Hi, this is Marlerino Group. 

Today, we will expose how DS Partners and their product, DavBet, orchestrated a $2 million scam, evading responsibility and leaving teams with unpaid debts.

Their detailed playbook goes as follows: simply shifting blame onto webmasters and fabricating reasons to withhold payments. Initially, they maintained a facade of legitimacy — communicating professionally, using standard traffic evaluation methods, and consistently making timely and full payments for several months. They go to great lengths to create a positive impression and instill in their partners the belief that they are reasonable, adhere to agreements, and are reliable business partners.

First, it’s recommended to operate properly-communicate respectfully, evaluate traffic using standard methods, and make payments on time and in full for several months in a row. Do everything possible to create an illusion of reliability and plant the idea in your partner’s mind that you are reasonable, honor agreements, and are a trustworthy business partner.

However, this is merely a setup for their fraudulent scheme. They then begin to backtrack on their own words, shifting their stance with each new call or email exchange, gaslighting their partners with unfounded accusations, and ultimately claiming that the partners caused them $2 million in losses. They refuse to pay a single cent for nearly 10,000 FTDs (First Time Deposits) and, to add insult to injury, threaten to unleash their security service on any partner who dares (what audacity!) to demand payment for traffic as per the agreed-upon terms.

All of this serves one primary goal-to deflect responsibility for their own financial mismanagement onto anyone but themselves, while desperately trying to maneuver and cover payments to one team with traffic generated by another, effectively turning their affiliate program into a pyramid scheme. Only to eventually shut down and disappear disgracefully into the sunset, leaving everyone deceived.

To achieve this, DS Partners follows a specific sequence of actions:

1. Withholding a $270,000 Payment

At this stage, it is crucial for them to demand that webmasters continue delivering traffic, as they have already acknowledged its quality. The catch? they then delay the payment as much as possible, citing financial transfer delays, communication issues, additional traffic analysis, and other «important matters».  Their imagination knows no bounds.

2. Accusing the Partner of Fraudulent Traffic

This is a key point: they may encounter the inconvenient truth of their own prior approval of both the payments and the traffic verification. Oops. How do they spin this to their advantage?

3. Evading Communication

DS Partners starts «getting sick» (apparently mentally), calls are rescheduled, meetings are canceled, conversations are deleted along with the accounts of employees leaving the company. They frequently reiterate their sincere desire to resolve the issue.

4. Gaslighting Partners with Unsubstantiated Accusations.

This is a crucial step. They deploy the dreaded word of every affiliate marketer: FRAUD! While there are many variations, DS Partners has exceeded expectations: they disregard agreed-upon terms and verification processes promised for three months, cite irrefutable evidence without providing any, and present fabricated documentation. The problem? The figures are inconsistent, contradicting both their previous statements and the webmaster's statistics — even the number of deposits doesn't match.

5. Resorting to Threats and Intimidation

Now, they are nearing their goal. DS Partners is well aware that the partners are still attempting to resolve the matter through open and amicable communication (how tedious!). A more interesting approach is to shift the issue to their security department. Yes, you heard that right. First, they request the signing of non-disclosure agreements regarding the situation and a commitment to continue sending traffic. If that doesn't work (perish the thought), they pull out their trump card: fabricating a story about how the partner's traffic caused them $2 million in losses, resulting in the loss of their license and the closure of their brand (all this in a high-risk GEO where new regulations had just been introduced, conveniently masking their own mismanagement). They then resort to intimidating the partners with their security team. 

6. Declaring Bankruptcy

Profit! Well… It's unfortunate they didn't anticipate the situation becoming public.

The outcome for us: a $268,888 loss in profit. The debtor has reneged on their obligations and vanished, with the chances of recovering our funds close to zero.

We will now detail exactly how this unfolded, with a complete chronology of events, screenshots of correspondence, reviews of the outcome, and recommendations on how to avoid similar situations and prevent losses when working with unscrupulous advertisers.

If you’re ready to dive into the full context and spend 15 minutes of your life, welcome to the complete version of our story ↓

Our Partnership with DS Partners in the Brazilian Market: How It Began

In 2024, Brazil, previously one of the most promising markets in the vertical, initiated a state licensing process for gambling products. The goal was straightforward: to increase tax revenue for the country's budget. For operators, this presented a challenge in the form of additional procedures and expenses — depending on the type of license, regional or national, the application fee ranged from $700,000 to $3 million.

