Bigger Bonuses for Sign Ups Via Phone?

**bonusbeast** · 3 May 2010, 8:21 pm

Regarding the ad on the sportsbook page at Betus that states
Call 1 (800) 588 5586
extra bonuses for callers!

Is this fair practice, for us affilates that are sending traffic to your site, only to have that player call in and register an account and not have them tracked to our affiliate account? I don't feel we should be driving traffic to BetUS and once they get there you offer them a higher bonus by simply calling in and setting up an account.
Please let us know the reasoning behind this.
Thanks

**BetUS_Erin** · 18 May 2010, 8:26 pm

Hi Bonus Beast,

Sorry for the late reply to this post. The call to action added recently (mentioned below) was not intended to detract from the efforts of our affiliates. In fact the phone messaging is hidden for visitors who use an affiliate link.<O

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The displayed number depends on the cookie; the same one that we use for join tracking. So, if a customer/affiliate visits our site and does not have an affiliate tracking code in their cookie, or has cleared their cache....they are going to see the phone number.<O

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This post raised some concerns though that perhaps the conditions were not being met through certain browsers. When we tried to reproduce the scenario by testing in IE 8, IE 7, FF 3, FF 3.6, Chrome 4, and Safari 4, the phone number remained hidden each time.<O

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Are you able to reproduce this consistently using an affiliate link? If so could you please tell me which link, browser etc that you are using so that I can test it on my end and report it to our Dev team?<O

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Thanks kindly,<O

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Erin Argue
Affiliate Program Director<O

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**bonusbeast** · 18 May 2010, 8:57 pm

I just tested this by following an affiliate link on IE8 and the extra phone bonus still shows up.

**praxis** · 20 May 2010, 1:00 am

This is interesting and instead of trying to eliminated the phone bonuses and recruitment of players. I think the networks should see it as an opportunity to expand their affiliate program.
I would be very interested in testing and joining a network that offers affiliate tracking of players recruited over the phone. The possibilities of this type of traffic are very interesting and challenging.. which is just what I need!!

Hope this gets sorted out for both parties...

Guillermo

**justbookies** · 23 July 2010, 2:15 am

What is the latest news on this as your post is weeks old now and the problem still exists? This "extra bonus for callers" message appears when using our affiliate link too.

**robertmedl** · 24 July 2010, 8:28 am

After clicking my affiliate link (https://www.betus.com/ats/11124/sportsbook), my Chrome v5.0.375.99 rendered the BetUS.com sportsbook homepage (https://www.betus.com/sportsbook/), which did, in fact, include the 'extra bonus for callers' message.

WTF

If you want to make this right by affiliates, then render our affiliate ID as part of the 'extra bonus for callers' message, stating that callers must use our affiliate ID as the bonus code to get the 'extra bonus' when calling in. Problem solved.

**justbookies** · 24 July 2010, 8:49 am

That message simply should not show when an affiliate link has been used, however unfortunately I would think the main (possibly only?) reason for it is to appeal to people who have come via affiliate links.

Shame, because my experience of the Betus affiliate team is so positive. They are excellent and very helpful (Laura, Erin, Travis). I can't say enough good things about them. They would never do anything to undermine affiliates. I am sure this message, that appears a cynical one to me, is out of their hands entirely and someone else's 'brainwave.'

It would be good to get it removed when affiliate links are used and, from the earlier Betus post on this thread, it sounds like that is what the affiliate team wish was happening.

**robertmedl** · 27 July 2010, 10:53 am

Just sent a PM to BetUS_Erin asking for a reply to this thread.

**grem** · 30 July 2010, 12:42 pm

is this for the sportsbook or do casino players get the same message on the casino page?

**robertmedl** · 4 August 2010, 9:41 am

After clicking my affiliate link (https://www.betus.com/ats/11124/sportsbook), I just confirmed that the "extra bonus for callers" message does not appear using Chrome 5.0.375.125 or FireFox 3.6.6, but it still does appear using IE 8.0.6001.189.28.

BetUS has really dropped the ball on this one in that (a) the "extra bonus for callers" message is still appearing, and (b) their lack of communication on the issue. As I mentioned above, I did send a PM to BetUS_Erin last week; she replied to me via a PM on 27 Jul that she would reply to this thread "... right away." To my mind, a week is not "right away".

Some kind of update from BetUS should have been forthcoming. And proactively, without my having to hound them.

Sheesh.

**BetUS_Erin** · 5 August 2010, 4:23 pm

Hi everyone,

In response to this post I would like to assure all of our affiliates and potential partners that we are listening to you and appreciate your feedback on any matter pertaining to BetUS.

The call to action at the root of this thread was never intended to deter players from joining online (thereby abandoning their tracked referral).

The moment it was raised as a concern by an affiliate development began working on a fix. The solution was to hide the number for affiliate referrals but show the number in all other instances. This ensured that new players coming to the site for the 1st time with an affiliate tracking cookie were not shown the messaging.

New posts on this topic led us to revisit the issue to better understand why the criteria to display or not display the ‘call to deposit?was seemingly not 100% foolproof. We tested it from 3 different countries with multiple browsers and through various websites and we were unable to re-create the problem consistently. It was decided at that time to hide the number for all visitors with affiliate tracking in their cookie regardless of whether they had visited before, had an account with us etc.

It is my understanding that there was one page of the site where the number re-appeared as a result of recent changes to the code. This was simply miscommunication between the development and content teams but it has been completely resolved now.

IE 8 is the only browser an affiliate may still see the number when testing. IE 8 has a feature called ‘Preserve Favorites website data? This option must be unchecked when clearing the cache and before testing the links. This option unfortunately overrides any attempt by BetUS.com to set a cookie for affiliates but the likelihood a new customer will have BetUS set as a favorite prior to joining is quite low. I assure you though that I will watch this thread and we’ll continually test entry points to be sure the solution is applied to every new or updated page.

For those of you who know me, and the others on the Affiliate team, integrity is paramount and friendly competition among us means we WANT you to refer an obscene amount of players. We might be the only affiliate program dedicating as much time and resources to capturing your referrals; ones you might not have known about otherwise.

* We perform weekly lead source reconciliation by scouring the information on player join forms in search of any missed referrals and assign them to the deserving affiliate to insure that he/she receives commission.

*We capture the referring URL, the destination page, the media and campaign details, the dropdown source they chose when they joined as well as the additional details the players type in. All of these are reconciled to give credit to an affiliate that had a visitor join without a tracking cookie.

*We review all duplicate accounts to be sure the correct referral relationship is always maintained.

*We review EVERY agents?phone calls when an initial deposit is made to be sure that a.) they ask the question ‘how did you hear about us??and b.) the information is correctly documented. Reporting of the phone call quality assurance is sent directly to me so I can look for any discrepancies and take action if necessary.

It’s a lot of extra work but it’s worth it for our partners and account managers, who are incented to ensure you excel. We are very much aware that the more you earn with us, the more you will promote us, so it’s very much in our best interest (as well as yours) to engage in all of the above-mentioned extra effort to get you every penny you deserve.

Thank you once again for all the comments on this thread. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions or concerns.

Thanks,
Erin Argue
Affiliate Program Director
BetUS Sportsbook, Casino and Poker Room

**robertmedl** · 6 August 2010, 11:08 am

Thanks for this thorough update!

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