William Hill Online exec denies rakeback 'hypocrisy' charge

William Hill Online (WHO) chief operating officer Peter Marcus has defended WHO’s use of a rakeback strategy to move players across from the CryptoLogic platform, after some affiliates accused him of hypocrisy in calling for a ban on affiliates and skins using the rakeback rewards model.

Reader comments on the recent EGRmagazine.com rakeback story included one describing Marcus as being “highly hypocritical to make a statement such as this when William Hill themselves are actively involved in this means of player acquisition”.

Speaking to eGaming Review today, Marcus admitted WHO used “a targeted promotion” to existing players in the first few weeks of the new iPoker software to help customers to migrate across from the CryptoLogic network.

Marcus said: “This was only available to selected existing players and for a very limited period of time. This is a clear and targeted retention bonus and was not aimed at, and nor did it, move players from other affiliates or operators”.

Marcus added that his previous comments were not meant to devalue the role of affiliates. “I, like many others who have been in the industry for some time, truly value the contribution that affiliates make and will continue to make for many years to come,” he said.

However Marcus continued that there was a need for the separation of responsibilities between affiliates and operators. “The role or retention and player life value is the responsibility of the operators, whilst the role of the affiliate is acquisition of players, he said.

Marcus said that his intention in calling for an end to affiliate rakeback was to try and get the whole industry looking more closely at how it used retention and loyalty schemes to maximise player value and player satisfaction.

Peter Marcus’ views will be published in full in the eGaming Review August edition’s special rakeback feature, which also includes views from Rake the Rake chief executive Karim 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’.

To have your say in the rakeback debate, click ‘add a comment’ below.

For more on WHO, see our interview with William Hill Online CEO Henry Birch.

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