Just Wondering

**benthomaslee** · 22 October 2010, 3:34 am

Hi all,

Myself and the people I sit with in the office were just wondering which gaming company set up the first affiliate Program.

We didn't know the answer but I thought I know who will!

So no pressure GPWA but can anyone tell me

Cheers
Ben

**ElaineGardiner** · 22 October 2010, 6:23 am

Interesting question...I've read a bit about how CPC started with Adult websites, then CDNOW and then Amazon made it more main stream, but I'd be interested in this answer...

**gamblingbutler** · 22 October 2010, 8:00 am

Originally Posted by ElaineGardiner

Interesting question...I've read a bit about how CPC started with Adult websites, then CDNOW and then Amazon made it more main stream, but I'd be interested in this answer...

As far as I know Party Poker was one of the first

**alexpratt** · 22 October 2010, 8:54 am

I heard the same thing about Amazon being the first although below is the Wiki view on it.

Who do you think teh first gaming company was, I understand Referback is a bloody old program, maybe Intertops? They took the first online bet

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Origin

The concept of revenue sharing—paying commission for referred business—predates affiliate marketing and the Internet. The translation of the revenue share principles to mainstream e-commerce happened almost four years after the origination of the World Wide Web in November 1994.

During November 1994, CDNOW launched its BuyWeb program. With this program CDNOW was the first non-adult website to introduce the concept of an affiliate or associate program with its idea of click-through purchasing. CDNOW had the idea that music-oriented websites could review or list albums on their pages that their visitors may be interested in purchasing. These websites could also offer a link that would take the visitor directly to CDNOW to purchase the albums. The idea for remote purchasing originally arose because of conversations with music label Geffen Records in the fall of 1994. The management at Geffen wanted to sell its artists' CDs directly from its website, but did not want to implement this capability itself. Geffen asked CDNOW if it could design a program where CDNOW would handle the order fulfillment. Geffen realized that CDNOW could link directly from the artist on its website to Geffen's website, bypassing the CDNOW home page and going directly to an artist's music page.

(Amazon) launched its associate program in July 1996: Amazon associates could place banner or text links on their site for individual books, or link directly to the Amazon home page. When visitors clicked from the associate's website through to Amazon and purchased a book, the associate received a commission. Amazon was not the first merchant to offer an affiliate program, but its program was the first to become widely known and serve as a model for subsequent programs.

In February 2000, Amazon announced that it had been granted a patent on all the essential components of an affiliate program. The patent application was submitted in June 1997, which predates most affiliate programs, but not PC Flowers & Gifts.com (October 1994), AutoWeb.com (October 1995), Kbkids.com/BrainPlay.com (January 1996), EPage (April 1996), and several others.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiliate_marketing

**thepokerkeep** · 22 October 2010, 9:32 am

Referback is certainly one of the oldest, they apparently began in 1999. There are a couple other programs that claim they're the oldest though so I'm interested in hearing the answer as well.

**AmCan** · 23 October 2010, 9:15 am

When i started in 2001, some of the older programs were Casino Coins, Referback, Slotland and Tradal.

**Renee** · 24 October 2010, 9:45 pm

Our group (Casino Rewards) came together in 1999, and our affiliate program (Rewards Affiliates) started in either 2000 or 2001.

Casino-on-net for some reason rings a bell as maybe being the first?

**casinobonusguy** · 25 October 2010, 12:39 pm

I was playing casino on net in mid to late 90s for sure but not sure if they had an affiliate program back then.

**jctroy440** · 25 October 2010, 8:06 pm

Ben,
It must be nice to sit around all day and think of "Affiliate Trivia" while us purveyors of portal poop are out here slugging it out with Google to get another URL on a front page SERP. Send me a sample of what you guys are smoking.

**benthomaslee** · 27 October 2010, 4:59 am

Originally Posted by jctroy440

Ben,
It must be nice to sit around all day and think of "Affiliate Trivia" while us purveyors of portal poop are out here slugging it out with Google to get another URL on a front page SERP. Send me a sample of what you guys are smoking.

To give you an idea of how it came about we were discussing the history of affiliate marketing as a whole and how the industry had progressed and trying to use clues from other industries etc to help us improve and move our own program forward. From there the curiosity of who came first to gambling arose and we figured if it was interesting to us would probably be to others too so pretty work related tbh

As for smoking not for me since 2001!!

**AmCan** · 27 October 2010, 11:11 am

Not sure i really know. I would bet Alex Pratt or Michael Caselli or Casinomeister would know. I believe that Casino Coins, Referback and Tradal (for Casino on Net) were the "old" ones when i started in 2001.

note: thought this was a PM response, i guess i clicked on link in PM, forgive the waste of bandwidth.

**Renee** · 27 October 2010, 6:23 pm

I figured casino on net was one of them, just couldn't remember if tradal was their aff program or not.. It's changed so many times over the years..

Cheers

**jctroy440** · 27 October 2010, 10:52 pm

it is an interesting question. I remember when the web was relatively new in the early 90's and all kinds of wild things were happening. I tried to run a NFL Sports Pool in 93-94? but as soon as the web hosting sniffed it they shut me down.

I reverted to pen and paper

**Renee** · 27 October 2010, 11:04 pm

You know, Pen and Paper is highly underrated

**jctroy440** · 27 October 2010, 11:15 pm

Originally Posted by Renee

You know, Pen and Paper is highly underrated

Yup sure is

**universal4** · 28 October 2010, 10:24 am

I believe it was Casino On Net also....

Casino Coins was very close behind them though I believe....

Rick
Universal4

**alexpratt** · 29 October 2010, 3:03 am

Quite interesting - There is a guy that attends all our events that was one of the first if not the first affiliate working with 888 - He was telling me that teh contract was actually paper and had to be signed and is ridiculously thick

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