Tuesday, October 21st, 2008
We managed to get an interview with Ivonne Montealegre, Marketing Manager of the poker and backgammon site TrueMoneyGames.
You just started as Marketing Manager on TrueMoneyGames.com, I’m guessing you will do a lot of changes and was wondering where you start?
Basically, we are changing the website, giving it a well-deserved face lift. The client runs really smooth so no changes there, mainly on the website and the way we communicate towards our players.
Where will TrueMoneyGames.com be in a years time?
TrueMoneyGames will become a medium brand with a lot of prestige. We’d rather stay at a medium-to-small level company but with excellent service and an impressive poker and backgammon client than being one of big ones. Our commitment is with quality not volume. We take a lot of pride in the fact that we run a very smooth business. Customer’s queries are sorted in a very fast way, one of the best customer support I have come across with.
The competition in gambling is hard, what is the difference between TrueMoneyGames.com and other poker rooms?
TrueMoneyGames is devoted to its loyal players. We prefer to have a few players that will come back and enjoy action at the tables than have thousands of one time visitors. That is why we will be implementing very exciting promotions in which the TrueMoneyGames team will reveal its “face”, meaning that we wish to have a very interesting interaction with our players.
A lot of our readers are interested in promotions and bonuses and there hasn’t been that many offers from TrueMoneyGames in the past, is this something that will change?
Absolutely, we are on the works of a unique rakeback system and a very easy to clear bonus system, unique in the industry.
You are in a pretty small network, how is that compared to the bigger ones?
It’s great to be honest with you: things get done. We have everything from designers to developers in-house so we work in a very effective way. I was amazed to see how our new affiliate program was launched in a matter of days. Also our customer’s queries are really sorted out. We are offering all of those advantages to our loyal customers as well as those who have recently joined TMG.
Do you like playing poker?
I love playing poker, especially online, because I think my poker face is the worst. I get this weird grin when I am holding something good. And now revealing it here, there is no chance I will hit an offline table in a while.
Monday, October 6th, 2008
Women in the Poker Industry part 1
The number of women working in the Poker industry is nothing compared to other businesses. Finding them can be tricky but there are some and Pokeriot managed to get an interview with two of them. This is the first article in the series Women in the Poker Industry where we meet Diane Dalli, Managing Director of Melita Gaming Network. The network is relatively new and the competition in poker is of course extremely tough but we managed to get a few minutes with Diane.
If you compare the Melita Network to the big ones like Ongame or iPoker, what are the advantages in a smaller network like yours?
We provide a one to one working relationship that provides flexibility and quick fix to solutions. This has worked very well since every label has different ideas and concepts towards the industry and we acknowledge this and therefore we provide different solutions to every label on the network. We also have a full professional technical team ready to all our partners to discuss solutions for anything that they would like to implement into their system. The software has been developed in-house since 2002 when TrueMoneyGames was created, ever since it has been tested and improved giving it unmatched reliability and having virtually zero downtimes.We also provide a Shared Conduct of Business where we give the opportunity to young entities to try and grow as quickly as possible by avoiding to go through the application of the gaming license which can be time consuming and also very costly. With this type of set up the partner will still be operating through a Class 3 license but not needing to go through the whole process of applying for the license. This will give the opportunity to the companies on our network to use the money and energy on bringing in the customers to their label and start generating money as quickly as possible.We have a very easy setup because all our partners need to do is bring in customers through their labels and we do all the rest!
Are you aiming to become as big as they are?
Every company aims high and of course MGN is no exception. We are a young company started off in 2007 and our goal is to grow without holding back as we already have new labels on the network and also in the process of adding more at the moment, however our mission is to maintain our flexibility and reliability which is our identity and commitment to our partners no matter what the size is.
You have chosen not to accept US Players, why is that?
This was a forced action for us since we used to accept US players however ever since the legislation changed we had to follow the rules. However we are keeping an open eye on the situation for any changes because we would want to have US players again on our network.
A lot of our readers have wondered why so many poker companies are based in Malta, why are you here?
We wanted to be trust worthy and form part of a reliable infrastructure for the industry. Malta has the LGA which provides a very strategic system and avoids any type of loop holes in the industry which for us makes us trust worthy for our customers. Also Malta offers a lot of benefits for the industry that makes it even better.
What are your goals for the Melita Network?
MGN goals are to grow however with the aim to help every label on the network to grow as well. We have a lot of new ideas for the near future to make this happen which I cannot disclose as yet however it would be great for all the partners.
And finally, do you like playing poker?
Yes I do. 
