Affiliate Guard Dog Ratings and eCOGRA certifications now shown for GPWA sponsors

[MichaelCorfman]

I'm very pleased to announce that we have enhanced the information we provide about GPWA sponsor programs to include ratings from Affiliate Guard Dog and also to include whether a program is eCOGRA certified.

We've worked quite closely with Affiliate Guard Dog for some time including having a special GPWA forum dedicated to AGD terms and condition change announcements. Today we take that relationship to a new level by providing information directly on our page about an affiliate program from AGD. The information shown on individual affiliate program pages indicates if an affiliate program is certified by AGD, if their terms and conditions are considered friendly to affiliates, if there are warnings with respect to their terms, or if the affiliate program is considered predatory or rogue. We also include a direct link to the page on the AGD website describing terms & condition changes for the affiliate program.

Also, beginning today, we will display the eCOGRA seal for affiliate programs that have been eCOGRA certified. eCOGRA certifications provide a level of assurance that an affiliate program properly pays the affiliates with which it works.

We hope that the additional information provided will prove helpful to affiliates when they consider establishing relationships with affiliate programs.

Michael

[Chalkie]

Even more good news, as promised!

[Betpartners]

Another good move

I know some have reservations about Ecogra but these continuing partnerships between different organisations will help consolidation in the sector that protects affiliates.

Much better that GPWA continues to work closer with the likes of AGD and Ecogra than not, i applaud this move.

[Chips]

Well done GPWA! Another super reason why we are at the top of the food chain! Keep up the improvements!

[AK]

Can Webmasters rate the affiliate programs?

[MichaelCorfman]

Can Webmasters rate the affiliate programs?

At the moment webmasters can document their experiences (both good and bad) with affiliate programs in the forum for the affiliate program. I wish more webmasters would do that here.

I know of one other forum, which shall remain nameless right now, that implemented a zero to five star rating system members could use, but I viewed those ratings as not being all that helpful since most programs were never rated, and a rating without the details behind why is not all that useful in my opinion. But I do view a more formal rating system as being a good idea, but something I also want to noodle on a little longer before we do something more formal than forum posts.

Michael

[joeyl]

$5.3m of poker players funds gone, under the watchful eye of Ecogra.

& Grand Prive are responsible operators apparently.

Try it on more times than Wile E Coyote.

[Betpartners]

ok let me say first i have blacklisted Grand Prive in solidarity with my fellow affiliates, i have never ever had any dealings with them but nonetheless i have blacklisted them.

If you do a search on the keywords Grand Prive Blacklisted on google.com my sites are 1 and 4 last i checked so i will never defend them ever.

I have also made stinging comments about Ecogra so i think my credentials on this are ok

But i have to ask, Ecogra is about players and not affiliates is that correct? and if it is correct when they come to giving gambling sites acreditation it is based on how they treat players and not affiliates, is that also correct?

Now to be honest i am not 100% sure and that is one of my gripes with Ecogra, but on the basis that their criteria is players only i am not sure we can have a pop at them if they approve Grand Prive.

They are only following their criteria unless Grand Prive have ripped players off, which to date i do not think they have.

Now please do not bite my head off, i am against Grand Prive big time and think they should be driven out of business, but in relation to Ecogra on this one issue,have they actually broken their own rules or have they abided by their own rules?.

I ask this genuinely, because however much it sticks in the throat that Grand Prive are approved anywhere i am not sure that Ecogra can go outside its own criteria and not approve a program

My understanding is that Grand Prive does abide by Ecogra's criteria.

I dont like this, please dont misunderstand me, but i think that if my understanding is correct then it is unfair to ahavve a pop at Grand Prive on this.

There is more than enough other reasons to have a go at Ecogra though.

[bonustreak]

Actually our site is #1 Take that you bastards!! And they need to stop sending me frigging text messages to deposit! WOW sorry for the huge derail and thanks GPWA for supporting AGD the way you have, your the best!!

