Grand Prive and ecogra

[dominique]

Well, the situation is pretty strange.

Check this out:

http://www.casinoaffiliateprograms.c...-from-cap.html

Grand Privé / eCogra Investigation - Official Response from CAP

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Several days ago eCogra put out a marketing campaign which put them at the forefront of the Grand Privé debaucle. For those who are unaware, it is well-documented and easily found in the search engines. For the sake of brevity: Grand Privé closed down operations and left many affiliates uncompensated for their player base. Affiliate commissions were not paid and they opened another affiliate program for a non-US facing casino, Villa Fortuna. With a large player base from the Grand Privé group, they were able to regain 100% profits from their players (and cut affiliates from their contractually-earned share of the commissions).

Almost a year ago, I was to meet with the senior management of Grand Privé in London to work towards a proper resolution with all affected affiliates. Due to our own internal challenges at the time, it was not feasible nor sensible for CAP to be involved any further. Nevertheless, I have been watching the situation since then and was quite disappointed that no effort towards a resolution had been put forth. Hence, I e-mailed an ex-senior executive at Grand Privé several weeks ago and started to make progress again towards a proper settlement plan with affiliates. I realized that a fair, independent party to CAP, Microgaming, and Grand Privé would be required to make sure the resolution is acceptable for all affected affiliates. That's when I contacted Andy from Affiliate Guard Dog (AGD), and even got the support of my contact at Grand Privé to allow Andy to oversee the audit, which was to be handled by an independent auditor such as Price Waterhouse or similar at the time. AGD graciously accepted to be involved in the matter and even went to the extent of creating a proper investigative method and audit procedure.

The procedure would have included contacting all Grand Privé affiliates (not just those who submitted a claimant form) in the same manner that a class action lawsuit informs all affected persons. The initial investigation would have been an affiliate audit to determine which persons to contact. Subsequent to the affiliate audit would have been a complete player audit with affiliate-tag verification, matchup. Once the second audit was performed, a compensation/commission audit could be performed. This portion of the audit was to be a 2-part audit: Historic Commissions Audit and Cross-Promotional Audit of tagged players. [This is a rough outline of our plans. Feel free, eCogra, to use this or contact us for more details]

The auditor of choice was being looked into until last week when eCogra sidestepped us with their announcement.

The announcement from eCogra was both surprising and unexpected. We hope that eCogra will be able to do the right thing and provide a resolution for ALL affected affiliates and not just the ones who complete the claimant form, considering the Grand Privé affiliate system has been inaccessible for roughly a year, if not longer.

Good luck to all Grand Privé Affiliates!

and also here http://www.affiliateguarddog.com/for...html#post11103

Grand Prive and eCogra - AGD Perspective
Several days ago eCogra put out a marketing campaign which put them at the forefront of the Grand Prive debaucle. For those who are unaware, it is well-documented and easily found in the search engines. For the sake of brevity: Grand Prive closed down operations and left many affiliates uncompensated for their player base. Affiliate commissions were not paid and they opened another affiliate program for a non-US facing casino, Villa Fortuna. With a large player base from the Grand Prive group, they were able to regain 100% profits from their players (and cut affiliates from their contractually-earned share of the commissions).


In recent weeks, AGD (in partnership with CAP-Warren) began looking into a completely independent audit of the Grand Prive system. AGD wanted to become involved to ensure that the audit would be truly ‘independent’ and without bias. Grand Prive was involved in the conversations with Warren and progress was being made. The audit was to be done with an independent auditor (such as Price Waterhouse or similar) and would be overseen by AGD and with Warren’s involvement. We had briefly discussed eCogra as the auditor and determined that their involvement would have put a cloud around the audit {unless AGD/CAP had complete raw data access for the purposes of verification of eCogra findings}. The auditor of choice was being looked into until last week when eCogra sidestepped AGD/CAP with their announcement.


