As of today, PokerAffiliateSolutions will begin referring to the Entraction Network as "IGT Poker." The Entraction Network webpage has moved to the IGT Interactive site and in a recent press release, IGT stated that "all Entraction products will be shown under the IGT brand." Other online poker authorities such as PokerScout have also begun to refer to the network under the new brand. Last May, International Gaming Technology (IGT) purchased all outstanding shares of Entraction Holding AB in an effort to advance the company's position in regulated online gambling markets. IGT is a global company based in the United States with a market cap of almost $5 billion, making them one of the largest publicly traded companies in the world. The company recently announced that they would be acquiring social media gaming company Double Down. While IGT Poker looks to enter the U.S. in a future regulated market -- they have already applied for a license in Nevada -- the network has been struggling in Europe, with traffic down over 50% in the last 12 months according to PokerScout, likely due in part to the network's banning of certain top countries including Canada and Russia. PAS publishers can currently promote NoiQ on IGT Poker.
Black Friday has officially claimed Cereus Network sites Absolute Poker and UB.com as parent company, Blanca Games, has submitted plans to liquidate with a goal of eventually repaying players a portion of the balances owed to them. On the U.S. legislative front, a hearing was held on Tuesday by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee discussing the future of online poker in the country. Read about these stories and more in this edition of the PAS Weekly Industry Update. Cereus Network Submits Plan for Liquidation: On Friday, the Cereus Network effectively closed down with an announcement that the battered poker room had submitted a liquidation plan to the U.S. Department of Justice for approval. The network has operated since Black Friday to non-US players, but has been a shadow of its former self with traffic down over 99% from Black Friday levels. Players had been receiving very sporadic cashouts of $250-$500 in the weeks leading up to the liquidation announcement. New House Hearing on Online Poker: The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee held a two hour plus meeting on online poker in the United States. The mostly positive meeting focused on safeguards and consumer protection that would be required if and when online poker is regulated in the country. After the hearing, Chairwoman Rep Mary Bono Mack stated her desire to hold another hearing in the near future but to not expect any legislation to be attached to the Deficit Reduction package that must be decided upon by November 23rd. Check out PAS's summary on the day's events. Full Tilt Poker Updates: : Early in the week, the Irish Times reported that Full Tilt Poker had made 180 of their 500 staff members "redundant," a plan that had Full Tilt Poker employees first became aware of in September. In some interesting news, multiple players reported that they received telephone surveys from a magazine with ties to the Tapie investment group. In the survey, players were asked to choose between one of three options on how they would like to receive their funds in a hypothetical repayment scenario: 1) buying shares of Full Tilt with part of their funds 2) cash out immediately with a undermined penalty or 3) be paid in full but released in incremental payments over a year. The survey is noteworthy because it indicates the variety of payment resolutions that Tapie and his group are considering at this time as negotiations continue. Everleaf Lowers Rake on USD Tables: In an effort to attract more U.S. players to their tables, the Everleaf Gaming Network will be slashing the maximum rake on all US Dollar tables to $1 through December. The move will primarily affect players at No Limit and Pot Limit tables. There is currently very little action at Limit tables on Everleaf, but players seated at these tables at limits of $2/$4 and above will also see the rake greatly reduced. Latest Traffic Update from PokerScout: PokerScout's latest traffic report details a 1.2% traffic drop after a healthy gain the previous week. An exception to the trend was Merge Gaming, which saw it traffic increase another 7% after soaring 13% the week prior, up 20% since the network began accepting U.S. players for the first time since June. Merge Gaming is once again a top 10 room in terms of online poker traffic, with more than 2200 cash game players on the site during peak times. Jottings: Entraction rakeback policy and VIP program change...Operators face difficult regulatory regime in Germany...UK unlikely to see Gaming Act changes in near future...Top five CPAs from U.S. poker rooms...Fertitta purchases CyberArts...Ongame promises to fight bots...Maryland Gov proves online poker battle is about the money...D-Amato distances himself from Full Tilt Poker.
