John Wright: It’s time for affiliates to pay attention to compliance

John Wright: It’s time for affiliates to pay attention to compliance

In this interview with CalvinAyre.com’s Becky Liggero, John Wright of Stats Drone explains why compliance is a shared responsibility between affiliates and operators.

Many gambling regulators have been keeping a close watch on affiliates as consumer complaints mount over the past few years. Some of the common complaints hurled against affiliates include the lack of self-regulation, lack of consent, misleading advertising and issues around affiliate marketing platforms.

They’ve also come up with new compliance rules in order to protect consumers from the negative impact that affiliates may bring.

John Wright of Stats Drone said it is a shared responsibility of operators and affiliates to make sure that they stay within the guidelines set by the government.

“We are just as responsible for compliance as operators are. With operators, they’re more concerned about the risk and if affiliates are part of that risk, that’s why they are being a bit forceful in saying, ‘We need you to comply in order to remain part of the affiliate program,’” Wright told CalvinAyre.com. “It’s everyone’s job. It’s all of our job as affiliates.”

Wright, who has been in the affiliate industry for over 15 years, noted that lots have changed in terms of compliance rules across the continents.

He explained that the changes resulted from the complacency on the part of many affiliates and operators of not having updated terms and conditions, being fair towards the players and their marketing activities.

However, Wright believed that compliance was “something that should’ve happened a long time ago.”

“The fact is that it is happening now, so quickly and so aggressively for affiliates and especially operators. Forcing these compliance rules on affiliates, it’s something that affiliates should’ve been paying attention to for quite some time, and operators as well,” the Stats Drone executive said. “It is happening all at once. A lot of people aren’t happy about it. This is kind of the way things are really meant to be.”

At the moment, Wright said their company has been helping affiliates to make the most money while ensuring that their clients are complying faithfully with the state regulations.

“What we want to do is we want to have a message notification inside our own system such that affiliates are aware of it. And for things like this, these are critical messages,” he said. “It’s more than just marketing. It is kind of like, of course you need to fix something on your website or at least reply to an email. Otherwise, we will close your account. We need a notification that everyone pays attention to and at least have a decent chance to react.”