Did You hear about Pokestars closing Affiliate accounts in many countries?
WTF is going on?
Is it confirmed info already?

Found some threads about it around:
1) http://www.internationalcasinonews.c...iate-programs/
2) http://pokerfuse.com/news/industry/2...rategy-change/
3) http://www.pokeraffiliatelistings.co...okerstars.html


If thats not allowed to copy links please remove them or let me know, but the subject is valid anyway...

No info on 2+2 about it yet?
What countries are those affs mostely?
Did anyone here got that notification as well?

Please contact me If You don't wan't to talk on forum

Hi,

PokerStars has agreements with thousands of third-party websites (‘affiliates’) to market our services to new players and encourage them to play at PokerStars. PokerStars routinely reviews its agreements with these affiliates to ensure that they are productive for the company. Earlier this week, PokerStars ended the agreements with a very small number of affiliates who were not recruiting many new players, and who were doing little active promotion of our services.

Sincerely,

Michael Josem
PokerStars Communications Team

You cut off some super affiliates. Regardless if it was "very few", affiliates should be aware that Pokerstars might cut their monthly 5-figure commission at any time they choose.

I understand that you want more productive affiliates but I don't see why they should lose their commissions from past players at the same time? They earned them by bringing you the players. Why should the lack of new accounts signing up affect this?

I really don't agree with your policy. It's basically a punishment for not having done enough work.

I highly doubt stars would do anything unethical. It's probably just in the fine print that we never read.

The message to potential US affiliates is "don't help pokerstars build their business, as they'll cut you out when they're established"

This is not 'stars' anymore. It's Amaya. Any trust you had in 'stars' because of how they ran their business over a decade is gone. Amaya owns it now. You need to judge them for their own actions. And so far they've shown to be a penny pinching, corner cutting bunch of ***** who are now turning shady and canceling affiliate agreements to try to squeeze an extra buck out of the asset they just bought.

Countdown to Amaya killing the goose that laid the golden eggs...

I love the way he says this like its not an issue.

These affiliates signed up to a program where they were supposed to get a percentage of their referred players. Pretty slimy to just say you're not going to honor that agreement.

They should not be obligated to bring ANY new players in, in order to get paid for previous work done.

How long did it take you to craft that and how many people in upper management did you have to pass it by before you posted it?

Doesn't it feel a little, I don't know, dirty, to come on here to this forum where you've been a normal member for years and give us this corporate-speak spin control? Don't you realize that by doing so you make it obvious the company has actually done something wrong and that's why you have to give such a carefully worded explanation for what happened?

I know it doesn't matter, but it's really devastating to see the writing on the wall that PS is going to be run into the ground.

to his credit it was well worded.

New players? What % of people who are going to play online poker have probably already signed up an account over the last 6 years?

You guys are straight robbing the affiliates.

This. Everyone has an account on Pokerstars by now. But, maybe that is the point? Nothing more the affiliates can bring them, no more use for them, cut them loose. Makes perfect sense

for the corporation

https://www.pokerstarspartners.com/p...onditions.html

8.4 and 8.9 gg

This. Amazing how a 6 figure salary and dodging reading Animal Farm can make you see things differently.

Black Friday Redux

About time they were given at least a mild grilling on the pokercast. The weekly Steve love-in is getting a bit puke making.

So basically all the money that the affiliates would be earning will now go into your pockets? Nice.

Doubt this happens under Scheinberg.

Never have your income be solely from being an affiliate because you never know

No negotiation for a different deal, just terminating with 7 days notice after years of partnership, while still advertising the current affiliate deal as lifetime revenue and if you bring no players in any month you will still receive 10%?

In any business that's stealing. Might be fraud.

Bingo! This is "clarke" from the PokerAffiliateListings discussion linked to by OP... I am one of the super affiliates who was screwed! PokerStars only went after super affiliates and it was purely a greedy financial decision. They can try to pretend like this is minor news because they only screwed a "very small number of affiliates" - but when you look at it in terms of the number of player accounts involved, it's MASSIVE! You have to realize that guys like Markus (OP of PAL thread and owner of Poker.org) and I recruited tens of thousands of RMPs to PokerStars, and that if PokerStars retroactively screwed the bottom 50% of their affiliates it would likely have a much smaller financial affect than this decision.

They basically went after all the biggest affiliates that are no longer "powerful" because our various brands have dwindled over the years. The fact is the market is extremely saturated - even in "emerging" markets like Russia and Brazil, almost everyone interested in gambling online already has an account at PokerStars, which means we have very little leverage because the loss of our future business is less $$$ than our cut of their current business. It's like in Fight Club when he talks about the formula used by a car company when determining if they should do a recall: "take the number of vehicles in the field, A, multiply by the probable rate of failure, B, multiply by the average out-of-court settlement, C. A times B times C equals X. If X is less than the cost of a recall, we don't do one." PokerStars clearly made this decision purely on a financial basis and the fact that new management doesn't seem to factor ethics into their decision making equations very strongly is quite scary.

Don't get me wrong - I am a business hustler myself and totally get why they did what they did, but i believe it's extremely important that players see the writing on the wall. The "new PokerStars" has now made it obvious that they are willing to ignore ethics and screw people simply because it makes sense financially. If I had a sizeable bankroll on the site I'd be worried that if **** ever hit the fan bad enough (a few key markets enacts strict new laws making online poker illegal like Singapore just did, etc.) that you too could get screwed. Obviously a scenario is not likely to happen up over night, but don't fool yourself - if something makes sense financially for PokerStars (money saved > damage of negative press) they could leave you, the player, with nothing as well. The PokerStars of the past was excellent, a true ambassador of the game and a pleasure to work with... but let it be clear that companies can REALLY change under new ownership!

Ben Clarke

Slimy, just slimy.

That is the current agreement.

I am certain the original agreement did not have that language, and while I am certain that the original agreement gave them the right to make changes, I don't think it would cover an arbitrary termination clause like that.

You need to find a good contingency attorney and go after them.