As some of you may know, each month I go through each of our partner rooms and post the most significant non-exclusive promotions of the month. Today, I thought I would share my subjective analysis of the most interesting promotions on the list -- my Top 7 -- running during February. 1) WPT/Party Poker Card Rush During February, Party Poker and WPT Poker bring back the popular Card Rush. For each 15 Party Points a player earns they will receive a game piece that will reveal a guaranteed prize of a minimum of 10 Party Points up to a grand prize of $5,000. Card Rush Race points will also be earned towards a leaderboard that will pay additional cash prizes of $50 to $9,000 to the top 200 players. Party Poker will also scatter $50 spots to players finishing 220 through 2,000. Party Poker will be awarding up to 1.8 million cards during the length of this promotion. Undoubtedly, many of these cards will be Party Points and freeroll entries but it's still a great extra perks that grinders should appreciate. 2) Carbon Poker/Aced/Black Chip Poker $25,000 Bankroll Booster Freerolls Carbon Poker, Aced and Black Chip Poker will be running numerous daily qualifiers to the $25,000 Bankroll Booster Freeroll to be held on February 26th at 2 PM ET. There is no direct way to get into the tournament so players must enter either three-times-daily Freeroll Qualifiers (at 13:30, 17:30 or 21:30) or via VIP Points Earned Qualifiers. The VIP Points Qualifiers are run nine times daily. To qualify for these tournaments, players must earn a designated number of VIP Points the previous day and/or the current day up to the time of the tournament. I'm estimating an overlay of about $10 per player in the final. 3) Minted Poker $1 Max Rake Minted Poker and other sites on the Everleaf Network have extended $1 Max rake caps on all tables through February. These tables should be attracting more players than they are due to the fact they are not subject to the large 5 euro max rake and the winning limits that players must undergo at the euro tables. This would be the top promotion in online poker if there was more traffic on these tables. 4) Betsafe $100,000 Points Races Betsafe offers their lucrative Points Race every month so this promotion isn't any more special than previous months. I like this promotion not only for the total size of the prize pool -- which is divided into two promo periods each month -- but the overall value to players. Betsafe also sweetens the pot by providing a $6,000 freeroll to all players that finish in the top 100 of Race 1 or 2. 5) True Poker/Americas Cardroom You really wouldn't think that a small network such as Winning Poker would be able to offer such large promotions, but during February they have actually increased their monthly race promotions to $100,000. $60,000 of the prize pool is awarded to the top FPP Point earners during the month and another $40,000 will be given away during weekend "Sprints," $10k each weekend. Note that the Sprints are only available to ring game players while the $60k "Marathon" is offered to both ring game and tournament players and actually awards bonus points for participation in top tournaments. 6) Boss Magic Hands For one day only on February 14th, the Boss Network (Poker Heaven, Fortune Poker, Interpoker) are awarding cash prizes to players that hit various Valentine's Day themed hands. I've always loved these types of promotions, especially ones that are relatively easy to hit like this one. Players receive €25 for a Heart Flush, €25 when losing 3 hands with K and Q of hearts and €250 when winning a hand with Straight Flush of Hearts. Players must submit a Magic Hand to claim via the Player Zone within 72 hours of hitting the hand. Note that both hole cards must be used and other rules apply. 7) Mansion Poker On Target! I'm also a big fan of promotions that guarantee a prize when a certain amount of play is achieved and that is exactly what Mansion is offering during February with their "On Target" promotion. Each week during the month, players can enter On Target via a no-play tournament from the lobby. Players that hit a raked hand target during the week will receive a cash reward and a $50 pending bonus. Prizes start at $5 and a $50 bonus for reaching 200 raked hands. Not bad, especially for grinders and when combining the promotion on top of the other many Mansion promotions. There you have it- my personal favorite standard online poker promotions for the month of February. If you a PAS publisher, be sure to also check out over $300,000 in exclusive promotions during the month of February. Good luck and happy marketing!
