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.
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.
At the beginning of May we began informing publishers that Merge Gaming had decided to end rakeback for new sign-ups after June 1st. With the end of the month quickly approaching, we again wanted to remind publishers that you have a limited time to inform players that Merge Gaming rakeback will be ending for new sign-ups. Players are only required to sign-up at a Merge Gaming room before this date to receive rakeback (assuming your site is a rakeback site). A deposit is NOT necessary to “grandfather” players into 35%. What this means is that ANY player that could conceivably see themself EVER wanting rakeback on the Merge Gaming Network -- despite whether they want to play now or not -- should absolutely, positively, without-a-doubt sign-up before this date. We’ve all heard the accounts of players regretting that they didn’t originally sign-up for a rakeback account at Full Tilt Poker, and we realize that we likely will encounter similar disappointed Merge players signing up after June 1st -- especially if they continue their rapid growth. Minimize this affect as much as possible by promoting 35% rakeback through the month and making it abundantly clear the consequences of not signing up for rakeback before this date. The Merge Gaming Network has been the biggest benefactor from the events of April 15th. Although traffic has leveled off slightly over the last week or so, overall traffic is up 70%+ over the last month and change, according to PokerScout. The room was already a hidden gem for many US and non-US players alike -- especially those seeking rakeback -- and interest has only increased at the network since April 15th, as the network became the most popular to accept US players. Merge Gaming Stops Accepting Players from Certain States At this point, all indications point to Merge Gaming continuing to accept most players from the US for the foreseeable future. I believe one of the best clues of their intermediate-long term stance is the halting of new accounts from certain states where they feel the legal situation is not as strong. Last week, reports surfaced that the Merge Gaming Network was no longer accepting new players from the state of New York. Yesterday, we received notification that Louisiana, Missouri, Maryland and Washington DC were also added to this list. This is unfortunate for prospective players in these states, but this seems to be a good sign for those that hope Merge Gaming will continue servicing US players. In addition to the moves in the US, the Merge Gaming Network also decided to stop accepting real money play in France, due to the requirement that operators there must hold a French license. Final Thoughts With Merge Gaming apparently being proactive about accepting new players in areas of the country with a cloudy legal situation, players in other states may want to look at this as another reason to create an account now. Nobody can see the future, but one can see a scenario where more states are added to the list (Microgaming, for instance, chose not to accept players from 11-12 states when still accepting American players). The possibility even exists for Merge at some point to decide not to accept any new US players, while allowing existing players to play. While this doesn’t appear to be on the table at this point, the possibility could be more likely than an outright ban of new AND existing players. So with the impending rakeback change and uncertain future policy on other US-states, we strongly recommend promoting Merge Gaming to players who still wish to play online poker. Make sure it is made crystal clear that players wishing to receive rakeback on the Merge Gaming Network must at least sign-up for a Merge Gaming room through your rakeback site before this date. PAS publishers have the option of promoting four US-facing rooms that offer rakeback: flagship site Carbon Poker, Black Chip Poker, Overbet and Poker Nordica. GR88 also currently allows rakeback but does not accept US players. See our review pages for more information:
PAS received confirmation on Wednesday that the Merge Gaming Network, currently the largest US-facing site, will be ending rakeback for all NEW sign-ups starting on June 1st. Existing players who register before June 1st will be grandfathered into the rakeback deal they have. Needless to say, if you are promoting Merge Gaming sites, using the news as a marketing opportunity is strongly advised over the next three-four weeks. Merge Gaming has had an eventful 12 months. The network first saw their traffic triple when in April of 2010 Players Only and Sportsbook joined the network. The network has seen steady growth ever since. After the events of Black Friday, Merge Gaming suddenly became the most popular site to accept play from the United States. Since April 15th, the network has seen its traffic dramatically increase over 70%. On Wednesday, the network broke another record when 3,170 real money players were recorded playing. Once Merge Gaming stops accepting new rakeback sign-ups, new players will be a part of the standard VIP program at Merge Gaming sites. At Carbon Poker, players can receive daily cash rebates of up to 35% when raking $2,500 or more during a month. VIP Point exchanges, which rakeback players also currently get, could presumably add additional return. It is expected that VIP program details will be tweaked over the next month for all sites to account for the new rakeback policy. PokerAffiliateSolutions will make sure to stay on top of any new developments. For now, use the the rest of the month as a marketing opportunity to lock players in to 35% rakeback. PAS publishers have the option of promoting four US-facing rooms that offer rakeback: flagship site Carbon Poker, Black Chip Poker, Overbet and Poker Nordica. GR88 also currently allows rakeback but does not accept US players. See our review pages for more information:
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