Paid more to recruit fish

How is Essence going to work?

It's something we have developed over a long period of time and with a lot of analysis. We had the idea a long time ago to try and find a better incentive for our partners to recruit contributing players. If you invest a lot of money in a mass marketing campaign you should be rewarded for bringing new players into the network. For a poker ecosystem to work there have to be deposits. You need to have a good mix of all categories of players, and that is what Essence is going to incentivise.

Is the algorithm weighted towards losses?

I don't want to go into the details of that, but of course it's important how successful the players are. But it's not the only important factor.

There is a possibility a large number of multi-table pros will leave the network, is this a concern?

No. Not at all. There might be some that make their calculations and leave, but the majority of them will come back and play because of the poker ecology we have and their chances of winning are higher with us.

Are you worried it may take some time for the poker ecology to change, and players may leave in the meantime?

I think it will have a positive effect and the players that are losing too fast will play more because their money will last longer. I'm not worried. We ran every analysis that we could, and we need to see the proof now its gone live, but I am not scared there will be a massive exodus of players because of this.

How does Essence work for the operators?

Essence provides strong encouragement for operators to recruit new poker players, which is essential for the long term value of the Ongame poker network. Everybody gets revenues, but it is split differently between the operators based on the players proficiency based on their historical data.

Are you worried about copycat networks?

I don't think it's too complex to copy. I know Bodog claim they were first with it, with a lot of people who previously worked for Ongame working there you can draw your own conclusions. We looked into a patent, but it wasn't possible. It remains to be seen what other networks do. We have seen with other things that networks copy each other, but I am not worried. It is more for us to make sure we have a more level playing field.

Do you think this could be the start of more differentiation within networks?

Yes I think so. What many partners and operators are fearing is to make a switch because you are afraid you will lose a lot of players from migration. If they can see that the customers we have are the mass market it will be safer for them to move across.