What one thing would give a new poker site the best chance of long term success?
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Joined: Feb '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 1886
Online poker is a huge market but nearly all the traffic is held by a few poker sites. It must be incredibly difficult for a brand new network to launch in this very competitive area. So todays poll, what one thing would give a new poker network the best chance of competing with the existing biggest networks and the best chance of long term survival?
Association with a big name. eg. a famous pro or a celebrity
A new way of playing poker: something unique to this new site.
No rake for the first 10 000 accounts or a similar promotion.
An interesting interface, software that looks different from all the existing poker clients.
A big and expensive multi-media campaign featuring adverts all over television and the internet.
Lots of clever daily/weekly promotions on the site.
A side arm of a bigger company or a casino or a spin-off site from a game other than poker.
A niche target market such as a poker site aimed at women, students or religious people.
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If anyone can come up with any more ideas in the next 10 minutes I'll include them in the poll.
Joined: Nov '11
Location: Poland
Age: 37 (M)
Posts: 1090
So... My ideas are:
- promotions, promotions and more promotions - new interesting software (PKR is well-known MOSTLY by their 3D software) - I think very interesting option would be association with celebrity, like famous actors... I would like to see eg. Arnold Schwarzenegger playing poker
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 6669
I think first of all that site should have an great poker software, something similar to the ftp software which many including myself consider to be the best, of course tons of promotions!
I would also like to see that they have super fast transactions times with skrill like stars and party poker(matter of hours)
Joined: Feb '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 1886
Posted by Macubaas: I think first of all that site should have an great poker software, something similar to the ftp software which many including myself consider to be the best, of course tons of promotions!
I would also like to see that they have super fast transactions times with skrill like stars and party poker(matter of hours)
Of course a great software is essential but I think even if a software better than ftp appeared it would need more to make it a success. And as ftp will return soon owned by stars, something similar to ftp would surely be a poorer ftp.
As for promotions, I think Party is the king of promotions although I hate the site and I think the promotions is the reason why rake is so high. I don't think a new site could offer better promotions than what already exists without risking a huge amount of money and I don't think the members of the most popular sites will switch to a different network for new promos alone.
A good customer service, again is essential but it's more that bad service will chase customers away than good service will draw customers in. I would like to see a new poker site offering these things just to keep the current front runners on their toes so they don't start feeling untouchable and not caring about every member.
Joined: Sep '12
Location: Romania
Age: 33 (M)
Posts: 1052
A freeroll of min 10$ for every hour 10 tickets of 1000$ freeroll for the first 1000 players and other like 9 tickets of 900$... etc.. Something like Tony G house 2$ FREE without deposit for first 5000 players registered Srsly now... if i have a poker site i never do this for players
Joined: May '08
Location: Lithuania
Age: 39 (M)
Posts: 10090
tough question- i would ask myself if i was trying to open a new poker room- like does anyone need it at all? and i'm not sure i would get a positive answer from myself...stars dominate the market, they even gonna and full tilt to the mix- generally no influx of new players coming in- market is just about keeping itself...
Joined: Oct '11
Location: Sweden
Age: 32 (M)
Posts: 1410
I would like to say that they offer about 30% rakeback for ALL members and then premium members could get 50% rakeback. I'm fairly sure that would attract some traffic. Also, they should offer a nice spread of freerolls. Maybe say a total of $500 a day and if possible a big Sunday $1000 freeroll. Another thing is weakly and monthly leaderboards with the possibility to get some cash. Lots of other promos would be good as well. Say if a player deposits this amount of money, they get the chance to earn another $10 simply by earning some points. Which brings me to another thing: A reward system with points which they can exchange for money or tournament tokens, maybe even some merchandise. And also, give the possibility of a SMALL deposit, even as low as $5. That will probably attract a lot of people who wouldn't deposit say $25 for Party Poker or whatever.
So, to sum it all up...
A new site would need this in order to succeed (according to me): - Good rakeback deal - Freerolls - Leaderboards - Lots of promotions - A reward system (points?) - Possibility of a small deposit
I think that without these things, a new site would never be able to survive.
But in order to become a bit more famous or at least get noticed, they should try to involve someone famous to promote their site.
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
They will need to have some good promotions along with a rake back. Of course the poker software is something the we dont have to note, since if its not good, will discourage the players. If there is also a big name to back it up that will reassure players to be more freely with the money handling in the new site.
