PokerStars Responds to Affiliate Account Closure Complaints

PokerStars closed multiple affiliate accounts this week, according to reports in several poker affiliate forums.  The most prominent thread was started at Poker Affiliate Listings.  Markus Sonermo, owner of Poker.org, started a thread reporting that his PokerStars affiliate account would be closed.

“The reason given was that they felt I had too many old players generating revenue to justify my monthly payment,” Sonermo stated in his initial post.  Other affiliates posted about similar experiences in the same thread.

PokerStars used line 8.4 in its terms and conditions as justification for closing the accounts in question.  That term reads:

We may terminate this Agreement at any time on 7 days’ written notice.

Term 8.9 has also been cited:

Following the termination of this Agreement and the payment to the Affiliate of monies due to it as at the time of termination, Rational shall have no obligation to make any further Commission payments to the Affiliate.

This change angered many in the affiliate community.  The move has created concern that more contract terminations may occur in the future.

PokerStars representative Michael Josem issued a statement to USPoker that “PokerStars has agreements with thousands of third-party websites (‘affiliates’) to market our services to new players and encourage them to play at PokerStars.”  Josem continued, “PokerStars routinely reviews its agreements with these affiliates to ensure that they are productive for the company.”

Josem also stated that this only affected “a very small number of affiliates that were not recruiting many new players, and who were doing little active promotion of our services”.