Betfair-Paddy 1 Strike and You're out!

[Mattbar]

The latest twist in the drama:

Hi all,
This is a note regarding Paddy Power Betfair’s stance on affiliate activity and marketing compliance. We take the Gambling Commission Guidelines very seriously and want to ensure that all our affiliates are behaving in a responsible manner. Both on behalf of the brand and potential customer. We have opted to take a 1 strike policy on affiliate activity, any partner found to be operating against our internal regulations will be suspended from the program. Our full marketing guideline doc can be downloaded here https://www.dropbox.com/sh/h3m8g1qg0...veEfmKHNa?dl=0
Our main points are as follows

• No SMS marketing
• No advertorial style marketing
• No Pop Unders
• No media buying unless a set domain list can be provided of exactly where we are appearing and you are using our provided creative, if you are buying through an ad-exchange programmatically this is type of activity is prohibited as part of the Affiliate Program.
• No email marketing to a database of users where the email looks like it is sent on behalf of Paddy Power Betfair. If as an affiliate you want to talk to your user base about an affiliate offer it must be very clear that email is not sent by us the operator.
• Any challenge\Tipping style pages must make clear that it is in fact a challenge and must not imply that success is guaranteed. Under absolutely no circumstance should results be lied about or media manipulated to suggest results were more favourable.
• Any promotion of a sign up offer must include the following: New Customer Offer, T&C’s Apply 18+. Ideally it would also include Please Gamble Responsibly
• If conducting paid social advertising this should be paid ads for the affiliate site and should be clear it is the affiliate site you are advertising. It should not be possible for a consumer to think you are promoting our brand directly. If in doubt please share the creative and user journey with us before going live.
• If promoting via a Twitter, Facebook or other social media the account must have 18+ in the page bio.
• Please only use creative found in our media library or Dropbox folders, these are compliant with marketing regulations. Please do not publish any homemade creative unless signed off by a member of the team first.

If at any time you have questions or think your current activity may not be compliant please contact us immediately to review. With recent announcements in the sector it is imperative that we hold ourselves and our partners to the highest standards and ensure that we are not conducting marketing practices that are prohibited by The Gambling Commission, The ASA or other regulatory bodies.
Please feel free to get in touch with me at any time to discuss.
anthony.elders@paddypowerbetfair.com
Thanks
Anthony

[TinShed]

They sent an email similar to this at the start of August and Boylesports sent an email out this week with a link to their affiliate guidelines. Personally I hope all other programs follow this and set clear guidelines for us all to follow.

[Triple7]

Most of the things in the main points list sound very logical. Are all things that were already considered as misleading or very annoying.

[PromoteCasino]

I fully accept the guidelines and will adhere to, but does anyone else get the feeling its going to be easy to close affiliate accounts over the slightest error made?

[RacingJim]

I fully accept the guidelines and will adhere to, but does anyone else get the feeling its going to be easy to close affiliate accounts over the slightest error made?

Yep it's very aggressive language and 1 strike and you're out could easily lead to a lot of problems if they decide to use it as a way to trim their affiliates down. I already don't trust Paddy-Betfair so will watch this with great interest.

[TheGooner]

It's all pretty clear .. except for ... this one.

No advertorial style marketing

An advertorial is someone talking about a product in the form of displaying or reviewing the product - with paid links ?
Doesn't that sound like a full page review to you ?

Probably not because if it was they should it state directly as reviews are widespread ...
But the use of this phrase is problematic as it means many things.

The rest of the email is quite clear cut.