Patrik Selin Article- Online Poker Sites are they're own worst enemy

[BodogBecky]

Agree or disagree? I love sitting back and listening to this debate.

Online poker sites are they?re own worst enemy, says Bodog Europe chief

[RakebackStore]

All of them could do things better for sure. The suprising thing for me is how many customer support answers are just way off base. A lot of CS people just don't understand the question a player asks so I think they guess out of about 20 form responses, then cut, paste and hope.

[Planet Mark]

While I personally enjoy Bodog's anti-rakeback stance and 'bring the fish' ethos... I can not help thinking that Bodog telling others the best way to run a poker room is just a little bit like England giving soccer advice to Brazil, Argentina, Spain or (can I bring myself to write it!) Germany...

Mark

[cbe2869]

I think that putting people in important positions that have no idea what poker players really want and have led other lousy poker sites is not the best move. The Ongame network has for years has some of the lousiest software and leadership of any of the larger networks. Sadly Bodog is not taking steps forward in improving their poker product either in my opinion. It's a shame because Bodog used to have a lot of potential.

[ryan_h]

I am interested to see how the network will function. I think it is innovative in that rakeback is perhaps on its way out...

[Ridge]

Well, I've tried to stay out of this because I love the guys at bodog. But they are not a shining example of hwo to run a poker room, and rakeback affiliates have been pumping players to them for years which has helped their poker action. So cutting off rakeback aff's and condemning them seems silly.

Ipoker/Ongame have all tried to push away serious players in favor of recreational players, and we see the results. Ongame not nearly as horrible as Ipoker, but they are still a distant choice to a lot of serious players and aff's actually get punished for sending players.

I've spoke with the guys at bodog a lot over the last month, I completely understand their position on this, and I just disagree. Bodog has a huge up hill battle to fight and I hope eventually they put serious effort into the poker side of things. Maybe something is on the works? I dunno. I just will never understand not wanting serious poker players. to me that is a flawed business model.

Edit:

I'll add this. In no other business/industry (other than the US government), especially a multi-million dollar business will you hire someone with a background completely unrelated to their new position. Then take their lack of experience and try and influence an entire industry (unsuccessfully) - I just do not and will not ever understand companies making moves like this.

This is a common flaw in companies and a common reason why they struggle. Whenever the CEO or senior staff start trying to micro manage what the workers on the production floor do. Shit hits that fan because while they may be good at crunching numbers/giving speeches (writing fluffy articles), they have no real world experience in packing widgets.

Our industry will finally mature and grow if and when rooms make moves like PokerStars and actually hire REAL industry people to help shape their company. People that are just "business smart" will fail at trying to run a business within gaming. Period.

As always, I'm willing to be wrong, so if I am someone please show me.

[Ridge]

Oh and I should add, the last section of my post is just a general observation. I don't know anything about this Bodog guy, but we have far to many poker companies hiring people that know nothing about poker and its hurting the industry. Maybe I should write an article about "Inexperienced CEO's Killing the Poker Industry"

[rake360]

can someone please correct/amend this thread title? It tilts the f out of me.

[BodogBecky]

Looks like Ongame Poker Network has decided to adopt the same rakeback strategy as Bodog Network...must be some truth in this solution...we believe it will be good for the entire industry!

Is Bodog’s Patrik Selin still pulling the strings at Ongame?

[Beanie]

Why is it the Rakeback forum is mostly about ending rakeback somehow. Congrats Bodog on your strategy, I hope it works, it's certainly nice to see someone trying something different.

It seems like we might need a new subform "non rakeback discussions". Ironically I think this Bodog guy is going to take credit when some of the sites bring their programs in house (writing seems to be on the wall on that one for quite a while).