FEATURE
Affiliate compliance checklist
On-site
• Remove time-sensitive wording from calls-to-action, such as‘ Play now’, in accordance with the Committee of Advertising Practice( CAP).
• Update site category styles to allow for the inclusion of significant T & Cs alongside all mentions of bonuses and restricted promotions. For sites listing multiple offers for a single brand, ensure that each individual instance is accompanied by unique and relevant terms.
• Develop a process to quickly and regularly check the status of all promoted sites, offers and tracking links against those currently live.
• Restrict use of the word“ free” to genuinely free promotions.
• Check all reviews, news and category pages for imagery that may appeal to children.
• Revise your cookie policy – or create one – to detail all tracking technologies used on your site, providing users with an option to opt-out to each or all of them.
• Add advertising disclosures to all comparison tables outlining the commercial incentives of brand promotion and their effect on your content and customers.
Email
• Review your GDPR obligations and update your site’ s privacy policy. Notify existing members of any changes you make.
• Safeguard excluded players from email campaigns by working with operators to implement encrypted exclusion APIs or by exploring third-party suppression tools such as Optizmo.
• Seek explicit permission for email marketing from your operator contacts.
• Revise existing email templates to incorporate significant T & Cs of promoted offers, ensure the inclusion of unsubscribe links and add details of your company as the registered sender.
General
• Keep a record of all marketing and cookie consent for identifiable site users.
• Develop in-house tools and processes to manage agreed deals and alert you to expiring operator promotions.
• Vet third party marketing channels for their ability to maintain compliant standards. Can you realistically include significant T & Cs in a two line push notification? If not, what procedures do you have in place to counter this?
• Keep on top of all regulatory changes that affect what you do, not just the industry in which you operate. Subscribe to the newsletters of more general regulators and organisations, including: Advertising Standards Authority( ASA); Information Commissioner’ s Office( ICO); Competitions & Markets Authority( CMA); Committee of Advertising Practice( CAP) and Industry Group for Responsible Gambling( IGRG)
For extra points
• If in doubt, ask. If you find yourself questioning your compliance, speak to operators directly and work together to resolve any issues. Larger brands have in-house compliance teams who will be extremely forthcoming with advice.
• Summarise your site’ s compliance in a single document that you can share with new partners to quickly and efficiently answer common questions.
“ Review your GDPR obligations and update your site’ s privacy policy. Notify existing members of any changes you make”
PHIL BLACKWELL
is head of SEO at Lindar, where he is responsible for the organic growth of bingo affiliate portal OnlineBingo. co. uk.
50 iGB Affiliate Issue 71 OCT / NOV 2018