A couple of questions for the experts!

[Masquerador]

Hi all,

We've got a couple of new projects launching and really hoping I could get some opinions on a couple of questions I have.

1.

This is an online league. I know a lot of people already do these, and many say it's not worth the effort but, hey, we're giving it a go anyway.

Without going into too much detail here, we're basically running a 12 week league spread across a few different poker rooms, culminating in a live final to be held at a UK casino. We're guaranteeing a $10,000 prizepool for this. I'd just like some opinions on whether people think this figure is high enough to attract much interest or whether we should consider a higher figure?

Advertising for the league has been arranged in a couple of magazines so should generate some half decent interest. We're also looking at getting a small number of other affiliates involved to help promote their league and, hopefully, help increase their conversions

Affiliates will be able to use their own affiliate links to the poker rooms taking part, and "their" players will be able to compete in the main league, and also in a "mini-league" exclusively for their own site. We're talking to a few affiliates at the moment - and if anyone here is interested, please feel free to let me know here or send me a PM. My question here is whether people think it a good idea to involve other affiliates, or better served to keep it exclusive?

2.

This a promotion we've been asked help out with and so some work on for a 3rd party. It's been months in the planning and should be ready to launch in the next couple of months. It's targetted primarily at poker players, but will also encompass casino players and bingo players. I'm not at liberty to divulge much in the way of detail yet but there is one specific question I'd really like some opinions on.

The promotion is set to run over a six month period, with a $400,000 prizefund provided. It can be setup so that there can be a number of prizes (e.g. weekly prizes and monthly prizes) or just one (at the end of the six months) to either one participant or multiple participants.

My heart tells me that offering one person the chance to win $400K (or, possibly, prizes to to the value of $400K) is the right way to go, but more rationally I think having a few opportunities to win smaller, but still significant, prizes might be more appropriate and to wider appeal. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks in advance for any feedback anyone can offer!

[Newjabber]

We're guaranteeing a $10,000 prizepool for this. I'd just like some opinions on whether people think this figure is high enough to attract much interest

I guess that depends on how many players will be playing in the league. If 10 players then great, if 1.000.000 then not so attractive.
But i think that there are many other factors that are important and not just the prize pool.

As a player i love playing in leagues, but as an affiliate i would never touch a league again. I think time and money can be used much more effectivly that on a league, but you are giving it a go and hopefully it will be a success.

[GR88]

Hi there

Im going to put my 2 cents in here form an operators point...

I understand that leagues do take a lot of time on the affiliates end but i feel that it is a great way to attract new players and convert excisting players at the same time...

Haveing a great incentive as final prize is also a great way to attract players and i think your idea in doing your final event at a live casino is a great idea...

Im also sure that your sponsored poker rooms will be willing to chip in some things to help you along the way...

If youd like to talk to me about this in more details send me a pm and Ill be happy to answer any of your questions!

Warm Regards

Colin

[Masquerador]

Thanks for the input guys.

Newjabber - it's a bit difficult to guage numbers but we'll be delighted if we get loads of players in it and I'd be quite happy to bump the prize pool up if the numbers justified it. Hear what you're saying about the time and effort vs the reward and I expect you're probably right. To be honest, it is much about "giving something back" to our existing members as anything else - it would need to grow pretty dramatically to *really* make the effort financially rewarding. We'll certainly have a good crack at it though.

Colin - thanks for the positive words, appreciate it. Yeah, the live final I think makes it bit more of a goal to shoot for - for some people it will be an incentive to gain the experience as much as the money. I'll definitely hit you up at some point to run some other ideas past you.

Cheers!

[Spry]

For your first question, one challenge is finding a league structure that is competitive enough that players can join all through the season and have a reason to keep coming back. If i join the league and get bust out early in the first three to four games and someone else has a huge lead on me that is pretty much impossible to get, i've lost some incentive to continue playing, especially if I have to make a deposit on a new website to continue in the league (which seems the plan).

I would make sure that you try and have some way late comers can qualify for the league. Also, the advertising in the local magazines... are these the poker magazines? Could be targeting people who have accounts at the sites you plan to play at already if you are going with the more well known sites....

I've ran a small online real money league for years (because i love playing in it) but it is not really worth the investment to try something big scale with it in my opinion. With that said, if you need a leaderboard, you can check out poker leaderboard. (our free leaderboard tool)

good luck with it!

[Giorgio]

If you run a forum or a community, leagues are great. If you run a free or freeroll site, buy-in leagues are the worse. Make sure that you match your target audience with the type of league you run.