blonde Update - Cardroom

As you know, I added Kev to the Team on a 3 month trial basis. His efforts & energy have been quite remarkable, & have helped to bring about a much-needed improvement in revenues.

The cardroom HAS to make money to pay for running blonde as a whole, we simply can't afford to run this place without it. The Forum, & the Live Updates will always be free-to-view, but they cost money - a lot of money - to run. At present, Jen & snoops travel "on the day"(to reduce Hotel costs), stay in cheapo Hotels, & don't charge exs. This is wrong - for the efforts they make, blonde should treat them better. And blonde is a business, so it has to earn money, to invest, to grow, to pay salaries & taxes, &, one day, make a profit. The investing Shareholders deserve a dividend eventually. So we gotta make this Cardroom earn proper money.

The BPL Revenues from April to August were, while steadily growing, pitifully small, so my first task was to draw up & present to Aaron & Kev an Action Plan to revitalise BPL. Not everything on the Action Plan has been implemented yet, but I told Aaron & Kev I'd leave them alone for a few months to get to grips with the painfully long list of tasks I set them. They have made an excellent start

I am pleased to say that the Cardroom revenues for September show a spectacular improvement.

We are up 75% on August, almost double July, & treble May. A great start!

This will enable me to give Kev & Aaron a slightly better Marketing Budget for October. In fact, they underspent the September Marketing Budget - God bless them!It's up to them how they spend that budget, within the overall Action Plan..

Moreover, the split between Ring Games & Tourneys is moving in the direction I wished it to - more towards Tourneys. Ring Game revenues are, by nature, far more volatile than tournament income, so it's the latter I have asked Aaron & Kev to major on. The split in September was 60/40 in favour of Ring Games, but thats far better than previous.

We do have a few "big" cash players, & they have contruibuted greatly. Guys like, for example, Pab, can get far better rake elsewhere, but, thus far, have elected to stay with blonde to help us move forward. My gratitude to them all is immense.

Kev, too, deserves special mention for his extraordinary efforts.

But we are nowhere near self-sufficient yet, & we have to continue this improvement. Our Gross Profit on the CardRoom is still extremly small, but then again, at least we are now running at a profit - not every "start-up" Cardroom can say that.

We shall continue to be prudent & conservative in our money management - there will be no deep rakeback auctions, none of those ridiculous & unsupportable sign-up Bonuses you see advertised so often. I have no experience at all in running a Cardroom, but money management is right up my street, & if we apply sound & prudent business techniques to the Cardroom, we will be OK.

If you can continue to support Kev & Aaron, you will be helping us to keep blonde the place it is, & finance the improvements we have in mind.

I do know that it can be frustrating at times, Tribeca & Bowmans are hardly gonna change their policies for a small outfit like blonde. But, step by step, we are getting there.

We start our new League in a day or two. It is very important that as many of you as possible support it.

So, if you tire a little of Aaron & Kev's constant BPL spamming, please bear in mind, they are simply doing their job. And doing it well.

Thanks.