The Poker Affiliate Blog

Its been a while since my last post… so here goes.

The last week has been pretty productive. I’ve got a ton of content done for the new site(s), purchased some great domains and locked down some amazing exclusive deals with some big sites (all while keeping the usual day to day ticking over and recruiting some new players).

So I’m fairly pleased. I actually made a mind map of where I see the company going in the future (the .com market is diminishing and its my view that affiliates will need to become localised as the sites do. Anyway that’s for another time!).

I’ve decided I want to get out of Edinburgh. Its an amazing city but, I never went away to uni and am almost 21. I need to see the world, meet new people and experience new things.

I know a few people in Barca and hopefully, can get a decent grasp on Spanish before I go.

Its not a case that I love Barcelona (I’ve not even been there before) but, if I can be anywhere in the world why should it be the UK ? and Barcelona seems like a fairly decent place to start.

In 12 months or so I aim to get an office and have a full time creative on board. I do not want to setup an office in Edinburgh. I’d feel that would be locking me down for life.

While im away I hope to play a lot of Squash (which should help me meet people) and maybe continue my uni degree or transfer over my uni credits to an Open university degree so at least I’ll scrape an undergrad degree sometime.

Anyway, I need to get away and do something different. It will be great for the business if I’m hanging out with 9-5ers or whatever the equivalent is there. At the moment my body clock is shot to pieces and ofcourse its my own doing however, in order for me to keep a different one I’d need to find a completley new group of mates which I don’t want to do. Its just the student lifestyle here and I’m looking for something a little different.

Anyway, I’m looking into a 1 on 1 Spanish tutor and looking to get started next week. I was thinking each day next week I have an hour of Spanish followed by 1 hour of Squash and although each day I’d be spending £50, it would get me doing something. At least some of my money would actually be improving my life and making me do these things – which is what I need.

Anyway, I got a few nice topics lined up to post about in the next few days so keep checking back !

Also the background should be changing soon to make it easier for you guys to read.

I’ve got to confess I’ve not been working as hard as I should have been recently. I feel pretty guilty about it, just this feeling I don’t deserve the business to still be running almost. Then again maybe the wheels will fall off in a few months and punish me for it.

I’m (like a lot of people) very good at talking anc coming up with ridiculous concepts but, putting them into action is a different game. I love making deals, getting subs on board and generally setting the direction the business is taking. For example at the moment; Offerring new rooms, extending the 2+2 ad campaign and becoming more localised – we will have a seperate version of the site for a number of territories although it may not be under the same brand name. I guess adding more rooms seems kinda obvious and not really a directional decision but, I felt iPokerVIP originally carried more weight as a company specialising in iPoker. Rather than bombing in like every other affiliate trying to hit the mainstream and saying ‘we are just like the big guys, we offer everything and don’t have a fucking clue what we’re talking about’. IPokerVIP’s lack of choice or maybe wealth of choice on the iPoker network (maybe not) was a USP.

Anyway the site getting redesigned is really exciting and I guess looking at the test version and the current site makes me feel that the current site doesn’t cut it at all. Too much info hitting people, too small and its just not quite in the same league as the other guys.
The new site will (like the original) blow the competitors out of the water in terms of the value and I fully expect another uproar somewhere. This time the people trying to damage iPokerVIP will have even less credibility and hopefully I’m more laid back about it.

New ads willl be appearing on 2+2 and for like £200 a month I regret not freshening them up for the last 3 months. 2p2 is expensive but, if I’ve got someone manning the forum who is personable and good at what they do, along with good offers and a reliable brand name I think iPokerVIP could be going mainstream very soon.

The New banners are going to be pretty unique. They’re going to contain the bonus code for exclusive offers. Obviously I will be starting with VC Poker and one of the slides of the banner will say ‘Highest VIP Level at VCPoker Instantly. Enter: IPOKERVIP at VCPoker.com’ I don’t thnk an affiliate has ever done this before and it will be interesting to see how it does as a part of an iPokerVIP banner. Another frame on the banner will contain my; MSN, Email and Skype. Its differet anyway !

Anyways looking forward to all of this and more !

Tags: Deal, iPoker News, iPokerVIP.net, online, Playtech, poker, vcpoker, victor chandler, vip

Feel like I’m on a roll with the updates. Firstly, I’d like to say F U iPoker for their software at the moment. Its totally unacceptable for a company worth in excess of $1bn and one that is meant to take poker seriously. You can bet their casino software has far less downtime. Anyway, I’ve been hit like everyone and so far its probably cost me $2k which is really beginning to piss me off.

Anyway, with that off my chest.. let’s get into the post.

I’m 20 and a few of my ‘friends’ from school are now graduating from uni’s in England (3 year courses, Scotland is a 4 year course). A few of them are coming out with 1st class degree’s from Oxford and Cambridge and its pretty sobering for me. One in particualr who I used to be good friends with is set for Harvard Law after getting the best mark for law in his college at Cambridge. There is no doubt he will have worked like mad and certainly deserves the recognition for it.

