Fighting Rake Increase Through Skins?

[Danenania]

Sorry to start yet another one of these threads but this idea just occured to me and actually seems plausible. The ineffectualness of any kind of boycott or protest tactics against Party has been well demonstrated in the many angry threads we've seen since the rake increase. The gist being that they have no reason to fear any retaliation because their room is still the most profitable on the net by far. They would have to raise the rake much much much higher before this would stop being true. It's also been pointed out that while not insignificant, the loss a large portion of the multitabling players would represent a very minor setback to Party at worst. We are simply unable to hurt them.

But what about the skins? Multitablers with rakeback accounts must represent quite a significant portion of their revenues. It seems like a mass exodus of multitablers from one of these skins could do some serious harm financially.

So which are the major skins of Party that 2+2ers use for their rakeback accounts? My understanding is that two biggest are Empire and Eurobet (I could be wrong about this).

What if we got a bunch of the major affiliates for these two sites together along with a large group of players negatively affected by the rake who use these two skins. The affiliates then contact each company and inform them that this large group of players (which would constitute a huge amount of MGR to either of these sites) is threatening to boycott and setup accounts at other Party skins unless their rakeback percentages are increased enough to compensate for the recent increase of Party's rake. Wouldn't this be a major threat to one of these skin's bottom lines? From a financial standpoint, it might be in their best interests to comply.

Is this feasible? It is something of a compromise since the site would continue to make increased profits from the majority of players who don't know anything about rakeback. It would also be way to reward customers for loyalty, something they haven't seemed averse to doing in the past (though probably not so much at once). And it would be no trouble getting the affiliates on board as, aside from many of them being players, they stand to profit from the increased rakebacks as well.

The other plus is that unlike any sort of underhanded tactics against Party, this is very low risk for any player involved. If Empire/Eurobet refuse to negotiate, the player simply moves to another skin. There are plenty of them, and I think all offer rakeback. Nothing to lose.

Thoughts?

[meow_meow]

If I was party management, what I'd be looking to do is find a way to kill rakeback on the skins, not increase it.

Obviously real data isn't available here, but I'd guess a significant proportion of skin revenue comes from people switching from party to get rakeback. Once party's losses from switchers exceeds the extra revenue generated from 'true' new signups at the skins, then the relationship between party and the skin is a net loss for party. This will likely happen as the poker boom matures, if it hasn't happened already.

I'm guessing that within the next couple of years, rakeback at party skins will be a thing of the past, the skins themselves may be separated from the party network at a minimum, and we'll all have to decide whether rakeback at another site makes up for worse game selection.

Not all pessimistic though, I think the smaller sites will continue to vie for players via rakeback deals - I thought the pokershare thing was interesting - too bad I already have a UB account....

[Danenania]

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If I was party management, what I'd be looking to do is find a way to kill rakeback on the skins, not increase it.

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Does Party have any say in the matter? I've always thought that besides being connected to the same room, the skins manage themselves independently.

[meow_meow]

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If I was party management, what I'd be looking to do is find a way to kill rakeback on the skins, not increase it.

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Does Party have any say in the matter? I've always thought that besides being connected to the same room, the skins manage themselves independently.

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Probably not, but I'm sure the contracts they have with the skins come up for renewal at some stage, so party can probably exert some pressure.

[Danenania]

You know what, forget it. Anyone can see it's a brilliant idea but sadly just isn't worth the trouble.

Perhaps if they ever do something that hurts a larger number of players like raise rake across the board, it will be time to take some serious action like this.

You can just delete this post, Entity, if you feel it's a waste of forum space.

[jba]

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What if we got a bunch of the major affiliates for these two sites together

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big problem with this plan, don't affiliates absolutely love the changes to the rake structure?

[TheMetetron]

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What if we got a bunch of the major affiliates for these two sites together

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big problem with this plan, don't affiliates absolutely love the changes to the rake structure?

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Yes, they do.

[Danenania]

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What if we got a bunch of the major affiliates for these two sites together

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big problem with this plan, don't affiliates absolutely love the changes to the rake structure?

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The plan wouldn't change the rake structure the way I outlined it, just the rb amounts.

[Jeff W]

Hasn't the rake only increased for 6-max games? If so, it's not feasible to demand an across the board rakeback increase.

[kidcolin]

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What if we got a bunch of the major affiliates for these two sites together

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big problem with this plan, don't affiliates absolutely love the changes to the rake structure?

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The plan wouldn't change the rake structure the way I outlined it, just the rb amounts.

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same difference. The affiliates make a % of the rake generated by its users. As long as the rake increase percentage is greater than the rakeback percentage, the rake increase means more profits for the affiliates.