RAIG lowers membership barriers and mulls fee reduction
Chairman Clive Hawkswood admits £5,000 a year for associate membership may be too steep for many affiliate firms
The new affiliate trade body Responsible Affiliates in Gambling (RAIG) is mulling over a reduction in the cost of annual membership fees, newly-installed chairman Clive Hawkswood has confirmed.
The new association, founded earlier this month by Better Collective, Racing Post and Oddschecker, is also considering scrapping the 12-month embargo on allowing new members to join.
RAIG had planned to keep the trade body at just three members for the first year while its strategy was ironed out, but early and eager interest from other affiliate firms could see the deadline brought forward, EGR understands.
“We talked about having full membership for just those three companies for the next 12 months – not for it to be a clique or a closed shop – but to give the company some consistency and help with the directorships,” Hawkswood told EGR.
“But shortly we will be discussing whether that period is too long because since we made that decision, we’ve made good progress on the legal side of things.
“Some of the larger affiliates have also come to me and said they are happy to come in and help fund it but they would like the full membership to start earlier.
“Clearly there are a wider group of affiliates who are pretty much on exactly the same page as the three founding members and they have been thinking about these types of issues and how they might be taken forward for a long time now.
“I am desperate not to lose them from this process,” he added.
RAIG chair Clive Hawkswood
RAIG originally set out to offer affiliates two forms of membership; associate membership which costs £5,000 a year, and full membership which costs £20,000 a year.
Hawkswood revealed both fees could be reduced, with the cost of full membership expected to drop once set-up costs and legal fees have been taken care of.
“Going ahead, I think £5,000 is high for a lot of affiliates, particularly when they are not sure yet what they are getting for the money,” Hawkswood said.
“We will see, because like any new enterprise, it was a bit finger-in-the-air in regards to what levels the fees should be set at.
“We talked about different amounts, so hopefully we can do something with those because if we don’t have more members, the whole project will stall,” he added.
Hawkswood met with the UK Gambling Commission last week to discuss RAIG’s objectives and will do the same with DCMS and the Advertising Standards Authority over the next fortnight.