A few days ago, it was revealed that the Betway Partners affiliate program is to be taken over by Buffalo Partners, a notorious casino affiliate program promoting a group of Microgaming casino brands. It came to our knowledge that online gaming company is to give Buffalo Partners the control of some of its activities, including REV share accounts.
The transfer is to take effect on August 1st, 2017.
For a few years now, Buffalo Partners has been considered as one of the most unfair affiliate programs, known for its practices which were proved as harmful for its affiliates. Users of two of the largest gaming and affiliate web portals – the Affiliate Guard Dog (AGD) and Gambling Portal Webmasters Association (GPWA) – have long warned about the reputation of the program, so that it is unthinkable that Betway is blissfully unaware of the fact that it would be associated with a rogue affiliate program.
The notorious Buffalo Partners affiliate program was established several years ago after two other affiliate programs – Referback and Wagershare – merged. The foul reputation of the program dates back to the times when the Wagershare brand was still operating. At the time, Wagershare implemented a number of amendments in its terms and conditions, which led to affiliates’ blocked payments and put the brand under harsh criticism. This, on the other hand, made potential affiliates lose their faith in the brand, with more and more discontented affiliates emerging after the Terms & Conditions changes.
This was not the only case when the program has been accused in wrongful practices regarding its affiliates. The allegations against the Buffalo Partners affiliate-unfriendly practices became even more serious at the time when it tried to migrate the affiliates of its predecessor Referback to a completely new affiliate program and make them part of its UK-focused Spin casino.
These actions brought some serious consequences for Buffalo Partners, as all UK licenses of the brand was forcefully taken away. Currently, the brand and its affiliate program are not allowed by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), the local gaming regulatory authority, to operate on the territory of the UK.
Apart from that, different affiliates have accused Buffalo Partners in using the services of an affiliate hacker who attacked affiliate websites and forcefully transferred website’s traffic to the casino brands of the company. Not surprisingly, these accusations were denied by Buffalo Partners which categorically renounced they have anything to do with the hacker, but the saga has been going on for some time now, with more and more evidence accumulated against the company.
Despite the fact that it is not yet clear how Betway affiliates will be affected by the Betway Partners’ takeover, a number of GPWA users have expressed their concerns. Is Betway really ready to put the reputation of its affiliate program on stake by willingly handling it to brand with reputation of being one of the worst in business ever and what will happen next? Stay tuned, as the team of Casino Guardian will continue to keep their eyes on the matter and will publish the latest updates on the problem.
- Author
Olivia Cole
