EuroKings = Class1/Maxima

While doing some work for a project that will be announced in the next 6-8 weeks, I happened to be looking at the EuroKing Affiliates website. I went to copy their email address from their contact page (http://affiliates.eurokingcasino.com/about-us/) using the right click, copy email function and something rather odd happened. When I pasted the email what was displayed was [email protected].

For those of you who don’t know who Class1Affiliates are – it has been a few years, they supposedly closed down in 2011/12 – they were the affiliate program that represented the old Playtech brand Class1 casino. Class1 casino was a rebranding of Maxima casino.

These groups had an extensive negative history. These two Playtech casinos ended up with Rogue status at CasinoMeister due to complete disinterest in communication about complaints. The complaints coming in seem to have related to non-payment, fund seizure based on vague terms and conditions and retroactive term changes being used to deny winnings. They were a pretty sorry group overall.

See,

Affiliates also appear to have been angered when Class1 casino abruptly closed their doors, not informing affiliates for several weeks, leaving many of their partners sending traffic through to a group that could no longer accept players, though the physical system appears to have been capturing player data in the interim.

Back to the issue at hand – the EuroKings Affiliates support email address is clicking as ‘[email protected]’.

Given the above I decided to look a little further and dug up an old copy of the Class1Affiliates site - https://web.archive.org/web/20110924103527/http://www.class1affiliates.com/EN/about - to compare to the current EuroKings Affiliate site.

From the EuroKing Affiliate site:

We are a team of dedicated experts with many years of experience under our belt.
Enthusiastic and always willing to go an extra mile for our affiliates, we represent one of the best affiliate programs out there. Combined with a dedicated support team working around the clock, we are among the industry leaders in player conversion and retention.
A basic belief in a shared success is our motivation. This is why we pursue an open and honest relationship with our affiliates. Our reliable data system allows affiliates to track their players and provides awareness of their actions. We worked hard to gain our reputation, based on constructive cooperation with both affiliates and players alike, resulting in a strong partnership with platform provider Skill On Net Software LTD.
Our track record speaks for itself, so join our program today and become a part of our growing affiliate family.

From the class1affiliate site:

We are a team of dedicated experts with many years of experience under our belt.

Enthusiastic and always willing to go an extra mile for our affiliates, we represent one of the best affiliate programs out there. Combined with a dedicated support team working around the clock, we are among the industry leaders in player conversion and retention.
A basic belief in a shared success is our motivation. This is why we pursue an open and honest relationship with our affiliates. Our reliable data system allows affiliates to track their players and provides awareness of their actions. We worked hard to gain our reputation, based on constructive cooperation with both affiliates and players alike, resulting in a strong partnership with platform provider Playtech.
Our track record speaks for itself, so join our program today and become a part of our growing affiliate family.

From the EuroKing Affiliate site:

Honest and open relationships We value open communication and are always available to our affiliates for comments or new ideas. Our belief is that trust between business partners is earned only by honest and transparent actions.
• Long term partnership Our business philosophy is to establish long term partnerships with our affiliates, so our aim is not the “quick buck” but lasting relationships, which are more profitable as well.
• Sharing success Working together we are stronger and share in the combined success as well. In EuroKingCasino we pay our affiliates a generous share for their hard work.

From the Class1Affiliates site:

• Honest and open relationships
o We value open communication and are always available to our affiliates for comments or new ideas. Our belief is that trust between business partners is earned only by honest and transparent actions.
• Long term partnership
o Our business philosophy is to establish long term partnerships with our affiliates, so our aim is not the “quick buck” but lasting relationships, which are more profitable as well.
• Sharing success
o Working together we are stronger and share in the combined success as well. In Class 1 Casino we pay our affiliates a generous share for their hard work.

From the EuroKing site:

EuroKingCasino Converts Players
• Dedicated sales team targeting new signups.
• Player retention and VIP teams ensure higher lifetime value of your players.
• EuroKingCasino customer support department operates around the clock – answering phone calls within 2 rings and replying emails within 15 minutes.
Strong Partnerships and Trust
• Willingness to create unique initiatives for performing partners.
• Experienced team of Account Managers who know and understand the industry best.
• We strive to maintain one-on-one relationship meaning each of our affiliates gets a dedicated account manager to ensure individual needs are met.
Resources and Tools
• We understand the importance of being innovative and resourceful. This knowledge motivates us to constantly provide creative marketing tools that will generate traffic and conversion of potential new clients.
• Extensive selection of marketing tools such as banners, text-links, game reviews, and many other content tools are provided free of charge to help you maintain fresh sites and drive traffic.
Unlimited Earnings
• How much you earn depends on how much traffic you can send. Once you bring a customer to our site, it is our job to guide them through the signup process, have them make their first deposit, and retain their business by offering them a myriad of entertainment options. You will earn commissions on the lifetime value of the players you refer, as long as you remain an active affiliate.
Multilingual support
• Supporting 4 languages, affiliates will know they can give a localized look to a website to suit a specific market.
Why Players choose EuroKingCasino
• Over 80 casino games to choose from.
• Huge first deposit bonus (300% up to 600 eur/usd/gbp)
• Online support with a personal touch

From the Class1Affiliates site:

Class 1 Casino Converts Players
• Dedicated sales team targeting new signups.
• Player retention and VIP teams ensure higher lifetime value of your players.
• Class 1 Casino customer support department operates around the clock - answering phone calls within 2 rings and replying emails within 15 minutes.
Strong Partnerships and Trust
• Willingness to create unique initiatives for performing partners.
• Experienced team of Account Managers who know and understand the industry best.
• We strive to maintain one-on-one relationship meaning each of our affiliates gets a dedicated account manager to ensure individual needs are met.
Resources and Tools
• We understand the importance of being innovative and resourceful. This knowledge motivates us to constantly provide creative marketing tools that will generate traffic and conversion of potential new clients.
• Extensive selection of marketing tools such as banners, text-links, game reviews, and many other content tools are provided free of charge to help you maintain fresh sites and drive traffic.
Unlimited Earnings
• How much you earn depends on how much traffic you can send. Once you bring a customer to our site, it is our job to guide them through the signup process, have them make their first deposit, and retain their business by offering them a myriad of entertainment options. You will earn commissions on the lifetime value of the players you refer, as long as you remain an active affiliate.
Multilingual support
• Supporting over 6 languages, affiliates will know they can give a localized look to a website to suit a specific market.
Why Players choose Class 1 Casino
• Over 200 casino games to choose from, available in Flash and Download.
• Huge first deposit bonus (200% up to 500 eur/usd/gbp)
• Online support with a personal touch

The above text, given that it is a word for word match between the two sites for the majority of the content on both sites, on top of the still active Class1Affilaites email address, in my opinion is fairly substantial indicators that EuroKing Affiliates is just a rebranding of Class1Affiliates. There may be other possible explanations, but to my mind this is by far the most likely.

Both players and affiliates would do well to bear this in mind when deciding whether to sign-up with EuroKing Affiliates or the brands they represent.