When affiliate payments are withheld, and how to resolve it

Operators can withhold affiliate commission, and their terms say when: fraud, prohibited traffic, chargebacks, bonus abuse and breach of the agreement. Withholding that cannot be tied to one of those reasons, or to specific players, is worth challenging. A fair dispute rests on evidence both sides can see. We read the published terms of eight programmes in October 2026, and the clause numbers below come from those versions.

What programme terms allow operators to withhold

Fraud, and time to investigate it

Programme terms reserve the right to withhold or claw back money linked to fraud. 888 may withhold commission during a fraud review of up to 180 days and set off fraud-generated amounts (5.19). Entain may void or withhold money gained through breach (5.16) and set off past payments that came from Prohibited Activity (9.8). bet365 may retain amounts where it has "reasonable cause to believe" traffic was not generated in good faith. Super Partners may pass on the financial costs of fraudulent activity.

Low-quality or closed player accounts

FDJ United (6.7) and LeoVegas (5.3.3) both reserve the right to withhold CPA for accounts "identified as bonus abuse, suspended, closed for fraud, self-exclusion or for any other reasonable reason". Super Partners discounts a CPA customer after a chargeback and deducts the earlier CPA from future payments.

Prohibited traffic

The terms ban specific ways of generating players, and traffic from them can be refused:

• Brand bidding. All eight programmes ban bidding on their brand terms in paid search. Super Partners does not pay CPA for traffic from it.
• Incentivised traffic. Entain (5.15(a)), FDJ United (3.9(1)), Super Partners and 888 (5.20) all bar offering players incentives to sign up through your links. Rank is the exception: it allows cash-back schemes "organised, managed and funded by the Affiliate" (8.1).
• Self-referral. bet365, Entain, 888, FDJ United, Rank and Super Partners all exclude the affiliate's own accounts, and several extend this to relatives or employees.
• Forced or stuffed cookies. Entain allows cookies only when a user clicks (5.15(g)) and bans intercepting or redirecting other affiliates' traffic (5.15(j)).
• Fake registrations. Rank treats encouraging sign-ups "solely for the purpose of obtaining CPA payments" as dishonest (7.10). 888 limits Leads to one per household device (4.5).

Bonus abuse

bet365 can withhold payments where customers abuse offers, giving the example of different customers betting both sides of an event. 888 counts encouraging bonus abuse, first-deposit chargebacks, collusion and bots as fraud (5.20). FDJ United (3.9(15)) and LeoVegas (4.11.1) ban promoting arbitrage, matched betting or bonus abuse.

Delays that are not withholding

Some late payments are the terms working as written: a balance below the minimum, a missing invoice or payment method (LeoVegas requires both), or a negative month carried forward under negative carryover. Check these first. Our guide to getting paid sets out each programme's rules.

Operator view

Operators in Great Britain have a regulatory reason to act. UKGC licence condition 1.1.2 makes licensees "responsible for the actions of third parties with whom they contract". That is a reason to investigate quickly and explain clearly, not a reason to withhold without saying why.

What deserves a challenge

These are worth raising, politely and in writing:

• No reason given. If a payment is held, you should be able to see which clause is relied on.
• The whole balance held for a few accounts. FDJ United and LeoVegas word their CPA withholding as applying to accounts identified for specific reasons. If ten players are flagged, ask why the other ninety are held too.
• A review that outruns its own limit. If 888's terms allow up to 180 days, a review at day 200 needs an explanation.
• Deductions that are not in the NGR definition. Each programme publishes what it deducts to reach NGR. A line that does not appear there is a fair question. See NGR explained.
• Rate changes applied backwards. Entain applies rate changes only to customers referred after the change, on at least 15 days' written notice (9.9). FDJ United applies changes only to new customers unless agreed otherwise (6.17). LeoVegas, by contrast, can change rates "at any time and without prior notice" (5.1.2). Know which wording you signed.

Affiliate view

Challenge the process, not the person. Your affiliate manager often did not make the call and may be waiting on a fraud or finance team. A specific, evidenced question gets passed along; an angry one gets parked.

Know the dispute window before you need it

Several programmes limit how long you have to query a statement, and some make their own figures final:

Where a window exists, check every statement inside it. Where the operator's figures are final, your strongest position is what you agreed in writing before the dispute, which is why the next section matters.

Evidence each side should keep

Affiliates

• A dated copy of the terms you signed up under, plus every later version you were notified of.
• Written confirmation of your rate and qualification criteria. bet365 confirms rates in writing through the account manager; Entain uses an insertion order.
• A record of every traffic source, placement and campaign, with dates.
• For paid search, your keyword and negative keyword lists, showing brand terms excluded.
• Written consent for any promo code you publish. 888 requires prior written consent (3.6).
• Your own click and registration logs, and a downloaded copy of each monthly statement.
• All correspondence about the account.

Operators

• The list of affected player accounts and the reason for each.
• The clause relied on.
• The evidence behind the flag: keyword reports, duplicate device or household data, chargeback records, bonus-use patterns.
• The date the review opened and when you expect it to close.
• What remains payable and when it will be paid.

Operator view

An affiliate who can see player-level reasons can fix the source or accept the decision. One who sees only a total that went down will assume the worst, and may say so in public.

How to resolve a dispute, step by step

1. Read the clause. Find the withholding, deduction or dispute clause in the version of the terms that applied that month.
2. Reconcile the numbers. Compare the statement with your own records. Allow for cookie and qualification windows before concluding players are missing.
3. Ask in writing, specifically. Name the month, the amount and the players or deduction in question, and ask which clause applies. Stay inside any dispute window.
4. Operator replies with detail. Account-level reasons, the clause, the evidence type and a timeline for any review.
5. Separate disputed from undisputed. bet365's terms refer to paying valid, undisputed invoices. Paying the undisputed part while the rest is reviewed keeps the relationship working.
6. Escalate inside the programme. Ask for the matter to go to the head of the affiliate team. FDJ United's terms give its Head of Affiliates authority over some decisions.
7. Agree a fix for the future. A source to stop, a keyword to add as a negative, a reporting change.
8. If it is still stuck, take independent advice. Check what your agreement says about governing law and how disputes are handled, and take legal advice before acting on it.

Checklist

• Keep dated copies of terms, rate confirmations and statements.
• Diary each programme's dispute window.
• Log traffic sources, keywords and promo-code consents as you go.
• Operators: give account-level reasons and a review end date every time.
• Both sides: settle the undisputed amount first.