Promoting the majors in a small market

[ksi]

I am thinking about starting a new affiliate business in a smaller market. The problem is, something like 90% or at least the vast majority of the players from the region play on PokerStars, and they also own many of the online poker blogs/strategy sites that they use to direct traffic to themselves. Because they have such a monopoly on online poker, it would be hard to promote other sites (since most people only know PokerStars and wouldn't want to play elsewhere). In fact, I haven't seen any rakeback/affiliate sites promoting PokerStars that aren't owned by or affiliated with them in some way.

After reading some threads about affiliates having problems with the majors like FTP and PS, I am worried that in such a small market dominated by them, PS can simply screw me over in some way since I'll be unnecessary and maybe even costly for them. Is this a legitimate concern or am I just being paranoid? Thanks for any responses.

[kushmoney]

What makes you think online poker is a small market? and what makes you think players only know Pokerstars?

[Laurence]

On to the more constructive advice; If you're new to the business, I'm not sure it's a good idea to jump into it unless you have targeted the target market in another way before (i.e. taking solid leads / mailing lists from other projects and using them for this new venture). Then, to profit off of the smaller networks you either find some strong on-site niche or you engage them with nifty promotions that you integrate into your own league.

A league gives you the ability to build loyalty within that room, who will then be more inclined to add some value of their own. Exclusive $10k rake races weren't just pulled out of someone's ass, they were a result of generating loyalty and giving back some of the fruit to your community.

GL young jedi.

[ksi]

What makes you think online poker is a small market? and what makes you think players only know Pokerstars?

I'm not talking about online poker in general. People in the target market haven't really been exposed to poker at all, and i've played on a number of sites and pretty much only see them playing on Pokerstars.

[ksi]

Thanks for the solid advice -- definitely some great stuff to think about. Do you think it would be a good idea to focus on Pokerstars in the beginning since it's the most popular site where I'm going to be focusing my efforts? Any experiences with them regarding my concerns and what I've said in the OP?

[CodedCash]

Thanks for the solid advice -- definitely some great stuff to think about. Do you think it would be a good idea to focus on Pokerstars in the beginning since it's the most popular site where I'm going to be focusing my efforts? Any experiences with them regarding my concerns and what I've said in the OP?

I'd say promote a site thats fairly new, pokerstars has had its run chances are more than half of your traffic will already have their client.
Personally i'd focus on a newly established room which has'ent been online for long but has a good rep.

[Devjeet]

What makes you think online poker is a small market? and what makes you think players only know Pokerstars?

Definitely Online Poker isn't small market and it covers vast portion of gambling but as KSI said, Pokerstars is one of the biggest site for Online Poker and not all but most of the player wants to play over there...it's bit tough job attract such kinds of players.