Many affiliates view an affiliate program's sponsorship of the GPWA positively when deciding whether or not to work with an affiliate program. There are a number of advantages to working with GPWA sponsor programs, but it is also important to understand that the fact that a program is a sponsor of the GPWA does not mean the GPWA or its members have performed any special certification for the program. While the GPWA does maintain certain standards, there is no guarantee that every sponsor program lives up to those standards.
All GPWA sponsor programs sign a contract in which they agree that the affiliate program and the operators they represent will abide by the
GPWA code of conduct which includes the following provisions.
* Abides by all laws, regulations, and license requirements of the jurisdictions within which they operate.
* Is truthful in all promotions and publishes only accurate information about their operations.
* Publicly discloses any rules and registration procedures affecting affiliates or the public.
* Uses only ethical means of promotion either directly or indirectly through others.
* Pays both affiliates and players promptly in accordance with published terms and conditions.
* Promptly responds to complaints either by affiliates or by affiliates on behalf of their players.
* Accepts responsibility for compliance with the terms of the sponsor code of conduct.
However, affiliate programs are run by people, and even people with the best of intentions sometimes do not live up to their commitments. This can be particularly true if an affiliate program encounters financial or staffing difficulties or if the ethical commitments made by a sponsor program do not have the full support of the owners of the program or the owners of the gaming sites they represent.
Good affiliate programs act in an ethical fashion, take responsiblity for their mistakes, and work hard to ensure they are corrected. The GPWA operates independent forums for sponsor affiliate programs to create an environment where there is visibility around the interactions between affiliates and sponsor affiliate programs. This transparency enables affiliates to review the experiences of their peers and factor that information into considering whether they wish to work with a particular affiliate program.
When evaluating whether a GPWA sponsor program is an affiliate program you would want to work with you should look at the comments of fellow webmasters made in the forum for the affiliate program to see if the program lives up to the commitment it has made as a sponsor program. If you work with a sponsor program you should share your views with fellow affiliates in the forums. And when you see a complaint about a sponsor affiliate program you should understand that every affiliate program has affiliates that are not happy with it at least some of the time. Look at how the affiliate program responds. When an affiliate program shows that it cares about issues and wants to work to have them resolved then you know that you have an affiliate program that wants to work with you as a partner.
One additional factor to consider is GPWA sponsorship level. Sponsorship levels are determined by the level of funding a sponsor program provides to the GPWA and the level of exposure the program receives on the GPWA website in return. So higher sponsorship levels indicate a greater level of financial commitment to establishing and maintaining relationships with GPWA members but they do not indicate a different level of endorsement by GPWA members.