We had already discussed a proper investigative method and audit procedure prior to this announcement. Our plan would have included contacting all Grand Prive affiliates (not just those who submitted a claimant form) in the same manner that a class action lawsuit informs all affected persons. The initial investigation would have been an affiliate audit to determine which persons to contact. Subsequent to the affiliate audit would have been a detailed player audit with affiliate-tag verification and match-up. Upon completion, a compensation/commission audit could be performed. This portion of the audit was to be a 2-part audit: Historic Commissions Audit and Cross-Promotional Audit of tagged players. [This is a rough outline of our plans. Feel free, eCogra, to use this methodology or contact us for a more detailed plan.]


This is the plan we had worked on while waiting for the go ahead from GP.
With all that said, we applaud eCogra’s efforts in taking on such a monumental task. We certainly hope their plans are as detailed as our own and that their success benefits the affiliates that should have been compensated. This should extend to all Grand Prive affiliates, not just those who happen upon the ‘Claim Form’ (located at: Submission Form) and [contrary to the claim form] affiliates should not be responsible for determining the legitimacy of their request. The Grand Prive backend has been down for quite some time and verification is just not possible.


Good luck eCogra and please do affiliates the same justice that would have been accomplished with our plan…


Thank you everyone and good luck to all Grand Prive Affiliates!

Thoughts, anyone?

[ClassyTouch]

It is very strange!! I wonder what is really going on here.

[bartongrl1]

One would hope that a full investigation into the situation would happen and soon. It is not right that they have cheated their affiliates out of what was due them because after all, it was a lot of hard work put in by the affiliates that gave them their player base in the first place.

And, I hope that this is settled in a timely manner.

[caruso]

Well, your CAP thread seems to have died a death. In fact, all threads I'm aware of seem to have gone the same way.

I remain confused. Isn't the issue the reneging on of lifetime commission agreements? How does that square with this particular "investigation"?

[dominique]

I suppose it will be a settlement, as is done often in Brick and Mortar situations.

No telling how that will pan out until after there is a financial audit completed.

[caruso]

You mean a compromise of some kind, right? Would you be happy with that?

[dominique]

That entirely depends on how reasonable it is.

To make it simple, if GP has $100, and 20 people file a claim of $30 each, obviously a compromise has to be made.

But if GP has the $100, and 20 people file a claim of $1 each, a compromise is out of the question.

GP claims that they acted because of finacial issues, so first of all we need to asess whether that actually was the case. Maybe it was just greed. We won't know until finances are properly examined.

I have no doubt that eCOGRA can hire competent auditors. However, I am not entirely comfortable with the fact that no affiliate organization is allowed to send a rep to take part in some decision making. I would have liked AGD to be involved.

So far the only objection I had was that the affiliate data base was not originally mailed, I made noise at Casinomeister about it and consequently the affiliate base was finally mailed and the deadline for filing was extended.

Ecogra says they will make their findings very transparent. So, let's see.

[caruso]

Question:

http://www.casinomeister.com/forums/336288-post42.html

You know this for a fact? Have people at AGD / CAP told you this specifically, no affy involvement?

I'm doing a summary article, want my facts straight.

[dominique]

It's all still unfolding.... you will need to update.

I believe ecogra is contacting some affiliates for input now.

There is no way to make a lot of statements now that are not subject to change as this all develops.

[bartongrl1]

This is the latest press release:

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:

1. Independently investigating the manner in which the Program was terminated and the reasons therefore;
2. Carrying out a full and independent review of the program software and data to confirm amounts owed to claimants;
3. Determining a fair settlement for claimants, taking into consideration the potential lifetime earnings of each affiliate’s respective players; and
4. 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:

1. 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;
2. 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
3. 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:

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. 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:

1. A comprehensive completeness and accuracy audit on the affiliate database provided by the Program was conducted.
2. 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.
3. This information was used to manually source all players linked to the relevant claimants within the casino back office database.
4. 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.
5. 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.


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.