Don’t gamble on your affiliates

In this month’s “Licensing Expert” article for SBC News (that can be downloaded below), David Clifton focuses on the fact that licensed gambling operators can be left carrying the can for failings by their affiliates not only under the Gambling Commission’s LCCP but otherwise.

He recommends that marketing teams within such operators’ businesses spend a bit of time digesting a CAP news item entitled “Gambling on your Affiliates?”, that has recently been published on the ASA’s website.

He refers also to the forthcoming Data Protection Bill which, together with the General Data Protection Regulation, will leave gambling operators facing liability for affiliates’ data protection misdemeanours. This serves to reinforce the warning given by David in his December 2016 article for SBC News entitled “Affiliates (and operators) in the ICO’s firing line”.

Update: Less than 2 weeks after publication of David’s above-mentioned article, Sky Betting & Gaming has announced that it has closed its affiliate marketing programme, citing “growing regulatory requirements”. In its affiliate programme closure notice, it said: “As you will be aware, the regulatory landscape in which the industry operates is developing and maturing and operators are experiencing increased obligations regarding their regulatory responsibilities and level of compliance. In order to continue to operate in a compliant manner, we feel that operating the Programme is no longer viable and that managing the output of affiliates presents a significant risk to our business from a regulatory perspective. It is for this reason that we have chosen to terminate the Programme.”  Comment on the closure can be read in a 4 September article in the Guardian.