Affiliates Revolt against PKR Poker


Thursday July 25,2013 : ONLINE POKER OPERATOR FACING AN AFFILIATE REVOLT
 
Changes to affiliate program do not go down well.
 
A growing number of marketing affiliate sites are joining a blacklisting move against UK 3D online poker operator PKR, alleging that unilateral changes to the company's affiliate terms and conditions are prejudicial to affiliates.
 
Among the changes that have affiliates upset are:
 

  • Defining a dormant account as any account which for a period of 12 months or more has not either (a) logged into the account; or (b) had funds withdrawn from it.
  • An “inactive account” shall mean any account which for a period of 6 months or more has not acquired 1 or more Real Players.
  • A “semi-inactive account” shall mean any account which for a period of 3 months or more has not acquired 1 or more Real Players.

 
The significance of these definitions is explained by the following conditions imposed by the company:
 

  • Forfeiture and retention of account monies; For affiliates to which commissions are paid into a PKR player account, such player accounts are subject to the same terms and conditions as they would be if they were not an affiliate. This includes but is not limited to the removal of any unused balance from a dormant account and the closure of such account.
  • Affiliate account inactivity; In order to remain on any commission structure, affiliates accounts must remain active. Any affiliate with an inactive account will have access to the account restricted and the commissions relating to any tracked players on that account set to 0% Revenue Share.
  • Should the affiliate wish to once again become active, then a new affiliate account must be created to track this activity. The affiliate will no longer be eligible for any commissions generated by the players tracked under the initial account; nor any subsequent account that has been restricted because of inactivity.
  • Any affiliate with a semi-inactive account will NOT have access to the account restricted but, for players attributed currently to a revenue share commission, will be moved to a 10 percent revenue share commission. This will only occur should a 10 percent revenue share be a lower percentage than they are on currently.
  • At the time which a withdrawal of these funds is requested, the players that have been referred by that affiliate will be security checked and any accounts deemed as fraudulent/ duplicate will be removed.

 
PKR apparently emailed affiliates presenting them with a fait accompli, and triggering angry posts on affiliate forums.
 
One affiliate posted: "There is no more long-term relationship with PKR; if you don’t keep sending them players and money then they’ll stop paying you. Even if you sent 1000 players previously – they’ll stop paying you on them."
 
Other affiliates complained that for newbie affiliates the time constraints in the new terms are "brutal" and counter-productive.
 
PKR affiliate terms can be viewed here: https://affiliates.pkr.com/page.aspx?l=1&p=36