November will see some important changes on the Entraction Network related to how rakeback is paid. Starting next week players will be required to generate at least €33.33 in rake from Friday to Thursday to be paid rakeback for that week. The VIP program is also undergoing some significant changes in November with the introduction of new status levels, Loyalty Points ratios and new instant cash bonuses. These changes will affect all Entraction rooms including PAS partner, NoiQ Poker. Rakeback Policy Change Weekly rakeback will now be based upon generating at least €33.33 in rake from Friday 00:01 to Thursday 23:59 CET (GMT+1), meaning that the rakeback minimum a player is paid will be at least €10. Note that rake will not roll over from one week to the next. VIP Program Change Note: The changes here do not affect PAS rakeback players who are under a flat rakeback program. November also sees a huge change in the standard VIP Program, which is available as an alternative to rakeback. It is still beneficial for players to sign-up for a rakeback site through PAS due to the exclusive promotions ($13,000 Monthly Rake Race, Free Coaching) and the ability to switch back to flat rakeback if they desire. NoiQ players may switch to the VIP program from rakeback -- and vice versa -- by contacting NoiQ Poker support at support@noiq.com. When a player makes a switch, they are allowed to switch back again but NoiQ may limit the amount of times if it becomes excessive. Affiliates of players who switch programs are not affected. The New VIP Program Details The VIP Program will now be based on "Base Points," which will be earned at the same rate VIP Points currently are - 1 for every €0.50 in rake. When qualifying for a specific status level, a player will earn Loyalty Points based on a Base Points to Loyalty Points Ratio. Qualifying for a VIP Status Level To qualiy for a VIP Status Level, players must earn the a certain number of Loyalty Points over 60 days... Level 1: 0 Level 2: 100 (€25 average monthly rake) Level 3: 225 (€56.25) Level 4: 500 (€125) Level 5: 1,000 (€250) Level 6: 1,500 (€375) Level 7: 3,150 (€787.50) Level 8: 7,000 (€1750) Loyalty Point Ratios and Effective Returns The ratio at which players earn Loyalty Points will range from 1:1 to 1:3: This ratio will drastically impact the overall return players receive. Those at the lowest status level will receive the equivalent of 10% rakeback, whereas players at Level 8 -- who save their Loyalty Points for the largest bonuses -- can receive as much as 40%. Level 1: 1:1 ratio, 10% effective rakeback Level 2: 1:1.20, 12%-13% Level 3: 1:1.4, 14%-16% Level 4: 1:1.7, 17%-20% Level 5: 1:2, 20%-24% Level 6: 1:2.3, 23%-28% Level 7: 1:2.7, 27%-33% Level 8: 1:3, 30%-40% Some FAQs Why the difference in effective rakeback returns within a level? A variety of instant cash bonuses ranging from €3-€4,000 are offered to players based on their status level. A Level 1 player, for example, is only given a €3 bonus to receive for their Loyalty Point exchange, while a Level 2 player also receives access to a €5 and €8 bonus (in addition to the €3 bonus). So as a player moves up in status levels, the bonuses get larger and the effective earn rates improve. This means that even though a higher status player has access to bonuses from the lower levels, they should save up their Loyalty Points for as long as possible to maximize their return. How should a player determine whether the VIP Program or 30% flat rakeback is right for them? In short, if a player rakes at least €787.50 per month on a consistent basis, the VIP program can become a reasonable consideration. Players averaging at least €1,750 a month in rake have a VERY compelling reason to switch to the VIP program. This answer is not cut and dry, however, as some players are going to put high value on the intangibles, such as the relative ease and guarantee of flat rakeback. The desirability of the VIP program versus flat rakeback will really depend on preferences from the player. However, from a pure value standpoint, a player that can earn 3,150 Base Points over 2 months (this is an average of €787.50 a month in rake per month) will receive slightly more than a player receiving 30% flat rakeback. This is assuming a player saves up at least 13,000 Loyalty Points, the equivalent of approximately €2,400 in rake, before redemption. Surprisingly, very small rakers may also benefit more from participating in the program as well. If a player doesn't rake €33 in a week very often but rakes at least an average of €25 per month, the VIP program will benefit them more, albeit with a very low 12%-13% return. These players should immediately switch to 30% flat rakeback when they start raking more than €33 per week, as the jump in return is significant.
Full Tilt Poker explains the reasons for some of the post Black Friday issues, while Entraction decides to ban play from five countries by the end of September. Check out these stories and more in this week's Industry Update. New Full Tilt Updates: Since Full Tilt Poker's exclusive investor negotiations ended a couple weeks ago, the site has been much more open with players and the industry. In a statement released in Forbes on Tuesday, Full Tilt Poker acknowledged that they were not prepared for the "far reaching US government enforcement effort of Black Friday." They stated they did not anticipate that the DOJ would proceed as they did in seizing their global domain name and shutting down the site worldwide. In the statement, Full Tilt also revealed that the U.S. government had seized up to $115 of U.S. player funds prior to Black Friday. In addition, Full Tilt Poker alleges that key processors stole $42 million from the company. In other Full Tilt news this week, Full Tilt attorney Jeff Ifrah has asked the court for permission to step down in a pending class action lawsuit against the company. Entraction Bans Players From Five Countries: Beginning on September 29th, Entraction will no longer accept players from five countries including Canada, Israel, Norway, Russia and Turkey. The move will ban existing players as well as new sign-ups. Entraction, is a medium-large site catering to mostly European players. The room sees approximately 2,000 real money cash game players during peak times, according to PokerScout. At the time of this writing, no official reason has been given for the move. 8/29 Traffic Update from PokerScout: According to PokerScout, online poker traffic was mostly flat from the previous week. iPoker continued to hold on to the #2 position edging Party Poker for another week. Much of the drop at Party Poker can be attributed to a proposed rake change -- which Party Poker scrapped -- that could have seen rake increase as much as 50% for some players. This Week at PAS: PAS added a new US-facing $100 CPA deal from BetOnline and a 40% revenue-share from a site that is hopefully U.S. friendly soon, Merge Gaming's Aced. We also unveiled some great PAS publisher promotions for September and October that affiliates should definitely check out. We've also posted our September exclusive player promotions. Lastly, be sure to check out our thread on top standard poker room promotions. Jottings: Online poker in D.C. may be delayed or discontinued...Subject Poker has reported that some Black Friday seized funds from non-US sources have been released to Poker Stars...bwin.party finalizing U.S. strategic partnership...Bodog launching new poker client in November...Facebook changes advertising rules for gambling sites.
Recent Comments
