Power affiliates 2011 - poker

CardsChat.com
Founder/Principal: n/a
Domains: CardsChat.com
80,000-strong English language poker community founded in 2004, with bonus portals in three European languages also driving traffic in those territories. Also runs PokerSites.co.uk.

Donkr
Founder/Principal: Robin Eirik Reed
Domains: Donkr.com
Dominant Norwegian-based poker community, recently merged its WSOP.nu and Pokergoo.com forums into its Donkr domain.

EveryPoker/ Poker.org
Founder/Principal: Markus Sonermo
Domains: Everypoker.com; Poker.org; Rakeback.org; Insidebet. com; Loyalty.net; Blackjack.org; Craps.net
Poker Company.com-owned family of portals now spearheaded by Poker.org, for which it paid US$1m by auction in February 2010, the largest price paid for a dot.org domain to date.

Igrach.com
Founder/Principal: Stamen Gortchev, owner
Domains: Igrach.com
Successful Bulgarian poker community founded in early 2006 which dominates its home market, and encouraged Poker Heaven and Poker Channel owner Gaming Media Group to purchase a 49% stake in the portal in late 2009.

Pokerisivut
Founder/Principal: Mikko Hirvonen
Domains: Pokerisivut.com; Coinflip.com; Coinflip.nl
Finland-based Pokerisivut has successfully expanded its forum-centred model into new territories via English and Dutch-language versions of its Coinflip.com brand, and Danish-facing Texaspoker.dk. CEO Hirvonen is
chair of the Finnish Poker Association.

Poker Listings
Founder/Principal: N/A
Domains: PokerListings.com; Casinoguide.com; Rakebrain.com
With significant holdings across casino and sports betting, Rock Intention NV-owned PokerListings can also stake a claim to being the largest single gambling affiliate business in the sector.

Poker News
Founder/Principal: Damon Rasheed; Tony G
Domains: PokerNews.com; PokerWorks.com; PokerAffiliateWorld.com; NeverWinPoker.com
One of the poker Big Three alongside PokerListings and PokerStrategy.com. Global network of content and community sites localised in 25 languages and driving high volumes of poker player traffic around the globe.

PokerPT.com
Founder/Principal: Joao Manuel Nunes
Domains: PokerPT.com; Americanflop.com; Pokerdobrasil.com; Poker10.com
Founded by professional basketball players Juan Carlos Barros and João Manuel Nunes, La Coruña, Spain-based Hastoplay’s network spans 28 sites in seven languages across Spain, Portugal and South America. Has partnerships with PokerNews in Spain and Portugal and with PokerWorks in Brazil.

Poker Source/PokerNewsDaily
Founder/Principal: Michael Jackness; Adam Small
Domains: Pokersource. com; PokerNewsDaily.com; TheNuts.com; PokerBonuses.com; PocketFives; MacPoker.com
Protos Marketing-owned network of portals developed from PokerSource.com, founded in 2004, which collectitvely employ more than 60. Recently merged its RakeBreak and ThisIsTheNuts portals under TheNuts banner.

Rakeback.com
Founder/Principal: Mika Ollila, founder
Domains: Rakeback.com
Former professional poker player Mika Ollila first entered the rakeback market in 2004, and the Antigua-headquartered brand with the strongest domain in its niche works globally with a spread of US-facing and European operators.

RakeTheRake.com
Founder/Principal: Karim Wilkins, CEO
Domains: RakeTheRake.com; Rakeback.co.uk; PokerLoyaltyPrograms.com; EnglishPokerOpen.com
English-language rakeback giant with a network of 700-800 domains and generating more than US$100m in rake on an annual basis. The sponsor of the English Poker Open made approx £6m profit in 2008/09, the last set of publicly available figures.

Q&A affiliate focus
PokerStrategy.com
Founder/Principal: Dominik Kofert, CEO
Domains: PokerStrategy.com, with sub-domains for 18 other language sites.
Monthly income: no public figures but known to be minimum seven figures a month. Active player days, or real money activity in a room via an affiliated account, up 36% on six months ago to +1.8m a month.
Monthly traffic: More than 100m page views per 30-day period.
Conversion (registration to depositors): 4.5 million members, one million real-money players.
Quality of traffic: Ranked on Google only for brand-related keywords. Traffic generated from
word of mouth, high retention and revisits. Most high-value players visit 90+ days out of 100.

eGR: Which development has most defined your space over the past 12 months?

DK: The rakeback model is losing value, a process started two, two-and-a-half years ago. The trend is towards sites with a proper mix of campaigns aimed at recruiting new players rather than just moving existing players from A to B. This increases the significance and business value of any business that helps broaden offering, whether through news, content or video.

eGR: What has been instrumental in this continuing shift away from rakeback?

DK: Full Tilt took the initiative last year, cutting commissions to rakeback affiliates. iPoker also designed its system to hit the mass market and that hit rakeback affiliates quite strongly. But it was most rakeback heavy on Full Tilt, providing 70-80% of revenues to some affiliates. Full Tilt also adjusted its rake allocation system, moving from the dealt method to contributed, all part of a trend towards recruiting recreational players away from fighting for the same VIPs by offering the highest rakeback percentage.