I agree Gooner this is a good discussion to have and thanks for the feedback.
Let me address your points.
The discussion of PSP 3 is about the idea that people are willing to sign-up or wait for many different things before they have seen the actual product. I was not comparing the two products specifically but rather responding to Dominique being surprised that people would sign up in advance of the launch. There are many other examples of this and to the extent that it happens is just evidence of interest in the particular product. People always like to be the first to try things they think are innovative or interesting.
Comparison to a Franchise: I didn’t make this analogy. Another poster made this comparison. There are some similarities but as you rightly point out in most franchise opportunities there are additional items that are provided.
Affiliate issues: It seems your point here is that you are worried about meeting the 250 player sign-up. Keep in mind these are just player registrations so no deposit is required. In addition we are giving away $20 to every player who signs-up during our pre-launch and beta-testing period. I have affiliates who are approaching 1000 registered users so I don’t think any affiliate who is promoting our site will have any problem reaching 250 in six months. As far as the deal being considered by any serious affiliates, well we already have several large well known affiliates that I am sure would be considered by your definition to be “real” affiliates.
JacksNQueens.com innovations: Our primary innovation is using webcams at the poker tables. We will just have to disagree about if people want to use it or not. Most new innovations are met with the same scepticism that you express here. It is always easy to take the position that anything new will never work. As far as people not wanting to be seen….have you seen all the people on the dating sites. We are primarily visual creatures so our technology which adds this basic human instinct fills the void that currently exists. As far as being easily copied or implemented…I don’t think so… otherwise the major players would have already tested this out.
What about Real Affiliates? Our program was designed with the “real” affiliates in mind. As the online poker industry is maturing it eventually comes back to the product itself. In the end it is not about the affiliates or the operators but about the players. If we had no new innovations and implemented the same affiliate strategy as other poker rooms why would you promote that, and more importantly why would players play there? We do have several innovations to include primarily the webcams at the tables. Our approach has been to create a poker room that appeals to players and to give them incentives and innovations to make them switch to our poker room. The affiliate program was designed to channel those players through our 250 core affiliates. The old affiliate programs were well suited to wide open market places and for those early poker rooms. Can you name any new poker room that has been launched in the last year or two that has been a huge success based on that old model? The second generation of poker rooms that will succeed will have to innovate in order to attract players.
Finally, to the27offsuit: Yes, there will be issues with behavior on the webcams. This is of course also an enormous marketing opportunity. There are the obvious adult oriented themes that can now be integrated such as being at a table with a stripper, or with a well known adult fim star. I think there will be a decent market for this type of thing at our private password protected tables and tournaments. There are also now direct marketing opportunities for a range of products as people wear t-shirts and hats to promote various products including sponsorship of individual players. There is also enormous growth in the general private table market as friends playing at private tables would much rather see each other than not. The private table online market is of course not dependent on how popular the poker room is. (Sounds like maybe a good idea for an affiliate to have a site devoted exclusively to arranging private tables and tournaments, I am sure a few already exist) Those are just some of the marketing ideas that having webcams opens up in this industry. It also will allow our eventual skins to have much more creative sites and promotions. How much more could a site like Naked Poker do if they had access to webcams at the tables? Or any site that wants to promote playing with poker professionals? Adding the visual element opens enormous opportunities.
Best regards,
VP Marketing
JacksNQueens.com