I got this in a conversation with a poker CEO whose name and business I will not mention:
You know what – rake back is quite scary for the industry, at the moment only 10-15% of the players are affected by rakeback and others don’t care about it, but these 15% are high rollers and all pokerrooms want to have them , so they offer rake back, but in this process rakeback will speard across the industry and when it affects 50% of the players, the operators will get screwed with decreased revenue. Same for affs, affs who made 30% MGR will make 3%
At this point the rooms support the theft because it means retention of high rollers to them.
Micro has forbidden their rooms to use the word rakeback. I guess they figure it wont spread like fire then. They prefer the theft to public advertising because all they want is to sift the high rollers off without getting the playing public involved.
I am moderating a session on rakeback in Amsterdam. I would like any material like yours, Steve, to use, without names and businesses mentioned.
I am also meeting with several poker execs this time.
Most successful poker affiliates are very young and they are wildly successful for some six months or so. They recruit their friends and relatives and they recruit in universities and bars etc. Their sources are finite. The poker rooms have a new star affilate every month or so. There are some solid long term poker affs, but they don’t make the money that these young folks make. The rooms spoil them rotten too and give them whatever they want until their results fall off.
I am not going to invest too much in poker now, I think the true value of poker will surface in a few years. Then it will have a big shake out and after that it will make more sense to promote it heavily. I don’t think its going away, but this bubble will burst and a lot of the problem is the greed of both rooms and affs.
In my opinion, for long term retention and player base, the best people to sell poker to is the middle aged weekend player. They will continue to be there. The best rooms to promote are ones with solid bonuses.