Online Poker Network’s New Promo Raises Questions
The B3W Poker Pack Network is a small system of online poker sites that started earlier this year with the launch of Yacht Poker. It has grown to become 7 poker rooms strong and it is obvious the network is seeking new, fresh promotional ideas to attract the interest of players.
The online poker network just announced its latest promotional campaign, the Players Pool. It is an interesting idea, certainly. The Players Pool takes a collection from the contributed rake of all players to create a sizeable pool of money, then uses it to award players in multiple ways.
Back in July, before the promotion received a name, the online poker network was already incorporating a similar idea. The contributed rake of players was used to pay the High Hand Jackpot, which spread €1,200 to a range of worthy competitors. Now that the idea has been further developed, B3W will be using the funds to integrate new freeroll poker tournaments and added money events, as well as awarding cash bonuses to its members.
The more players contribute to the rake over time, the higher the pool will become and more valuable the promotion will be for the players. The Players Pool promo is expected to run on a monthly basis, alongside the current roster of monthly promotions.
The value of this promotion really depends on how you look at it. On the one hand, it appears that players are basically paying for their own prizes. They are claiming bonuses or competing in special events for a chance to reclaim what was once theirs to begin with. That point of view could certainly raise some eyebrows.
In the same token, if we take a moment to think about it, isn’t this exactly what all major online poker sites are doing? PokerStars, for example, runs some extremely valuable freeroll poker events on a very regular basis. They don’t advertise that they are taking their players’ contributed rake and using it to seed the prize pools, but rake is the number one source of a poker site’s income. Any online poker room with freerolls, added money tournaments and other free rewards is essentially doing the exact same thing.
In reality, this latest promotion from B3W is more of a way to get the names of its brands around the water cooler and attract a larger player base. If we skip over to the gracious poker traffic tracking site, Poker Scout, a long scroll down the menu tells us that the Poker Pack Network is trailing the industry in 53rd position out of 60 total, and that it has averaged frighteningly low peak-hour traffic of 33 players. That’s peak hour traffic!
One would conceivably wonder how B3W is staying afloat with such devastating numbers, but anyone who ventures into the online casino realm of gaming may recognize the name a lot more quickly than an exclusive online poker player. B3W has been a solid competitor in the online casino community much longer, established all the way back in 1998. It’s entry into the online poker world was just a new gateway for an existing enterprise. It will be interesting, nonetheless, to see if B3W’s new campaign can breathe new life into the Poker Pack Network.
