Skybet changes terms to steal from affiliates

[GCG]

At the risk of putting myself in the firing line - these are all fair points and the areas should have been updated yesterday. I've made adjustments to account for this in our welcome letter, terms and conditions page and commissions page. I will also drop an email to affiliates who were approved in the last two days to outline the changes and make sure they are aware (on Monday). There will also be a follow up to yesterday's email before the start of November. The new terms are also clearly highlighted in our message center for the full month. I have no wish to hide the terms from anyone.

*********** Insult Removed***************

Sorry people but it is what it is : UK finest gambling criminals in action

[Triple7]

Could breaking terms to affiliates have some consequences for the UK license of these clowns?

[gaffg]

I don't think any of this was MattPrice's decision and is probably just the messenger. This might be an issue of a company being so big that they don't really care.

[JackTenSuited]

Could breaking terms to affiliates have some consequences for the UK license of these clowns?

I doubt it, mainly to protect the players.

Are they going to BAC? what would happen if we handed out flyers to unknowing affiliates? I assume we would get ejected rather quickly

[Triple7]

I doubt it, mainly to protect the players.

Are they going to BAC? what would happen if we handed out flyers to unknowing affiliates? I assume we would get ejected rather quickly

They go.

I don't know. I had that in mind for crap brands like 888, Winner, AffPower, etc.

I don't know very well the UK License system. I was hoping it's not a joke like Curacao, Malta and all that other banana license jurisdictions.

[Jokerman99]

What happens if you send more than 6 players per month on a custom deal? Is that business as usual?

I get amazing deposits with Sky and make peanuts. The fees must be around 95% given the revenue:deposits ratio.

[RacingJim]

Is Matt ***** your real name ? F#in white collar criminal !

Sorry people but it is what it is : UK finest gambling criminals in action

Agree with your sentiments but no point attacking the messenger, I'm sure Matt is just an employee and doesn't have much say in policy changes which I assume will come from higher up.

[DanHorvat]

What would happen if we handed out flyers to unknowing affiliates? I assume we would get ejected rather quickly

Why would someone get ejected for handing out flyers with the 1 Nov 2015 update of Skybet's T&C?

[xecutable]

Yeah seriously... I've met Matthew and he's a nice guy, and at that time he was working for a legit company. As Sky is his employer, even if he sympathizes and disagrees with the terms he has to write what he wrote you know.

Hope everyone gets that, and directs their anger towards the right place.

[KasinoKing]

At the risk of putting myself in the firing line - these are all fair points and the areas should have been updated yesterday. I've made adjustments to account for this in our welcome letter, terms and conditions page and commissions page. I will also drop an email to affiliates who were approved in the last two days to outline the changes and make sure they are aware (on Monday). There will also be a follow up to yesterday's email before the start of November. The new terms are also clearly highlighted in our message center for the full month. I have no wish to hide the terms from anyone.

I can understand you missing that - you must be very busy... looking for a new job!
With no affiliates to look after, you will be redundant.
I hope the next company you move to will be one with morals and ethics...

KK

[Triple7]

Yeah seriously... I've met Matthew and he's a nice guy, and at that time he was working for a legit company. As Sky is his employer, even if he sympathizes and disagrees with the terms he has to write what he wrote you know.

Hope everyone gets that, and directs their anger towards the right place.

Nah. I understand your point but I partly disagree with it. An employer pays me, but that doesn;t mean that I support all the crap they do. I got some limits and stealing of affiliates is crossing one of that limits.

"I am just some one working for this company" is not a valid argument in my eyes. Also f.e. people working for Buffalo Partners. Ofc, people that are not knowing all the crap they're doing, consider them as nice. But in my eyes they're crap too working for such a company. Same for that people that worked for Revenue Jet, Affactive, etc.

[TheGooner]

Matt Price is titled "Head of Affiliates" in the email that he sent me so - unless it's a title he found in a cereal packet - I would assume that he was significantly involved in the discussion process at SkyBet around this move and in fact was probably broadly supportive of it.

He may not have been the only decision maker - but as HOA I am sure he had a significant voice in it.

[sweetbet]

I'd like to see the affiliate management team receive 5% of their pay if they don't meet a set quota.

[JackTenSuited]

I would assume the new company that recently bought 80% of skybet said something along the lines of "we need to recoup our investment quicker, hey, why are we paying 'affiliates' so much? how can we screw them over to may a quick buck...."