Few advertisers operating in Brazil were planning to obtain a local license. DS Partners, however, already held a Curaçao license and had publicly announced their intention to acquire a Brazilian license. This was a key factor in our decision to partner with DavBet, their new brand, which had begun a large-scale media buying campaign and public launch. After initial contact in March 2024, we decided to begin collaborating on Facebook traffic.

The initial phase of our work was smooth and structured: agreements were outlined and formalized, we shook hands, and began delivering traffic. From March to July, we delivered smaller volumes and generated approximately $60,000. During this period, we experienced no issues with DS Partners: they analyzed and accepted the traffic, raised no concerns about its quality, signed off on reconciliations, and made timely payments according to our agreements.

When working with partners (especially when profitability and deposit statistics are not readily available in the affiliate program's dashboard), we rely on feedback from their managers to inform our next steps: scaling successful campaigns and pausing those that underperform (based on ROI). We continued working with DS Partners in this established manner throughout August, fulfilling product requests and adhering to our agreements. In short, there were no indications that anything was amiss. But then, things took a turn.

DS Partners' scam chronology

• We process traffic in August, and by the end of the month, we go through standard traffic approval procedures. DavBet accepts it, and we agree on a total amount of $43,770. Understanding that payment holds are standard practice in our industry, we didn't demand immediate payment. Simultaneously, we coordinated September's caps, rates, and traffic flows with their managers, continuing to deliver traffic as usual.
• On September 10th, we received a request directly from DS Partners' CEO, Oleg Rudoy, via our chat, to scale up traffic and increase rates.

• On September 23rd, we received reconciliation and created an invoice for the previously confirmed August amount, awaiting payment.

According to available information, DavBet had been experiencing cash flow issues since the summer, continuing aggressive traffic acquisition throughout August and September. This suggests they were operating a pyramid scheme, attempting to cover existing debts with new traffic. Consequently, those who stopped delivering traffic before August received their payments, while those who continued working with DS Partners in August and afterward were also scammed.

• On September 24th, we received feedback on new traffic flows — two were discontinued, and we were asked to scale up two others, indicating they were clearly satisfied with the traffic quality. They promised to settle the August payment «this week».
  

• On September 30th, we received a message stating that the payment had still not been processed, claiming we «exceeded the budget». We also received a final reconciliation from DS with an increased number of deposits and the same total for August: $43,770.

• On October 1th, we raised the issue of payments again — all signs point to delays. However, Dmitry, Head of Affiliates, promises to pay for August traffic within 2 weeks. We agreed.
  

• On October 7th, we received traffic feedback — again, we optimized some flows and scaled others.

• On October 14th, we are promised that August payment will be made within another

• On October 18th, we received a comment from the manager stating that they received a fraud report for all the traffic that had been accepted. Despite the fact that reconciliations had already been completed, we are informed that the advertiser cannot «resolve» certain flows dating back to July. The advertiser proposes to hold the traffic until November 1 and evaluate its quality later. If the traffic performs well, the advertiser offers payment in two possible options:
  
  • If it performs well, they will pay based on CPA (Cost Per Action).
  • If it doesn’t perform well, payments will be shifted to RS (Revenue Share) at 50%.

Given our consistently high traffic volumes throughout August and September, coupled with our daily communication and synchronization with DS Partners' management, we were suddenly presented with a message essentially stating, «Choose how much we won't pay you».

In this message, DS Partners claimed that the traffic we delivered through test flows (which were purchased under non-KPI conditions) and flows they themselves scaled up did not demonstrate sufficient activity to warrant payment.

This situation struck us as deeply suspicious. It was clear the partner was attempting to deflect responsibility for their own inexperience with traffic acquisition onto our team, which consistently provided prompt feedback on traffic performance and initiated new tests only with explicit management approval. This increasingly led us to believe that the partner was attempting to scam us and had no intention of fulfilling their payment obligations.

• On October 23rd, following yet another meeting, DS Partners' CEO, Oleg, promised to settle the outstanding payments for August and September «as quickly as possible.»
  

• On November 4th, Oleg then claimed he had received a report indicating losses related to our traffic, stating they had no funds to make the payments.
  
  

• On November 7th, We were promised a payment schedule for the August and September payments.
  

• By November 11th, we are being ignored and do not receive any information about the payment schedule. At this point, we arranged a meeting with the CEOs of both projects, scheduled for November 19.
  

