Gambling.co.uk: Gambling News Archive

PokerShare.com Launches Second Generation Poker Site

The world’s first poker site that its players own

Thursday 1st September 2005

At a time when everyone is wondering what the next generation of online poker will bring, PokerShare.com has an answer. “We are pleased to launch what we consider a next generation online poker site,” according to PokerShare.com’s CEO, Lucan Toh. “Our concept is simple, we are offering more value for our players by sharing the profits of the business with our customers,” continued Toh.

The concept behind PokerShare.com may be simple, but it is also revolutionary. Including players at the top of the value-chain, by allowing participation in the profits of the business, PokerShare leverages the economics of online poker to the benefit of all involved. This co-operative relationship works because online poker operates on massive economies of scale. In online poker, the fixed costs of operating the business remain constant and the incremental costs of each new player is negligible.

“Traditional online vendors compete by changing the value proposition, effectively by lowering costs, we change the value proposition by giving money back to our customers. In poker, lowering the cost of participation is not really a consideration since online poker players already choose the stakes at which they play, so in our world, the equivalent to lowering cost is to allow participation in the upside. In both cases the customer gets better value, and providing value is what online businesses do best,” said Toh.

Because PokerShare is powered by UltimateBet software, their poker room already hosts up to 18,000 players at peak times throughout the day. However, as the only co-operative poker room on the internet, where the players share in the profitability of the business, PokerShare is expecting this number to increase by at least 10% within its first 90 days.

‘Dividends’ paid to players will be divided depending on each player’s participation on the site, rewarding players that play most regularly with the largest share of the profits. To ensure fairness, the Poker Share Trust has been established to administer payments to players.

“Why play anywhere else when you get the same level of service and liquidity and be rewarded for doing it,” says Toh. “Players like ourselves are becoming more and more savvy so we wanted to give something more to our players, a percentage of the company’s profits was a natural step for us to take.”

To celebrate the launch of PokerShare.com, the second generation in online poker, PokerShare.com is offering a 100% opening sign-up bonus.




Source: OnlineCasinoNews