Article - Underlying Flaws of Affiliate Rakeback

[Jeremy]

If you guys would like to have a good discussion / debate on rakeback, this is the thread to do it!

I got this article emailed to me from the CEO of PokerStrategy.com. As an organization they have been studying the ecology of poker sites and networks for many years.

Regardless of your views on rakeback, this is a pretty comprehensive article. It would be great to hear some counterpoints from the rakeback affiliates regarding Contributing vs. Cannibalistic poker affiliates as outlined in this article.

http://resources.pokerstrategy.com/Guides/Rakeback.pdf

Ding Ding...........Enter the octagon. Have fun!!!

[thefarang]

lol . . . Dominik sent me the same paper. I'm in the middle of writing a response.

[Jeremy]

I am really looking forward to reading the responses in this thread.

[ih82lose]

To me this rings exactly true and correct.

But I am like a liberal watching a Michael Moore film...

I am about a month away from 7 years as poker affiliate
and I have never had a rackback player.

[CK]

LOL at

The most common form of cannibalistic affiliates are pure rakeback affiliates

I am not a rakeback affiliate - never have and never will be BUT that is just absurd if he thinks it's limited to rakeback affiliates.

[Ridge]

Well this is a great well written articles. Although I agree with many parts of it, there is several flaws in several of the assumptions/opinions expressed. I'm going to write up a response myself and hopefully other Rakeback Affiliates will chime in as well.

Also, like Kaus said many of the "flaws" pointed out are not isolated to Rakeback Affiliates. In essence, our job is to find ways to make money. Rakeback will not be the downfall of affiliate marketing, at least no more than exact match domains, bonus code websites, or incentive websites (PSO, Poker Savvy, etc)

Great article though and one I enjoyed reading!

[leporello]

Good read, but filled with holes. Saying rakeback affiliates are the only cannabilistic ones is just ridiculous.

[thefarang]

Just finished my response

Not All Online Poker Traffic is Created Equal

[Strider1973]

I think it's a bit too easy to say: here are the "good" affiliates (like pokerstrategy) and over there are the "bad" affiliates (RB-providers).

The industry is facing a big challenge: market growth is slowing down. The lower the growth, the more poker rooms try to grab players from other poker rooms (rather than gaining completely new players).
This is also the strategy of PokerStrategy.com: with their incentive system (forums for advanced players can only be accessed by players tracked through pokerstrategy), they incentivize players to switch rooms (from untracked accounts to one of their promoted rooms). This is also what their support and their forums moderators suggest you.

[leporello]

It's extremely flawed. How many affiliates out there are just seo whores who optimize for pokerstars marketing code or full tilt referral code. These guys are equally "cannabilistic".