Ironically, while they were ignoring our payment requests, they were simultaneously running high-profile media campaigns, including contests with a Ford Mustang as the grand prize.

• At the November 19th meeting, they proposed that we deliver more traffic to «offset» the losses they incurred due to their own traffic acquisition mismanagement at DavBet. To rectify this, they suggested we generate double the previous volume (10,000 FTDs), after which they would consider whether or not to pay us the agreed-upon CPA rates for August and September.
  
• On November 20th, we created a group chat with the owners and top management of both projects, reiterating our request for payment for the August and September traffic based on the advertiser's own confirmed reconciliations. We even offered to renegotiate the October traffic payments if the previous months were settled, hoping to recover a larger portion of the outstanding debt.
  

• On November 22nd, we received a message from DS Partners' owner Arthur Mkrtchyan suddenly claiming that 81% of the traffic, which they had confirmed through reconciliations for two months, was fraudulent, and that they were prepared to provide "proof." They refused to pay for this so-called «fraudulent» traffic, offering only 19% of the total amount—approximately $50,000 out of the $268,000 owed. Even this reduced sum was contingent upon us signing a "non disclosure agreement," in which we would be obligated to keep the entire situation confidential and continue sending traffic to DavBet.
  

As it later turned out, we were not the only ones accused of fraud – here are messages from DS Partners' correspondence with two other affiliate teams, who were also accused of fraudulent traffic at precisely the same time as us.

• On November 25th, reports surfaced that DS Partners' debts had ballooned to over $1 million, and key executives began to resign — including the company's former COO, Yulia, who commented that she had left the project due to a «significant misalignment» of values.
  
• On November 26th, based on the positive feedback we had received from their managers regarding our traffic and the previously confirmed reconciliations, we rejected their unacceptable offer. In an attempt to expedite a resolution, we made a significant concession: we offered to recalculate our traffic based on earlier (lower) rates, forfeiting $85,000 and requesting $185,000 for August, September, and October. DS Partners then simply vanished for two weeks.
  

• On November 28th, while they continued to ignore our messages demanding payment, they released a statement through Palai Media, promising to resolve all issues and make the outstanding payments:‍

"We are committed to paying all amounts corresponding to real and quality traffic. A payment schedule is currently being developed and will soon be presented to each partner. The company's management is maintaining direct dialogue with each team awaiting payments from us. We are actively working to resolve the issue. The car giveaway and other prizes within the 'Need for Traff' promotion have been temporarily suspended, but it will definitely be relaunched once the situation is resolved. We want to thank those who have already participated in the promotion and guarantee them bonuses in the form of x10 tickets for each delivered c main goal is to restore your trust and the company's reputation. main goal is to restore your trust and the company's reputation We are making every effort to fulfill our obligations to our partners and improve internal processes."

• On December 11th,  they resurfaced with their so-called «proof» of our alleged fraud—a stack of spreadsheets devoid of any explanation, where neither the lead counts, IDs, nor any other data points matched. The following day, we responded, refuting their claims, and proposed another meeting.
  

In response to these «reports», we prepared a detailed analysis highlighting their inaccuracies:

Side note: like any media buying agency, we do not have access to the product's internal analytics or statistics. Our traffic evaluation was based solely on the data and decisions provided by DS Partners' managers.

In our work with other partners, we have never encountered any issues regarding traffic evaluation, reporting, or payments. Based on our extensive experience and long-standing reputation, we can confidently state that all accusations of fraud from DS Partners are entirely unfounded and lack any credible basis.

• They then failed to make themselves available for a call for another 12 days.
  

• On December 23rd, during a meeting where we discussed the discrepancies in their fraud reports, concluded with them refusing to pay the full amount. However, they asked us to state «how much we wanted», so they could «discuss» the proposal and «make a decision». In a final attempt to recover at least half of the money owed, we reluctantly agreed to a portion of their «fraud» claims and proposed a minimum acceptable resolution: 50% of the total payment, amounting to $136,362.

This figure was not arbitrary. Recognizing that the situation was increasingly pointing towards a scam, we were compelled to play along. To this end, we calculated the percentage of «fraudulent» traffic according to their «independent» fraud report and requested payment at the agreed-upon CPA rate for the remaining traffic that was not deemed fraudulent.

Following this, Artur and Oleg disappeared for another week.