Last month Merge Gaming began accepting players from all of North America for the first time since June of 2011. Around the time of the June player ban, the network also halted new rakeback sign-ups, choosing instead to offer a standard VIP program, a tiered scheme that progressively rewards players the more they rake. Because a whole new group of players are now able to play on the network, I thought it would be a good time to go over what players can expect from these “new” rewards programs that have replaced flat rakeback deals and how affiliates should market these offers. On PAS sites, you’ll see most of the Merge Gaming offers on PAS referred to as “47% VIP,” “47% VIP Rakeback” or something similar. Although the language is sure to confuse some players, we believe that many who are aware of rakeback are also familiar with the “VIP” designation, which essentially references the fact the offer is not based on a traditional rakeback deal, but instead refers to the site’s standard VIP program. Affiliates may also refer to the Merge Gaming VIP program as “cashback” but should avoid the straight “xx% rakeback” language if only to avoid confusion with players who may think they are getting traditional rakeback deal. Old Rakeback Vs. New VIP Programs So what can new players expect who didn’t register for an account while rakeback was still being offered? In general, players that failed to register for a rakeback account prior to June 1st will see lower rates than players who are grandfathered into a flat deal. There are exceptions however, notably for players that put in a decent amount of volume. At Carbon Poker, for example, a player that rakes $2,500 or more in a month will actually receive the full 47% VIP Rakeback rate- 35% from Cash Rebates and 12% from VIP Point Exchanges, a rate that actually exceeds what flat rakeback players earn. A caveat is that players must rake that amount each month to receive that rate. Another exception is the Top-Up Promotion at Black Chip, which has been running for the last few months. Players who take part in that program basically receive 35% right away and up to 47% when raking $1,000 or more. This promotion is assumed not to be ongoing. Other VIP Perks Like many VIP Programs, players are often treated to a variety of miscellaneous perks for being frequent players. On Carbon Poker, top players received reduced check fees (no check fees at the highest level), a VIP player host and event invitations, among others. Other sites such as Black Chip Poker –which offer the default Ace-High Rewards Program -- add monthly freerolls up to $8,000 for players. With No Rakeback, Do Players Need Affiliates? Since the network no longer allows flat rakeback the need to use an affiliate has unarguably diminished. Despite this fact, players still have plenty of motivation to sign-up through an affiliate due to exclusive promotions. Merge Gaming sites are going to be the most appealing site available to many North American players due to the amount of traffic the site receives. Even though the site does not offer rakeback, exclusive promotions including Rake Races, bonuses and Free Coaching are still quite appealing to these players. An example of these exclusive promotions include $10,000 Rake Races at Carbon Poker and Black Chip Poker. PAS also offers a $5k freeroll at Carbon Poker and even added a $25 Free Bonus a couple months ago for publishers. In addition, Free Coaching is available at Drag the Bar at Carbon and Black Chip Poker and DeucesCracked at all Merge Gaming rooms. The Ace-High VIP Program The default VIP Program at Merge Gaming is the so called “Ace-High VIP Program,” which is offered by a few different Merge Gaming sites. In my opinion, these programs are inferior to the custom VIP programs offered by poker rooms such as Carbon and PokerView. In addition to the complex nature of these VIP programs, many players won’t be able exchange all of their points at the max value for their status level. Not only do players have to generate $30k before they receive the maximum rate (45%), but they can’t exchange all of their points at the maximum rate. One positive of the Ace-High VIP program is that players will get to keep their VIP level even if they are maintaining a certain level of play -- assuming they earn at least 1 VIP Point every 60 days. So IF a player generates $30k in rake AND then generates less than $6k per month after that – a point where they wouldn’t be forced to exchange VIP Points at a non-max rate – only then will the Ace-High VIP Program become competitive. VIP Programs; A Snapshot The rates below represent the rates players can expect from VIP programs of PAS partnered sites when generating certain levels of rake. *program based on cumulative rake. Not directly comparable to custom VIP Programs. Which Program Is Best? This question will depend a lot on the player. At this point, the Black Chip Poker Top-Up promotion provides players the best value at all levels but that does not appear to be a permanent promotion. The PokerView VIP program is very competitive at all status levels, despite the site not offering exclusive promotions. With that said, I like PokerView for low rakers and Carbon Poker for mid to high rakers. One additional thing to keep in mind is the various additional promotions that each of these sites offer. Carbon Poker, for example, is diligent about offering players monthly reload bonuses, which add an additional 13% to players’ when they are clearing a bonus. A player taking advantage of these bonuses each month will almost certainly be better off with Carbon Poker versus competitors. Because of all the various factors, I can not apply a “one size fits all” explanation, meaning each player needs to consider their own situation.
