Hey, another rakeback thread!

[tijean]

Seeing as it's the topic du semaine, not to mention the direct impact it has on my earning potential...

As I understand it:

iGM runs this fancy poker site. They make a lot of money. In order to make even more money, they partner with other companies who rebrand the front-end while iGM manages the back-end. These front-ends then sign up affiliates (like, say, twoplustwo.com) who drive traffic to those sites. In return, the affiliates get a percentage of the revenue generated by that traffic. iGM pays the front-ends, the front-ends pay the affiliates. Yes?

So, why does iGM give a damn what the affiliates do with that money? If they blow it all on beer and pr0n, or give some of it back to the players, what possible difference could it make to iGM - they've already got their cut. And how is rakeback different from what Boogster, or ECD, or other sites that offer a little sumthin'-sumthin' for signing up through them, do? Frankly, none of the stuff those sites offer has any value to me at all - I play poker online, I don't have any use for real poker chips - I'd rather just have the cash.

Just wondering what all the fuss is about.

[evilganz]

I'm no expert, but my guess is that Party would rather have high volume players playing there, rather than a skin where Party has to split the profits. The idea of skins may have made sense when Party was new, but their brand is strong enough now not to need the help.