eCogra Final Report on Grand Prive

[mojo]

PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release


eCOGRA REPORT ON THE GRAND PRIVÉ AFFILIATE PROGRAM INVESTIGATION


15 February 2010 - Following a number of Internet-based allegations concerning the closure of the Grand Privé Affiliate Program (‘the Program’) on 1 December 2008, eCOGRA's Compliance and Advisory Services department was engaged by the management of the company on 17 November 2009.

Pursuant to an independent and fair resolution of the issues involved, eCOGRA was tasked with:
Independently investigating the manner in which the Program was terminated and the reasons therefore;
Carrying out a full and independent review of the program software and data to confirm amounts owed to claimants;
Determining a fair settlement for claimants, taking into consideration the potential lifetime earnings of each affiliate’s respective players; and
Compiling a full and transparent report which will be publicly released on conclusion of the investigation.
According to our mandate, the following actions were taken in order to ensure the maximum number of affiliates were afforded the opportunity to submit legitimate and verifiable claims:
On 7 December 2009 both eCOGRA and Grand Privé issued widely distributed press releases advising affiliates of the opportunity to submit claims, and also urging affiliate watchdog organisations to assist in ensuring their respective affiliate members were informed of this opportunity;
After noting affiliate concerns regarding the limited reach of affiliate representative bodies and webmasters, Grand Privé management expanded the communications exercise by emailing every affiliate who had active players on the Program’s records during the 3 months prior to 1 December 2008 when the Program closed; and
An online Claim Submission Form for affiliates was made available from 7 to 31 December 2009 and claims were collated by eCOGRA.
Our investigation included confirming the accuracy and completeness of the database list of emails used in the expanded communications exercise in 2. above.



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.


During November 2008 management entered into mutually agreed compensation arrangements for related future player activity with the majority of affiliates who at that time had players considered to be reasonably active. We have however confirmed that certain affiliates were overlooked in this process.


On 1 December 2008 all affiliates were paid November commissions, and the Program was officially closed.

2. Review of the program software and data to confirm amounts owing to claimants

58 claims were submitted to eCOGRA, of which 7 were found to be invalid1, and 26 earned commissions during the period 1 December 2008 to 31 December 2009. The following steps were taken by two eCOGRA employees, both qualified Chartered Accountants with substantial industry experience, in order to substantiate amounts owing to claimants during this period:
A comprehensive completeness and accuracy audit on the affiliate database provided by the Program was conducted.


The relevant claimants’ information was located in the database and information used for the linking and tracking of players associated with the claimants was obtained, in part using information supplied in the claim submissions received from affiliates.


This information was used to manually source all players linked to the relevant claimants within the casino back office database.


The underlying data for the players linked to the relevant claimants was scrutinised to identify players who were still active in the period 1 December 2008 to 31 December 2009.


The actual commission amounts per affiliate were then recalculated using the gaming data, from 1 December 2008 to 31 December 2009, for the linked active players.



3. Determination of a fair settlement for claimants

We have been able to accurately calculate the commission accruing to each claimant for the period 1 December 2008 to 31 December 2009.

In order to take into account any potential future earnings, we have added to this amount an additional commission amount for any claimant’s players that were active during the 6 month period prior to 31 December 2009. The effect of this is that we have implied an average lifetime value for each of these players of at least 3.5 times the actual2 average lifetime of all Grand Privé players.

In our opinion, this is fair and reasonable compensation for the likely future earnings of these players.


We wish to thank all those representing affiliates’ interests for their feedback and support throughout the investigation. We would also like to note that the investigation team received the full cooperation of the Grand Privé management.


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1Utilising all information provided by claimants (Name, Email, Banner Tag, Website, etc.), no records could be found in the Program database.

2The actual average lifetime value of players is confidential information which we are unable to disclose.

[mojo]

I also received this:

Our investigation of the Grand Privé Affiliates Program is now complete, and we regret to inform you that you that no commissions have been earned by you subsequent to the closure of the Program on 1 December 2008.

Please find attached our Final Report relating to the investigation, which includes the steps taken to review commissions owing.

eCOGRA appreciates your cooperation in filing a claim and providing information that assisted us in fully investigating this issue.

Yours sincerely

I can't dispute that. I stopped using GP long before they closed the program. Though I know I had players, they became few and far between.

Anyone else get a settlement?

[nana45]

I got this also this morning along with an amount owed and a date when GP will honor and send.

Anyone else getting a payment?
Do you think it will be honored?

I was really surprised to see how few affiliates actually sent in a claim form.

