PokerUpdate.com, a member of the PokerVIP family of online poker websites, published an article yesterday that crossed all lines of integrity. PokerVIP is an online poker affiliate that specializes in rakeback, VIP programs, and free bankrolls. They also sign up sub affiliates to promote their offers. PokerVIP’s business is nearly identical to Poker Affiliate Solutions, the company that was the subject of the unethical article.
Poker Affiliate Solutions is the largest white label online poker affiliate company. PAS also owns free bankroll and rakeback properties. The company recently experienced some growing pains post-Black Friday and payments have slowed. The withdrawal process has been improving but the company remains cautious due to slow payments from some online poker rooms.
Old Quotes Used Out of Context and Bad Research by PokerUpdate
PokerUpdate published an article based on these issues. The topic could certainly be considered newsworthy to some. The issues come from the fact that it is a competitor publishing the article and that competitor embellished quite a few points in their article. Most of their points are half truths or are taken completely out of context.
The article starts out quoting a complaint from a former Poker Affiliate Solutions partner. It was posted in a thread at the Two Plus Two poker forum. The former partner states:
All the promises and action plans spoke about were basically empty and never followed through on with any sense of urgency whatsoever, if at all. They missed email deadlines, put meetings off, and have been completely unresponsive as of a few weeks ago.
The problem with this quote is that it is over a year old and has nothing to do with the situation. It was from an old thread merged into the current thread. This same former partner posted in the same thread in August:
…requested “a fairly large cashout” on July 13, which has not been processed, and the company has terminated its relationship with PAS.
The article goes on to say that this payment still was not made two months after the forum post was made. Poker Affiliate Solutions confirmed this payment was paid seven weeks ago. PokerUpdate just assumed that the payment was not made without doing any research. They never contacted the poster to try and verify payment. The company in question terminated its relationship with PAS due to an unrelated situation even though the article implies otherwise.
The article goes on to speculate:
PokerAffiliateSolutions closed its own forums in August and rumours are rumbling of a cash shortfall, though logistical headaches are also plausible causes for the delays.
In reality, PAS’s forum closed because it was spammed often and hardly utilized, not because of any cash shortfall. It does not cost any money to operate a forum. Poker Affiliate Solutions still allows anyone to comment on their blog posts and they still offer full time support so it is not like anyone was silenced.
These are just examples. PokerUpdate used other out of context or partially used quotes in the article; none of the quotes are newer than three weeks old.
PokerUpdate Crossing Ethical Lines to Improve Their Own Credibility?
After they got done publishing their article, they immediately submitted it to PokerScout’s news admin in the hopes of getting it carried so that thousands of Poker Scout visitors could see it. They also bumped the Two Plus Two thread that had been idle for three weeks to spam their article. They did so using an anonymous forum alias. They were caught by the moderators and their post was deleted.
PokerVIP is reportedly developing a white label solution for rakeback sub affiliates. This would provide potential sub affiliates with a turnkey solution to launch a website. This is exactly what Poker Affiliate Solutions does as their main business. There is only one reason a smaller company would sensationalize an article like this about one of their competitors. It was done only to try and damage the reputation of one of their biggest competitors.
When a company exhibits behavior like this it shows a complete lack of ethics in the company. The company has been confronted about this article and stands behind it. They have refused to edit out the obvious flawed reporting in their article.
We feel that PokerUpdate should not be considered a legitimate news source. In addition, as an iGaming affiliate myself for more than 7 years now, I think it’s only fair that I let the public know that I feel PokerVIP and any of it’s parent sites should be avoided until they prove they act more properly in ethical situations.
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