Quote:
Originally Posted by Sect7G
Good post and it deserves some answers... which you likely won't get.
From what I've gathered it seems that Party has a relationship with BRS (and perhaps other staking groups) where they get a ridiculously high rb% and perhaps a % of the buyin back under the agreement that their horses will fill up tourneys that are impending overlays.
The same agreement extends to Live Events as well... as John Duthie even stated on a podcast that if it looks close to an overlay they will pick up the phone and call people to play. The question was in line with questions about staking deals.
These types of relationships by Party are mainly due to setting ridiculously high guarantees on MTT's that their player base can't sustain long term. Party doesn't need gimmicks to grow and become market leader. They need good solid advertising and decent product offering and delivery.
Right now Stars is sitting on the sidelines waiting for Party to burn through their promotional spend and let themselves implode. They aren't firing back fighting for this player segment that is interested in 40 million Powerfest guarantees.
The reality is this player group isn't loyal. They are loyal only to the point that it serves them. If Party were to hold a shareholders meeting and the plug was pulled and Party reverted back to how they were 2 years ago would there really be player outrage? I don't think so, and certainly not to the extent that that there was dedicated towards Pokerstars during the Amaya years as cuts kept coming. The difference is players had brand loyalty to Stars and it hurt them on an emotional level when Stars started trimming the fat/cow. The same wouldn't occur with Party.
Yo Sect, I usually really value your posts, but I think you're wrong here.
I don't know when you started playing poker, but when I started (pre2006), PartyPoker was the biggest site. They had unlimited reload boni, the highest played games (FLHE back then) etc. There definitely was brand recognition and people were suuper upset when UIGEA hit and Party deliberately withdrew from the US market.
The main difference is that a) time has passed and people have forgotten, and b) back then, people had good alternatives! (namely Stars and FTP who did not withdraw)
Looking back, what happened? Stars was sold to a locust company who is turning this once great brand into trash the same way they did with OnGame (google it), first draining profits and afterwards the assets. Eventually the now-empty shell will be sold. And FTP went completely bankrupt.
Maybe withdrawing was actually the right decision, even when people back then hated it. Now Party sees an opportunity and found new owners/managers who are willing to spend some money going after it. Ofcourse loyalty and brand recognition is
not yet what Stars had - but that's the point! You won't be able to take over market domination without spending some money first. Stars did the same thing with their SNE loyalty program around the time UIGEA happened.
It's insane to me that you people think there isn't enough capital behind those decisions - have you ever looked up what kind of capital bought into Party recently?
Also, Stars is not waiting things out. They simply don't care about the poker segment, and they have publicly said so. They're effectively a casino/sportsbetting site now, by design. Even if/when Party is gonna be successful and take over huge market shares from Stars' poker segment (and let's be clear here, that's what they're, quite successfully so far, attempting), Stars will not change or counter-attack. It's not in their mission statement.
We should be glad that another company with long-term vision (see UIGEA) sees the (again, long-term) opportunities presenting itself with other companies slacking off or deliberately abandoning this part of their product.
Once/If PartyPoker takes over domination over Stars again - which as things are going is just a matter of time - the loyalty and name recognition will automatically come with it.
You're oldschool, you should know to be patient and let things run out with some perspective.