Blondepoker rakeback??

[tikay]

It's the plan to let the site "settle down" for a while before we start looking at any other schemes to attract players.

When the time is right, we wiill change things, if they need changing.

First priority is to pay the rent, the wages, & the running costs of blonde which, with Live Updates, are quite high!

[tikay]

I

I think that takes brevity to it's most extreme.......

[AndrewT]

I

I think that takes brevity to it's most extreme.......

I thought it was a very self-centred, egotistical post.

Some people are all me, me, me...

[The Rivercard]

I am aware that as I have a poker room on tribeca and really enjoy this forum that I must be careful how this post sounds.

It is almost impossible to attract enough players without offering some incentive especially when you are a skin. We have spent a fortune in marketing (over 100k to date) and do not have the profile players that blonde has and we know it is going to take a long time to build credibility and trust. therivercard was launched 3 months ago and we resisted offering a bonus and it cost us. We now offer a really good incentive and we are now growing nicely across the globe. We will also improve on this offer because players know their value and as they play more they want more. We intend to have our own cage by the end of the year and then we will have the revenue to support growth into other areas.

I am saying this because I really want blonde to work, the more player’s tribeca has the better. We can then create cross promotions to our members and hopefully pull more players away from stars, party and paradise. Poker has, like any business a growth and consolidation process and there are already too many sites. I think blonde has a fantastic profile great exposure and the best forum. This however will not make people play on a site that does not give a player value. Remember Doyle also offers incentives on the same site.
I do however understand why you do not offer an incentive and if I didn’t have to I would not. I hope that your approach works and I am proved wrong but there are only so many players and there is not enough growth to keep the number of sites running. Tribeca has a good player base therefore blonde will always have player liquidity but it has to fight like us.

I hope this post is taken in the spirit it was meant, which is to help blonde to succeed.

[tikay]

I am aware that as I have a poker room on tribeca and really enjoy this forum that I must be careful how this post sounds.

It is almost impossible to attract enough players without offering some incentive especially when you are a skin. We have spent a fortune in marketing (over 100k to date) and do not have the profile players that blonde has and we know it is going to take a long time to build credibility and trust. therivercard was launched 3 months ago and we resisted offering a bonus and it cost us. We now offer a really good incentive and we are now growing nicely across the globe. We will also improve on this offer because players know their value and as they play more they want more. We intend to have our own cage by the end of the year and then we will have the revenue to support growth into other areas.

I am saying this because I really want blonde to work, the more player’s tribeca has the better. We can then create cross promotions to our members and hopefully pull more players away from stars, party and paradise. Poker has, like any business a growth and consolidation process and there are already too many sites. I think blonde has a fantastic profile great exposure and the best forum. This however will not make people play on a site that does not give a player value. Remember Doyle also offers incentives on the same site.
I do however understand why you do not offer an incentive and if I didn’t have to I would not. I hope that your approach works and I am proved wrong but there are only so many players and there is not enough growth to keep the number of sites running. Tribeca has a good player base therefore blonde will always have player liquidity but it has to fight like us.

I hope this post is taken in the spirit it was meant, which is to help blonde to succeed.

Taken as intended, & in the right spirit.

It's each to their own, & every scenario is different.

I don't own blonde outright, thee are several shareholders, but I have a major say in what we do & don't do. It's my belief, right now, that I don't want or intend to spend money on "direct" marketing. To start with, we don't have the cash, & I'm not about to have an overdraft. We have various USP's, &, as I said earlier, we want to let the thing settle down before we do too much. We have been open some 2 weeks, & we are delighted with the "numbers" so far. Again, being "big" is not necessarily our aim, either, we have different goals. We could spend a mill to maybe try & make 3 mill, but neither Dave nor I want to go diown that route right now, especially the hassle of building an unweildy infrastructure. Dave is a Professional Poker Player, I am a retired businessman, & that's how we want it to stay right now. Tomorrow, who knows?!

