Ian Sims, Rightlander: Bonuses are the industry’s Achilles’ heel

Rightlander founder Ian Sims has described bonuses as “a bit of an Achilles’ heel for the industry”. Speaking at the CasinoBeats Summit, Sims admitted that, as an affiliate and a casino player, he has always “had a bit of a problem with bonuses”.      
“If something better could be found I think it would serve the whole industry better,” he insisted. “So the fact that the Gambling Commission has started to clamp down on this is quite encouraging.
“My personal feeling is that once we’ve got through this process we’ll be in a much better place, in terms of how the industry is perceived from the outside, how players perceive us and the fact that there is a lot more transparency. That’s my hope.”
Sims previously told Affiverse that “it only takes one bad apple to have an affiliate program closed down or, worse still, see a licence revoked”.
The Gambling Commission performs regular audits of operators, and affiliate compliance has already become part of that process.
Back in November, Gambling Commission Chief Executive Neil McArthur called on the industry to work together and know their customers better, in an attempt to make gambling in Britain the fairest and safest in the world.
“I want consumers in Britain to be able to enjoy the fairest and safest gambling in the world… and to achieve my aims I need your support: I need you to work together to make sure you are the best – the fairest, safest – gambling operators in the world,” he explained.
He told delegates he wanted gambling businesses to collaborate and focus on three areas – understanding the early signs which could indicate a customer is experiencing or developing problems, interacting with those customers to ensure they can receive support and advice, and rebuilding public trust by changing advertising strategies.
“This is a call to action to join the race to the top,” he said. “A race to put your customers, their enjoyment and their safety at the top of the agenda for your management meetings, your board meetings and meetings with your investors.”
If you are interested in hearing more about how you can nurture your affiliate and operator relationships, then make sure you check out our Digital Marketing Forum, part of the SBC Betting on Football Conference, where you can hear from some industry experts taking place on the 21 March.