Casumo Closing Affiliate Accounts: Industry Takes a Stand

StatsDrone this week announced this week it has added a new feature warning affiliates in regard to alleged infractions by large online gambling firms. And their first target is the Casumo group of online casinos.

Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Malta, Casumo prides itself on being innovative, award-winning and mobile-first online gaming group, providing fun and safe casino and sportsbook products. Its brands include Casumo, Dunder, Casino Secret and Kazoom Casino.

But StatsDrone claims the company is systematically shutting off affiliate accounts.

Dear Affiliate,

I would like to celebrate a new feature we are going to be building at StatsDrone which is warning affiliates when large companies like Casumo start going on a spree of closing accounts as they don't seem to value their affiliates.

They decided to close our account even though we are earning sub-affiliation revenue from them.

If there are any affiliate managers at Casumo that would like to help us keep our earned commissions, please reach out.

One affiliate suggested this is far from an isolated incident where the industry in general is concerned.

"Screwing up affiliates slowly has become a trend as it seems," the affiliate wrote on LinkedIn.

John Wright, co-founder of StatsDrone responded.

"The sad irony of this is that when regulated programs do this, they make it difficult for small to mid-sized operators to exist, then they now are at the mercy of the big affiliate groups to pay the highest CPAs with lower margins and then the rest of the industry moves over to the black market for trust."

Castumo sent out its notice to some affiliates on Tuesday.  The exact number of affected affiliates is not yet known.

Dear Affiliate,

We are writing to inform you of an important development regarding your Casumo Affiliate Account.

As part of our commitment to maintaining a mutually beneficial partnership, we regularly review the activity and performance of our affiliate accounts in line with the terms and conditions of our affiliate program.

As stipulated in our official affiliate terms and conditions:

"In the event that the Affiliate fails to refer New Registering Customers during any consecutive three (3) month period, Casumo reserves the right, at its sole and absolute discretion, to (i) suspend or terminate the Affiliate account OR (ii) reduce Affiliate’s Commission rate to a flat rate of no more than 10% of Net Revenue until such time that the Affiliate introduces a total of six (6) New Customers within a six (6) month period at which point (effective upon Your referral of the sixth New Customer) Your Commission rate will revert to the standard Commission rates as set out in Clause 19 of these Terms and Conditions."

Upon recent review, it has come to our attention that your affiliate account has not referred any new customer registrations for a consecutive period of three months.
In light of this, and after careful consideration, the decision has been made to close your affiliate account and cease any further commissions.

Please know that this decision was not taken lightly and is in line with our policy to ensure the vitality and effectiveness of our affiliate program.

Aussie Dave wrote:

"Members of the Affiliate Guard Dog forum blasted the move. Retroactive 'theft' on a grand scale. Unless affiliates ALL stand up against this treatment, it will soon become the norm. You've been warned."

Wright, for his part, tagged Casumo along with upcoming conferences in an apparent attempt to notify the company their presence may not be welcome.  He included the tag #londonaffiliateconference as this is among the largest industry events taking place in February.

While online gambling companies in the United Kingdom have been engaging in this practice for years - primarily a result of more stringent regulatory policies - one affiliate advised that Casumo's move stretches beyond the UK.

Strider1973 writes:

"It's not only UK affiliates. Got the same email and I'm not even able to login to the account and check what trackers/sites are sending traffic there. Greetings from Switzerland."

The move also appears to have come without warning.

"It's mid-month, cannot log in to see if I had any money in the account, got a payment from them last month so it's possible I did have.To just do this mid-month and confiscate any funds you have is really an act of bad faith. At least Betsson let me go and withdraw the balance when it happened. Unlike Casumo.  Why could they have not acted ethically and given notice it would close on the 1st. December and existing balances be paid out?"

- Alejandro Botticelli, Gambling911.com Senior Correspondent