I view rake back as nothing more than a bonus, except it is the affiliate that has to pay for it. If certain affiliates wish to do so knock yourselves out.
As far as Party losing business because of this, I don’t see it happening. As soon as all of you rake back affiliates get all of these higher volume players all playing in the same rooms, they’ll quickly realize there aren’t enough fish to go around. So what you’ll get is the same amount of new players coming in, which in the case of Party is still tops. When the big volume players are camped out at UB, Absolute, & others, because that’s where their rake back deal is, it will start to dawn on them that they aren’t the only good player at the tables anymore. They might decide it is more profitable for them to go back to Party, where there is a smaller ratio of sharks/fish. It’s not like a high roller player at a casino, where the player is dependant on a machine. A poker player’s revenue is generated by how bad the other players at the table are.
I am sure it has been and will be profitable for certain affiliates in the short term. In the long run I don’t see it as sustainable. The main reason is that rake back only really benefits the heavy duty player. The small or even medium type of players benefit much more through sign up bonuses. I can see a scenario where a heavy type of player may use the rake back for a while but not win as much either, so it may end up being a wash. And what they do win they might want to withdraw to put into a room where their “odds” are better. That, and what has been already stated, this type of competition among affilates just leads to a lesser percent of the rake.
You keep signing them up at the rooms that will allow it. I’ll keep collecting their money at Party. Because all you have to do is go out to the poker newgroups to see that the volume players know where the fish are. They are at Party in a big way. And I’ve seen the same type of comments for the opposite reason about rooms like UB & Stars, that there are too many sharks. In the end that’s what really drives business in a poker room.
I think it is not quite right that UB does not offer a CPA deal yet allows certain affiliates to offer rake back. What they are doing, for all intents and purposes, is allowing a few the advantage of scraping every heavy player that would out pace the typical CPA fee. Everyone else is left with players that may never reach this level. So as an affiliate, you really have to wonder if it is not more profitable just going CPA at almost any other room. Because what you get in CPA for one real money player in one month at say Poker Stars may end up being equal to 2-3 real money players MGR at Ultimate.
If a poker room wants to use rake back as an advantage the best thing to do would be to offer it themselves. At least stop advertising your affiliate program as 25% or higher of rake when we all know now this isn’t true. If I have to offer 20% of the 25% to compete it is no longer 25% period.