There are plenty of changes going on at PartyPoker, all about resurrecting a brand that used to dominate the online poker market.
In a recent PartyPoker blog post, head of poker Tom Waters said that he and his team are trying to revive the brand, which faces fierce competition on a daily basis.
Party rolled out the first phase of its “Poker for the People” campaign in October, focusing on a friendly, fair player experience, and to increase the communication between the site and its players. This started with blocking third party tools on its new poker room and changing its VIP loyalty program, calling the new version Loyalty 2.0.
The company also introduced its new improved Power Series tournament schedule and recently announced that players will no longer be charged fees for withdrawing funds from any and all payment options including ewallets Neteller, Skrill and Webmoney.
“Firstly, we realized that, as a company, we had made some mistakes in the past and perhaps neglected our players. This led to a detailed review of the business and we looked to see where partypoker could fit into the marketplace and offer something back to the players,” said Waters. “Partypoker has had its problems over the last few years but it looks like we are now heading in the right direction and players are warming to the changes that we are making.”
When the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was passed in 2006, many online poker sites, including industry-leading PartyPoker, adopted a conservative approach and decided to vacate the U.S. market as a precautionary measure. The company that had an initial valuation of $8.46 billion on the London Stock Exchange lost a lot of value.
Today, PartPoker ranks as the fourth largest online poker site, trailing leaders PokerStars.com, Full Tilt Poker and iPoker.
“The biggest change has been regulation. Back in 2005 when I first worked with partypoker, you could pretty much just login anywhere in the world and play, including the US. Now it’s very different with individual licensing regimes in different countries and ring-fenced pools of players,” said Waters. “Our player pool is not what it was, so we are constantly sweating over tournaments to make sure they have met guarantee!”
Waters believes changes will continue in the coming months and years, especially when it comes to regulating online gaming around the world.
Earlier this month, PartyPoker announced that it has reopened its registration for a number of grey markets but clarified that it accept gameplay from customers based in yet to be regulated territories where customers are not prevented from accessing online gaming products.
Waters’ Predictions
Waters anticipates that more US States will be moving towards regulating online poker, adding that in Europe, it would a great move for Spain, Italy and France to share poker liquidity. He also thinks that up to six sites will be competing for the .com market in 12-18 months and the smaller operations will not survive without merging.
Daily fantasy sports, which faces legal scrutiny in the US, will struggle to make an impact in the UK where traditional bookies have such a strong brand presence.
Waters also noted that although poker was probably the first online gaming product to boom, bingo and casino continue to gain popularity online.
