Party CFO conversation: Trip report
An anonymous 2+2er friend of mine just got off the phone with Party's CFO. Here's what he had to say:
-PartyPoker regards the high-volume, serious gambler as an acceptable, but sub-optimal customer. They see their future growth primarily in terms of the new casino platform they're launching - they want the recreational gamblers playing blackjack, roulette, etc.
-Party split from its skins precisely because of its plans for a full-scale casino platform. They couldn't put the skins' customers on the casino platform for whatever reason, and for some reason, keeping casino players in the poker network is too difficult. (Sorry for the vagueness; he was pretty tight-lipped throughout.) As such, they have chosen this time to start regarding the skins not as partners, but as competitors.
-Party is genuinely surprised by the negative market reaction. They thought their obvious genius would be a big hit today. [img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]
-Party is not ruling out rakeback, but has no immediate plans. I don't know how that jibes with the affiliates' impression that this will all be resolved successfully within the next few days.
That's pretty much it.
In short: My impression, along with the impressions of a lot of other people, I guess, was that Party regards us primarily as a hassle, and that they see their business model as catering to an ever-rotating group of recreational gamblers. This conversation would seem to strengthen that impression.
(BTW: I know literally nothing else. Please do not PM me to hit me up for secrets that I don't have.)
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