So who thinks Party was on the ball?

[billmagnet]

Party was on the ball about one thing for sure: making sure their US customers were able to get their money the hell out of there.

[Botchman]

[ QUOTE ]
There's a 0% chance you are correct.

Party has a terrible reputation in Europe. And Mike Sexton is a nobody over here.

Pokerstars sponsor the most popular series of live tournaments in Europe, the EPT, and are renowned for their excellent customer service.

Stars will stay on top, although Ladbrokes will probably do very well too.

[/ QUOTE ]
I believe original poster put Fool in his name for reason, statements like this seem to explain it.

[NoMeansYes_]

Party might not have the best customer serivce and might not be the fastest at creating a better platform for their current players, but jesus christ are they good buisness people. Party will always be the biggest online poker site because they can see so much futher ahead then other sites.

[fatshaft]

[ QUOTE ]
There's a 0% chance you are correct.

Party has a terrible reputation in Europe. And Mike Sexton is a nobody over here.

Pokerstars sponsor the most popular series of live tournaments in Europe, the EPT, and are renowned for their excellent customer service.

Stars will stay on top, although Ladbrokes will probably do very well too.

[/ QUOTE ]By the end of February I expect to see Party back on top, on the first day of their current reload they actually went back over Stars in real money player numbers. They have also been rising for the past 3 weeks, while simultaneously Stars have dropped significantly.

Mike Sexton is as unknown to the man in the street as any other pro, but the WPT TV shows undoubtedly mean they will be more likely to recognise him over anyone else.

Stars may sponsor the EPT, but Party are everywhere, how many people watch the EPT, and how many watch Match of the Day? You will note Party are now moving into football ground trackside advertising. Party have always been excellent in the marketing division, that's what really matters, otherwise Pacific/888, another excellent marketeer, would have died at birth, with their worst software, worst CS, worst bonus programme combo, and yet they were a popular room.

Why do you think Ladbrokes will do well?

[Psy_Mike]

[ QUOTE ]
Party might not have the best customer serivce and might not be the fastest at creating a better platform for their current players, but jesus christ are they good buisness people. Party will always be the biggest online poker site because they can see so much futher ahead then other sites.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agree! Although in my experience their customer service is pretty much #2, next to Stars. The drawback are the India reps who can be hard to talk to sometimes, but as someone else already pointed out, I have never had a problem which takes more than a few hours to resolve (even account locks, withdrawal rejections or whatever). These things can be a nightmare on many sites, but Party always manages to fix things asap.

[MikeO/Party]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Party might not have the best customer serivce and might not be the fastest at creating a better platform for their current players, but jesus christ are they good buisness people. Party will always be the biggest online poker site because they can see so much futher ahead then other sites.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agree! Although in my experience their customer service is pretty much #2, next to Stars. The drawback are the India reps who can be hard to talk to sometimes, but as someone else already pointed out, I have never had a problem which takes more than a few hours to resolve (even account locks, withdrawal rejections or whatever). These things can be a nightmare on many sites, but Party always manages to fix things asap.

[/ QUOTE ]

Contrary to what you read on 2+2, 95% of our players feel the same way that you do. We arent perfect, we do make mistakes, but we are continually trying to improve that.

[fatshaft]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
There's a 0% chance you are correct.

Party has a terrible reputation in Europe. And Mike Sexton is a nobody over here.

Pokerstars sponsor the most popular series of live tournaments in Europe, the EPT, and are renowned for their excellent customer service.

Stars will stay on top, although Ladbrokes will probably do very well too.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is hilarious. As soon as Stars pulls out of the US, they will sink to the bottom. Party is maintaining 2/3 of Stars numbers on non US players alone...think about that for a second. And that's WITH all the regular Euros chasing the Americans at Stars.

Stars have shown themselves to be incompetent when it comes to marketing. The lack of a percentage based affiliate program is mind boggling. Over the past 4 years online poker has been fairly stable (no big shakeups) and they've managed to leech a lot of regular players from other sites by focusing on service and PR on forums like this one. But they don't stand a chance competing in the new markets vs Party's crack marketing team and large budget.

--------

OP - you are wrong about this being a "strategic" decision. The UIGEA made it risky for Party to continue servicing US players. As directors of a public company they made the only decision they could make IMO.

[/ QUOTE ]Not a million miles out Phil, I tend to roughly agree with that

[KingMedicine]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Party might not have the best customer serivce and might not be the fastest at creating a better platform for their current players, but jesus christ are they good buisness people. Party will always be the biggest online poker site because they can see so much futher ahead then other sites.

[/ QUOTE ]

Agree! Although in my experience their customer service is pretty much #2, next to Stars. The drawback are the India reps who can be hard to talk to sometimes, but as someone else already pointed out, I have never had a problem which takes more than a few hours to resolve (even account locks, withdrawal rejections or whatever). These things can be a nightmare on many sites, but Party always manages to fix things asap.

[/ QUOTE ]

Contrary to what you read on 2+2, 95% of our players feel the same way that you do. We arent perfect, we do make mistakes, but we are continually trying to improve that.

[/ QUOTE ]

i have always been one of the biggest party bashers over the years, but i do believe there is a lot of truth in the OP. maybe party wasnt the idiots we were all making them out to be. lets face it, while all the other sites are getting tons of pressure right now, and while all the other sites are squirming to try to hold things together right now, everything is smooth sailing over at party.

if i were a party rep right now id post in big fat letters "I TOLD YOU SO" to everyone that was party bashing over the past 6 months.

[Instyle007]

Online poker for Americans will never go away.

There are too many people who love it to leave it and move on completely. The casual player will continue to play and get money onto site via the numerous methods currently available and soon to come.

Poker has become America's favorite pastime. Some people will fall off but a majority of players including fish will continue to play. They see it on TV and the game is just too much fun to quit.

Land based casinos cannot compete with online sites in terms of game availability and ultra low stakes. The casual fish cannot afford to move offline. Compare an offline $1/$2 to online $0.05/$0.10.

Party will never again be #1. There's a reason why they focused on the US, it's where the real money is. Party will soon lose 2nd place to FTP for good and go farther down the list in the coming months.

They are good at spending money, but their marketing in general is very weak when compared to companies like FTP & Stars.

People will realize the level of CS offered is just horrible, the promotions are weak and in general they suck.

Those are my predictions.

[Neil S]

The problem with the original poster's thinking is that he seems to believe that cutting off US players would be prerequisite to shifting advertising funds to the European market.

That's obviously not the case, so no, they're not on the ball for that reason.