Joined: Jan '11
Location: Germany
Age: 50 (M)
Posts: 513
On the same day as the long-awaited stateside return of PokerStars, the world's largest online poker provider hit players with some far less welcome news. Players in open-liquidity markets will be hit with rake increases in a variety of games, amounting to an increase of roughly four percent, the company announced on its corporate blog.
The changes, which will take effect March 28, come after "a review of the current business environment and the pricing policies employed across the competitive landscape for online gaming."
Here's a list of the changes as stated by the company:
Spin & Go rake will be increased by one percentage point for buy-ins from $1 to $30 (two percentage points in $3 buy-in). $0.25, $60 and $100 buy-ins will not change. In multi-table tournaments, PokerStars will match the practices deployed in our closed-liquidity markets where rebuys and add-ons incur fees similar to the original entry. These tournaments represent approximately 12 percent of the current schedule. Multi-table tournament hyper-turbo rake will be increased to five percent. Cap and percentage of rake will be increased in some no-limit and pot-limit ring games, mainly heads-up. Some rake caps will be lowered. Limit games will not be affected. Many of the changes are self-explanatory and involve increases across a number of subsets of games.
Joined: May '08
Location: Germany
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 6786
Amaya continues to milk their customers for all they can get. A little increase here, a little less vip-points there. This all adds up over time. But everyone who doesn`t like it, can switch to FT. Oh, wait...
Joined: Oct '14
Location: Serbia
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 4358
when will amaya sell pokerstars? couple of months there was talk about it that amaya will send pokerstars... maybe that would be better, maybe new owners wouldnt treat us like a milking cow... but always that could end up in worse way...
Posted by StheP: when will amaya sell pokerstars? couple of months there was talk about it that amaya will send pokerstars... maybe that would be better, maybe new owners wouldnt treat us like a milking cow... but always that could end up in worse way...
Even if they would sell, they have to show revenue increase at least three business quarters continuously to make the pricetag of the empire justified, so these things won't go away quick...
Joined: May '08
Location: Germany
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 6786
I am not aware of any news, or even rumour, of Amaya planing on selling stars. There was the idea that the CEO of Amaya could buy out the company, so it would no longer be traded on the stock market.
Posted by shokaku: I am not aware of any news, or even rumour, of Amaya planing on selling stars. There was the idea that the CEO of Amaya could buy out the company, so it would no longer be traded on the stock market.
I did not know they were openly traded, well that could certainly simplify things for a potential buyer if there's any...
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
They do such changes because they know exactly how they stand up against competitors today. Having the biggest share, in online poker market, is helping them to be be drastically affected buy such changes. Even if they do worst things, they will be still no1.
Joined: May '08
Location: Germany
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 6786
The No1 status is not carved in stone. 10 years ago Party was the top dog, and look how they are doing now. If Amaya continues on this path, other rooms will get more traffic, or players will stop playing online at all.
Joined: Oct '14
Location: Serbia
Age: 34 (M)
Posts: 4358
Posted by shokaku: The No1 status is not carved in stone. 10 years ago Party was the top dog, and look how they are doing now. If Amaya continues on this path, other rooms will get more traffic, or players will stop playing online at all.
Joined: Oct '08
Location: Germany
Age: 49 (M)
Posts: 2025
Posted by shokaku: The No1 status is not carved in stone. 10 years ago Party was the top dog, and look how they are doing now. If Amaya continues on this path, other rooms will get more traffic, or players will stop playing online at all.
you think other rooms want follow stars example and increase the rake aswell ? sooner or later..?
Joined: May '08
Location: Germany
Age: 59 (M)
Posts: 6786
If they are even half way smart, they will not follow this example, and hope to get a greater share of the traffic in the medium to long term, by staying cheaper than the main competition. If they are really smart, they lower their amount of rake.
Joined: Oct '08
Location: Germany
Age: 49 (M)
Posts: 2025
to be honest, im not really up to date to know how much % rake each pokerroom takes from you. and right when this tax thingy came i stoped playing online. so i dont know exactly whats up now a days. anyways, i remember PS was the site that took less rake than all other rooms..? im gonna check this now. it would be definatly welcome if they lower their rake, and....who knows, probably more chances to compete with PS. i just cant imagine, cos they all greedy.
Joined: Mar '09
Location: Greece
Age: 47 (F)
Posts: 14136
I dont think that there are many players out there, paying attention in rake changes and what games the change affects every time. If they are not regular players, playing poker for at least as a side income, its just another notification, which may not even bother to read it.
Wep like Mober said above, occasional players like me for example will not be affected with the changes of rake, it's the ones that play over 10-20 games daily who will be hurt...
