Ladbrokes Predatory, likely to go ROGUE unless changes are made.

[Guard Dog]

We have already marked Ladbrokes predatory due to issues with their Terms and Conditions. The issue in the current contract with Ladbrokes is an activity clause that allows them to (in effect) steal commissions that are rightfully earned. A link to the current terms issue is:

https:// www. affiliateguarddog. com/forums/ladbrokes-affiliates-marked-predatory-t3043.html#post18739

The issues in that post relate to our predatory status of Ladbrokes Affiliates only. And this is from the 'current' ladbrokes affiliate program. However, Ladbrokes, are planning on re-creating their affiliate program under a new name: Score Affiliates. At Score affiliates, the commission model has drastically changed for the worse. Below are a list of the commission models for your evaluation:

CASINO COMMISSSION MODEL

Original Commissions Model

• 25% of net revenue -£0 - £5,000
• 30% of net revenue - £5,001 - £20,000
• 35% of net revenue - £20,001 +

New Commissions Model

• Level 1 101+ 35%
• Level 2 61-100 30%
• Level 3 31-60 25%
• Level 4 3-30 20%
• Level 5 0-2 15%

Issues with the new commissions model. The new commissions terms will be RETROACTIVELY APPLIED, all affiliates will be forced to this commissions model and WILL LOSE a lot of income. Note that the commissions do not even line up until you bring them 31-60 players. And, if you bring in high rollers... you could really be taken for a lot of commissions.

Example #1 - High Rollers + small player base: Let's say you bring in 2 high rollers and 5 players who have been playing at Ladbrokes for many years and bring you a consistant £30,000 in commissions monthly via the current Ladbrokes program. With the old program, you are on the 35% revshare due to the high rollers. With the new program, you are on 20% revshare. Your income will immediately decrease from £30,000 monthly to £20,000. That is a 33% reduction in your commissions.

Example #2 - Small, Consistant Affiliate: Let's say you bring in 2-10 players per month and have players consistently playing to earn you £1,000 / month. On the original plan, you will be on 25% revshare. On the new plan - 15 - 20% depending upon the month. At 15%, you will lose £400 / month. At 20%, you will lose £200 / month.

Example #2 - Large Affiliate, unable to convert: Let's say that you have been promoting Ladbrokes over many years and have a large player base netting you £300,000 / month. You have brought in 100+ players per month for a long time and for some reason Ladbrokes just isn't converting anymore (for no reason you can determine. Your original commissions model is 35%. Now, you only bring in 10 players per month (but still have a LOT of players contributing to your overall £300,000 / month commissions). Through no fault of your own, you drop to 20% commissions and drop to £200,000 / month. that is a £100,000 / month drop in commissions overnight.


This is ROGUE behaviour folks. We cannot sit back and continue to promote a company that is literally stealing from affiliate's pockets to line their own. It is a breach of contract. They know this. We need to act!


FYI - Every email goes to Ladbrokes from this thread. Please assert your opinion here. This is a horrible precedent that Ladbrokes is setting here and we need to stop it now.

 

[Engineer]

Reducing commission rates retroactively is not acceptable.

Going forward (i.e. from the launch date of the new program), they can pay lower rates on new players if they want, but they definitely should not reduce commission rates on the existing players.

Up until now, affiliates sent players to Ladbrokes with the understanding that 25% would always be the minimum earned on each player sent. It is very unethical (and possibly illegal) for Ladbrokes to change the contract in a way that benefits only them.

Everyone, I strongly urge you to stand up against this. This sort of behavior can't be allowed by Ladbrokes or any other affiliate program.

 

[theshortstack]

This sort of behaviour is absolutely disgusting. The thing that really annoys me is that I wish I had the clout to take this sort of thing to court because, as Dave says, this has to be illegal.

Ladbrokes have every right to change their commission structure going forward but reducing payment for players which affiliates have already sent to them under a a signed and sealed contract is nothing short of theft.

