The analysis of email marketing effectivity at online betting exchange group Betfair is to be stepped up using software from the smartFOCUS firm.

Datamonitor reports that the betting company has selected smartFOCUS systems in order to develop more personalised and relevant campaigns targeted on its wide range of customers, from football betting enthusiasts to horse racing punters.

The tasking for smartFOCUS is to provide Betfair with the right information that will enable it to create new insight and understanding of customers and build innovative approaches to drive customer interaction and engagement.

Anton Bell, head of marketing and insight at Betfair, said: “We design and distribute numerous e-mail marketing campaigns that reach millions of potential customers, so it was crucial that we have tools to deliver us the customer insight necessary to personalise campaigns and efficiently analyse results.”

Chris Underhill, CEO of smartFOCUS, said: “The UK online gaming sector is an extremely competitive market, and it is important for Betfair to effectively communicate with its customer base with tailored information for each individual. Our systems will ensure that Betfair runs dynamic and tailored campaigns that produce results.”

With the controversy over affiliate commercial relationships and no-slow payments to affiliates still swirling around both affiliate management consultants Affiliate Media Inc. and Effective Media Group, the online poker room at the centre of the controversy, CardSpike.com, issued a statement this week:

“The management at CardSpike would like to sincerely apologize to our affiliates, players and service providers for the recent issues relating to the CardSpike.com online casino and poker room.

“A lot of inaccurate information has recently been printed in the media concerning CardSpike, and this will be corrected over time.

“To date our focus has been and will continue to be getting over the operational hurdles that have arisen and getting all the people that are owed any money paid in full.

“One thing that has been accurately reported is that our affiliate payments were delayed and this is something we apologize for. We fully understand the significance of this to the affiliate community and have been working hard to make this right. These delayed affiliate payments were the result of an integration issue which we are now confident has been resolved. This is not offered as an excuse – rather as an explanation of what has happened.

“At this time all affiliates have been paid up to date for their services and in an effort to rebuild trust we will soon be forwarding affiliates a payment equal to their last two months commissions to be used as a credit against services going forward. We hope that this will help to alleviate concerns surrounding future payments and allow us focus on building the CardSpike brand into a premier online casino and poker room.

“We would like to thank our players, service providers and affiliates for their patronage and support to date and hope for their continued support going forward.”

The advisory note is signed: CardSpike Management Team, but gives no further information on the owners of the enterprise.