A One‑Way Admin Fee: The VIP‑Grinders Affiliate Experience With Duelbits

As a long-time gambling affiliate, we believe transparency helps the entire ecosystem. We began partnering with Duelbits in September 2024 on a 40% revenue‑share deal based on net gaming revenue. Over the past 10 months, we’ve encountered an unusual revenue-share mechanism that had a significant impact on our earnings.

We first raised the discrepancy with Duelbits in March 2025 and, after four months of follow‑ups with no interest or corrective action from Duelbits’ side, we feel it is important to share our experience so that other affiliates can make informed decisions.

Understanding the Fee Structure

A few months after we started, our monthly reports showed something strange. Players were depositing much more than they withdrew, yet our NGR kept dropping. That didn’t make sense, so we dug into how our commission was calculated. Here’s what we found.

Most casino programmes deduct a single admin or operational fee from gross gaming revenue (GGR) before paying a commission percentage on the resulting net gaming revenue (NGR). Crucially, that deduction is normally symmetrical, applying both to winning and losing sessions.

However, that is not the case at Duelbits, where a one-sided admin fee is applied:

This means a day when a player wins has much more impact on our balance than a day when the same player loses the same amount.

A Simple Two-Day Example

Here’s how the same player’s results over two days play out under this fee structure:

Over the two days, the player nets $0. We, however, finish −$1.20 in commission. This gap grows as the player keeps betting.

Real-Player Test Case

We first noticed the issue in February  2025. In June, we ran another quick test to see if the one‑sided admin fee was still there.

Here’s what happened with one of our test accounts: the same player had two small sessions on back‑to‑back days, broke even overall, but our commission still came out negative.

Below are the screenshots from the player’s account and our affiliate account.

Player account’s activity:

Affiliate account for player’s activity on 22/06/2025:

Affiliate account for player’s activity on 23/06/2025:

Even though the player broke even, our commission ended the two days at −$0.04 because the admin fee was charged only on the loss day.

This is just a small example, but easy to see the multiplying effect as the turnover and number of players increase, as we will see next.

Totals to Date: What Ten Months with Duelbits Reveal

Now that we understand how the admin fee is applied by Duelbits, it’s time to look at the full picture.

After 238 first-time depositors (FTDs), these are our account numbers with Duelbits between September 2024 and June 2025, so 10 months:

Players collectively lost almost $100,000, yet the one‑sided fee removed an additional $119,936.88 from GGR before our share was calculated, pushing NGR below zero.

To put that in perspective, if Duelbits had applied the same 30% fee on both winning and losing days (as it should be), NGR would have been $68,965.48 (that is, 70% of the $98,522.11 net cash loss). Our 40% share would then have paid $27,586.19.

Instead, the asymmetrical rule flipped NGR to −$21,414.77 and our commission to −$8,492.82, a swing of more than $36k from what a balanced fee model would have produced, despite the players being net losers overall.

Here is a screenshot of the overall data from Duelbits’ affiliate account.

Attempts to Resolve the Discrepancy

Our goal throughout was to resolve the matter privately as errors can happen, and, in good faith, that’s what we believed was happening.

Below is a concise timeline of how those conversations unfolded over the past four months.

Early March 2025: Initial Discussion

We messaged our affiliate manager a detailed spreadsheet showing the mismatch between player net cash and NGR, along with screenshots from a two‑day win/loss test.

The manager confirmed that “we only apply the admin fee to losing players” and said this approach was “company policy” because charging it on both sides“wouldn’t be good for the brand.”

Late March 2025 : Alternative Proposals

With no change in policy on the table, we suggested two pragmatic options:

1. Fixed monthly marketing fee going forward
2. One‑time settlement for past traffic so both sides could part on good terms

Duelbits instead offered to raise our commission from 40% to 45%, an offer that made no practical sense, because with NGR still negative, the higher percentage merely gave us a larger slice of a loss and left the underlying calculation problem unaddressed.

At this stage, and with such an illogical counteroffer, we were unsure if Duelbits genuinely did not understand what the issue was with the one-sided admin calculation.

April 2025: Legal Warning & Manager Departure

We replied that, if no solution was found, we would consider sharing our data publicly so other affiliates could understand the fee model.

The manager cautioned that Duelbits might pursue legal action for “false information.” We clarified that every figure came directly from Duelbits’ own reporting tools and could be verified. A short time later, that manager left the company.

Early May 2025: New Manager, Fresh Start?

A new affiliate manager introduced himself and said the numbers “did look strange.” He promised to investigate and booked a video call for 9 May 2025. When the time came, he did not show up, and our messages were left unanswered.

May – June 2025: Continued Silence

During the next six weeks, we sent continuous reminders and offered to revisit the numbers to find a positive resolution for all parties. Nonetheless, Duelbits remained unavailable and ignored our messages.

After four months of good‑faith efforts without progress, we felt the only transparent step left was to publish our data so other affiliates could draw their own conclusions.

Final Thoughts

We had hoped our conversations with Duelbits would lead to a straightforward fix, namely, applying the 30% admin fee symmetrically on both winning and losing days, in line with common industry practice.

Despite multiple data packs, test sessions, and two alternative proposals from our side, the only response we received was an offer to raise our commission from 40% to 45% on a negative NGR, followed by months of silence.

All numbers in this report come directly from Duelbits’ own dashboards and transaction logs. They show how the current one‑sided fee can turn a positive cash result for the casino into a negative NGR for its partners. With this one-sided admin fee calculation method, it’s impossible to earn money with Duelbits.

At VIP‑Grinders, we value transparency. By publishing our experience, we hope to help fellow affiliates avoid similar situations. If Duelbits elects to revisit its calculation model, we remain open to reconvening the discussion in good faith.