Planning to be in London for the London Affiliate Conference (LAC) 2012? The Affiliate Secure Team is preparing for the LAC and we would like to meet you! Affiliate Secure has brought a lot of stir to the gaming affiliate world and we would like to explain to you what it is all about. Whether you are an affiliate looking to cooperate with us or an operator interested in our services, you are all invited to have a drink with us.

If you would like to meet our team or discuss business opportunities please schedule a meeting.

We both try to accomplish this in a different way, but we are two minds a like so that's why we will share our knowledge to find out which affiliate programs are sticking to the rules and which aren't.

The AWAA is aimed at Australian affiliates, so if you are an Australian webmaster we advice you to sign up at their forum and keep an eye on the site for the latest developments on the Australian market. The AWAA only takes sponsorship fees from programs that are well-tested and trusted, unlike some of the other gaming affiliate communities which is a policy we definitely like.

>>Visit the AWAA website.

Centrebet Affiliates: "Net Revenue is defined as follows: Sports, Racing, Casino & Games: All gross monies received by us in respect of all settled bets made by Customers after deducting; (i) monies paid out to Customers as winnings; (ii) monies paid in the form of betting duties, product fees or taxes (or reasonable provisions in respect thereof) (iii) bad debts; (iv) fraud; (v) returned stakes; (vi) transactions which are reversed by instruction from the card-holder's bank (commonly referred to as charge-backs); and (vii) voids and (viii) Bonus Bet/deposit bonuses and other standard processing fees."

Mojo Affiliates: "A percentage of a player's total contribution to poker rake, casino game losses and tournament fees minus any credits, bonuses paid, charge backs, unrecoverable deposits or costs directly attributable to the player."

Brightshare Affiliate Program: "Casino and Mobile Casino net revenue is the product of the following: real player income (money wagered at the casino), minus winnings, minus all deductions such as free credits, player bonuses and progressive jackpot fees, and minus the Affiliate’s share of the chargeback(s)/fraudulent activity made by the Affiliate’s players."

BetDaq Affiliates: "Net Gaming Revenue" means total net positive revenue generated collectively by an Affiliate''s Customers through the casino products accessible via the www.BETDAQ.com and www.BETDAQ.co.uk internet sites in any month, less any payments to third party software providers, adjustments made for any deposit charges, credit card charge-backs or any other reversal of a payment, fraudulent or otherwise voided or modified transactions, bad debts, the cost of any promotional offers (including but not limited to any sign up bonuses and free bets), and liability to any betting duty or licensing fees for data or other duty, tax or expense that may arise."

Mansion Affiliates: "Any charges for conversion, processing and delivering payment to you will be deducted from your affiliate earnings."

Live Casino Partners: "Affiliates commission fees will be a percentage of the 'Net Revenue'. LIVECASINOPARTNERS pays a commission fee on net revenue generated by the affiliate. 'Net Revenue' means the sum of money remaining once 'Card processing fees'; 'Free player bonuses' and 'Chargebacks' have been deducted from 'Casino Net Win'."

Big Time Revenue: "Bingo Net Revenue: Gross Sales – less – 15% admin fee - less - cash outs - less - player charge backs." In Article 1.9 of the Terms the Admin Fee is defined further: “Admin Fee” is defined as the costs associated with the operation and management of the partner websites including but not limited to ongoing product development and support, IT, hosting, payment processing fees, risk and fraud detection, accounting and auditing and gaming platform and affiliate software licensing fees.

Now while I said in the introduction this article is not meant to judge the payout policies of the mentioned affiliate programs I need to make an exception here. The "15% admin fee" that is subtracted from payments is ridiculous and what we call 'passive shaving' - a less serious form of shaving because the shaving is mentioned in the T&C's. Still, this is something that should not be charged to affiliates.

Conclusion

As you see 'net revenue' can have a pretty different meaning amongst affiliate programs. Some programs are very brief in describing their net payouts, others are more precise. In later articles I will dive deeper into this. If Mansion says "Any charges for conversion, processing and delivering payment to you will be deducted from your affiliate earnings."...how much dó they charge then? That's the kind of things we will try to find out. Subscribe to our RSS or follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay updated on our articles.

