stats issue on multiple brands using IA

[Sherlock]

I have found my major links from PinnacleSports at blank page with "Invalid Link"

I have generated new links, but this is simply horrible, Like seriously. HORRIBLE.

Not to mention that this excellent book has questionable ppl at affiliate department, because even when they were told many times about issues like Russian/Polish banner ends at english landing page many times etc., they do nothing.

The invalid link is caused by some removed landing page I think, but still... the affiliate software should count with human stupidty.

[Roulette Zeitung]

Sometimes a post can inflame matters. Normally I was finished here, but it was addressed to me [again].
O.k.

"Let's keep this thread on track here about I/A."Yes. Some quotes for the readers from the last hours only from today:

I want to point out that these issues continue to exist and that nothing in the most recent "press release" does anything to address the above or fix the above quoted issues.

To be fair, these issues have been going on for years with no fixes. A quick google will show you that. Ex (2012): What working programs with Income Access do not run scams?

All I know is I have not had any issues with other stats/ affiliate software since 2004 but constantly having issues with IA powered casinos, SO I am just simply done promoting them on my network. Some casinos are a bit shocked when I tell them when you move off IA let me know but its not worth my time to babysit tracking and links.

Who compensated all the webmasters who have lost huge sums over the years?

"YOU have not provided any information about specific issues either here or directly to any I/A reps so they would have more information about potential issues."
What do you think who I am? I never reveal my sources to the public. Never! And this is reason of my success during every national and also international investigation in the last 20 years for many different branches and cases.

And sorry, but IA representatives are no longer trustful persons to me. It's my free decision who to trust and not. IA is also a privacy data collecting machine. Most of the webmaster don't recognize that.

I have had my own companies in my life.
And all employees or business partners was paid by me 100% correct and on time over decades.
If my family is losing money regardless if this happens intentionally or because of incompetence, then the fun is over.
And exactly this happened without any doubt with IA.
The health of my wife was and is more important to me than wasting all the time with IA investigations.
What was told to me from real insider and my own handwritten calculations were enough. You can't predict time and date of the errors. They come and go like a haunting but they exist and the evidence from employee from 2014 confirms that they have to focus more on software development. If all will be o.k. and working fine, then this advice would never written. This is a simple logic.

No one is saying, that IA are criminals or cheating people intentionally.
This would be nonsense.
But after excluding this option there are only two options left:

1. They are too lazy because of the richness and looking from heaven down to the ordinary people without a need to invest more money into software development and addressing replies to e.g. Shay in the meantime with "Hi everyone" to continue focus on marketing.

2. They are just incompetent.

No other options are possible.

I am sorry, but "Hi everyone". What kind of communication is this?
Is this the appreciation and respect to Shay who is spending perhaps more time with IA analyzing in the moment than with nice things that would make him happy? GPWA is not the center of the world!

We are not talking here about a casino program.
IA is nothing like a bank for this industry!
And a bank have to work 100% correct all the time or must pay for the damage.
The webmasters of this industry are not volunteers employers of IA to find out the software problems.
It's the job of IA!

Leopold

[TheGooner]

Would anyone be surprised to know that they use income access software to run their affiliates site?
Award winning? My Arse!

Thanks for letting us know Sherlock - I'll go through and check my 12 different language links with them ... again.

UPDATE :
All the links do work - although the all now default to an english landing page / and or front page ... instead of language specific.
But I guess I should be happy that they don't come up "Invalid Link".

[mojo]

...despite the fact that you want to berate them for it..

I too am concerned that there may be issues and that fixes for some should have been a long time ago, and hope that fixes are forthcoming soon, but honestly, would it be better that they were not here and just ignored affiliates, or is it better they put up with the bitching and stay on the problem?

Rick
Universal4

Is it better to berate affiliates because they berate IA? I fear that would have us chasing our tails.

