PokerStars Partners Stats Down?

[Josh]

I think it is very clear that someone at PSP made a very serious miscalculation when determining the new FPP requirement. I'm not sure why they are not willing to admit it though. I hope the people in charge at Pokerstars are aware of this ridiculous situation.

[leporello]

Ironic that they won best poker affiliate program and Carly won best poker affiliate manager at awards in London.

Wtf? Is that a joke? Stars has been the worst and least helpful program I've ever worked with.

Also the normal response time for an email is about 3-10 days, occasionally the email is ignored. If you go to Carly directly you may get an answer slightly quicker.

Calling them the best poker affiliate program is absolute bs. I can name 10 better affiliate programs, more helpful managers and more respondent AMs without even batting an eyelid.

Maybe we should setup our own Razzie awards so we can give a realistic view of what affiliates think of various programs?

[pokerprop]

I don't rank for very many PokerStars terms, I do rank for a few smaller ones that bring in a couple hundred unique visitors per month, but beyond that most of my PokerStars marketing is not SEO focused on them directly anyways, but I do like their company and naturally say good things about them many places where there is an affiliate links. I also attempt to redirect potential Full Tilt players a few places over to PokerStars. So my promotion is much different than the average person here doing the big numbers.

Anyways with that said: I have no problem with PokerStars. Since the change my conversions have slightly increased. However I do stuff with news and PokerStars has been in the news a lot recently and there have been several exciting articles and stories to share so this accounts for the boost this month.

Anyways knock on wood but i was just saying a few days ago b4 reading this thread how happy I am with pokerstars and there are a couple affiliates I've worked with recently that i gave advice to on increasing their PokerStars affiliate revenues and did sites not marketing PokerStars terms directly but ones that would convert well promoting pokerstars, together with these affiliates.

My Stats have not changed and in fact are better this month.

Not exactly sure what this means (my stats not changing while others have) however figured I'd pass it on fwiw.

[zzpot]

My Stats have not changed and in fact are better this month.

If your results are better when the requirements are more stringent, then you are doing a great job obviously.

[pipeline]

It looks like a lot of webmasters are taking action. I don't see pokerstars listed very high on very many sites anymore, some sites just straight up removed them from their top lists. This will probably continue as people look at their month end reports that either didn't see the email or don't check pal etc. I guess it's that time.

[pokerprop]

Something has to be wrong in you guys stats. 100 VPP to 250 VPP is a very minor change. The points here addressed are all valid. I'm just pointing out there is next to no way that this results in even a 50% drop in conversion let alone the numbers you guys are mentioning.

The one thing that hasn't been mentioned in the comment PokerStars made are not all true. In games such as 2-7 Triple Draw the amount of FPP we're getting is much less. To give an example I used to get 3VPP per hand at the game I played. Now I get 2.75. In tournaments the VPP also dropped less are given, previously 7 per dollar now 5.5 per dollar

Now the VPP are worth more than they were before and there are other incentives to get a player moving to earn them faster. Personally i think it is a great move for the players and shouldn't hurt affiliates as much as is being reported here.

Fwiw in a typical 6 hour day playing poker on a few 5/10 Non Holdem tables I earn at low stakes (low in the traditional term of low stakes) I earn about 800-1200 FPP for that day.

the very low micro grinders are the ones where it will take much longer.. but the ones who actually stick it out due qualify and I don't think 100 VPP versus 250 VPP is enough to ultimately notice a small drop.

15% drop we need to eat and work harder to increase player value to offset and take advantage of the new features as a conversion tool also to offset I can see and we don't have much choice but to say okay.

When it drops as is being reported something is certainly wrong.

[corpfan1]

Not that I promote Stars much as I previously stated for a number of reasons...

But, the difference is pretty obvious - I lost ALL my CPA qualified players this month when this all happened. So, no worrying about waiting to get paid by Stars this month - which is actually kind of a relief if ya get what I mean!

Something has to be wrong in you guys stats. 100 VPP to 250 VPP is a very minor change. The points here addressed are all valid. I'm just pointing out there is next to no way that this results in even a 50% drop in conversion let alone the numbers you guys are mentioning.

[Josh]

There has to be a problem with the way they calculated things. They obviously made a mistake when determining that the changes in the VIP program justified a 150% increase for the CPA requirement. Their second mistake came several days ago when 99% of affiliates lost 50-75% of their CPA's. Something just doesn't add up:

Nov: 263 signups, 128 depositors, 77 CPA's
Dec: 269 signups, 127 depositors, 69 CPA's
Jan: 305 signups, 152 depositors, 33 CPA's

*Difference in revenue from Dec and Jan= around $7,000..even though I sent more players and depositors in Jan.

I really don't like posting that kind of info but its the best way to get my point across. If it was a small number of players then things could jump around a lot more. This is a medium sized number, although I'm sure others could put me to shame easily, but that's not the point. Someone at PSP either made a huge miscalculation or an unethical decision.

If you are bringing in quality players, then this should
not affect you.

I have a hard time imagining that every affiliate that posted in this thread, with the exception of Jim I think, has low quality players. I've seen some very big names post in this thread too. I send a lot of mixed game and Stud players. From what I hear those types of players usually rake well and since there are only 2-3 solid rooms to play those games, Pokerstars being #1, player value for my players must at least be slightly above average so it just doesn't make sense.

[pokerprop]

My thought is something is wrong in the reporting here, not that someone dropped the ball during sign up. Perhaps one thing might be unqualified players before the change who have not qualified now are not showing up as qualified and this will be fixed. It must be something like that. PokerStars can't make this size error in the calculations.

There is however no question yes they wanted to pay us less. The VPP do not accumulate anywhere near 2.5 times faster, in fact its slower ins some games and on 2+2 the big grinders have reported 5% faster so they are cutting pay without coming straight out and saying it. Still though the amount they cut seems so unlikely to be to be as much as you guys are reporting it is coming out as.

Somethings wrong, i say its in stats or tracking rather than actual players qualified. If PokerStars confirms this is not the case and stats are legit then yeah something is fucked up.

Honest though guys it hasn't hit me. I do promote to a lot of non hold'em players and think i get a lot of cross over traffic to stars. Perhaps I'm just lucky being in a small niche that this doesn't effect me - but my numbers are so small. I've said so many times I want to promote Stars more but never got around to it.

[CasinoMack]

Damn OPB, I've ranked #1 for some big terms for pokerstars in the past, I think I lost those positions now, and never sent that number of players. Wow.

Anyways, this whole thing is total bullshit. Stars wants to delay payments to us.

Now they can roll forward this whole earning schedule for players and you know what? If the player doesn't make 250 then the player doesn't make 250. Stars is win/win. Instead of the rolled forward payment, they just don't have to payout.

I don't even want CPA, give me rev share stars. Stars gives out rev share to the lower quality traffic because they don't want to pay CPA. They definitely do not run a fair affiliate program.

This is total nonsense. Stars is the biggest room, probably makes the most money, and they are acting like they are struggling here due to affiliates sending "poor quality" players. Its such horseshit and I'm getting sick and tired of these aff programs screwing us over.

If you represent a 2nd or 3rd tier poker program and/or direct competitor to Stars, THIS IS YOUR OPPORTUNITY. Take advantage of this chaos.

Send me your best offers.