During the month of September and October, Poker Affiliate Solutions is offering publishers special prizes for referring players to Merge Gaming sites Black Chip Poker and Aced. At Black Chip Poker, they are giving away 2 iPads or Samsung Galaxies to top PAS publishers during September and October. Meanwhile at Aced, they will award a $5,000 Punta Poker Classic package to the top affiliate from September 1st to October 15th. If PAS wins the promotion, we will pass on the award to our top Aced publisher. These perks make September and October a great time to promote these newly EU-licensed Merge Gaming rooms. Black Chip Poker- Win an iPad or Samsung Galaxy ***PAS Exclusive*** In a promotion exclusive to PAS publishers, Black Chip Poker will give away two tables -- either a 32 GB iPad 2 or Samsung Galaxy to the PAS affiliate who each: 1) Sends the most new depositors to Black Chip Poker in September and October (two months combined) AND 2) Sends new players in September and October who generate the most rake during the two months. Promote the following perks to your players: 200% up to $2000 sign-up bonusVIP up to 45%, including a special Top-up promotion during September that yields up to 47%Free Poker Coaching through Drag the Bar when raking $1 or more or Deuces Cracked when raking $500 or more.iPad 2 to special Top-up promotion players that earn 150,000 VIP Points through September.EU LicensedFast Growing Merge Gaming NetworkSunday Guaranteed Now $100kHuge progressive Bad Beat Jackpot tables If you are not currently promoting the Black Chip Poker Revenue-Share Offer, request the offer from the publisher admin: Additional Information on Black Chip Poker Aced Poker-- Win a $5,000 Affiliate Vacation Package with Aced.com Aced Poker was added to the PAS Network just last week. Now PAS publishers can receive extra rewards when promoting the brand over the next month and a half. The affiliate that sends the most first time depositors to Aced from September 1st to October 15th will receive an all-expenses paid, five-night trip for two to the Punta Poker Classic in the Dominican Republic, valued at $5,000. The trip includes: Your $1,500 + $150 buy-in to the $500,000 Guaranteed Punta Cana Poker ClassicA five night in the five star Punta Cana Hard Rock, Dominican Republic.Airfare for two to Punta Cana.Shuttle service to and from the airportAll-inclusive premium food and beverages including 24-hour room serviceAccess to exclusive poker cash games and side events$1500 in spending vouchers for hotel amenities including golf, spa, tours, and more. For the purpose of this promotion, Poker Affiliate Solutions counts as one affiliate. If PAS wins the promotion, we will award our top publisher with the full prize! Winners will be announced by Aced on October 18th at 3 PM ET. Promote the following perks to your players at Aced: 150% up to $750 sign-up bonusVIP up to 47%Free Poker Coaching through Deuces Cracked when raking $500 or moreEU LicensedFast Growing Merge Gaming NetworkSunday Guaranteed Now $100kHuge progressive Bad Beat Jackpot tables If you are not currently promoting the Aced Revenue-Share Offer, request the offer from the publisher admin: Additional Information on Aced
As most of you hopefully know by now, the Merge Gaming Network ended rakeback for new sign-ups on June 1st. We heavily promoted the end of rakeback on Merge Gaming for new sign-ups so most players that had any desire to receive rakeback on the network should have had a chance to sign up before the deadline. New Offers Added Of course, with the network growing so rapidly over the last couple months, there is likely to be heavy demand for Merge Gaming offers in the short to intermediate term, especially once the temporary US ban is lifted for new sign-ups sometime before the end of July. As a result, PAS has made efforts to bring back revenue share offers for all former rakeback sites on Merge Gaming. PAS publishers will be able to receive 40% revenue-share on all Merge Gaming offers we have added thus far. At the time of this writing, we have added revenue share offers for Carbon Poker Black Chip Poker, GR88 and Bulldog777. Yesterday, we also fully launched the revenue share offer for Overbet. We hope to have Poker Nordica revenue-share up within in the next couple weeks, but negotiations are still ongoing. Note that GR88 and Bulldogg777 will likely not allow new US players to sign-up when the temporary ban is lifted as they have not allowed US players for many months. What PAS Has Done So what has PAS done during this transition? We immediately went to work to get the new offers added. In some cases, they have not been added as quickly as we like and we have certainly appreciated the patience of publishers as we get these offers