Online gambling, over the course of its relatively short history, has often proved to be an industry that can be very hostile to the small ones. And iGaming affiliates have too often found themselves to be playing the role of the small ones, despite their numerous contributions to the growth of that same industry and its representatives.

Resourcefulness is an important ingredient for the growth strategy of any business, particularly when it is part of a highly competitive industry. The online gambling industry, with its rapid growth and highly demanding consumer base, needs resourcefulness and innovation more than anything.

However, it has been on too many occasions that resourcefulness has been deployed by gambling operators at the expense of their affiliate partners. The introduction of retroactive term changes in contracts between affiliate programs and affiliates, payments delayed for months and years, and the sudden termination of contracts and disregard of life-time revenue sharing agreements are few of the instances of operators showing that they can be very hostile to their affiliate partners.

These and many other instances have shown that the iGaming affiliate sector is extremely vulnerable to attacks of any sort and is almost incapable of defending itself. The recent court battle between the Online Casino Reviewer affiliate website and Affiliate Edge was yet another manifestation of the affiliate sector’s lack of proper defense tools.

In brief, Online Casino Reviewer sued against the affiliate program’s decision to retroactively apply a minimum activity quota, and lost the case due to an arbitration clause in the contract between the two parties, which many within the space would agree was a rather questionable clause.

It has recently come to the Casino News Daily team’s attention that another iGaming affiliate has proposed the creation of a union of affiliates, a body that would aim to protect the interests of those involved in the sector. As a news outlet and a representative of the online gambling industry, we would like to spread the word about an idea that, if realized, could help the iGaming affiliate space become less hostile to its active participants.

In a post in the Affiliate Guard Dog’s forums, ThePOGG, the user behind the eponymous website for online casino reviews and other information about the industry, presented his idea about the formation of an affiliate union that, in case of enough interest from the sector, would comprise between 50 and 100 affiliates who would work together to defend the sector from the predatory behavior of some operators and their affiliate programs.

– Each member would be assigned one vote.

– At no point will the union dictate which programs any member can work with.

– Any member can approach the union to request a review of an issue. The union would then prepare an overview of the key facts of the case, including what the affiliate feels is the problem and in which jurisdictions legal action could potentially be pursued. The overview would be distributed to all members. There are then multiple options, but each would require a vote. Before action would be taken, a majority of 55% of the membership would have to be in favour of it.

Each of the members of the affiliate union would be able to ask for help from its other members when it feels that an affiliate program may not be acting properly. All members would be informed about the issue and they would be required to vote on what further action, if any, should be taken. Each member of the union would be assigned one vote. A majority of 55% of all members would have to vote in favor of a proposed action in order for it to be taken.

One of the main goals of the union and its members would be to try to solve issues by spreading the word about instances of affiliate programs treating affiliates unfairly. In such instances, members of the union would be asked to publish a statement on the matter on their websites, presenting the issue in detail. The coordinated effort of a group of affected parties would certainly carry more weight than a single affiliate website that might not have enough means to spread the message to a wider public.

Those in favour of action would be asked to publish a statement on their respective sites. If managed correctly there is the potential to create a ‘link wheel’ like structure between the published articles to ensure that the articles rank well and even give some SEO benefits to the participating members.

It can be said that a negative story about an operator and its affiliate program circulating around the Internet and being distributed by a greater number of affiliates could affect that same operator much worse than a lawsuit against it. The reason is that while operators and affiliate programs may have been making sure to add clauses in their affiliate contracts that might spare them from negative court rulings, they cannot escape bad publicity from members of the industry.

ThePOGG also proposed that a “link wheel” structure between the published statements is created so that they rank better and provide webmasters with certain SEO benefits.

It would be again up to the union to decide whether a legal action against an operator is taken so that an issue is resolved. Each of the members of the union would be able to vote in favor of or against filing a lawsuit. A majority of 55% would be required to approve the move.

And if approved, each member of the union would be required to contribute a certain amount of money to cover the legal costs. The costs for any legal action would be shared equally. To ensure this, ThePOGG proposed that each participating affiliate signs a legally binding contract on behalf of their business upon joining the union that they agree to fund any lawsuits that might be filed against erring affiliate programs.

If the majority (55%) are in favour of taking legal advice the union then looks to engage a legal firm in the relevant jurisdiction and undertake a review of the case. The cost for this would be split equally amongst all members. This means ALL members, not just those in favour.

While the idea for the formation of the affiliate unit is still in its early stages of development and it certainly needs a certain amount of refinement, we personally believe that it could be a right step toward putting pressure on affiliate programs against predatory terms and conditions and other practices that harm the affiliate space.

Casino News Daily encourages interested parties to read the whole plan and voice their opinion and ideas to help the affiliate sector finally take long-overdue actions to defend those involved in it.

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