• On December 31st, CEO Oleg stated that the report from the outsourced company — which, despite not aligning with actual data, still indicated 60% fraud—should be disregarded (then why send it in the first place?). Instead, he insisted that their internal data (which, of course, was inaccessible to anyone but them) should be used as the basis for evaluation, claiming it showed 81% fraud.
  

• January 2nd marked the culmination of this ordeal. DS Partners' owner, Artur, informed us that our traffic had single-handedly caused their company's cash flow crisis, led to the loss of their license, irreparably damaged their reputation in the affiliate market (a dubious claim, to say the least), and resulted in $2 million in losses. Consequently, Artur announced that he was handing our «case» over to their security service (are you kidding me?). To reiterate: they withheld our payments for four months, gaslit us with baseless accusations, scammed us out of $270,000—and now, to add insult to injury, they were threatening us with their "muscle."

The outcome was, by this point, painfully obvious. Nevertheless, we responded, pointing out the glaring inconsistencies in their ever-shifting narrative.

How could high-quality traffic suddenly transform into fraudulent traffic? We can only speculate. We have three main theories:

1. DavBet simply lacked the expertise to handle the traffic, a deficiency they were slow to recognize.
2. DavBet made a critical error in choosing a license that, while paid for, was unsuitable for legally operating their product throughout Brazil. This forced them into a desperate scramble to cover their cash flow shortfalls, a significant portion of which stemmed from debts owed to teams for delivered traffic.
3. DavBet found themselves in a cash crunch and were simply looking for someone to "cover" their losses, hoping that new traffic would generate enough deposits to bail them out. Clearly, this gamble did not pay off.

What was the outcome of the situation?

DS Partners ultimately reneged on all agreements, resorted to threats involving their  security team, and declared bankruptcy. hey subsequently deleted their social media presence and removed most information about their affiliate program from affiliate marketing publications. They left behind an estimated ~$2 million in unpaid debts to various teams — and likely more.

We are currently still pursuing payment according to our agreements, but the likelihood of recovering our funds is virtually zero. Therefore, we are sharing our correspondence and are prepared to communicate with others who have also been defrauded by DS Partners.

The position of our company

As a large holding company, we are well-equipped to handle this situation, although the $300,000 loss is undoubtedly unwelcome. Unlike smaller teams that would likely be crippled by such an event, we will not cease operations.

Unfortunately, scams and payment withholding disproportionately affect smaller teams lacking strong business development and market recognition, which translates to fewer risks for advertisers who fail to honor agreements. For larger teams and holding companies, such incidents are rare. This is due to several factors: first, our reputation and extensive experience act as a deterrent; second, our public profile provides a degree of protection. While high-profile teams are less likely to encounter these situations, experience shows that they can happen to anyone. However, we acknowledge our own oversight in this matter.

We should have halted traffic delivery at the first warning signs: delayed payments, evasive communication, and other irregularities. However, the traffic volume was significant, and alternative partners were limited. The key takeaway is this: it's unwise to operate on trust alone with newly launched advertisers, and it's equally naive to assume that no one would attempt to scam a large holding company.

Such advertiser behavior is uncommon, as reputable advertisers understand that engaging in such practices is detrimental to their business. It creates a lasting stigma, erodes trust, and effectively jeopardizes future operations and growth. Given the widespread accounts of other teams being defrauded by DS Partners, we cannot remain silent. Speaking out will, at the very least, empower other affected teams to demand that DS Partners fulfill their obligations.

Regarding the threat from the security team or   «muscle»,   we consider them entirely baseless and more laughable than intimidating. However, this behavior reflects poorly on the reputations of Artur Mkrtchyan and Oleg Rudoy, the owner and CEO of DS Partners, respectively. After such conduct, it is highly unlikely that anyone will be willing to partner with them should they attempt to re-enter the market with a new venture in the future.

Concerning our financial dealings with our teams, during payment holds imposed by advertisers, we, being responsible for financial matters, initiate pre-approval processes. This means we advance payments to our teams based on anticipated revenue. In this instance, we marked two months' worth of payments as «pre-paid» to ensure our teams received their bonuses and KPIs. Having covered all costs for our teams, we continued communicating with DS Partners, awaiting their payments. Upon non-receipt, we began optimizing this expense, reaching agreements with each team for gradual and manageable deductions over a period of time convenient for them, minimizing the impact of this situation.

In conclusion, if you have also been defrauded by DS Partners' affiliate program, please contact us and share your experience.