SBR affiliate?

[Dark Horse]

Link below is an example of an affiliate program. A 30% earning on the losses of the persons referred through the link.

http://www.beted.com/affiliates/default.aspx

Is this how SBR operates? The signup format for the different contests suggests so.

That would mean that, once books meet SBR requirements and are approved, they become big sources of income for SBR. Not just because they pay for banner ads, but because of the money the forum crowd loses there.

Kind of gives a different flavor to those free points people go wild over. The idea is that you are sucked into the forum, sign up for contests at books, and lose your money at those books.

I may be way off. But it's certainly possible. If true, I find this remarkable, because only a year ago (let alone before that!) SBR was far more generous with its contests. Now there are more contests and so many contestants that it is nearly impossible to win anything (why even try?). It's no longer about measuring your skill against others. It's about signing people up.

Has this thing morphed into an impersonal marketing machine?

[durito]

http://www.sportsbookreview.com/Sportsbook/?v=386&book=BetEd

That is SBR's BetEd affiliate link, yes they get money from shit books too.

http://www.sportsbookreview.com/ratings+on+over+400+sportsbooks+/

Nearly every link on this page is an affiliate link.

[Chopsticks]

Yeah that is probably how they operate - to some extent at least.

Affilliate mone, banner ads and so on. But keep in mind that for the affilliate account they may not actually gain as much money as you would think. I would assume they have a steady income from the banner ads, and they probably have plenty of books who wants to advertise here but they don't want this to become too crowded.

With the affilliate accounts they would in most cases rely on people losing. For instance if 10 people lost $1000 each, and then one guy comes and cleans up and takes the bookie for $10k then SBR would gain no money. Their affilliate account would stand at $10k of lost player money vs $10k won, so nothing to get a 30% (or whatever) of. However some books pay per head (I think it is called CPA bounty), so if they have that deal they would also get a reward for every player that joins. Obviously because SBR is a good place to advertise the bookies are probably willing to give more back, so the deals you see on the site is probably not the deal SBR has.

If they just gave 30% of every players net losses and did not take in to account that some players won, then they would go broke pretty quickly. Say 200 players joined BetED. 100 of them went on to lose $500, but the other 100 went on to win $500, then BetED would have to send $15000 to SBR for the 30% net losses deal, but also pay out $50k to the winning players. At least that is how I think these affilliate deals work.

It is not as easy as that though. Some bookies zero out the net losses/gains monthly/annually, others not. But obviously it doesn't take a genius that in the long run, the players will lose money, so sbr would get their commission.

Anyway... unless you know someone who is an affilliate I don't know why the player should care who gets the money. I think it is better that SBR or a site or forum that gives something back to the player gets it instead of some random spamming banner farm website. SBR gives contests, security and support, and also extra perks like extra signup bonuses or just free money for points. Also of course they give us this forum. Essentially they give us a product that we don't really have to pay for.

As a business they rely on making money to pay for the costs of running this site and also things like salary, so that could maybe explain why they like to spread it around on various sites. But it could also be as part of the affilliate agreement they have with the specific bookies. I can imagine that when a bookie is actually allowed to advertise here (not every bookie is allowed obviously), then they want to build on that by bringing more attention to their book. Contests is a good way of doing this.

I'm rambling a bit now and not really sure I made the point that I wanted to.

[frankthetank]

Of course, the owners of this site arent doing this for charity. Money is made several ways here. And paid up front advertising and commissions on losses are the two biggest for sure. But the site has done a lot for a lot of people. I always check here before depositing somewhere..

[saints7011]

did you think they worked for free ? you're a genious for figuring this one out...I would've never thunk it...

[talnted]

we all know how sbr makes their money.

[lukahh]

yes, sbr makes money from the net losses. (as does every other site hosting betting sites' banners).

i don't see problem with that. it is your individual decision to use either sbr services or advertizers services. this site should at least help you evaluate your bookies, so that in case you win the wager, you also see your money.

[mrmarket]

SBR gets affiliate revenue from the sportsbook every time they sign a new member via a free cash deposit or free play purchased via SBR points. Whether it is cost per acquisition (one time payment) or revenue sharing or a combination of both I do not know. They also make money from selling ad space on the various websites to sportsbooks. Not to mention the money just from the regular people who deposit after clicking an affiliate banner and signing up at a room.

If SBR points system ever comes to a point where it is unprofitable no doubt inflation would occur to make the system profitable again. People would get pissed off but because it is free 95% of them would stick around. In fact it's already occurred to a certain extent with the transaction fee in the SBR sportsbook and the costs of cash/freeplays going up/disappearing altogether.

You have to consider that SBR points program subsidizes marketing costs via branded merchandise as well so it is not strictly a revenue model. I think if SBR ever got to leveraging its current playerbase offering no deposit poker/casino bonuses, deposit bonuses at poker/SB/casino rooms and poker rakeback they would be really making money.

All that being said it's a great business model and kudos to SBR_john/staff for thinking it up (or borrowing it ).

http://forum.sbrforum.com/players-talk/465937-can-sbr-points-really-last.html

[Dark Horse]

did you think they worked for free ? you're a genious for figuring this one out...I would've never thunk it...

I never had given it much thought, beyond advertising dollars. It's genius, by the way.