[colin3005]

At the risk of putting myself in the firing line - these are all fair points and the areas should have been updated yesterday. I've made adjustments to account for this in our welcome letter, terms and conditions page and commissions page. I will also drop an email to affiliates who were approved in the last two days to outline the changes and make sure they are aware (on Monday). There will also be a follow up to yesterday's email before the start of November. The new terms are also clearly highlighted in our message center for the full month. I have no wish to hide the terms from anyone.

I understand your point and your reservations, but it's really just speculation. And, it could unfortunately be applied to any affiliate programme, business or just life itself.... Things could get worse, but that doesn't mean they will, hey they could even get better! All I can say is that the affiliate programme isn't changing as a result of the sale.

less than a year after posting that the terms are changed, didn't take long.

I personally think this is disgusting, I find Skybet hard to convert due to the saturation level they already have, I'm only a small affiliate, and can go months without getting a new deposit player, but when I do they do tend to be decent players, due to the type of site I run. I heavily promoted skybet last month and got 12 new depositing players, which i presume is small compared to a lot but for me was very good, in fact is more than I got in the previous 12 months, now I find all that work is for nothing as I can guarantee I won't be able to send 6 new depositing customers every month.

When I signed up the plan was 25% for life (I know there are higher levels but I didn't expect to get to level 2 etc). That was why I signed up, that is the sole reason I have been promoting skybet. If the contract is to change then fair enough but it should be for all new players that sign up from the date of changes, not from previous years. If I had known this, and I suspect most others feel the same, I wouldn't have spent my time or money promoting skybet.

As the thread title says, its theft pure and simple. I'm not entirely sure how it isn't a breach of contract either, if you have a contract in business for say rent on a shop, a lifetime agreement that allows them to change the rent, if you paid £100 a week for 3 years then they decide to increase it to £200 a week, you might not have any comeback for the future rent, but you certainly would not have to pay the extra £100 for the previous 3 years. Thats what these changes are doing, charging an extra 20% on customers you have already signed up on the 25% deal.

Must admit to being shocked by this, thought skybet would never screw the affiliates over, I deliberately avoid any programme that I thought looked a little dodgy, then a trusted company does this. Makes you wonder who will be next.

[JackTenSuited]

Must admit to being shocked by this, thought skybet would never screw the affiliates over, I deliberately avoid any programme that I thought looked a little dodgy, then a trusted company does this. Makes you wonder who will be next.

spot on, it also doesn't incentivise affiliate to send high value players to the site. Affiliates may just send players who will deposit £10 or £20 and never play again in order to make the quota to get the money they are owed. No affiliate is going to send high value players to skybet after this term is introduced, one bad month and your out £10,000s

[RacingJim]

Matt Price is titled "Head of Affiliates" in the email that he sent me so - unless it's a title he found in a cereal packet - I would assume that he was significantly involved in the discussion process at SkyBet around this move and in fact was probably broadly supportive of it.

He may not have been the only decision maker - but as HOA I am sure he had a significant voice in it.

Yeh fair enough, but ultimately a lot of these affiliate managers are just 'yes men' anyway, they aren't gona rock the boat and risk causing a fuss. I don't really expect much from my affiliate managers as they are basically 'salesmen' in my eyes - and I NEVER trust salesmen. No offence intended to the odd nice affiliate manager I've met, but as a general rule this is how they come across to me.

[AndyBonus]

I would love to know if this was even legal to do? This is the 4th time a big brand has sent me this sort of ultimatum. Affiliates must be losing a hell of a lot of money collectively.

[vardan]

I've removed them from my site. As a very small affiliate, I see, that it will be very difficult (almost impossible) for me to send them 5 or 6 new active players every month, so it is better stop free promotion of a very unfriendly aff. program now, then see how they are cutting my earnings later. For a certain period of the time I have 451 clicks and ZERO sign-ups. Is it normal? Not sure...

[DanHorvat]

I would love to know if this was even legal to do?

It is not.

The two parties have a contract in which they exchange a customer for a certain commission level. It's a contract where both parties need to uphold their end of the bargain. If one party does not, it is in breach of contract.

These things, contracts, can get very logically complex and sometimes even though you think it's obvious someone is in breach of contract he actually is not. For example, a common mistake is not realizing someone had done a "promise to make a gift", in which case it's not a contract enforceable by law. But this situation is clear - what Skybet has done broke the contract and the UK law.

And that's even without the fact that there was most likely a mention of "lifetime" commission somewhere in the T&C of the deal.

If you guys go to court, you'd win.