Well, no sooner had I finished posting about William Hill’s stance on rakeback when I go back over to eGaming Review’s site and see that Mr. Marcus got pwned by affiliates who pointed out that William Hill basically offered rakeback when they were moving from the Cryptologic network to iPoker.

Awwwkwaaaaard.

In response this is what he had to say:

Marcus said: “This was only available to selected existing players and for a very limited period of time. This is a clear and targeted retention bonus and was not aimed at, and nor did it, move players from other affiliates or operators”.

But I think he ended up sticking his foot in his mouth again when he was quoted as saying:

However Marcus continued that there was a need for the separation of responsibilities between affiliates and operators. “The role or retention and player life value is the responsibility of the operators, whilst the role of the affiliate is acquisition of players, he said.

That is part of the problem with the current system! Why are you paying an affiliate a lifetime of revenue when his role stops at player acquisition? If his role stops once the player signs up then simply offer a CPA deal and be done with it.

I’m not sure many rakeback affiliates who run ongoing rake races, rake chases, and other retention incentives think that their job ends at the point of acquisition. And I don’t think that many traditional affiliates like to think that they have such a narrow scope. Many run rake races and other promotions out of their own pocket because the increased play helps their MGR numbers.

Yes, the primary job of an affiliate is to help the poker room acquire customers but if Mr. Marcus thinks that they provide no value in retention then his view of the online gaming world seems rather narrow. If the role of the room is player lifetime value and Mr. Marcus doesn’t feel affiliates play a role in retention then he’s likely not maximizing the player lifetime value and thus not doing his end of the deal.

I wonder if there will be a follow up to his follow up to explain this one to the affiliates :-)

Photocred to benjamin_mercadier