Does PokerStars 301 our links to boost the rankings?

[ozim]

Using 'redirect check' like this one:
Redirect Checker

we can see that the affiliate links for PokerStars are actually 301 redirected to respective pages in their domain. Does it mean they use our affiliate link to improve their SERPs not only for their homepage but also for so many content pages (I believe many affiliates link directly to pages like 'WCOOP', 'poker rules', 'promotions' etc.) of course using relevant anchor text.

I think this is the case because recently their domains are making a killing in the Google engines across the world. I mean not only are they at the top of Google.com for the keyword 'poker' but they also rank extremely high for the various phrases in google.fr, google.de, google.pl etc. etc. What do you think guys ?

[321]

Almost all the cardrooms 301 affiliate links, and they'd be insane not to because if you don't that would lead to thoudands of pages of duplicate content.

They don't get much benefit from it since most affiliates now either nofollow such links or run them through a /go/-like redirect (and Google does not pass PR or linkjuice through more than one redirect).