue me and ban me from all events and you have not even met me yet.....


Will you be in London???


Shaun

Sorry if I implied they would have to be approved by CM or AGD. That is not how I feel or what I meant at all. Rather what Terry says above. If one is not on the rogue list they are good to go.



Not true, unless you are on a rogue list. Sorry for the misunderstanding!