We wish you well with your venture. It's very much "horses for courses", & we would certainly not suggest your Business Plan is flawed, it's maybe just right for your aspirations. Both our Business Plans, though radically different, may well be right. Or wrong.....!

[robyong]

I like the post saying that your "rakeback"  is actually the BP site.

An interesting point regarding tribecca is that when I spoke with them about a site, they told me catergorically that they DID NOT support rakeback (selling against prima etc) but i guess there are ways to get round this like any system or they may have been feeding me a line. This internet stuff is a minefield.

I personally am one of the big rakers on cryptologic, around £10-£15k per month, and I only recently set up rakeback a few weeks ago, and i know a lot of players who dont bother as they play on 10 different sites etc.

I'd like to think that BP has a very loyal base, and those players will choose to play on BP to help the site improve and do the updates which are so popular. BP is by far the leading forum in the UK and maybe in europe. Its not my job to tell people how do do there business, but I would:

1. Charge a small annual subscription fee for BP (like many other web sites non-poker related do)
2. If people raked X amount on the BP room the annual subscription could be waived.

This way everyone would be helping out a bit and BP could focus 100% on there efforts on the "content" without doing all the banners and afliliates with other sites. I would do this without any doubt, we should not expect "something for nothing" as BP members. There is a stack load of work going into maintaining this site and we are all on a "free roll" and some poor soul had to find the £££ to pay the costs every month.

Just my opinion. Rob

[tikay]

Thank you for that Rob.

We are just not keen to go down the "who can give the biggest rakeback" slippery slope, for some of the reasons I Posted earlier.

As to your other suggestion, we are dead set against EVER charging for access to blonde Forum, or the Updates. Your theory is an interesting one, but many blondeites do not even play online, so we would be discriminating against them.

As to (non-blonde) Affiliates & Banners, this is a matter we are currently reviewing. It may well be that we decide to "bet the shop" on blonde, but that's a decision yet to be made.

Other ways of financing the Live Updates are in train, more of which in due course. But it will NOT involve blondeites paying for them.

[robyong]

I wonder what % of "true" blondites (say the top 250 of hard core posters/readers, do play online), I think it is the majority, and I'm sure with the new BP poker room this % will increase. I have been reading the other forums this week and think that BP is superior in terms of content, community spirit and volume of posts.

If us "hard core" members could chip in a little bit towards the costs we would feel even more involved for a small price or a small bit of our rake which were giving to the faceless "cyber businesses" who don't give a XXXX about us anyway. I know you're dead set against "blondites" paying anything for the use of BP, and would rather 3rd parties subsidised it, but us poker players gotta start supporting the good guys in poker and keeping the money circulating in the community, and what better place to start that BP, which has brought so many of us together.

Anyway, I'm just downloading joining the BP online room to see if I can find you or DC playing on there, I'm sure any rake I can generate will be offset against winnings. My username will be theyongsta in case you ever fancy a heads up game.

See you guys in Luton. Rob

[Ironside]

rob even though the hard core of us poster would be willing to pay to access the site what makes blonde great imho is that everyone is welcome no matter how much they play how big there roll is and how little they post

i respect the views of a first time poster or a voyeur who never post as much as i do red dog or kev who dont seem to ever stop posting

a charge or a minium amount of play might put these people of and that would detract from blonde

hopefully the quailty of blondepoker will attract players and the fact people can sit at a blonde table without getting called a ******* ****** ******* after they get lucky will attract players

personally i think anyone who gets chat bans on the blondepoker site should get forum bans

and that should be enough to attract the right people to both the site and the forum

and the AP and the chance to sit at a table with some of the top pros for 5$ will enable the site to pay for the upkeep

[totalise]

"If us "hard core" members could chip in a little bit towards the costs we would feel even more involved for a small price or a small bit of our rake which were giving to the faceless "cyber businesses" who don't give a XXXX about us anyway. I know you're dead set against "blondites" paying anything for the use of BP, and would rather 3rd parties subsidised it, but us poker players gotta start supporting the good guys in poker and keeping the money circulating in the community, and what better place to start that BP, which has brought so many of us together"

This is exactly my sentiment, and whyI am vehemously against blonde paying r/b. Its not like the money is going to disappear into the engine tank of the MD's ferrari, its going to go back to us anyways, in the form of improved site/features etc.