The best case scenario to stop the madness is for IA to fix the problem. It's escalated to a point where it will not get swept away despite moderation attempts. Thank you for being here both you and Anthony to assist us. It's difficult to give IA a pass simply because they reply here. If they do not wish to reply here that is their prerogative but that gives them a different set of problems.

There are many affiliates here that have had issues with the tracking and have either posted about it here, or have discussed it directly with affiliate managers as well as I/A representatives. Each time you have been asked about any specific issues YOU have not provided any information about specific issues either here or directly to any I/A reps so they would have more information about potential issues.

Therein lies a major problem. IA insists on demanding individual issues to deal with one at a time. "What's your problem? Please pm me." That is not going to get us anywhere.

The multiple problems are within the very structure of IA. Addressing this or that from each and every affy does nothing to fix the bigger issue and we'll be here for years with individual complaints.

Disabling banners, stats not updated and missing, now languages unreliable. Multiple other issues that directly is related to IA issues. How do affiliates work this way and expect to earn a living.

Bottom line, no amount of posts or moderation is going to fix anything. Only IA can. Will they?

[Sherlock]

If I have to add another brand to the list, it is SIA. Since I have a bit special deal there, I am sure the stats are wrong during last weeks. NDA number makes no sense. I think overall CPA commission is ok, but the number of NDA is 4x lower than it should be, when I derive it from the CPA amount. I did not even contact affiliate manager there. I need some good MDMA party before I will be able to write endless emails over and over again.

There are so many problems now with stats, even outside of IA, like Unibet does not show me NDA as well, Bwin creatives stopped working when we used different tracker from default... but IA is really scary. There are other IA affiliates where I see weird things like Betboo, who are otherwise quite honest guys I think, but there is no proof.

[universal4]

I totally agree, that this mess that allows operators to simply disable landing pages or banners or whatever that results in an invalid link and or a 404 is just plain STUPID!

I do not directly blame this on I/A, since the action that causes this is a direct result of a really STUPID operator that would rather have a pissed off visitor leave their website, and lose the traffic, which results in upset affiliates then redirect the visitor to the home page or current bonus page or whatever.

However, I do think that I/A is culpable in this issue and I do think that after YEARS of affiliates complaining about this that I/A needs to get whatever fix that they promised would be ready by close of business today (end of the first quarter) pushed out to the operators and an explanation of said fix posted here.

I am also not one to not like to see affiliate managers constantly taking things private, but it appears to me that I/A has been VERY public about working on and investigating these issues. In my mind the times that Alan has asked for specifics by pm, I want to think that is so he can take a look at the specific set of stats that the affiliates is presenting so he can see the facts of the case, and compare the data on the operator side to what is being presented and reported by the I/A software. I honestly do NOT think he is asking this to take the entire issue private.

Alan, it certainly does appear that enough affiliates have presented their cases well, and there should be sufficient data and information to get to the bottom of what is happening with the discrepancies with the data as it is being transferred or imported, or the discrepancy in reporting whatever the case may be. Are you any closer to working this out?

And as far as a lot of moderation going on here in this thread, at no time was any pertinent data, complaint or direct issue presented removed or moderated.

Rick
Universal4

[-Shay-]

Hi Everyone,

There have been a few different topics brought up on this thread, and I want to take this opportunity to provide you with a response.

Data Imports and Responsibility:
There have been several questions/comments about our data imports and how this is done. As mentioned before, Income Access automatically imports operator data for each individual programme. The frequency of the imports may vary for different programmes. All data is imported automatically.

Missing Data or Delayed Imports:
There are a range of factors that can impact stats imports. One of the most common factors is a delay in receiving data, particularly as many programmes have multiple platform providers that update data at different intervals/times of day and these need to be aggregated by each player. If you have questions or concerns related to missing or delayed data, please talk to your affiliate manager first.

Have you spoken to the respective brand’s affiliate manager to resolve your queries and have your concerns been addressed? Please let us know.
Troubleshooting information needed:
If you are unable to resolve any items directly with your affiliate manager we are happy to help. To follow up on your behalf we would need the following:
· programme in question
· details of the query, i.e., missing/delayed data
· dates in question
· who you contacted to address the issue

This can be sent to us via email, PM or we are always available to have a call.

