“Activewins’ black hole of oblivion”
A continuing problem in this industry are poorly trained affiliate managers. Those who do not follow up on emails, or can not grasp the concept of websites like Casinomeister. Activewins takes this awesome award this year for being not just the most annoying affiliate program, but for being total downright jerks.
Activewins is the affiliate program for Betfred. Betfred casino and Casinomeister had a relationship starting in 2004 - and it was a fairly solid one. The casino managers and I agreed upon how players ought to be treated, how casinos ought to be run, and just about everything in the Casinomeister philosophy.
They became an accredited casino in 2007, and their in-house affiliate program was a good one - they had it together - had some great people working there (Martyn Beacon, Anthony Hodgetts, et al) maintained a presence in the forum and were responsive as well. This went on for a few years - but even though these people came and went, Betfred always dealt with whatever player issues came their way. They were enjoyable to work with.
Then in 2013, Activewins came into play and took over Betfred’s affiliate program. Everything seemed fine, but as time went by things began to change.
In 2015, they stopped monitoring their forum account. I hadn’t noticed until some of the members started complaining that no one was answering their private messages. Our forum members expect iGaming representatives of accredited casinos to answer questions and to deal with issues either in the public forum or via private messaging.
The folks at Activewins decided that this was something they did not want to do.
I explained our expectations, and that this was something they agreed to do when they first came on board, but it was a “speak to the hand” moment for us - dealing with players in a forum was something they were not willing to do. So Betfred was placed in the Reservation: Betfred’s Casino review. This was in May 2015 - and no one from their side of things ever showed a sign of giving a care.
Beyfred tossed Casinomeister’s Accreditation to the curb, which was an absolute shame since this was the doing of Betfred’s affiliate program and not Betfred itself.
In February 2016, I start getting emails from my new affiliate manager who wanted to explore potential affiliate opportunities. I explained why they were removed, that I had put my reputation on the line (refer to Faceplant of 2012) and defended their casino numerous times in public over the years - yet Activewins did not see the value in this and chose to bail from the site.
Apparently what is important to Activewins is not what is important to me: to be player facing - active in the community. Not concerned about profits but with relationships with players.
I received the same email about two months later. I guess they went on auto-pilot and they forgot about what I told them earlier.
And then in June 2016, I received an “Important Update from Betfred” notifying me that since I have not been sending them players that they would stop paying me. A cyber slap in the face. It’s predatory bullshit - and I should have rogued them. But I didn’t…yet.
And then in November 2016:
“Hi Bryan,
Betfred hasn’t had one new depositor come through casinomeister since April 2015 – have you stopped working with us? If you have, let me know and I’ll make sure you aren’t contacted in future. If you are happy to work with us still, I’d love to be bringing in 10+ players a month like you were in 2011 and 2012. Also, we have Kerching casino, Prospect Hall casino, Bucky bingo and BOGOF bingo who would smash it on casinomeister.”
Oh really? Smash it? How annoying is this? How can people like this be in the business and be so aloof and oblivious about Casinomeister and its mission? We weren’t launched just yesterday. We have made a mark in this industry - and we aren’t going away.
Most Annoying Affiliate Program Historical Awards
Most Annoying Affiliate Program of 2015 - Affutd et al
Most Annoying Affiliate Program of 2014 - Affutd
Most Annoying Affiliate Program of 2013 - Europartners
Most Annoying Affiliate Program of 2012 - Affiliate Marketing spam
Most Annoying Affiliate Program of 2011 - Mansion Affiliates
Most Annoying Affiliate Program of 2010 - Bewinners
Most Annoying Affiliate Program of 2009 - Group Award - Sloppy stupid spammy affy managers
Most Annoying Affiliate Program of 2008 - Mighty Slots
Most Annoying Affiliate Program of 2007 - Group Award - Spammy aff managers
Most Annoying Affiliate Program of 2006 - CPays
Most Annoying Affiliate Program of 2005 - CPays