Paddy Power Betfair warns affiliates: “One strike and you’re out”
London-listed operator becomes latest firm to adopt new measures to mitigate affiliate-related regulatory risk
Paddy Power Betfair has warned its affiliates it is adopting a “1 strike policy” with regards to any behaviour that may invite regulatory scrutiny onto the operator.
The firm emailed partners on Tuesday informing them of its updated policy, explaining: “We take the Gambling Commission Guidelines very seriously and want to ensure that all our affiliates are behaving in a responsible manner. Both on behalf of the brand and potential customer.
“We have opted to take a one strike policy on affiliate activity, and any partner found to be operating against our internal regulations will be suspended from the programme.”
The firm lists several activities affiliates should avoid, explaining: “With recent announcements in the sector it is imperative that we hold ourselves and our partners to the highest standards and ensure that we are not conducting marketing practices that are prohibited by the Gambling Commission, the ASA or other regulatory bodies.”
The listed activities to avoid include advertorial marketing, the type of which saw four operators, including Ladbrokes, 888, Sky Vegas and Casumo, draw the ire of the ASA on Wednesday.
PPB also specified that “Any challenge\tipping style page must make clear it is in fact a challenge and must not imply that success is guaranteed.”
The point appears to be a response to a recent Guardian article which claimed that tipsters were deliberately tipping losers and lying about historical P/L records.
PPB added: “Under absolutely no circumstance should results be lied about or media manipulated to suggest results were more favourable.”
The affiliate policy also prohibits SMS messaging and media buying “unless a set domain list can be provided of exactly where we are appearing and you are using our provided creative”.
PPB becomes the latest firm attempting to reduce regulatory risk associated with affiliates after Sky Betting & Gaming shut its affiliate programme down, Ladbrokes said it was taking a closer oversight of its network, and 888 did similarly.
The incident will strengthen the case for the regulation of affiliates following increased scrutiny of the sector.
The full letter is available here: PPB Affiliates