SBC News Voice of the Sports Betting Industry
Sky Betting & Gaming (SB&G) has this morning informed that it has terminated its affiliate marketing programme.
The online gambling group will aim to terminate its ‘Affiliate Hub’ operations by 2 October 2017, ending all commission and player referral arrangements with its existing affiliate marketing partners.
SB&G has further confirmed that September will be the final month of operations for the Affiliate Hub programme which it will shut down indefinitely. The gambling firm has asked marketing partners to remove all existing marketing inventory from referring websites.
Issuing a corporate update, SB&G detailed that it had undertaken its decision to close down its partner marketing programme due to ‘growing regulatory concerns’. In its notice, SB&G further states that it views its affiliate programme as no longer viable for its business operations.
“As you will be aware, the regulatory landscape in which the industry operates is developing and maturing and operators are experiencing increased obligations regarding their regulatory responsibilities and level of compliance. In order to continue to operate in a compliant manner, we feel that operating the Programme is no longer viable and that managing the output of affiliates presents a significant risk to our business from a regulatory perspective. It is for this reason that we have chosen to terminate the Programme.” SB&G detailed in its affiliate programme closure notice.
This morning news of SB&G’s decision to shut-down its Affiliate Hub operations has shocked industry affiliate marketing stakeholders.
On popular affiliate marketing forum, Gambling Portal Webmasters Association (GPWA), a number of affiliates have criticised SB&G’s decision to terminate, what was considered a strong and effective partner marketing programme.
SB&G governance has been further criticised by the affiliate marketing community since the online gambling firm operates leading affiliate websites, OddsChecker.com and SportingLife.com
Sky Betting & Gaming issued the following further statement for SBC: “Following a comprehensive strategic review, Sky Betting and Gaming has decided to close its UK affiliate programme. This difficult decision has been taken to give us more control of our marketing outputs and standards to ensure that we can continue to meet the changing regulatory requirements in our sector”.
“We have notified all the companies that will be affected by this decision and would like to sincerely thank them for all their support and hard work in helping to grow and promote Sky Betting and Gaming’s brands since we launched in 2000. We will continue to work with our affiliates for the next 30 days and a dedicated team is in place to respond to all enquiries.”
