Am I missing something huge here?

Betfair is offering a 550usd sat to win a 24kusd package. This package includes:

Each Betfair $24,000 package includes:

* $20,700 buy-in to the WSOP Europe Main Event
* $3,300 to cover Expenses (to cover accommodation and flights)
* Access to the exclusive Betfair Players Lounge
* A Betfair goody bag
* A prize pool of over £4,000,000
* VIP Ticket collection in Players Lounge


The buyin to the main event is 10,500GBP though which as of today converts to:

Live rates at 2008.09.06 17:33:56 UTC
10,500.00 GBP=18,567.15 USD
United Kingdom Pounds United States Dollars
1 GBP = 1.76830 USD 1 USD = 0.565515 GBP

So where is this extra 2k and change going?





It's even worse on Poker Stars. For the high roller SNG sat it is a 20 person 2,000+100usd buyin and the prize pool only pays out one place for the 20kGBP seat. 20kGBP is only 35,365usd !!! So what is PS doing with the other 5k???


I sent an email to Stars and as of yet have had no response. Can someone help with this? I want to play some of the sats!

It's obviously tough to design a satellite like this because of the foreign currency. I think when the satellites were created the exchange rate was pretty perfect as is. But I agree, it needs to be changed now. AFAIK stars actually gives you the extra money but I could be wrong.

For perspective, on July 1, the UK Pound was almost worth 2 USD, which would make it closer to that $20,700 figure.

http://www.xe.com/ict/

For Aussie Millions 2007, FTP refunded satellite winners some amount based on currency adjustment while we were in Australia.

In fact, the £ was $1.97 on 1st August so it's dropped 10% in little over a month.

Stars EPT qualifiers are just as bad. I emailed stars about how much value I had lost on my $16.7K EPT Barca package (currently losing ~$1500) and how their EPT London $14.6K package was not good value. They emailed me back basically saying "tough luck".

Stars will pocket 10-15% extra profit on all their EPT Qualifiers and they refuse to do anything about it. It really is a rip-off, but what can we, as players, do about it?

The only thing I can do if boycott their qualifiers, but then how do I get into the EPT Events that I want to play.

Such a shame given how much profits stars is already making and how EPT is so good for their marketing.

Sigh

If the currencies had moved in the opposite direction, would those of you who won a seat a while back be willing to pay the difference to Stars? I doubt it. And if they change the $ amount taken out of the prize pool now, the people who won seats earlier at the higher rate will complain. I think their decision to set a price and stick with it throughout the period that they are running satellites is a reasonable one. By setting the price, Stars is agreeing to assume the risk that the currency will move against them, and in exchange they benefit if the currency moves in their favor (unless they are hedging).

1. Play a large prize-pool tournament. There are one or two tonight
2. Win more than $15K or whatever the package was
3. Buy in to EPT of your choice.

Stars has STILL not emailed me back.

This.

The solution is for them to update the currency daily and lock in those rates for that specific satellite.

If the rate when you play your satellite is 1.85 then thats the rate they should use. Winning a sat or buying your seat outright should be treated the same way. Anyone who buys their seat that day at a rate of 2.0 when the actual rate is 1.85 is going to to feel as though they are getting ripped off. Why should playing a satellite be any different?

I bought in at harrahs with an extra chip i had lying around, i've lost 2k already on my buyin

Obviously this would make perfect sense if the online site was running the live tournament, and/or had the ability to purchase seats in the market on a daily basis. But I don't know the mechanics of how an online site goes about buying the seats for its satellites to WSOPE, which is run by Harrah's. If due to limited availability of seats the sites were required to purchase their seats in advance from Harrah's, it may be that the sites are simply charging the price they paid (which is the opposite of what I assumed in my first post, which is that the sites were buying the seats at the beginning of the event). Why anyone would play in the sats after the currency has moved so much is a separate issue. Obviously if no one does and the sites have already purchased the seats, they will be forced to reduce their prices to put them more in line with current exchange rates.

QFT, why are people so idiotic to nto realize the most basic **** ever....

Yeah I mean I'm of course not going to play any of the sats it's just annoying because there is often good value in the 2k SNGs and now they are unplayable.

i emailed Stars about this last week, the response was along the lines of 'policy is to put up the packages and not change them later - if it goes the other way we get screwed. No changes will be made. etc.'

Amazing what happens when the US$ stops being the currency of choice for the world.

To be fair to Betfair (see what I did there?), I won one of 21 seats in the Mega Satellite and we all receved far more expenses cash than advertised. Betfair obviously paid the entrance free out of the $24K then gave us the "change" (more than advertised because of the dollar rally) in our respective currencies.

Except it's a strengthening dollar that's causing all the complaints.

This sort of problem is going to happen anytime these sites have to deal in multiple currencies. I think the only solution that would be fair to everyone is to create multiple currency accounts and run satellites in euros, but I don't know how feasible this is.