Its pretty scary though. 3 years ago I had identical grades (arguably better in some ways; Best mark in Scotland for Philosophy and for my history dissertation and a more rounded CV – I used to play a lot of Squash and was in the top 5 in Scotland) but, didn’t get into Oxford. I think I was just too young and in reality didn’t want it as much as these guys. I stayed at a friends before the interview, ended up drinking and making myself pretty ill. I didn’t treat them like I did my Squash or this business.

Now, 3 years have past and there is a huge gulf in the way our lives will pan out. That’s okay because we’re different people but, its just a wake up call.

I’m genuinley happy for him because hard work should be rewarded. My only reservation is that I feel I should have and could have done a lot better academically with my grades.

I kind of think golf is a good analogy for life. Its not like tennis or squash where I’m playing against someone. Sure there are other people on the course; there are tiger woods’ and complete amateurs but, all I can strive for is to be the best I can be, watch these people and learn from the routes they’ve decided to take. I’m not against this guy at all, I just believe (when we were younger at least) I was academically in the same league as him he just had a different mentality.

What is reassuring is that we actually have the same ends. I think people go into further education for 3 reasons;

1. Intrinsic interest for the subject they’re studying. These people are academics.
2. Uni as a continuation of school qualifications – considered obligatory. A box that needs to be ticked with a 2:1 showing they’re suitable for employment. This, I guess makes up the majority of students.
3. Uni as a ‘time to shine’. To set yourself away from the field. Using the connections and impressive qualification as a means to acquire wealth and social status.

This guy is number 3 and he wants the same end that I do. He just believes he can achieve it with less risk or gain x value more times out of 10 via his chosen path than mine. The sad thing is, looking at it logically, its true. Dropping out of uni (what I did orignally when I did Law at Edinburgh) to start a business was retarded in terms of expected value. 1 in 100 times it might become successful… the rest I’ll be stuck.

Anyway, apologies for this post being slightly self indulgent. The nice thing is that when something like this happens we should be happy someone we know has shown us what we are capable of. Its not about people being better than you, its about you seeing someone become the best they can be, the optimal version of themselves and attempting to emulate that.

Tags: Business, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Graduation, Harvard, poker, Uni

What Can We Learn From The Recent Developments in France ?

All the major players have been fiercly contesting the new French market.
BWIN, Party, Chili, PokerStars are some of the sites that have successfully secured French licences.  These companes are ofcourse pressuring the authorities to get rid of the black market operators such as FTP to give them the best chance to make money for the French government.

In my honest opinion France is too small to merit so many licencees and the battle will be fought on liquidity. Once player’s realise there is better traffic and a better selection of games at one room in particular its going to be tough for the others to claw their way back. Its very interesting because France is a blank canvas and it will be interesting if Pokerstars can utilise their superior player base to get an early lead.

Personally, I believe the networks have the best chance of acculmulating decent traffic early doors which may propell them into the lead.

The one certain thing is that France is definitley worth watching becausethe fight that is being fought now will be happening in territories all over the world in the coming few years. Other governments will not be able to resist the opportunity of another income stream but, need to be careful not to take too much out of the poker ecosystem and bring the game in their country to a premature end.

Tags: France, online, poker, poker legistlation

For a while I haven’t understood why America haven’t monetized online poker. Ofcourse people state ‘politics’ as the reason with the bible belt likely to heavily oppose any attempt at legislation. On the other hand every President seems to pass things that are a lot more objectionable and the longterm effect isn’t particuarly detrimental; Abortion, War in Iraq, Afghanistan … Someone more informed than me could probably come up with a very impressive list of things the American govt. have done to offend the Bible belt.

Cash is King however, especially in the Land of the free where everything has a price. PPA representatives kid themselves Stars is constantly months away from a licence and that the US government can’t turn away the oppurtunity to instantly monetize Star’s volume of traffic.

Although the tax implemented by the Government on Stars would likely be more costly than their current expenditure on payment processors its tough to see Stars turning the opportunity down.

It is well documented their would be an uproar from the land based operators who have been paying hundreds of millions every year and no doubt have a good relationship with the right people.

We’ve established why licensing Stars maybe controverisal but, why are we not seeing Harrah’s Poker or Party Poker USA yet ? Surely they’re turning away millions in tax every month that goes on ?

The name of the game for the US is to monetize poker as effectivley as possible.

Licenced rooms entering the American market now would definitley have their traffic canibilized by Stars. Once players became remotley educated and realised there was another site with; Far higher liquidity, better games, better software and most importantly lower rake it would become a no brainer.

