So how does poker affiliate marketing differ to the rest of the online gaming industry?
From an investment point of view poker is one of the few dead certs available in the online
gambling craze. Players using casinos or sports betting accounts have the potential to win easy cards tricks
money from the house. The odds are against this eventuality but there is always the chance
of players using sites, making some quick money and then leaving shortly afterwards.
Therefore an affiliate and the site loses money from the new player. However in the online
poker industry money is generated in a vastly different fashion.
Firstly in poker players play against other online players, therefore the house can't
effectively lose. Poker sites ordinarily create their revenue through two very simple
methods. Firstly on every significant hand played they take a rake. The rake is a small
percentage of the pot taken at the end, there is usually a top end limit of around $5 per
rake. Players barely notice this small cut taken from the pot so nobody is directly
effected. But the house can soon experience large gains from even very small hands of poker.
With dozens of tables filled 24 hours a day 7 days a week 365 days a year, it is not hard to
see why even these small amounts can eventually create a rather substantial amount.
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Poker sites also post hundreds of tournaments each week, in which hundreds of players
compete for pots of various sizes. There are multi-table and single table events, which take
place almost constantly. The multi-table are a little less frequent as they usually involve
a huge number a players and therefore sites usually leave them open for entry for far longer
so as to encourage more to enter. Small single table tournaments happen each and every time
a table is filled up by players, meaning they can occur at any time with a range in
regularity. The significance of the tournaments is not just in their regularity and
participation but in a clever addition by poker sites. Tournaments range from $5 to
hundreds, but no matter what size the poker company adds a percentage to the price, usually
around 10%. So a tournament may appear to a player as something like $50+5 depending on the
site. The player therefore has to pay $55 to enter, $50 goes into the competition pot and
the $5 straight to the poker room. Therefore the more tournaments and entrants a poker site
can create the more income it can generate, for themselves and their affiliate partners.
