Quote:
Originally Posted by looshle
their days were numbered? if they managed the company and money correctly, they'd be in the same boat as Stars, most likely the 2nd biggest site in the world. With the right decisions, they'd be doing fine, the people calling the shots just abused it and ruined it's chances to thrive.
Absorb the following:
1) FTP is owned by U.S. Citizens through a series of shell corporations, Stars has a single majority owner.
2) FTP was a late comer to the poker arena and wasn't profitable until well-after UIGEA went into affect and a mass of U.S. players migrated to their site. Stars was profitable long before UIGEA because they were the ones who put Moneymaker on the map and created the poker BOOM.
3) FTP had affiliate/rakeback programs to draw players to their site (and the ****tiest in the industry at that) while Stars had NO rakeback/affiliate programs = less profit
4) FTP was being heavily advertised on U.S. cable and OTA programming flaunting U.S. lawmakers and prosecutors = less profit, litigation to ensue
5) FTP was very heavily aligned towards a U.S. playerbase (see #2) and once losing that market, they were still #2 because the net affect of UIGEA, but over time their traffic would diminish as players moved to more profitable sites (better rakeback, no pending litigation).
6) The DOJ was sending FTP notices to cease and desist from U.S. operations. FTP ignored it and knew the legal consequences, therefore they kept cashflow to a minimum
FTP's business model was capped and with no plausible revenue growth, it makes it a poor business investment. The withdrawal of these two poker sites from the U.S. market is negatively affecting OTHER sites who never serviced U.S. players. There's less money to travel throughout the poker economy.
The owners of FTP profited quicker and better by using this model gambling against the long-term forecast. Because when regulation ensues, FTP and Stars would no longer be the major players in the U.S. market anyway, the casinos would.
Those are the facts, wake up and smell the roses, and stop looking at everything so myopically