Priorities change. That's a fact of life. But to go from helping to protect player's funds to hoping to see players lose funds is quite the leap.

Many have critized SBR for not being critical of books that have banners up, suggesting a conflict of interest that would make them think twice about cutting off those advertising dollars. But the affiliate angle is much more specific. Losing players that signed up through SBR-links create a continuous flow of income. Even if the banners were gone, the flow of that affiliate income would continue. If players were to deposit less, they would lose less, so why come down on books?

I have nothing against affiliates. But to play that angle, while acting as a watchdog, opens the door wide to hypocrisy. The conscious dumbing down of the forum fits the strategy. You need a couple of sharps, like Justin, for credibility. And a thousand squares that swamp around JJ.

So yes, I never realized to what extent SBR had 'evolved' from its original starting point. These people are a lot slicker, in a Vegas way, than I had thought.

[Santo]

Slight counter-point: If the book is going to go bankrupt, SBR wouldn't get their affiliate money, so surely they'd rather players deposit somewhere that is going to stay in business and so allow players to lose slowly (as most will) and pay them affiliate money.

[Dark Horse]

True. And, like I said, I have nothing against the affiliate model itself. If people are straightforward about it.

This is a smart business model. But I can't help detecting a high degree of two-facedness. You remember the old BTP contest. I think CRIS was the sole sponsor. But now participants have to sign up with 16 books. lol The explanation that came with that was that these books weren't just going to hand out prize money in return for nothing. Sounds reasonable enough. After some complaints older forum members that already had accounts at those books were grandfathered in. Obviously, the fact that they already had accounts at those books should have taken care of those books. So it wasn't about that. It was about SBR getting money through those contest signups. By covering as many books as possible, they guarantee themselves of a chunk of all future losses by those players. I can't tell if that's smart business or excessive greed. But I can say that it has nothing to do with the original SBR.

Perhaps it's time that SBR lets go off this fake facade of being a watchdog organization, and tells players upfront that they would like them to win, but wants a chunk of their losses if they don't. I would respect that.

[Santo]

I'm not entirely sure that the two are counter-intuitive. Casinomeister has long had an affiliate model, but it hasn't impacted upon their ability to be a respected watchdog and/or mediator within the casino industry. The fact is that the sportsbook regulator for offshore (so much as SBR could be called such) is not a publicly funded, or subsidised body as for example is IBAS or the Gambling Commission in the UK would be. It's not feasible to expect them to operate with no revenue stream, so the question is how they are funded? I can think of worse revenue streams than the affiliate model outlined here.

[faststeady]

Casinomeister has long had an affiliate model, but it hasn't impacted upon their ability to be a respected watchdog and/or mediator within the casino industry. .

lol

[idontlikerocks]

thanx dark horse for bringing this topic up. i am sure that a lot of people like myself don't really know much about the industry that many others take for granted. i actually hope that sbr does get a chunk of any losses i might have, as i see this website as an important service in this industry. i did take notice at the last bash that sbr had put a lot of money into it; and i thought that there wasn't any way that they made that much money, including all of their other expenses, just from banner revenue.

what would bother me is if sbr were to start making recommendations on plays that were poor plays in the hopes that players would lose. i don't think this is happening, but what do i know? not much lol.

i wonder how does sbr know how much forum players are losing at the affiliated books? how do they know that the books are honest?

with the number of books available to players in decline because of the laws in the U.S., it seems of even greater importance to me that i have some knowledgable voice inside the industry to help me pick safe places to play. do you think that sbr loses creditability in this regards because of this affiliate structure?

[Dark Horse]

do you think that sbr loses creditability in this regards because of this affiliate structure?

Short answer, yes.

If the idea is to become a megaportal that signs up as many people as possible with as many reliable books as possible, it creates a conflict of interest waiting to burst at the seams.

This is longterm automatic income, so being critical of books that create a lot of income could be very counterproductive. What if such a book would decide to no longer honor the agreement? All about lifestyle.

I'm not saying that SBR is unreliable. At this point I still, roughly, trust the ratings. But if the affiliate scenario is more or less accurate, than my longterm expectation would be that credibility would decrease rather than increase.

[lawsofpower48]

to tell you the truth, i dont trust this site for jackshit lmao... i base which book i use by the responses of players.... as you can see i dont use that free cash or points BS.... that only leads to more confusion with rolloevers etc...

[Marginalis]

to tell you the truth, i dont trust this site for jackshit lmao... i base which book i use by the responses of players.... as you can see i dont use that free cash or points BS.... that only leads to more confusion with rolloevers etc...

Its ok, i can take your points.

[lawsofpower48]

Its ok, i can take your points.

lol...i guess ill be ebaying my pts

[lukahh]

i wonder how advertizers verify the losses amount of the people they refferred. i guess it's an honour system and the book decides itself how much money it would declare?

[THE PROFIT]

everything is tracked by links & usernames. These guys know what they're doing

[idontlikerocks]

imagine a player getting screwed by a book in some way and asking for help from sbr. sbr may be put in a position where they will lose money by helping the player recover his money. or might they decide not to help at all?

[uva3021]

more people lose than win, new signups serve as a self-catalyst to earning commission for SBR by on average the collective having a net loss, so SBR doesn't need to push plays to one side or another to try to get people to lose

nobody needs help with losing at sportsbetting lol