Grand Prive starting new affiliate program

**mrracetrack** · 23rd February 2011, 04:17 AM

A webmaster friend of mine received this today:

The team at Grand Privé Casinos is proud to announce the re-launch of Grand Privé Affiliates. The new program is now live and offers our affiliates a smoother, more efficient system that features accurate and reliable statistics, guaranteed uptime and complete transparency.
It has been more than two years since GrandPrive had to take the decision to close down the affiliate program. We were forced to take this step due to the fact that the Microgaming affiliate system was unreliable. The numerous inconsistencies in tagging and errors in resulting earnings affected the trust you placed in us and embarrassed us as an operator. This situation was also intensified by other factors beyond our control.
Once we closed the old program, GrandPrive was understandably lambasted by both forums and individuals, and at the time we were only able to make limited comment and unable to fully defend ourselves and present the true facts. However, we are no longer bound by any constrictions and can, for the first time say, to all our valued affiliates, we profoundly regret the deterioration of our relationship, and we fully understand the anger and hostility expressed towards us. If we had an alternative course of action open to us, we would gladly have taken it. The fact is we had no alternative and had to remain silent in the face of intense criticism. That time is now over and we can move ahead with confidence.
As you are well aware, GrandPrive was one of the earliest casino groups on the internet. It was one of the first to be regulated by credible regulators; one of the first groups to be approved by PWC for casino reviews, and we were in the first batch (of four) casinos to receive the eCOGRA seal of approval. For 10 years GrandPrive casinos have won rave reviews and the respect of players and forums.
To continue our tradition of excellence, we have selected the best software available in the market place. We are proud to introduce our new affiliate program, which offers the unique opportunity for you as an affiliate to work directly off the gaming server. As you know, no other program in the online casino world is able to offer you this. This revolutionary feature ensures that our affiliate system is one of the most efficient on the internet, giving you the most accurate and reliable statistics, guaranteed uptime and complete transparency.
We have moved your account across to the new GrandPrive affiliate system and have tagged all players ever associated with you to your account. Since 1 April 2010 all your players have been tagged to the new system and your payments from April 2010 up until now will be activated on 3 March 2011.Where players have already migrated to the new software, you are being credited with the appropriate revenue. In instances where a player may only in future move to the new software, you will automatically be credited with the associated revenue when this occurs.
We invite you to log in to the new site at www.grandpriveaffiliates.com, update your details and ensure that your vital information, such as payment method, is correct. If you have forgotten your password, please click on the forgotten password link and follow the prompts. If you experience any problems please contact us - support@grandpriveaffiliates.com
Looking forward to working with you again.
Kind regards,
GrandPrive Affiliates Team

**Casinomeister** · 23rd February 2011, 11:27 AM

I'd like to pose a counter argument. This statement from GP is nothing but propaganda - it is not as forthcoming as it may seem. In fact, it's bullshit.

It has been more than two years since GrandPrive had to take the decision to close down the affiliate program. We were forced to take this step due to the fact that the Microgaming affiliate system was unreliable. The numerous inconsistencies in tagging and errors in resulting earnings affected the trust you placed in us and embarrassed us as an operator. This situation was also intensified by other factors beyond our control.

I hope they ran that by their lawyers

True, they used MGS's affiliate software back in the day, but they migrated all aff accounts to their own proprietary software. Blaming this on MGS is a bold face lie.

(more on the migration here).

From eCOGRA's investigation of why Grand Prive shut down their affiliate program:

Our findings are as follows:

1. Termination of the Affiliate Program and reasons therefore

Following various meetings with management and an onsite investigation at the Grand Privé operational base during the months of January and February 2010, an inspection of supporting evidence allowed eCOGRA to substantiate that:

For commercial reasons, in August 2008 a decision to close the Program effective 1 December 2008 was taken.

System problems were being experienced on an ongoing basis due to the Program using software in Beta testing. In order to maintain the integrity of the data three permanent employees were required to manage the Program software. In addition the software provider was required to spend an extensive amount of time assisting and troubleshooting ongoing system problems. This resulted in escalating costs, deteriorating service levels and reputational damage.

Due to the high operational overheads and the relatively small portion of income being derived from the affiliate business associated with the Program, losses were incurred by the Program over a period of more than 12 months.

After carefully considering alternative courses of action, management decided to close the Program in order to protect other areas of the organisation from further losses.

All affiliates were informed of the intended closure by email on 7 November 2008 and encouraged to move their accounts and players to the Villa Fortuna Affiliate Program, which used improved affiliate program software. A follow up email with the same message was sent again on 21 November 2008. Termination was conducted according to the termination clauses stipulated in the affiliate contracts.

This has nothing to do with MGS - as mentioned, Grand Prive used their own software.

I think those of us in-the-know know why the program was shut down, GP just didn't want to deal with affiliate marketing - it was too expensive, their tech guys couldn't design a decent aff program, and affiliates were more of a liability to them than anything else. Now they are realizing that they need affiliates. Perhaps if they were a bit more communicative they wouldn't have had the issues that they had.

But besides all that, I just want to address the points they are making about being an upstanding casino group. I would say the opposite.

The Grand Prive group was historically a screwed up mismanaged group of casinos. They had numerous customer service breakdowns, and they were in and out of the not recommended section of the Rogue Pit a number of times.

It's all here in the forum. Players had more of their fill of the antics this casino group pulled over the years. Do a few searches and you'll find more negative player issues than glowing reviews. This re-launch statement sounds like a desperate attempt to mend their ways. Don't believe the hype.

**Da_Gambla** · 23rd February 2011, 11:51 AM

To continue our tradition of excellence

**Webzcas** · 23rd February 2011, 12:25 PM

I hope they ran that by their lawyers

Agreed. Also Renee from Rewards Affiliates has posted this, in the thread about this over on the GPWA:

I haven't made a single comment about this in any forum, but let me just say that if a Microgaming group like Rewards Affiliates, now with 23 casinos and 6 poker rooms can tag players properly and run the program as one of the best ones in the industry, I don't think it's a Microgaming issue.

http://www.gpwa.org/forum/grand-priv...tml#post635293

After seeing this PR from Grand Prive, I have relented and gone against my vow not to have a blacklist on my new site. Well done Grand Prive, guess which group is going to take pride of place

Incidentally at the LAC, after the Round Table Discussion, I was approached by two girls from a marketing company, that Grand Prive had employed to work for them, on relaunching their affiliate program. They were nice enough, but I told them ' Good Luck ' as I believe they will need it in spades.

**Casinomeister** · 23rd February 2011, 12:43 PM

The problem is that this email of theirs is blatantly full of false statements. If they are willing to spew this sort of crap to their perspective affiliates and business partners, how do you think they're going to deal with players when it comes to bonus issues etc.?

But then, this is Grand Prive. I see nothing much has changed except a new software platform.