I'm not a Ladbrokes affiliate and quite frankly never will be, but this sort of behaviour has to be stood up against or it will ruin our industry.

 

[Vladi]

You cannot just change the terms of a contract, which is what an affiliate agreement is, without agreement from both parties. Not even if one of them sticks a term in there that says "we can change this whenever we like". From my very limited memory of contract law, it is a commonly used yet totally unenforceable term. So yes, what they are doing is not only unethical, it is illegal.

As usual these companies figure they can get away with it because it is unlikely that anyone has the time and resources to take them to court and challenge it. However as a publicly listed company operating in a first world jurisdiction they are more vulnerable than most. Ladbrokes PLC is incorporated in England, while the affiliate program claims to be in Gibraltar.

 

[theshortstack]

As usual these companies figure they can get away with it because it is unlikely that anyone has the time and resources to take them to court and challenge it.

Is this something that the affiliate community as a whole could pull together on to seek legal advice and at least get a professional opinion to know where we stand?

 

[Bonus Paradise]

If Ladbrokes keeps this up, they will be removed from my site ( not that I earned ever big with them, but still....)
And I will not only remove them total, I will warn my visitors and forum members, advise them to not play at Ladbrokes.
A company who does such things to their partners cannot be trusted.

 

[KasinoKing]

One thing's for sure - their stand is going to be very busy at LAC on Friday!
I'll be in the queue...

KK

 

[justbookies]

Retrospective change is theft. Tariffs are short-changing. Total disincentive to all affiliates especially new ones (surely they want new ones?!). This way they will not get new ones, lose the old ones and generate a ton of online bad publicity. Would have loved to have heard the justification and small-minded ignorance that must have been spouted at the meeting when this decision was made. Ladbrokes have never valued the concept of affiliate marketing. There are no longer any point of contacts at Ladbrokes affiliates and they have a history over very many years of never answering emails. They would be better to shut down their affiliate program totally than insult and shave like this. Affiliates spend a lot of real money to generate traffic, why would anyone promote Ladbrokes now?

 

[justbookies]

You cannot just change the terms of a contract, which is what an affiliate agreement is, without agreement from both parties. Not even if one of them sticks a term in there that says "we can change this whenever we like". From my very limited memory of contract law, it is a commonly used yet totally unenforceable term. So yes, what they are doing is not only unethical, it is illegal.

Very valid point. I do think a class action legal case should be taken against this sort of thing. Ladbrokes would be the perfect test case. It would stop similar abuse that has happened from other unethical crooks like Sportingbet.

 

[dominique]

It takes TWO parties to change a contract.

This is criminal behaviour in my opinion.

People beware - who says they won't make even worse changes in the future. You can't trust someone who contractually settles on one deal with you, and suddenly voids the contract.

 

[Guard Dog]

I urge everyone to take this point up with Ladbrokes at the convention before they decide to change affiliate's revenue sharing agreement without their consent. This sets a horrible precedence and we all truly need to act upon it.

If they decide to move forward with this 'new revshare model', we need to act by removing reviews and content for their casinos (IMO) for the good of the industry AND do it very publicly.

 

[95BET]

They always seem to change without notice

 

[davesmitte]

Its disgraceful.. shame on Ladbrokes.. They have basically looked at the numbers and thought of well we can afford to screw "X amount" of affiliates aslong as the big earners keep bringing in players. 15% is pitiful, Imagine being a big affiliate who loses his rankings for whatever reason.. U then drop massive earnings whilst you struggle to regain rankings. Not to mention all the small time affiliates who were earning decent amounts from their accumilation of players. Everyone is going to get screwed.. I only hope Ladbrokes loses more affiliates than they can afford to lose.. And they quickly change their minds and bring the commission structure back to something workable. I encourage every single affiliate to DITCH ladbrokes A.S.A.P.
If ladbrokes are doing it - expect to see more affiliate companies doing the exact same thing in the future. The time to voice your concern is now. We vote with our feet - DITCH LADBROKES TODAY!.

