2009-01-09 • Magnus • Views:164

Ongame claims to offer a "Rakeback free enviroment" but Pokeriot can show us that this is not true. Poker rooms such as Betsson have had affiliates offering rakeback for quite a while. You can find the article in Betsson, Ongame and Rakeback.

On the other hand, according to Betsson this is something that is really being worked on as Betsson tries to clean among their affiliates. Read Betssons answer.

I find this increasingly interesting as Ongame is actually slapping rooms in the network with sever fines if they offer rakeback. It is of course hard for a poker room giving revenue share to keep their affiliates in line but this only proves the problems with offering the "rakeback free enviroment". Not only does it take a lot of work to check on all affiliates, it is also killing a good marketing channel.

A lot of smart people believe that all the bigger networks will eventually ban rakeback as it harms the liquidity of the poker network but this should mean that there are good opportunities for smaller networks to get a cut of the market. Usually Rakeback players stay within the same network but with the room offering the best rakeback. If all the bigger networks strangle the supply of rakeback though the intermediate to good players might actually drain away to the smaller networks.

No doubt about it, the rakeback market is interesting and there will be a lot happening in the near future. Maybe Ongame is actually shooting itself in one of it's giant feet. Maybe this is the time for diversity and fragmentation in the online poker business.

Read Cardlovers explantaion on Rake and Rakeback.