As we mentioned before, any factors related to reporting, tracking, missing stats or data discrepancies have a direct impact on us as they do you and that is why we take it very seriously.

We are happy to support, and we cannot resolve issues in isolation. We need your co-operation to be able to help.

Many Thanks,
Allan

In addition to my above post - I want to point out that these issues continue to exist and that nothing in the most recent "press release" does anything to address the above or fix the above quoted issues. I also want to point out that the number of players we're talking about that have disappeared do represent a statistically significant portion of new players for the month. This is not an isolated, one-off incident.

I also remain curious about the impact of the "duplicate suppression" software and the impact on our stats it has. I again understand that the duplicate suppression is run before data is imported to IA - but again - if IA's job is to collect and report all activity to be credited to the affiliate and the duplicate suppression software is capable of removing such activity - then IA is not being allowed the vull and complete opportunity to do its job - and especially so if the duplicate software is set differently than its stated intention.

Allen,

If you'd like specific days for this month that I see issues with (at Coral) - look at the following dates across your entire affiliate network:

18 March --- activity does not "appear" (to me) to be a complete reflection of all players on the day.

20 March --- at least 2 players have "disappeared" without a trace since updates to the stats were promised on my most recent round of complaints.

21 March --- at least two players "disappeared" without a trace.

22 March --- at least one player "disappeared" without a trace from the stats. Additionally, activity does not "appear" (to me) to be a complete reflection of all players on the day.

23 March --- activity does not "appear" (to me) to be a complete reflection of all players on the day.

Basically - that would be 18 March - 23 March that I'm noticing issues with.

Although - I do not wish to misrepresent myself here. I've felt there have been similar issues (under-reporting) at multiple brands (Gala, Coral, Affiliatehub) since November 2014.

Once the problem is identified and fixed (hint - probably within the duplicate suppression software) - rerun affiliate data from previous months. I think you'll find there's a lot of activity that is off the grid. I do not think this problem is done "on purpose" or to "cheat" anyone. I do think it is an honest oversight caused by people tinkering with settings and not understanding the full implications of their tinkering. I also think this will result in a significant amount of activity and earnings floating to the surface that affiliates have missed out on benefiting from.

I look forward to reading the teaser and blog post about how the award winning team at Income Access assisted affiliates in getting fairly and correctly compensated.

Still missing players from Coral - though they've not updated yesterday yet and thus are the last group (again) to finish off the month's stats. Please find and fix the problem. See the above if you need references.

Regarding missing data - AM's have been contacted already on the issue. The answer they give does not make sense. It is the quickest answer to get out of the conversation IMO. The issues brought forth here are issues that have been brought up here (and allowed to find themselves under the rug for months). Very little of this is new. I anxiously await a substantial post addressing the problem and detailing a fix on the horizon.

Remember, if your software's job is to accurately and completely report all affiliate referred activity - and something (such as duplicate suppression software) is preventing your software from totally and completely doing its job - this reflects poorly on your software and your system - especially considering the holistic nature of Income Access as a group.

PS - Happy first day of Q2. There's many people also anxiously awaiting the plan for addressing and idiot-proofing the disable links feature.

[-Shay-]

Cross referenced post regarding Coral and their stats issues.

[Sherlock]

Just an update to my previous post. I wrote here quite long post to RZ, but rather deleted it. I suggest to focus on facts.

Sportsinteraction (IA) stats are ok, it was my misinterpretation of data. They have some procedure where they collect also internal data a match them with SIA's. My fault. Apparently the only bookie where brain is being used, one of very few where I trust numbers.

Unibet (Netrefer) updated the numbers of players today after a week. Their AM told me they are aware of the problem and solve it. Overall yield is and was ok.

Bwin (proprietary) should be fixed by now, but I suggest everyone to check all links and banners and rather use only default tracker.

