Rakefree sites

[Tater10]

With CardCrusade one of the hotter topics as of late, why is this plan not possible:

* Get a skin on pokerroom / UB / Prima
* charge $X.99 per month
* Payback 100% of the rake that skin gets (obviously Prima/UB/PR would get their cut) back to their players.

I'm assuming (big asumption) that sites such as hollywood poker get a decent cut of the rake they generate. If the plan takes off, maybe it would send a message to current sites to offer an $X.99 per month plan.

[MickyTheFish]

(Disclosure - I work for CardCrusade.com)

It only really makes sense for the player if you cut out the middleman (skin) and get the poker room offering the $X.99 package. Otherwise the players is paying at least 2x the margins that they should pay.

Say for instance the skin gets 50% and you pay $20/month. Now let’s assume you can find a rake-back scheme of about 40% for the same poker room. That means you need to generate a minimum of $200/month in rake to break even. Most people won’t even consider making a move to a new service unless they are multiple times better off, so let’s suggest only players generating $400 or more would consider it. That severely limits the likely players through your skin.

Also, in the end, all you are doing is creating a more aggressive rake-back scheme, something I’m certain the rake-back sites will be doing on their own accord.

Now consider the fact that poker site you skin is based on is taking 50%*$400 = $200 per month! So you are paying $220 for a service which we at CardCrusade.com think should be priced at $15 to $25 all in.

Even at $15 to $25 all in, our biggest challenge when we start to market the service will be to convince people that it makes them hugely better off!

BTW thanks for mentioning that CardCrusade.com is one of the “hotter” topics, I hope that is because the service offering is compelling and/or the players want alternatives – something we want to supply!

Micky The Fish

[Tater10]

I agree it would be a "glorified" rake back program. I am just trying to think of a way to squeeze in the concept of an $X.99 per month on an established site.

I'm all for a true rakefree online poker. Very best of luck with cardcrusade!