Affiliate marketers who send players to online poker operator Pokerstars in return for payment could soon see the current “for the lifetime of the player” arrangements in their contracts abrogated in favour of a 2 year cap.
The intended new policy was unveiled in an email from Pokerstars Friday which advised that effective June 1 2015 the company will pay revenue shares to affiliates for only the first two years of activity on a player’s account.
“This will affect all referrals by affiliates, including retrospectively affecting those players referred prior to June 1, 2015,” the email notes.
The change is apparently necessary due to a decline in the number of new player acquisitions attributable to affiliate marketers, and will – Pokerstars claims – reward affiliates who assist the company in introducing the game to new audiences, rather than the current program which “disproportionately” pays affiliates for rake generated by existing players.
Players will remain unaffected, says Pokerstars.
The parent group of Pokerstars, Amaya Gaming, released an advanced snapshot of its Q1-2015 results Friday, revealing that the group expects to post revenues of up to Cdn$ 342 million (around US$ 281 million) on May 14.