Liquidity is #1 in online poker. You can have the best software, bonuses and customer service but, without a good selection of games its going to be near on impossible to attract a good amount of players. Companies such as Victory Poker just didn’t appreciate this and thought generic branding and shitloads of money would be enough to get them through – it wasn’t.

Case Study France: France now has several licenced rooms such as; Pokerstars, Party and Chilli. FTP haven’t applied for a licence and can offer far greater traffic than the exclusively French facing licencees. They can’t advertise in France however, the majority of semi-serious French players on Stars have jumped to FTP, not PokerStars.Fr .Realistically there is little the French govt can do apart from block FTP (which will take several months and will still be accessible via VPN). Ofcourse FTP don’t stand much of a chance of getting a licence now but, I doubt they ever wanted one.

So, to conclude: The USA are going to slowly hurt Stars and FTP’s liquidity to make their licences worth more to the buyer and to them in terms of tax revenue.

Tags: America, Illegal, Legal, legislation, online, Party Poker, poker, Pokerstars

If anything merits a post on this blog its my support thread for iPokerVIP.net which has been live for about 48 hours. If you have half an hour give it a read. Its interesting for sure no matter how the debate ends.

Read The Thread Here

Firstly, I need to express my gratitude to all those who have supported me throughout the thread. It means a lot that people can understand my point of view and trust me as an affiliate. I will continue to give absolute best to all my players and anyone working with me. Thanks again !

The thread has affirmed my belief that iPokerVIP.net can be a genuine competitor when it comes to deals on the iPoker network. On the thread there are a series of extremely successfull affiliates all worth several million who feel the need to debunk my business. Regardless of what they’re saying or their tactics I’ve got respect for all these guys who are undoubtedly great entrepreuners. All starting successful companies from scratch. If any of them come accross this post I’d love to chat and learn from you sometime. No matter what is said on that thread or concerning the companies I have no ill feelings at all.

The basic argument running throughout the thread from the likes of PokerAddict, Karim and a few other affiliates hiding behind new accounts is that if the deals on iPokerVIP.net are legal why is nobody else doing it ? and as an after thought if they are they will come and crush me. I will have a small time advantage and its not as if my offers can’t outgo theirs.
PokerAddict actually used to own the affiliate site RakeRebateReview.com which you can view here (as it was seen in ’06 or whenever).

I think its a great idea and myself am working on: CompareTheRake.Com which I think has a lot of potential (one of these sites should take off right !?).

My argument for the legitimacy of the deals was simple. Deals working the exact same way already exist. They’re just not as aggressive.

The deal offered on iPokerVIP.net for VC poker is a simple VIP upgrade and a 1st deposit bonus. This coupled with The Poker Olympics and the fact its legal is a huge deal and will reward VC greatly.

Here is a link to RTR’s partner site PokerLoyaltyPrograms. For Circus Poker (An iPoker skin) they offer a first deposit bonus, reload bonus and VIP upgrade. The only problem is that the VC deal represents higher value.
The way that value manifests itself is identical.

If I’m told that iPokerVIP.net is illegal I will simply offer value in a way that is considered legal.
I’ll wire players $100 when they deposit $2k or more, huge deposit bonuses, monthly reload bonuses, races, a store on my site, a point system on my site.. the possibilities are endless. As a concept iPokerVIP.net is healthy and I’ve got great belief in it.

Karim also claimed that the Will Hill deal consisted of a race, first deposit bonus and the standard VIP program and is therefore nothing like my deal. Wheras my deal offers a VIP upgrade + a VIP points chase.

The PLP website clearly states “Exclusive PLP VIP status – Contact us for full details” (More)

Logically this can only mean 2 things; a) They are misrepresenting their deal on PLP b) They are lying about the nature of their deal with WH to cover their back.

Thankfully RTR have published a table concerning their rake race with screenames included.

Some noteable names on the leaderboards include;  WON2FREE4FIVE , burzen and Gurl2

Here are the standings in the WH race at the moment

The majority of this table is made up from serious rakeback grinders or winning players who would not settle for the combination of the WH program and race alone which would net them a pretty slim return compared to so many of the other accessible deals out there. Its just unbelieveable.

One thing for sure is that the thread has generated a ton of publicity which won’t be bad as long as the iPokerVIP.net’s legitimacy is recognised.

I’m asking myself why I did this now but, its just nature. Always want more and always try to be better. I want a career in this industry and a reputable company with above board deals. So I guess that’s the reason. A lot of people would have stayed quiet and I know of a few who are far more successful than me who are just happy to do the underground thing and keep quiet. Eventually that is going to have to stop and I want my business on paper. Maybe one day I’ll want to sell it, or merge with another company (If they’ll take me after this) and it would put me in a much stronger posistion.

I’ve been nailed a bit for the blog which in hindsight was an awful business decision. There is no point in having a blog if its not to be open and that’s come back to bite me a bit on the thread. In a way its good though becuase it means I have to be accountable for my decisions and previous opinions.

