Smart Live boss walks out; affiliate programme shut down

SMART LIVE Casino boss Arthur Baker has walked out and the online casino shut down its affiliate programme, EGRmagazine.com can reveal exclusively.

The exact motivations behind the Smart Live managing director’s resignation on Friday have not been confirmed, but are understood to relate to profound disagreement with the business’ owner.

Baker resigned on Friday and has not returned to the company’s London headquarters since, and is not due to work out any notice period.

Smart Live yesterday also sent an email to affiliates on Tuesday, the first working day of this week after Monday’s UK public holiday, telling them that affiliate programme had been shut down ‘with immediate effect.’

‘This decision has been made as a result of ongoing technical issues and integration with Income Access which we are unable to resolve fully” the email read.

‘We have been constrained up until now with managing this on a manual basis but this is not going to be possible to continue in this way if we want to offer the best service possible. Therefore with regret all affiliate accounts will be closed and no new affiliates will be accepted to the program.’

The email stated that all affiliate accounts will be paid up to date with the next accounting period.

Despite repeated calls by EGRmagazine.com, SmartLive would not confirm the reasons behind Baker’s departure. However the company released a statement saying: “Smart Gaming do not as a policy comment on staff working with them or who are no longer part of the business. We would however like to thank Arthur for his hard work and wish him well for the future.

“During a recent review of our affiliate programme we recognised some issues that might prove frustrating to our affiliates and therefore took the decision to resolve these before taking the program to the next stage. As such we have informed our Affiliates that the programme is currently on hold and our plan is to relaunch this with them during September/October.”

Before joining Smart Live, Baker held roles including as chief executive of Blue Chip Casinos and chairman of pub group Innobox.

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