A lot has been happening in recent days regarding some big “tipster” accounts and bookmaker affiliation practices, and it’s great that a lot of people seem to be becoming more aware of things than they were before.
What are affiliates?
An affiliate is an individual or company that directs new or returning customers to another company in return for a reward. For example, I could give you a link to a product on Amazon and if you bought that product I would get a commission. There is nothing morally wrong with that, even better if you were fully aware. This is how most affiliate programs are run.
However, being an affiliate with a bookmaker is a bit different.
If I were to direct you to sign up to Bet365 with a link unique to myself, I would receive 30% of every lost bet you placed. So if you bet £10 and it lost, I would get £3. This isn’t just for the first bet you place – but for every single bet you make for the lifetime of your account. And you would likely have no idea, and there is no way for you to find out.
If I signed up 10 people who lost £10 a week that’s £30 a week for me. This is just a basic example, but it’s easy to see how in no time from being a bookie affiliate I could be raking in thousands of pounds each week by just sitting back.
But again – this isn’t that bad, if done legitimately. For example if I ran a website that bettors used as a daily resource and the best way for me to bring income in to cover the costs of running this website and turn a profit was by posting affiliate links then in my opinion that is ok.
So what’s the issue?
The problem is that this method of affiliation, together with social media, has created a platform whereby people are lying and cheating in order to refer people to bookies, as well as other methods you’ll see below.
You should be in no doubt that there are “tipster” accounts out there who post tips they actually think will lose, along with their referral link, because they want people to sign up through them and lose bets.
There is no way around it. You signed up be to be an affiliate to get the 30% of losses, there is no other reason to do so.
It doesn’t really matter what a tipster says to try and explain their affiliation and more often than not if called out on it they will simply block you.
The beginning of the end for bookie affiliates?
This week, Sky Bet made the decision to terminate their affiliation program on October 2nd 2017. As a result, you will soon see many “tipsters” stop promoting them because it no longer benefits them. Instead they will push people to other bookies where they can still profit from their followers losses.
It has been rumoured that Sky Bet may have done this to get out ahead early of upcoming regulations. At the end of the day no ones sure, but we can only hope that other bookmakers will soon follow suit.
If/when that day comes, you will see a drastic decrease in the amount of tipsters on social media.
Fake Betting
Thanks to a mistake made by one of the biggest affiliate accounts on Twitter this week, many people have realised the fraudulent behaviour people will commit in order to bolster their accounts.
Footy Accums committing fraud ? Seems they forgot to photoshop one of their bets. @FootyAccums pic.twitter.com/EyE01ybvDf
— A (@AlistairWilson_) September 4, 2017
As you can see in the above tweet, @FootyAccums who have over half a million followers, posted a betting slip that had clearly been modified. They forgot to change all of the numbers on the slip. It was quickly deleted but not before this person managed to screenshot it.
Some delusional people have defended this saying it doesn’t matter. Dead wrong.
FootyAccums know, as do other affiliates, that by showing bigger stakes and therefore bigger returns on their bet slips, it is much more likely that their followers who have likely signed up through their affiliate links, will do the same.
This is just one example of how these affiliate tipsters operate in order to bring in more commissions. FootyAccums net worth in 2016 was over £650,000. That means that people who they referred to bookmakers would have had to have lost over £2,000,000. Let that sink in for a moment.
And there are hundreds of accounts out there like this, where people conduct the same behaviour. Hopefully if Sky Bet’s actions do bring about the end of this type of affiliation we’ll see the end of this type of fraud and conning people.
30 seconds is all it took. I'm sure the people who spend their days doing this have it down to 20. Be vigilant. pic.twitter.com/w95npnWVHW
— CJ @BetSmarter.co.uk (@CJ_BetSmarter) September 4, 2017