Joined: Jan '11
Location: United States
Age: 60 (M)
Posts: 3361
You never see any type of advertising for a lot of the sites unless your already into the poker world. I think there may need to be a bit more advertising to the general public by way of primary internet sites and even on some of the sport television stations. Say during football games, baseball, soccer or whatever sports is big in the country one lives in. I mean advertising goes a long way and that's where you would include all the promo gimmicks.
If any of our governments would launch a poker site such as they have the lotteries across the world I believe it would bring in a lot of money for a country. I may be wrong, but good advertising, good management and good promotions could really bring a site to the top.
Joined: Apr '09
Location: Portugal
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 4827
I don’t know if I really want to answer this. If I happen to know what would give the click to make a new poker site go well over the nowadays leading competitors, I wouldn’t spread a word about it on a forum where everybody can enter and stole my idea. This said, I think it’s obvious that the number one tip is: make it in a different but suitable way!
Joined: Apr '11
Location: Romania
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 6669
Posted by awood88:
Posted by Macubaas: I think first of all that site should have an great poker software, something similar to the ftp software which many including myself consider to be the best, of course tons of promotions!
I would also like to see that they have super fast transactions times with skrill like stars and party poker(matter of hours)
Of course a great software is essential but I think even if a software better than ftp appeared it would need more to make it a success. And as ftp will return soon owned by stars, something similar to ftp would surely be a poorer ftp.
As for promotions, I think Party is the king of promotions although I hate the site and I think the promotions is the reason why rake is so high. I don't think a new site could offer better promotions than what already exists without risking a huge amount of money and I don't think the members of the most popular sites will switch to a different network for new promos alone.
A good customer service, again is essential but it's more that bad service will chase customers away than good service will draw customers in. I would like to see a new poker site offering these things just to keep the current front runners on their toes so they don't start feeling untouchable and not caring about every member.
Frankly i do not think that pokerstars will actually change the full tilt poker software, for old full tilt promotions no one can answer.
PS. I also have to agree with you about party poker, the promotions are really good but the rake and software a below average. Also try 888, nice software with good promotions
Joined: Feb '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 1886
Posted by Fakiry: I don�t know if I really want to answer this. If I happen to know what would give the click to make a new poker site go well over the nowadays leading competitors, I wouldn�t spread a word about it on a forum where everybody can enter and stole my idea. This said, I think it�s obvious that the number one tip is: make it in a different but suitable way!
Fair enough. I personally have no qualms about sharing my ideas for what would make a good poker site because I know I'm never going to have the finances or expertise to run a business of that scale. I would rather that a great site existed and that there was more competition for poker sites than to live my whole life hoarding an idea that will never be worth anything. And I say that knowing that any ideas I come up with aren't likely to be million dollar ideas but should someone on this site realize one of those ideas I would be very happy.
I definitely agree that for a new site to get a huge market share it would have to be different from what already exists, that means just offering promotions and rake back will never work. A big name associated with the site might be enough but that name would have to be trust worthy and very famous. I think the niche market would be my first choice.
Joined: Jan '12
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 36 (M)
Posts: 1204
I've got an idea, but it's not necessarily a good one and wouldn't do many favour's for the already tarnished reputation of poker.
A new variant/variants. Poker with the two jokers also. But the jokers are wild cards. It would be called jokerstars.
I think it would be a fun little donkfest with everybody trying to bluff a joker.
If anyone on brm has what it takes to program something like this I think it would be awesome. But with the jokers being wild would be alot more complex to program. With there being different players and many other variants. Maybe thats why its not already out there.
Joined: Mar '11
Location: Canada
Age: 44 (M)
Posts: 1490
Well, I'd say association with a big name lends little credibility to a site, given the black eye FT got due to the likes of Bitar and Lederer.
I'd say any site wanting to succeed, or any company for that matter, should focus first on making it's customers happy. Having worked in the customer service for a few years, I can say first hand that if you treat your customers right, not only will they continue to do business with you, but they will bring their friends and family. Word of mouth is FAR more powerful than any flashy ad IMO.
On that note, I'd say offering good incentives such as no/reduced rake, good rakeback deals, or other goodies is a great way to attract customers, but that kind of ties in with good customer service. People like to feel they get value out of anything they spend their money on, so giving them a little "extra" can make all the difference in the world.
