MGS made it clear that the migration between Referspot and Grand Prive's affiliate program did in fact occur. MGS`'s role was to ensure that the software functioned properly - which it did.
My question is - if the migration of players from one program to the other was flawed, why didn't affiliates notice it back then? That doesn't make any sense.
As far as I know, the GP aff program ran for some time before they closed it. Why didn't affiliates complain that the players weren't migrated back in 2007-08?
Is a well known fact in this industry that the lifespan of a player is 3-5 months - bonus beaters about 3-5 days
. If you haven't promoted this casino group for three years or so, what is to be expected? This casino group was in various rogue/blacklists for some time. How many of your players would you expect to still be playing there? Do you expect your players to remain loyal to a casino you blacklist? Just some things to kick around...
I don't expect players to stop playing at a casino they have played at for YEARS because I blacklist the operator over an aff issue. Maybe a player issue, but not an aff issue. The reason I sent players to Referspot in the first place is because they did have exceptional retention and many players played there for years. That makes me assume they were happy. And that makes me send more players. And that makes it very unlikely that ALL of them, including in the cases of several affs I spoke to, quit at the same time. Not gonna happen over an aff issue. New players may be leery of going there, but someone who has found pleasure in playing there for years isn't gonna quit, in tandem with likely hundreds, overnight, because affs scream foul play. Besides, why would they even think to search for "Grand Prive" on google and see the blacklistings? They needed no info, they were playing there for years.
Many of my players play loyally at the same casinos for years, they may have a list of them they hop between, but they do tend to continue to go where they are treated well.
The transfer of players was anything but troublefree, took months longer than promised, and caused long (now archived) threads at CAP. Some affiliates swear their players were never transferred in the first place.
The transfer, according to comments by the affiliate managers at the time on CAP, was handled by MGS, and it was put on an MGS platform.
When the transfer was complete, there was a "quickstats" section on the first page after login. It displayed Referspot players and Grand Prive players SEPERATELY. You knew exactly which players came from the Referspot legacy, and which didn't. For me, as well as the other affs I spoke to, the compensation offer fit the Grand prive stats, but did NOT include the Referspot legacy. In my case, that means I am owed over ten times what I was offered. The others have similair discrepancies.
The closure of Grand Prive Affiliates happened after MGS decided to withdraw from the US market, and hence affiliates who had previously been prolific now sent few if any players.
These affiliates became a monkey on Grand Prive's back, still needing to be paid according to contract, for as long as the players continued to play there.
Affiliates only get paid by performance - if they make money for the casino they get paid, if they don't, they don't. I really don't see why Grand Prive should be able to continue to profit from our services through this day and into the future without paying as contractually agreed. They are continuing to benefit from our work without having to pay for it. And it causes a lot of ill will among affiliates.
I automatically trusted any program with MGS software - not anymore. That is the worst result of all of this - not that I am out of money, but that I cannot trust contracts in this industry anymore. Nothing keeps anyone from doing with impunity what Grand Prive did. And even with scrutiny from both eCOGRA and MGS, they are succeeding in exactly what they set out to do: Get rid of the monkey on their back. Get rid of the now useless affiliates who are still eligible collect payment for their past services, as long as Grand Prive profits from them.
With the deletion of the aff site - who is to prove anything? Is there a copy rattling around someplace at MGS? Are the people who worked on this transfer still there? Don't they remember the approximate volume? The way the data was fed into the system?
I think if MGS truly wanted the truth, they could find it.