converted. Once the offers go live, we have been running a script that will automatically place the new revenue-share offer on your site if you previously offered rakeback from the same site. You should not have to do anything! We are currently marketing most Merge offers as “35% VIP” or “45% VIP,” depending on the site, although these could definitely change in the future as we get a clearer picture of any rules we have to follow. Some publishers have been having issues with offers not displaying correctly once they are converted. The issue seems to be caused by publishers who happened to request a revenue-share offer of the same site before the rakeback change was made. If this applies to you, please contact us. Coming soon... In a future post to be coming soon, we will be explaining the new VIP Programs more in depth and how you can market the new offers. Some may be surprised to know that some new VIP programs can compete fairly well with 35% rakeback deals, especially when raking high volume month after month. In another future post we will be addressing the benefits of choosing to receive revenue-share deals through PAS. Stay tuned... If you have any other questions at all, don't hesitate to contact us.
PokerAffiliteSolutions publishers can now promote Free Poker Coaching to players when they sign up through your site at Carbon Poker, Black Chip Poker or Party Poker. Drag the Bar joins Deuces Cracked as one of two Free Poker Coaching Offers available through PAS. Promoting Drag the Bar through your site is at NO COST to you or the player. Players simply have to sign-up at one of the eligible sites and generate a small amount of rake. The Benefits of Free Poker Coaching: Over the last few years, poker coaching sites have become increasingly popular as many players have realized that the best way to improve their win-rate is by educating themselves on the games they love to play. Most players don’t pick up optimal strategy naturally and thus benefit greatly from tools such as poker books and training sites. Training site proponents love the medium because they are able to watch how successful players play and get an idea of what goes through their heads as they make decisions. The knowledge that players gain through training videos is difficult to teach in a book and is a great supplement to any poker education. For affiliates, the coaching offers have proven to be great for conversions and retention. Drag the Bar Details: Through a Drag the Bar membership, players can receive the following benefits --Access to 30 coaches --Poker instructional videos covering cash games such as No Limit Hold’em and Limit Hold’em as well as Multi-table tournaments and Sit N Gos --An average of forty new videos added each month to the library of over 1,000 --Active forums to engage in strategy discussion --Ability of members to post their own videos Players can receive FREE access to all of this by simply generating a small amount of rake in their first month and $500 in subsequent months at one of the participating sites: Carbon Poker: $1 in rake Black Chip Poker: $1 in rake Party Poker: 1000 Party Points ($500 in rake) Getting Started To get started, simply email seb@pokeraffiliatesolutions.com to begin promoting this offer. Once you have been approved, affiliates can instruct players to follow the steps below to receive Free Coaching through Drag the Bar. We also recommend publishers have a look at the Deuces Cracked Free Poker Coaching offer, available at all PAS rakeback sites. Sign-up steps for players Players must register at one of the following rooms through your site: Carbon Poker, Black Chip Poker and Party Poker A minimum amount of rake/Party Points must be earned: only $1 at Carbon or Black Chip and 500 Party Points at Party Poker. After the first two steps have been completed, players can use one of the following links to sign-up for Free Drag the Bar Coaching. Carbon Poker Black Chip Poker Party Poker Within a couple days, players will receive their first month of Drag the Bar. Players can qualify for subsequent months by generating $500 or more in rake per month.Final Thoughts Promoting Free Drag the Bar Coaching through your site is highly recommended, especially if you have a large number of players signing up at Carbon Poker, Black Chip Poker or Party Poker. Free Poker Coaching has proven to be great for conversions and retentions at no cost to you or your players. In addition, your players will not be exposed to offers from other cardrooms while receiving training from the Drag the Bar. This is truly a win-win situation for all involved. Again, if you would like to participate, please contact Seb at seb@pokeraffiliatesolutions.com.
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