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Online poker grinders may be an extinct breed if the current trend of scaring them off is to continue. The world’s third largest poker network, iPoker, has decided to follow in the footsteps of PokerStars by restructuring its rake formula as a means of attracting strictly recreational players. Ahem fellow grinders: Americas Cardroom still welcomes you and they accept players from just about everywhere (except the US state of New Jersey).
The new rake formula will take effect January 1, 2015 and thousands of unsuspecting grinders are in for a rude awakening when this happens. That’s because, unlike PokerStars, the vast majority of iPoker customers have no idea their accounts are tied to iPoker's playing platform. As a network, the company supplies its online poker product to dozens of the leading gaming sites, known as “skins”. These “skins” each take advantage of the liquidity or player pool that co-exists on the iPoker Network.
The new rake structure is referred to as “Source Based Rake” or (SBR) and relies on the concept described by Charles Rettmuller of PokerTube.com that “recreational, net-depositing players have been undervalued for far too long, while the online pros who generate plenty of rake but are cashing out instead of depositing have been valued much too highly”.
In his assessment of the new formula, Rettmuller goes on to explain that “iPoker has determined that "deposits are essential to ensure rake and fees can be generated out of the liquidity in the future and therefore recreational players are worth more.”
And this new formula is bound to cut into the revenues of those skins who utilize iPoker: Titan, Bet365, Ladbrokes and Paddy Power are just a few of the big name gaming sites whose players will be impacted.
Rettmuller warns: “Some poker rooms on iPoker with a high number of winning players could see a revenue cut of up to 50%. That could cause the rakeback percentages received by players to decrease significantly, with a possible abolishment of rakeback on some skins not entirely out of the question. ”
The PokerTube.com columnist even goes as far as to suggest this new formula could prove to be a “death knell to some iPoker skins”.
- Patrick Flanagan, Gambling911.com