I’m going to try and remain as straight forward and up front when posting here and won’t be deleting the blog or editing any posts (lets face it. This thing was saved onto people’s hard drives hours ago !)

Jamie

Tags: iPoker News, ipoker vip, iPokerVIP.net

Saw a small article on pg6 of the financial times today about online poker and how NY State were going after Team FTP. Apart from all of them being in court a kinda funny image its a sign the future isn’t going to get any easier for ftp or stars.

Firstly, it stated the FBI had been collecting evidence about the company. Basically determining ownership. Secondly, the article claimed some investigatory body (I don’t think it was FBI though) established FTP was used to faciliatate money laundering.

It went on to point out NY state had successfully shutdown a payment processor, made another pay a fine and was looking to take a much harsher stance now evidence had been compiled.

So in a selfish sense as an affiliate who has nothing whatsoever to gain from FTP or Stars success I’m pretty happy.

Although the idea of FTP facing what will be (if implemented) strong reprecussions you should remind yourself the reason FTP and Stars have propspered for the last few years is because they decided to circumnavigate laws concerning payment processing and interpret the wire act and the UIGEA differentley to everyone else.

There are tons of Euro sites who decided not to operate in the USA and the reprecussions possibly faced by FTP and Stars are simply an eventually they certainly factored into their business plan.

That being said its going to be a while before anything happens. My guess is that more payment processors will be shut down and that will lead to a small dent in traffic in the short term.

Who knows

Tags: ftp, full tilt poker, Howard Lederer, legislation, online, poker, Pokerstars, UIGEA

Noble poker recently announced that it was ceasing to give ‘loyalty’ payments. This just means rakeback. I’ve actually forgotton the reasons behind it but there were a few of them something like; Win/Loss ratio and the fact Noble is owned by Party and they felt Noble was actually kind of hurting Party. Anyway it obviously wasn’t +ev for them.

Although I can’t offer under the table deals publically its pretty incredible the amount of people that come to find me after this happens. I mean there are a not of new players looking around for deals and its amazing they manage to find new deals especially completley unadvertised ones such as mine.

It got me thinking that keeping stuff quite when it comes to under the table deals and hoping the skins I work with don’t cease them anytime soon is really the way forward. There is no real rush on that front, so long as I stay consistent the players will all eventually end up under me in someway or another.

On top of the new players a skin like Noble going down also presents a bigger opportunity. All their affiliates will be scrabbling about hoping this source of income doesn’t vanish into thin air. I can help them, set them up with a deal (possibly better than they had at Noble) within 24 hours, get a beautiful looking email out to all their players with the details and tracking link and help save their business. I’ve got 3 different Noble affiliates contact details who I will hopefully contact and propose this to. At the end of the day 1 of them is going to be an extra $1k a month minimum in my back burner so its really a worthwhile process.

What is more important than the cashflow is my power or assets and I really feel this is overlooked a lot. If I bring hundreds of players and several affiliates and am effectivley responsible for a good amount of MGR my posistion as an affiliate is so much stronger. I can negotiate better %s, move about and really have a lot of pulling power. For me its not all about the cashflow maybe one day I’ll want to sell the business. I don’t think I will becuase I’d be like a lost puppy but, who knows how I’ll feel in a year. I mean I’ve made a lot of friends through being an affiliate and obviously I want them to have the best – which I think is me :p and keep chatting to them so yeh maybe selling doesn’t look like an option yet.

Tags: affiliate, Cashback, iPoker News, Noble, Noble Poker, Online Poker, rake, Rakeback, RB, Skin

The last few months have been kind of shit for everyone. Player’s, affiliates, employees at skins and all of that. As each day went by it seemed iPoker fell further and further behind. Well for me anyway.

Anyway, some great changes are happening. April 1st see’s most the skins rolling out the new unbugged resizeable tables which have been talked about forever. April the 12th then see’s a timebank update, 30bb min tables and starting stacks in tournements to change.

You can see the new software on Betfred already but, its not the unbugged version and its obviously a significant improvement.

As for network traffic Titan now written T!tan has completley rebranded. The smaller skins have gone or are on their way out and the promos are getting bigger and better.

Along with the Poker Olympics on VC, iPoker running their own network wide promo in mid-april.

This is really a time of change considering how little was being done a few months back. Hopefully we can see iPoker reach the dizzying heights of 50k players online at some point. That would be awesome.

Obviously iPokerVIP would be the biggest affiliate on the network Can only dream.

Great news. VC is running $375k of races starting on April 5th. Hopefully, this rejuviantes the player base and shows them VC is the place to be.

The races are broken down over a few months, with different stakes and games having their own individual races.

It seems like a killer idea and will hopefully help all the affiliates involved so long as its advertised properly.

The value for the players too will be awesome.