Do Private Freerolls Still Work For Anyone

[Jeremy]

I know years ago, I used to do a ton of private freerolls. Sure I converted some rmp's with them, but I never really made a ton.... Unless of course those are some of the players now that still play under my MGR trackers.

I haven't really done any freerolls over the past year however. I'm wondering what the overall thoughts on freerolls are in the current market. Is it 99% freeroll whores out there, or does anyone think you can actually convert RMP's now days with freerolls?

[CK]

Its not even that J, my issue was getting people to actually play in them. We through a few where you win a $200+ seat to Bodog's WSOP Final etc and I couldnt get people to even bother playing. I think I ended up PM Ridge, Randy and a couple others to come help me out cause it was soo bad.

When I did them at Carbon that was awful...everyones mothers, brothers, uncles sisters friend found it

[PTC]

I don't know, but I just got my first private tourney set up a few seconds ago. I'm not expecting it to directly generate enough sign ups or revenue to pay for itself, but I'm trying to use it to pull together my blogs readers and I have a bunch of authors that will also play with the readers. I guess you could say that I'm trying to use it to build a sense of community.

I'm also going to invite some of my friends and if there is room, anyone from this forum.

[CK]

I would love to know how Ridge and others who have tight communities are able to pull forum tournaments off successfully

[DealerDan]

There aren't as many beginner players as there was years ago, so freerolls are no longer as effective. I prefer using freerolls as rewards now for my players, and I prefer to do gifts rather than cash. A lot of my players are high stakes players, so they aren't going to waste their time with a $1,000 freeroll for example - but they do get more interested if they have the change at winning 1 of 5 Xbox 360s or whatever. Actually even for people just looking for freerolls in general, this can be especially attractive.

I think freerolls can still be worth it if you integrate it into the content of a site targeted towards beginners or people looking for free cash. A lot of the players you will get no value from, but then there is the one or two out of 100 that make it all worth it

[fastpony]

There aren't as many beginner players as there was years ago, so freerolls are no longer as effective. I prefer using freerolls as rewards now for my players, and I prefer to do gifts rather than cash. A lot of my players are high stakes players, so they aren't going to waste their time with a $1,000 freeroll for example - but they do get more interested if they have the change at winning 1 of 5 Xbox 360s or whatever. Actually even for people just looking for freerolls in general, this can be especially attractive.

I think freerolls can still be worth it if you integrate it into the content of a site targeted towards beginners or people looking for free cash. A lot of the players you will get no value from, but then there is the one or two out of 100 that make it all worth it

Echo what DD said!

[Ridge]

Dan hit it on the head, not too many good value new players to jump in freerolls. We tried the Bodog thing too, and then the news hit about Bodog getting millions seized and everyone stayed away.. Bodog is all but dead IMO.

We are having a Forum Tournament Series from now until the end of the year. We are putting up some cash and prizes to the winner, keeping points and having a big final championship tournament to crown the winner.

Brandon has offered to sponsor and host the tournament which will start with individual HU matches round robbin style. Then the top points earners will play in a championship game. I think this is a great way to get players on a new room, give the community a good competition, and give something back to the players..

The great thing about this is that I have been able to get prizes and cash from sponsors and it's not really going to cost anyone much. The end result will be dozens of players tagged to a new room, and eventually they will be converted if nothing else to get the bonus money and rakeback deal.

In this situation, I found a way to get players there, now its on the poker room to convert the. Players now days don't like to forced to deposit somewhere, they want it to be their decision. so its the best of both world. I'm confident after my players check out aced, they will be dumping money on there and hopefully it will be a snowball effect.

Just general freerolls are a bad idea though, I don't think that will ever change. You have to come up with something different and make it somehting players will want to be in, not just for the free $$$.

One thing we tried earlier in the year was the "Felt Poker challenge", where we found a .25 tournament on stars, players could play in 2 a week that counted, at the end of the month the top three finishers got cash and prizes.. This was a big hit, but got to be a real pain to track and figure out.

the bottom line is that just doing freerolls wont get you too far, but if you have a community then make some sort of competition and that seems to work best.

[PokerNations]

Rather than outright freerolls, why not money-added tournaments?

This way you can determine the number of players you can draw in different buy-in ranges, and they're a bit more invested in playing real poker because they have to front the buy-in to enjoy the overlay you provide.

As far as tournaments go in general though, I think I've already discussed this with Jeremy and Randy and a few others. People are tired of fighting through thousands of players in a Round 1 to try and snag one seat so they can slog their way through more Rounds with thousands of players, trying to luckbox their way to the one big prize.

Doing a series with points as Randy has done can be popular, because it rewards skill a bit more over the luck of one event. But as he stated, can be cumbersome trying to track stats and so forth.

So anyway, perhaps a tournament with money-added as an overlay, or as previously mentioned, some tangible prizes (xbox, etc) might prove more useful than straight up freerolls.

Another thing to consider here as well: Is it better to give away one really huge prize, a handful of medium prizes or a ton of smaller prizes?

Everyone and their brother has offered up a $10,000 Main Event seat. I was never a huge fan of that as a prize because the vast majority of poker players have zero experience in a multi-day deepstacked event. They're all used to the smaller buyin fast structures found at local casinos and live. It's like giving away a lottery ticket in my opinion.

So the way I look at things, I'd rather give someone a smaller tournament entry (i.e. $1500 event) plus some sort of training and travel/accomodations plus spending money for their trip and maybe a super-satellite $550 entry for a Main Event seat. This way they get the true Vegas experience for less of your promotional dollars.

Plus another nice touch there is you can give away more than one of those on the same budget you'd have used to give away one Main Event seat. Now you have multiple horses out in Vegas representing your site/brand and you have more chances that one of them stands out in some way, gets noticed and helps to promote your brand.

[Pokerhunt]

My experience about this is: You have to be patient!

Having a bunch of private freerolls will get you players, but in the first period of time, some will stay some will go. The ones that stay will continue for a period to play freerolls, but at some point they WILL make a deposit. Then, as it is beginners, their skills will show (if they have any - LOL) and the revenue will begin to pour in.

But let me tell you again, IT TAKES TIME, so stay away from this is if you have no patience, hehe

If they came from your site, they will probably go back, look for some deposit offers and try to release some bonuses.

So in short term, you will see no results, but if you keep holding private freerolls it will in time begin to kick in.

I have tried with some leagues and other low buy-in tournaments but that would be a shame to call it a success :-) - so Im still thinking of ways to make the players deposit more. Might try to make a go at making a series of tournaments and offer prizes instead of cash.

A lot of the players you will get no value from, but then there is the one or two out of 100 that make it all worth it

Exactly! :-)

[Holis]

Giving a nice prize after a long series of games (seat at WSOP for instance) has worked for me. We ran a points league over the year and had a great time with it. We also added branded teeshirts and hats, chip sets, etc as other prizes.

Others have had success doing small buy in games that lead to a larger freeroll. those that participated in the buy in would be automatically added to the freeroll.

Another idea that we used successfully was having our own passworded tables for sng's and heads up play.

I miss running forums but its a fuckton of work