Betfair Affiliate Suspended With No Explanation
Published On 1st July 2022
Bingo affiliates like ourselves have really come under the cosh of late. The imminent demise of the 888 affiliate partnership due to the sale of Dragonfish to Broadway Gaming which will effect 50 different sites is a massive blow to the sector. However this blow is harder to take when other operators decide to off load affiliates based on quotas and difficult market conditions. We've had already highlighted the termination of our affiliate agreement with Bet365 but joining them are Betfair. In over 20 years of affiliate marketing it's hard to recall such a dreadful standard of communication, support and basic respect. If this is how they treat business partners then what hope is there for actual paying customers?
Suspended By Betfair
On 1st June we tried to login to our Betfair affiliate account only to be greeted by a "suspended account" message. Our links still work which suggests the account is still live. Now we've experienced this before with a Flutter owned company. Our Paddy Power affiliate account was suspended in a similar way a few months ago but thanks to one of the affiliate management team it was determined that this was due to a compliance issue. As a company we try and keep on top of compliance but an error had been flagged. However we weren't notified about this so the first we knew about this Paddy Power issue was when the 'Dear John' - we don't want you as an affiliate - email showed up. As is the compliance issue was fixed and the suspension lifted. In the case with Betfair they've not sent us anything so we don't know whether the suspension is down to compliance and therefore is fixable or they've just decided to kick off their affiliate program for not being active enough.
Looking For Answers
Our first assumption was it probably was compliance related and "yes" a couple of offers needed to be brought up to date. However we emailed the affiliate team immediately to find out what's happening. No answer! As it was the Jubilee weekend we accepted that getting a reply may be slower than usual and then emailed again on the 6th. No answer! Therefore we contacted a former affiliate manager who instantly replied and got this response: "Just to confirm you were sent confirmations on account closure and is was down to a variety of reasons. Do you wish to alter this? Can you explain as to why we should consider the account to be reopened again?". Well no we haven't had any emails about Betfair and it seemed as though the AM replying was referring to the resolved Paddy Power issues. Annoyed by the lack of help we filed a complaint about the lack of AM support. On the 8th another email "Can you provide me the name of the suspended account and I can look into this for you ASAP". Given that our brand is Loquax you'd have thought someone could have figured out our account!
The Grand National
Joining the question about are account was quite possibly the lamest reasoning: "I am aware some correspondence was sent out before during the grand national around activity for pushing activity around sports events we reserve the right to suspend your account". Highlighting this as a possible reason for our suspension is laughable. Firstly the account was suspended on 1st June - The Grand National was in April - and on top of that we'd love to know how we potentially were "trying to abuse the high interest in sports over this Grand National weekend". You see if we're being deactivated by Bet365 for not being an active affiliate then how are we also managing to ramp up so as to allegedly "abuse the high interest in sports over this Grand National weekend". Just for the record we didn't do anything different with respect to gambling promotions over that weekend. The only Grand National related change we made was to indicate to betting visitors that any offers may not apply. In short if Betfair are trying to shoehorn this as their reason then that's nonsense.
Indefinite Suspensions
It may sound like an Oasis album title but what is an indefinite suspension anyway? Well it's a pointless term because as far as we know our revshare commissions are not being paid and we can't promote the brand. So in essence they may as close the account and not pay us commissions we are due because that's exactly what they're doing anyway. It's evident that Betfair's affiliate management either can't or won't resolve the issue in hand and are happy to treat us with zero respect. If we don't receive any emails notifying us of compliance issues or activity issues then how do we know what they are? And why do we have to be sending multiple emails to actually get an answer? And what exactly are managers doing when their replies are just utterly laughable. Combine all these ingredients together and the in two weeks Betfair have successfully managed to alienate us as an affiliate. Perhaps that was the aim all along?
How Could Things Be Better?
As an affiliate we expect transparency and clear communications as a basic business courtesy. Betfair didn't give us any notice of suspension, no opportunity for rebuttal, and little to no respect when it comes down to seeing if there's any resolution. Had we received a suspension notice for compliance then we could (and would) have resolved that immediately. Job done, everyone's happy! If we're being dumped as an affiliate for inactivity then some communication would have been nicer. Culling affiliates is lazy especially when the affiliate management like those employed at Betfair and Bet365 have done nothing to support or liase/discuss prior to any cullings. Affiliate marketing should be accessible to all sized affiliates - provided they're following compliance - and their ability to be involved in the industry should not be limited by quotas and limitations based on traffic.
Update 1
One week after writing this article we've still not heard anything from Betfair. The last email sent was on the 8th to the "Senior Affiliate Partnerships Executive", who wanted "the name of the suspended account" so that he could "look into this for you ASAP". We're unsure what ASAP stands for within the confines of Betfair but we're pretty sure nearly two weeks to get an answer is stretching it a bit. So on day 20 of our suspension we still don't know why the account has been suspended nor have Betfair provided any evidence of why they've suspended us or sent notice of suspension. We also don't know whether the revenue that we earnt in May will be paid or if any revenue is accruing at this moment in time. Sadly this kind of thing isn't just limited to us - other affiliates have also been treated as badly (GPWA, Affiliate Guarddog).
Update 2
Finally we managed to get some kind of explanation. Although we're an active affiliate and generating players for Betfair, the number we're generating is much too small for them so we've been flagged as inactive and the result is that our account was deactivated. However if we promise to be more active in the future and give Betfair lots of promotion then our account will be reactivated at least until the next time we're deemed inactive due to the lack of activity. Everyone understand that? For the record we turned down this amazing offer of working with a company that thinks suspensions without notice are fine, that withholding our earnt revenue is fine and treating partners badly is acceptable behaviour. Our advice therefore remains and think carefully before wagering with either Betfair or Paddy Power.
Update 3
Six weeks after the initial suspension we received an email from a Betfair Senior Complaints Executive who has responded with respect to the issues we've raised. We're now expecting our owed revenue to be paid which is good news. We're also told they will be "taking active measures to ensure that communication between affiliates improves". Whether that actually occurs remains to be seen but if it does mean that in future that Betfair Paddy Power affiliates are treated with a modicum of respect and that those in charge do a better job then that makes this exercise worthwhile. If of course we hear that nothing has changed then we'll update her accordingly.
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