Pinnaclesports (IA) sent me new links, but apparently missed the point, because I can generate them on my own. The problem is that we need working links to work forever obviously.

[universal4]

Glad to hear the issue with SIA was worked out.

Based upon what Skerlock stated, if in fact the way SIA does the data imports work better than the way others do, can this be looked at as a possible solution or at least some information to figure out the solution?

Seriously, these anomalies just can not continue, even those who assumed accuracy are now starting to question results.

As I have said before both publicly and privately, those who are stating that issues exist have much more traffic than some of us smaller affiliates, and when that critical mass is reached, they can see problems with stats such as lost players, reduced revenue and generally catch when the data just doesn't look right much faster than a small affiliate with low traffic numbers at any given property.

It's pretty clear that some have stated this is likely currently costing them money, and almost ever day I come in here and I ask myself, "Did it ever cost me any?"

I have neither proof nor confirmation that it ever cost me one thin dime, but I am starting to wonder.

Rick
Universal4

[Sherlock]

Unfortunately I did not get permission to specify the details. All I can say is that SIA already followed this thread. Maybe they will come out with something.

[-Shay-]

Unfortunately I did not get permission to specify the details. All I can say is that SIA already followed this thread. Maybe they will come out with something.

Can you ask for permission to specify the details?

[Allan_IncomeAccess]

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to give an update on our development regarding the disabling banner feature, as Q1 has come to a close.

We are finalizing this and it is in QA right now. We will update everyone once completed.

Have a nice weekend.

Allan

[webanalysissolutions]

Too slow Allan. This debate has been going on months if not years, but the dinosaur that is Income Access takes a long time to turn around and implement things, by which time affiliates have reduced their exposure of IA advertisers in favour of other advertisers who can track and count referrals more of the time than IA can.

Louis from IA gave the same old story time and time again when people reported links that were not working and finally he admitted that sometimes advertisers can drop/disable links, thus harming affiliates.

Ultimately big affiliates who must work with IA limit their use of links to one or two links on the system to ensure that when links are dropped that they notice and don't have leftover links on their sites that are not working. Over time, this will mean that advertisers who push out hundreds of links will not be used by affiliates, who favour the strategy of using one good working link. Over the long term advertisers will struggle on IA because affiliates won't trust new links that are published.

We exactly adopt this strategy on IA. Any advertiser than emails us saying "we've got an offer on at the weekend, here's the link", we don't use it, because we know that it may well be just a temporary link to an offer that will be disabled next week. Instead we use the same 1 link per advertiser to the generic text link landing page we know has more chance of not being disabled.

It's a fundamental flaw in IA's design and it hurts affiliates and it hurts advertisers, albeit most of them are blind to it - they just ask you at conferences why you're not giving them more coverage, and your answer is that you cannot trust in IA.

[universal4]

So true and I have been saying this for YEARS.

In fact I changed my link strategy somewhat YEARS ago based on the fact that this kind of thing can and does happen on occasion, but mostly happens with brands using I/A software.

The difficult part is finding the ONE link that some IDIOT at an affiliate program will not disable.

I look forward to whatever fix is rolled out, and I do hope it is a permanent fix we can all live with so the stats issue can also be concentrated on and conquered once and for all as well.

Rick
Universal4

[-Shay-]

Reporting of stats issues in the disabled links thread.

[-Shay-]

More missing/incomplete player data from Gala Partners --- this time the player in question registered back in February 2015.

[GamblingEnthusiast]

Only 25% of players showing in player reports this month on bgo buddies.

I have contacted my affiliate manager so let's see what happens.

PS. About 10% missing last month....


Skickat från min iPhone med Tapatalk

[-Shay-]

More missing/incomplete player data from Gala Partners --- this time the player in question registered back in February 2015.

Still incomplete data from said player and stats look half-assed today at best.

[-Shay-]

Still incomplete data from said player and stats look half-assed today at best.

Nothing has changed or progressed in this issue. Still players showing in the Income Access reports with missing data.