Annual Grand National Affiliate Free Bet Gripe
Posted under: The Grand National is over for another year and whilst there were a number of affiliate marketeers celebrating Tony McCoy’s success but there wasn’t too much protestation over the annual “change your content for a few days” rules from bookmakers. In previous years the free bet offers have been removed or in some cases CPA payments dropped over National weekend.
The lack of comment from affiliates perhaps suggests that things have settled in this area, maybe as some bookies have adapted their stance, or it’s become accepted as the norm that bookies will be a pain at this time, or perhaps there’s just an element of “there’s no point complaining”?
Or, as is more likely, many affiliates have become wise to the event and are taking advantage well before the actual day of the race.
For example, if you get an email at the end of March from Ladbrokes saying “We ask that you remove any reference to free bets on your sites during Grand National Day. Unfortunately any affiliates who do not comply with this request will see their revenue for the whole month of April withheld”, the best thing to do is send out “free Grand National bets” promotions in the interim period with a message saying there won’t be any available on the day.
That all seems fair and sensible to me!
However, any affiliate publishing that “Ladbrokes will not offer freebets on Grand National day this year” would have been in the wrong. That’s because they offered Sun readers who visited their high street bookies a free £1 bet – details here! Now fair enough it’s not online, but it’s still a free bet.
Furthermore, a forward thinking affiliate could have used this information to offer extra promotion for the bookmaker, had they provided it. With this in mind, it makes you wonder if affiliates would respond better to “please ensure you tell your users they’ll be no free bet via the online site but you are welcome to mention that there are these offers offline” rather than the “remove any reference to free bets… [or have] … revenue for the whole month of April withheld”.
For example an affiliate may want to tell their visitors “if you pick up a copy of The Sun you’ll get a £1 free bet from Ladbrokes, but if you’re not able to get out today there’s no free bet offer but you can place your National bet at Ladbrokes.com”. It gives visitors truthful information, it’s useful and valid, plus offers promotion and links to the merchant. It also combines the merchant’s other advertising channels together with affiliate marketing.
Is that unfair on the bookmaker? Would that be worthy in a penalty for the affiliate?
What do you think?
Good post Jason and some valid points raised. I think this is an issue worth highlighting and yes thinking ahead does help as I can’t see the bookmaker brands changing their stance anytime soon.
It’s a right pain to change previously written copy just for a few days during a big event and something which I try to avoid. In Ladbrokes case I think taking the approach to withold April commission for those affiliates not complying is a bit harsh.
I took a slightly different stance and directed my users towards the few bookmakers that were still offering their usual free bets despite the Grand National mentioning that others had pulled their free bet offerings. Needless to say those bookmakers converted even better than usual so not all was lost!
I see what you’re saying Jason, but, I disagree, we work with the merchants, and, it’s not too difficult to understand why they drop the free bets at Grand National time, they already make a loss on that day, so why compound it further by making it free?
We have a relationship with the merchants and it goes both ways, we do for them, they do for us.
@Tony – not sure you’ve read what I’ve written. I’m not saying anywhere that they shouldn’t drop the free bet, what I’m saying is give the affiliate details and information about other promotions so that it can be used.
As I posted Ladbrokes could have picked up promo from affiliates with the line “there are no free bets online but you can get £1 by picking up a copy of The Sun. If you don’t fancy that then head off online and place bets etc..”
Imo that’s a better approach than “remove all info about Ladbrokes” etc. They know people will look for free bets, so turn it to an advantage for both themselves and those they have relationships with.
The affiliate loses nothing (unless their user heads off to the shops) and Ladbrokes retain position on affiliates sites during the busy period.
But just to reiterate, no where does it say above they shouldn’t drop the free bet.
Tony: ” it’s not too difficult to understand why they drop the free bets at Grand National time, they already make a loss on that day, so why compound it further by making it free?”
Hi Tony, I find it baffling that you say that bookmakers “already make a loss on that day”. I know it’s been reported that this year William Hill made a loss (because of the 1st five horses all being low odds, and the 2 joint-favourites appearing in the top 5) — but in general bookmakers don’t necessarily lose money on National!? eg. 100/1 winner last year. If a bookie wasn’t capable of pricing up the market they’d soon be out of business
Jason: it’s definitely a ball-ache to change promo text and remove free bets, but I guess we’ve come to expect it now. What I found frustrating was many bookmakers didn’t let affiliates know in advance one way or the other whether the free bet would be staying on National day.