People always say how much they like the forum, this is a great chance to show it

One other thing I thought of, the problem with offering bonus', is that it wont strengthen the community, it will just attact the people looking for a free piece of a pie (even though it is self financing) How would people feel if there were blonde tournies with money added where half the field were people that contributed nothing to the forum, and were just there for the free dollar? It would compromise the community feel, and if someone was sat at a table with 8 unchatting unknowns in a blonde-only tournament, I am pretty sure they would have plenty to say about the matter.

I probably generate in the region of $15,000 a month in rake, and whilst I like the forum, I dont like it enough to cost myself $4200, but I certainly like it enough to contribute a % of that... how much I wil play is a matter of personal preference, but I certainly am of the opinion that people should be happy that they get the opportunity to help blonde grow, rather then cry because their EV is impacted by a tiny %

[lazaroonie]

Thank you for that Rob.

We are just not keen to go down the "who can give the biggest rakeback" slippery slope, for some of the reasons I Posted earlier.

As to your other suggestion, we are dead set against EVER charging for access to blonde Forum, or the Updates. Your theory is an interesting one, but many blondeites do not even play online, so we would be discriminating against them.

As to (non-blonde) Affiliates & Banners, this is a matter we are currently reviewing. It may well be that we decide to "bet the shop" on blonde, but that's a decision yet to be made.

Other ways of financing the Live Updates are in train, more of which in due course. But it will NOT involve blondeites paying for them.

Im sure there are a lot of revenue opportunities out there for the live updates, which the general public would be happy to pay for. Eg text messaging of major news from big tournaments to mobile phones at 25p per go could be a decent earner.

[bobby1]

Thank you for that Rob.

We are just not keen to go down the "who can give the biggest rakeback" slippery slope, for some of the reasons I Posted earlier.

As to your other suggestion, we are dead set against EVER charging for access to blonde Forum, or the Updates. Your theory is an interesting one, but many blondeites do not even play online, so we would be discriminating against them.

As to (non-blonde) Affiliates & Banners, this is a matter we are currently reviewing. It may well be that we decide to "bet the shop" on blonde, but that's a decision yet to be made.

Other ways of financing the Live Updates are in train, more of which in due course. But it will NOT involve blondeites paying for them.

Tony,

As Andrew said the rakeback wars are in full flow at the moment and althought available on many sites it is in my opinion amazing how badly thought out these promos are from the business point of view.

 I know of one site ( it isnt Hills before anyone jumps to the wrong conclusion) that is giving 40% of a players full rake back which is ludicrous. I know many players will be on good rakeback schemes but for every pound this site makes from these players they are giving 32% away as a revenue share to the provider and 40% back to the player. When you add in the marketing of these promos and the handlng of these schemes by staff they are making around 20p in every pound that these players provide.

It may well be great for recruitment but it is too big a price to pay imvho.

[tikay]

I am a bit tied up right now, deep in two decent online comops, soon as I bust out (there;s confidence for you) I will respond to these fascinating Posts.

Thanks for your patience.

[Ironside]

istead of rakeback i think sites would be better off lowering there rake

but a rake war betweent he major networks would lead to the premature end for some smaller networks which in the longer run would be a bad thing for the players

[bobby1]

istead of rakeback i think sites would be better off lowering there rake

but a rake war betweent he major networks would lead to the premature end for some smaller networks which in the longer run would be a bad thing for the players

It is coming Iron. The exes that some of these sites are running to would amaze you.