Friday, December 12th, 2008
A while ago a Pokeriot journalist managed to get hold of information about a large number of affiliates offering Betsson Rakeback even though Ongame obviously prohibit Rakeback. Betsson was allowed to answer the article and claimed that they were actively working to remove all rakeback offers on their affiliates sites.
It might seem like the kind of answer that any poker room would give on an article showing such obvious flaws but now a few months later most of the Rakeback offers have actually disappeared. There are still a few of the listed offers available but in most cases they are gone and in some the whole sites. We at Pokeriot can only applaud Betsson for taking care of the problem in a fast and professional way.
The question wether Ongames Policy is fair still stands though, even though Betsson are out of trouble this time. Is the Ongame Enviroment really Rakeback Free? Well, as long as poker rooms offer Revenue Share there will always be Rakeback in kind, it’s way to simple to start out as an affiliate and have your friends sign up through you, paying them a percent. If Ongame truly whishes to fight Rakeback, slapping fines on the rooms is not the answer, the answer is disabling Revenue share possibilites.
The truth is probably somewhere in between, rakeback is bad for the network in a lot of ways but not so bad that it would be worth it to remove rev-share. Like in most online games they just want to do enough to be able to say that there isn’t any cheating. They settle for saying we have a no-rakeback-policy so that they can attract bigger poker rooms that would lose money from smaller rakeback offering rooms.
Tuesday, October 7th, 2008
After the last article about Ongames unfair Rakeback Policy we got a lot of feedback. We thought that it was the right thing to do to let Betsson answer the statements in the article and here is the complete answer:
Betsson supports Ongame’s policy
As a hard working and serious gaming company, Betsson wants to point out its relation to Ongame and what we offer and do not offer our customers.
Betsson is an independent company which means that our agreement with Ongame as network is the same as every other operator in the network. This means that as Ongames states, Betsson is operating in a “rakeback free environment“ and have done from October 2007. The same goes for back to back bonuses.
We know that there have been affiliates working for us and giving out rakeback. As soon as this has come to our knowledge these affiliates have been suspended. In our aim to support Ongame to obtain the rakeback free environment, this is how we have to work.
Betsson wants to offer its customers a feeling of a high end product with a high level of service. This is how we attract and keep our customers.
Rumors about being an operator offering things to players that no other operator in the network does is not in line with how a serious betting company operates, and especially not Betsson. For other poker rooms in the Ongame Network Betsson therefore wants to clarify this by this article and explain that rumors are just rumors that have no real source.
We will together with Ongame proceed working for a “rakeback free environment” and are always open for new serious gaming companies in the network.
Tuesday, August 26th, 2008
The poker network Ongame Network use the selling point “Rakeback free enviroment“as an important argument towards new poker operators to choose Ongame Network as a supplier of their poker software. Ongame Network has over the last year enforced harsh punishments for poker rooms in their network that do not obey by their rakeback-rules and continue to offer rakeback deals directly to players or through affiliates.We believe that rakeback can be both good and bad for a poker room or network. One of the primary reasons used for implementing a “no rakeback policy” is because rakeback has a tendency to move players within a network from the poker rooms that do a lot of advertising to the ones offering the best rakeback-deals. Rakeback-rooms steal high-value players from the poker rooms that actually get new players to the network. Getting new players to a poker network is very important to keep a good liquidity of players and ultimately the survival of the poker network. In most networks it is the bigger poker rooms that do all the advertising and some smaller ones that offer rakeback. The situation in Ongame Network is funnily the opposite.Despite Ongame Network’s “no rakeback policy”, Betsson (one of the biggest poker rooms in the Ongame Network) are continuing to offer rakeback through several of their affiliates. Even though Ongame are strict with the other poker rooms, Betsson is for some reason allowed to roam free as the single poker room offering Rakeback in the network. (more…)