58 claims were submitted to eCOGRA, of which 7 were found to be invalid1, and 26 earned commissions during the period 1 December 2008 to 31 December 2009.

[mojo]

1. Termination of the Affiliate Program and reasons therefore

I find this section unacceptable. The fact remains that GP closed the aff program and kept the money and will continue to do so. If they didn't want to take new aff players going forward, that's one thing. But to continue for the lifetime to keep affs money keeps them rogue on my sites.

eCogra will continue to allow them their seals. To me this does not resolve the real issue.

Do you think the amount they offered you is acceptable nana? Yes, I think you will get paid if you accept.

[universal4]

This is part of what bugged me about this mess.

Grand Privé management expanded the communications exercise by emailing every affiliate who had active players on the Program’s records during the 3 months prior to 1 December 2008 when the Program closed;

In other words, even when squeezed by eCogra, they felt it was only necessary to notify those who had players during that 90 day period.

And eCogra thermselves were only concerned with those 58 people and no one else.

I think their investigation should have looked at every single dime that was owed, and not just for the 58 (less the 7 so-called invalid of course).

Anyone that was ever an affilliate had the potential to be owed money, and I think they should have made sure EVERYONE was taken care of...

Rick

[giggles7p]

Well I have been screwed once again. I recieve the Off report saying they owed me nothing, nada, zilch!

I worked my ass off for this group back when they were repectable. My entire website was theirs, contests, bonuse promotions, etc....all my players loved them and i had revenue every month, but now they are trying to tell me that all my players just upped and disappeared when they closed the affiliate program.

I am sooo mad right now i could cry. I was counting on this F**king money...and should of known better. They are all crooks including eCOGRA...because i don't care what anyone says.....they could of dug deeper and harder to find the truth if they really are honest....and they didn't...and i don't want to hear that they can't dig back farther to find the real truth, because if thats the case,....what good are they? There a big time audit, watch dog...etc...company..and should have the means to go past the "word" of a casino operation when needed!!!!!!!

[nana45]

There wasn't a question in the email asking if I accepted or not.

I was surprised that I was owed and was actually getting anything.

NO Its is not okay how GP screwed all of their affiliates but really what could be done or can be done?

Every single day I am a part of this industry I know for a fact that I am at the programs mercy.... I ALWAYS am taking a chance on every single casino,affiliate program etc.

ONE Day they're good the next day they're not!
One month I get oaid the next month I may not!

They may be in business they may shut their doors and screw all of us.

Just recently...Affiliate Arena closed with maybe a weeks notice and once again I was owed earnings that were promised to be paid...but 3 months later I'm still waiting and probably will never see it.

I have had to fight several times for major bucks to be paid and I'm tired of fighting. Do we really as affiliates have any legal recourse?

I wake up every day and keep my fingers crossed that I'm not gonna get screwed again.

They all know that we really cant do anything but blacklist them, post,stop promoting and try to give others from promoting and sending them players.

So yeah if GP is sending me a settlement I"m thankful!!!!

[pdjoe]

Big fat zero for me too.

[mojo]

I completely understand nana. You are correct. Every day is a risk.

I am questioning the ecogra report. Nana didn't expect anything but did get something. Giggles and pdjoe did expect earnings but was told zero. From the sounds of it, Pat and Joe had a regular source of income from GP. It makes NO sense. All players don't just STOP.

Pat, I feel for you! Is there an audit they will show you? Are they only going by what GP tells them (or 'showed' them) ?
WTF?

[The_CPA]

Since I don't have much time to chase this let me just suggest that Ecogra was probably just checking accounts via "GRAND PRIVE" links.

I don't think Ecogra understands the entire history here.

Remember a joint called REFERSPOT??????

Remember they closed that affiliate program too, and the linking codes changed at that time as well.
We were promised old links would still track, and I imagine they did, HOWEVER, if Ecogra unknowingly just tracked the Grand Prive links and Players, then they won't see the Referspot Players.

If they asked for the Grand Prive data base, then it makes sense to me that this is all they got.
Oops! Forgot about the first affiliate program they had that shuttered up.

I too got the nothing due email, yet I had people playing till the end, and even got a final check when they closed up.

A bit too strange, IMO.

So my guess is that they are not accounting for Referspot Players in their investigation. Perhaps not by design on Ecogra's part. They probably got the specific information they requested.

I NEVER put up a single GRAND PRIVE link, so it makes sense that they would say NOTHING DUE.
Any activity I had was thru the REFERSPOT affiliate program, and via totally different codes and links.