Current Problems WIth Pokerstars VIP/Supernova Program And Suggestions

[chezlaw]

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Agree with the FPP flexibility point. Not so much on giving out stuff free.

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B&M Casinos gives stuff tho their best customers all the time, and online poker players are often bigger customers than B&M customers. While they don't neccesarily have to give every one of their $200k/y customers a car for no points, it would have been a nice gesture (plus good business) to have one as a race to 3 million points. Think how much money they could have made by saying: "First to 3M points gets it for free; If you aren't first don't worry, you can use your points to buy it anyways." The whole FPP system creates a feeling of having this currency that you have to think about spending on what. When that currency is only amounting to 28% rebate it puts Stars at a real comparitive disadvantage compared to players on Party who are getting close to 33% straight up cashback right now. Stars, for a cost that they'd easily recoup by increased business, could be sending people all kinds of free stuff that they don't need to think about whether they want to use points or not for. Let me think about what I want to spend my 28% (or in my case, only 20% as I've played tons and tons and tons and am still only Platinum) rakeback on, but surprise me with some A's playoff tickets in the mail or a trip to Hawaii, or a weekend in the Bahamas with a $1k tournament entry. They could easily be rebating people premiums like that for just an extra 10% of people's rake and you'd have the whole industry playing on Stars. People like getting stuff that really feels free, and when you have to spend FPPs, it doesn't feel free.


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I disagree with that. I don't want suprise gifts that I may not want or be able to use. Please suprise me with bonus FPP's

Gifts to attract new players is a great idea but the serious vips want agreed fair reward. If rakeback isn't possible then the flexible FPP system is fine with me. The only big isue is the rate which is low at the moment. A new tier or two is a great idea.

BTW Stars have given special benefits to there VIPS, during the 5 billion hand bonanza the prizes were increased for vips I won one and think I got an extra 40% for being platinum.

Just in case these thread seem to be knocking stars. I [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] stars.

chez

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Fine, then offer an alternative of 25% of the cash value of the award as a cash bonus or something. The fact is people want things to feel free, and under the current system they don't feel free. It's also something that can help the smaller volume player.

Currently, if someone plays 40 $114 tournament per month they gross Stars $360. This is barely silverstar level. That means they earn somewhere between 1800-2700 FPPs per month or roughly $29-$43 in value. That's just not going to get the casual player excited about playing more, particularly if he feels he's just burning those FPP's in longshot satellite tournaments for much smaller stakes than his average game. If they budgeted another 10% in premium items for the guy, they could send him a new book every month just for being a good player, or a $30 dinner for two at Friday's, or put players like that in a category and send 1 out of 6 of them an ipod nano.

I'd love to see an extra 10% in FPP's awarded, but quite frankly I see the value of just doing some sort of promo giveaways with that 10% as far more enticing to attract casual players, and to get casual players to play more. And the value of casual players playing more than the irritation of getting a poker book that I already have, or a weekend in Cabo San Lucas that I may not want or be able to use.

Make people feel like high rollers, and they'll act like high rollers. Just think of the business they would get if they had a monthly vacation, with no FPP redemption required. Simply clear $10,000 in a rake (or the FPP equiv.) over ANY period of time and select from a $1000 pokerstars vacation package or some Bose speakers. Clear $2,000 in rake and play a satellite vs others where 1 in 5 win...They could get good value by getting NBA/NHL/MLB luxury boxes and just giving people trips to games and stuff that didn't require redemptions.

Seems like a 10% risk in their revenue is worth the risk to get at the middle limit casual players they are desperate for. Imagine where all the casual 10/20,15/30 and $50+ SNG players on Party would play if they knew for the same amount of play they could get some FPPs to do with what they wish and some primo tickets to the game or a trip to somewhere cool every few months.

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I agree with that, gifts, special promos targeted at new players and low/medium volume players makes great sense. Chuck a few at the high volume players as well by all means.

Platinum, supernova and hopefully higher levels need fair volume discounts. Its in stars interest as well because its costs them a lot when we play elsewhere (and we do).

I'm very happy to pay Stars a premium over other sites because they are so much better to deal with, support and decent software costs money. At the moment the premium seems excessive.

chez