Shyam, was there any reason this post was ignored? You seemed to hand-pick a few posts and addressed those, while ignoring the rest. This topic has been brought up by not only myself, but also several other members in this thread.
The issue of keeping MTTs in their former pre-Black Friday timeslots is a pressing one and is one of the biggest reasons for the high overlay % in many guaranteed tournaments.
For a game with a niche player pool such as Omaha 8, it's even more important to get this right so that you give grinders a reason to play on your site going forward.
I do realize that it was a long post, so I've bolded some of the key points (see below). The importance of the issues should be ranked as follows:
1. Changing the schedule to be more Euro friendly (having every 2-4 hours earlier)
2. Adding a NLO8 RUSH MTT
3. Adding a $10+1 PLO8 rebuy (there currently isn't a single one on the schedule)
4. Adding a $5-$10 NLO8 rebuy with a sizable guarantee
5. Add a couple of super turbo NLO8 MTTs (300 or 500 starting stack), similar to the NLHoldem ones.
Quote:
Originally Posted by broken_jia
Nice job with the NLO8 additions. I believe you've added the following:
-daily $3.30 rebuy ($500 gtd)
-daily $26 3x chance ($1000 gtd)
-weekly $216 NLO8 with 6 max/9 max alternating
I think that there could be a few further improvements to the schedule. They are as follows:
-Add more rebuys to the schedule. These are extremely popular on Pokerstars except that they have these funky formats ($5 rebuy tourney with $25 addon, 3x turbo rebuy, etc). I think a regular "flagship" NLO8 rebuy with a decent guarantee ($8.80 rebuy at 12:00 FTP time with 1 hour late reg) would be very attractive.
-I also think that regardless of the time you put it, rebuys will do better because than a $20 freezeout because recreational players perceive the buyin to be less, even though it's effective the same on average. The $20 + $2 at 22:35 pretty much never runs. Replace that with a $5.50 NLO8 turbo rebuy and move to time 2 hours earlier with a small guarantee and see what transpires!
-Add a RUSH tournament. I think if you changed the $5.50 at 12:45 to a $11 + $2 KO RUSH MTT with a guarantee, you could do wonders with this tournament.
-Add a weekly $75 NLO8. Make it 2x or 3x change and add a guarantee, there will be demand.
Also, a PLO8 idea: I strongly believe that the schedule is missing a regular rebuy tournament. There is a RUSH late in the day at 17:45 and also a multi entry at 14:30, but those are not exactly rebuys. Try a $10 PLO8 rebuy at 11 AM with a small guarantee. Pokerstars has a $5.50 daily that generates on average a 3k prizepool. There is also a nightly $11+R that runs most of the times, attracting 50-100 players. If you think $10 is too big, $5.50 or $8.80 works just as well. If you want to be optimistic, a $26 rebuy would be sexy, as Pokerstars currently does not cater to this audience at that buyin level.
Hope that gives you some ideas to enhancing the schedule. I have more ideas, but don't want to bombard you with too much at the moment.
Lastly, I think this post paints a good picture of the current Omaha 8 economy. The current time caters well to the US players that would play as late as 2 AM local time, so those on the West coast would be online until 5 AM full tilt time.
With the aftermath of Black Friday, FTP's largest market is no longer North America, but Europe. I think it's important to move niche games (such as O8) to a more optimal time that caters best to their current player base. It would be wise to consider moving tournaments that start after 17:00 FTP time back 2-4 hours so that they are in-line with the time most Europeans are online. (move the $2.20 PLO8 at 17:45 back 2 hours and it will NEVER be cancelled)
As a Canadian, I'd much rather adjust my schedule to play in a 100 person tournament than play in a more favorable time with 35 players, with more regs. The only downfall to this would be the direct competition that you have with Pokerstars, as they have something like 20 NLO8/PLO8 MTTs during this time.
Cheers,