Rakebacks Could Kill Online Poker

Peter Marcus, chief operating officer of William Hill Poker says that the use of rakeback systems by online poker affiliates and online poker skins isn’t working.  Adding further ‘It’s the wrong way of building a sustainable industry’.  The fear across the online poker world is that the misuse of rakebacks could kill online poker.

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The rake is the percentage that an online poker card room takes from every pot played for real money or from every tournament buy-in.  Normally the rake will be between $0.05 and $3.00 which is often the upper limit.  The rake is the main source of income for poker sites.  The rakeback is a reward system used by most online poker affiliates, poker networks and poker skins to encourage you to play at certain online poker sites.

Online poker rakebacks can be traced back to 2004 with Absolute Poker’s Rake Rebate but since then rakebacks have snowballed across the online poker world.  Poker rakebacks give a set percentage of the rake paid back to you.  This payment is usually paid to you once a month directly into your playing account.  I’m sure that being given cash back while playing online poker sounds like a great idea to the all of you UK poker players but it will ultimately mean less real rewards for players who ARE dedicated to one site.  Meaning the only way to find the best rewards will be to jump from poker site to poker site just to chase a deal.

Online poker networks and licensees have be warned by Peter Marcus to find new ways of rewarding their players which doesn’t encourage them to regularly switch sites, or which involve stealing players from each other.  The William Hill Poker representative, Marcus continued by saying that the continued misuse of rakebacks could kill online poker as no new money is made available for brand marketing, giving great customer service and funds to reward their customers for their loyalty.

In summary the online poker rakeback looks good to the online poker player in the short term but will ultimately leave less cash in the industry to run these sites, meaning a drop in service and promotions.

5th July 2009

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Article Last Updated: 25/05/2010 17:15:18

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