PKR boss Malcolm Graham defends rakeback affiliates
PKR chief Malcolm Graham defended the role of rakeback affiliates today, joining the debate about the use of rakeback by affiliates taking place on EGRmagazine.com.
PKR chief Malcolm Graham defended the role of rakeback affiliates today, joining the debate about the use of rakeback by affiliates taking place on EGRmagazine.com.
Graham was entering a discussion that began when William Hill Online COO Peter Marcus issued a rallying call to poker operators on rakeback, telling them to “get together and be strict” on preventing affiliates and poker skins offering the rewards model.
Malcolm told EGRmagazine.com: “If I felt we could get all the customers our affiliates acquire, I would get them directly, but the reality is our affiliates have customer bases we don’t access as well as they do.
“We have a lot of affiliates with whom we have very strong relationships. They are a key feature of the industry, and we are big advocates of using them,” he added.
Graham’s comments follow those this week of the chief executive of leading rakeback affiliate and poker loyalty site RakeTheRake, Karim Wilkins, who said that rogue skins, not rakeback affiliates, are responsible for problems arising from the use of the rakeback rewards model by networks to retain players.
Graham added that affiliates brought in new customers who would otherwise be out of reach, despite PKR’s additional spend on above-the-line advertising, including TV.
He also stressed that PKR’s product offering helped alleviate some of the problems caused by the use of rakeback by affiliates.
“If I was offering a 2D product, I would be competing with everyone else in a rakeback battle. But our product is very different, It allows us to have a structure which is economically successful for everyone that is participating in it,” he said.
Graham’s views will be published in full in the eGaming Review August edition’s rakeback feature, which also includes views from Marcus, Wilkins, Entraction chief executive Peter Astrom, poker affiliate Bill Rini and Keith Freeman, founder of Poker-Strategy.org, the industry’s first affiliate to offer a ‘rake rebate’.
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