Why you should continue promoting poker

Possible legislation of the US poker market

The main reason to continue promoting poker is the chance on big rewards in the (near) future when online poker will be legalised in the United States. The US poker market is by far the biggest in the world and legalisation might boast a second poker boom. Various signs are pointing to fast legislation. The partnering of bwin.party with MGM and Boyle is just one of those signs. With the powerful American Gaming Association (AGA) coming out strongly in favour of online poker (see for example the special online poker section on their website), we can expect some movement in the near future.

Other affiliates are quitting poker

While there are no statistics about it to my knowledge, it seems like many affiliates are quitting their poker activities. More and more online poker sites are up for sale on webmaster forums all around the world. Furthermore, gaming affiliates who promote multiple verticals seem to put more emphasis on the other gaming verticles like sportsbetting and bingo. Of course this means less competition. So while poker numbers are declining, you are sharing the pie with less competitors.

Why promoting poker as an affiliate is not a good idea

The market ís really bad at the moment

The reason many affiliates are quitting is because it is really tough to make some money in poker affiliation nowadays. I am a poker affiliate myself and I have spoken to several poker affiliates who are seeing their poker numbers drop. There was a peak just after Black Friday when players were looking for new rooms to play, but this was just temporary. The trend is downwards and there are not many signals that point in another direction for the near future.

The big ones are getting bigger

As an affiliate you want the market to be filled with companies with a strong offering so that players are tempted to switch between poker rooms. The affiliate is then there to offer the switching player a good bonus. What is happening in the online poker market right now is that Pokerstars is getting by far the biggest piece of the pie and it still expanding in market share. With their live poker tours all around the world they grab beginning players right when they start playing poker, thus skipping the affiliate market. With Pokerstars' supreme offering of the biggest tournament, the best security and service players see no reason to choose another poker room. The only company that seems to be trying hard to offer something else and innovating at the moment is 888; the fastest growing poker room in the world.

US Legislation of the online poker market does not necessarily mean affiliates profit from it

The implications of the intended US poker market legislation are not known at the moment. A very possible option is the US will adapt the internal market system, introduced succesfully by European countries like Italy and France. Will affiliates worldwide get the chance to earn of the US poker market? That's something the future will tell..

Of course the first step is to visit Affiliate Secure to see if the affiliate program is scanned by us. Follow us on Facebook to stay updated on the latest news on rogue programs. If it isn't you can take some other steps to check if the program is ok.

1. Study the website of the gaming affiliate program

Would you do business with someone who looks scruffy or shabby? No? The same holds true for your affiliate program. If their website looks amateuristic with broken links and spelling errors...they probably don't take their business very seriously. Also check for seals of organizations like CAP or GPWA. Don't see them on the website? They are not approved by any of these organizations because if they would be, they will show it.

2. Google the name of the affiliate program

Sounds obvious, but some people just don't use Google the right way. In this case they will google the name of the affiliate program and get results of the program itself and affiliates promoting it. Instead, try googling 'name affiliate program + rogue' or 'name + scam'. If you see several relevant results you should think twice joining them. A Google search can be done within a minute, don't skip it.

3. Study the Terms & Conditions

This can be a bit of a boring job and if you are joining one of the programs that we have scanned it is not really necessary (we also check T&C's), but before joining a gaming affiliate program reading the terms is a no-brainer if you are planning to send a lot of players their way. Some programs can subtract really strange costs of the payouts and other 'tricks' include not paying out under a certain threshold while not carrying over the payment to the next month. Do you have any questions about the Terms of a program, don't hesitate to ask us.

4. Test the support department

The quality of the support says a lot about a program. Why not invest a bit of your time and test out support by asking some questions. If only e-mail support is offered, take note of how long it takes before you get an answer. To live chat support ask some questions and see how they respond. Don't expect too much, but the helpdesk employees should at least be instructed about all the basics such as where the program is licensed.

Hope you have found some useful tips for spotting a rogue affiliate program. Keep an eye on the site because we regularly scan most programs, but always take your own precautions in addition to this.