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One of the key talking points in the online poker industry is how to reward genuine fish-providing operators who contribute to the vital bloodline of adding losing players into a network, says Grant Williams, director of Gaming Media Group, who says the changes resulting are good for the industry.
ONE of the key talking points in the online poker industry over the past six months has been exactly how to reward genuine fish -providing operators who contribute to the vital bloodline of adding losing players into a network.
It seems for the parasitic skins that have been living off the gravy train of being able to focus on just bringÂing in the high-raking, low-churning winning players, that feeding season is over.
With the likes of the International Poker Network making it quite clear that to grow on the network, rooms have to focus on bringing in a higher percentage of losing players, the goalposts have changed “ and this will of course play a role in how affiliate relationships and deals are managed in future.
Before these new rules and penalty clauses came into effect, too many rooms were too happy to give away huge amounts of margin to both the affiliate and their players through illegal deals, meaning that for above-board operators, gaining traction on large affiliate sites was a tough, if not impossible, task.
With the rise of rake races and rake chases further designed at crunching margins and giving even more value back to the high-raking winning playÂers, it meant there were insufficient funds available to focus on recruitÂing new, smaller and, dare we say it, losing players.
However, with parasitic skins now feeling the force of network fines, there has been a noticeable change of approach in both the commission offers and player promotions on leading affiliate sites.
With more pressure than ever on small rooms to conform or to conÂcede to the common ground, a semÂblance of both fairness and focusing on new players is now coming back to the market, which long-term, can only be a good thing for sustaining the future growth of revenues for both operators and affiliates.
Read EGR’s list of the top poker affiliates here or to read our Power 50 affiliates feature, click here. For more on affiliates, click the relevant tag on the news, blog or feature pages.
Gaming Media Group chief executive Crispin Nieboer is speaking at the 10.45-11.30 Spotlight on TV Gaming: Watch this space panel session on the second day of EGR Live, eGaming Review’s free conference and exhibition in London next month, alongside Endemol head of brand exploitation Jurian Van Der Meer, Netplay TV chief executive Martin Higginson and Clasen & Co named consultant David Clasen.