 

[theshortstack]

If they decide to move forward with this 'new revshare model', we need to act by removing reviews and content for their casinos (IMO) for the good of the industry AND do it very publicly.

I totally agree with you Andy, but I think there needs to be more than that. Shaking our heads and simply removing banners from our site doesn't exactly discourage other programs from going down the same route.

We've already seen this with bWin and now Ladbrokes are doing something similar. We need to take a stand against this from a legal point of view.

You can be sure I'll be in the queue at the Ladbrokes stand tomorrow too. They've got a hell of a sense of timing ...

 

[Guard Dog]

I totally agree with you Andy, but I think there needs to be more than that. Shaking our heads and simply removing banners from our site doesn't exactly discourage other programs from going down the same route.

We've already seen this with bWin and now Ladbrokes are doing something similar. We need to take a stand against this from a legal point of view.

You can be sure I'll be in the queue at the Ladbrokes stand tomorrow too. They've got a hell of a sense of timing ...

You are absolutely correct... I think the appropriate action would be to take down the content and replace it with information on how Ladbrokes is willing to breach their own contracts when it is good for their profitability. That is important to players as well - I'm sure they don't want their terms amended without warning and without acquiescence either.

 

[Bonus Paradise]

Just got this e-mail from Ladbrokes.........

Dear Affiliate,

Further to our last communication regarding our new commission model, we have since decided to review your earnings potential based on this model and are pleased to inform you of positive changes that we have made. We have revised this model to take into consideration the nature of the different products you promote.

Please see below our new default commission structure. Based on discussions and feedback from our affiliates, we believe that in this way we are better incentivising our Casino, Bingo, Games and Poker affiliates as we have improved the player sign up levels to reflect these products.

As from today our default model will be as below, this model will not change for the remainder of 2012.



Number of Players Commission

Level 1

61+

35%



Level 2

21-60

30%



Level 3

1-20

25%



Level 4

0

15%



As an introductory offer you will earn 30% or more on all revenue generated during February and March.

We are sure that this change will be greeted positively by all of you and look forward to a continued fruitful collaboration.

Kind regards,

The Ladbrokes Affiliate Team

Well the commission structure is better than the other one they sent us few days ago, BUT, it is still a retroactive change, isn't it?

And also , what to think about that

As from today our default model will be as below, this model will not change for the remainder of 2012.

Next year we may expect again something else.

 

[dominique]

Isn't that great, they plan to keep their contract for almost a whole year. After that they can shaft you nicely again.

 

[justbookies]

Ladbrokes have bowed to pressure and improved the terms considerably:


As from today our default model will be as below, this model will not change for the remainder of 2012.
Number of Players Commission
Level 1 61+ 35%
Level 2 21-60 30%
Level 3 1-20 25%
Level 4 0 15%

Well done to all affiliates, and especially Affiliate Guard Dog, for prompting this change and bringing the necessary pressure to bear. What is the AGD view on this now? Also, is the one required player before hitting the 25% mark a registration or an active player. I assume this remains across all products (cross sell) rather than the current default of single channel? Another concern is that they state this will not change in 2012. I read this to mean they will not bow to any more pressure and the change is final, but does it also mean they are hinting at a back-track in 2013 (as has already been alluded to in this thread)?

 

[Bonus Paradise]

The point is, 1st, they change the commission structures to existing affiliates which signed a contract for lifetime rev share.
2nd, they say now, NO changes due the whole year 2012! what a joke! And what comes then in 2013? etc.

I start to write a post to let my members and visitors know about that and advise them to not play at Ladbrokes,
Will wait a few days more before i publish the warning.
As said already, how can you trust them as a player if they already breach contracts with their affiliates/partners.
How can a new affiliate trust them.

I hope more affiliates will stand up , we have to fight against that.

 

[justbookies]

It appears that with the improved tariff the reference to cross-channel commissions has been removed from terms.