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...ve+blacklisted

[MichaelCorfman]

But i have to ask, Ecogra is about players and not affiliates is that correct? and if it is correct when they come to giving gambling sites acreditation it is based on how they treat players and not affiliates, is that also correct?

Now to be honest i am not 100% sure and that is one of my gripes with Ecogra, but on the basis that their criteria is players only i am not sure we can have a pop at them if they approve Grand Prive.

They are only following their criteria unless Grand Prive have ripped players off, which to date i do not think they have.

Now please do not bite my head off, i am against Grand Prive big time and think they should be driven out of business, but in relation to Ecogra on this one issue,have they actually broken their own rules or have they abided by their own rules?.

I ask this genuinely, because however much it sticks in the throat that Grand Prive are approved anywhere i am not sure that Ecogra can go outside its own criteria and not approve a program

Betpartners,

I believe pretty much everything you said is true, at least with respect to the position of eCOGRA with respect to Grand Prive. eCOGRA does also offer certification for affiliate programs, but in the case of Grand Prive they have only been involved from a player perspective and not an affiliate perspective.

I actually am personally a strong supporter of both eCOGRA initiatives, and wish them the very best in terms of what they are trying to do in the process of certifying affiliate programs. I believe they bring something new and valuable to the table on that front. That is one of the reasons I had us go to the development effort to provide information about their certification of a couple of our sponsor programs here.

The reason there is controversy around eCOGRA with respect to Grand Prive among a number of webmasters is that those webmasters have difficulty with the concept that integrity of an operator with respect to affiliates and with respect to players can be so cleanly separated. A fair number of webmasters feel the management of Grand Prive is not ethical, and that the eCOGRA seal being on their sites for players, in the context of it being the same management team for affiliates also, is not a reasonable situation. I do believe eCOGRA is in a difficult situation here, because I don't believe their stated criteria provided them with grounds to anything other than to renew the eCOGRA certification of Grand Prive. But it is a free marketplace, and so for many webmasters it appears that this situation seriously taints the eCOGRA brand according to a poll we ran on the subject recently. At the very least it is certainly awkward to have a site that is eCOGRA approved but where a large number of webmasters feel the management of the site is not ethical to the point that the site is widely rogued.

Michael

[pgaming]

We've worked quite closely with Affiliate Guard Dog for some time including having a special GPWA forum dedicated to AGD terms and condition change announcements. Today we take that relationship to a new level by providing information directly on our page about an affiliate program from AGD. The information shown on individual affiliate program pages indicates if an affiliate program is certified by AGD, if their terms and conditions are considered friendly to affiliates, if there are warnings with respect to their terms, or if the affiliate program is considered predatory or rogue. We also include a direct link to the page on the AGD website describing terms & condition changes for the affiliate program.

Nice step Michael I will leave Ecogra and GP out of it lol. I appreciate more the above quote. I rely heavily on the GPWA and AGD both good boards IMO.

The world is not perfect.

greek39

[Betpartners]

Actually our site is #1 Take that you bastards!! And they need to stop sending me frigging text messages to deposit! WOW sorry for the huge derail and thanks GPWA for supporting AGD the way you have, your the best!!

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...ve+blacklisted

LOL your right, i think i lasted at the top all of 10 mins then vanished you got to love google, still got number 4 though with my other site, so between us all we doing a good job.

I do agree with Michael getting back on point that Ecogra were put in a bad position here and probably had little choice because of their criteria but considering that this has happened it would not do any harm for Ecogra to have a look at their criteria and do some fine tuning because this is not a great situation really.

[joeyl]

But i have to ask, Ecogra is about players and not affiliates is that correct?

Ecogra is about the operators i'm afraid.

Both the fair gaming advocate and the affiliate certification are an after-thought.

There was once a time Ecogra were allegedly pushing for PWC to open up the TGTR process to give players a better understanding of the procedure. Now Ecogra run it in house. No disclosure has ever been forthcoming. Non Ecogra certified casinos are payout audited by Ecogra funnily enough. So there you go.

When they get a player rep on the board, maybe i'll think again. Until they get an affiliate rep on the board, I think Michael should think again.

cheers.