A valuable lesson for our customers

Back when NASA started launching manned spacecraft in the 1960s, they discovered that astronauts couldn't use pens in space. The ink wouldn't flow through the pen in a zero-gravity environment. So, NASA hired a man named Paul Fisher to design a pen that would work in space.

A mere $1.5 million later, they had a solution. NASA now had a pen that worked in a vacuum, in zero gravity, and in extreme temperatures. Of course, the Russian cosmonauts had the same problem. They used a pencil.

Now, I hold up my hands. It's a well-known tale. But what you might not know is that it isn't true. In fact, NASA was using pencils until Paul Fisher approached them with his invention. No matter. The story spreads because it communicates a familiar lesson: we often expend large amounts of time and effort creating elaborate solutions to problems when a simple answer is right under our noses.

What's this got to do with e-gaming? Sometimes, companies in our industry devote resources to chasing new customers in increasingly elaborate ways, while neglecting their existing lucrative base. They hunt big game when their freezers are already full.

Many firms are guilty of this, but thankfully PartyGaming isn't one of them. The company has industry-leading conversion and acquisition teams, who bring in brilliant results in new and innovative ways. Recently, we launched a new product as part of our initiative to have a stronger relationship with our players.

PartyAcademy is a website that helps our existing players rediscover the thrill and satisfaction of playing poker well. It provides articles, lessons, animations and videos to give players a free and fun guide to playing poker successfully.

Amazon.com has 2,000 books on playing poker, and there are dozens of training sites and boot camps charging hundreds of dollars for tuition. But to the average player these are overkill. There are maybe three simple poker concepts that you can understand in less than two hours that will make you an above-average player.

The Academy Approach

Learning to play poker is a bit like dieting. For most dieters, the hard part isn't knowing what to eat - it's finding the motivation to stick to it. So PartyAcademy provides fairly simple poker strategy, and presents it in a way that will hopefully motivate players to play for real money.

We know that not everyone will become a winning player at PartyAcademy but we hope it will make them excited about poker, and want to play in PartyPoker's real-money games. After all, watching MasterChef may not make you a better cook, but it sure makes you hungry.

PartyAcademy is a form of content marketing. PokerStars has had IntelliPoker.com, a German-language training site. Full Tilt Poker has also launched its own Full Tilt Academy. Spread-betting firms are cottoning on too. A growing number host 'trading academies' that educate their customers online.

Why teach?

Around 2003 a concept called 'permission marketing' became a buzz term. It meant that having a customer's email address wasn't the same as having permission to contact them. If, on the other hand, you had earned the right to speak to a customer, then you had a 'permission asset' - basically, the right to talk to them. That's a powerful thing in a world where attention is scarce.

The old way of marketing was 'shouting at strangers'. The new way is having conversation with people who want to hear from you.

Online training academies are a great way of being part of a player's daily lives in a way they value. Teaching is a form of one-to-one marketing. It is a powerful conversation with the customer.

It's unlikely some of our players would have read up on poker concepts like bankroll management, variance, or game selection without PartyAcademy. This stuff is bread and butter to dedicated poker players. But casual players who don't subscribe to poker magazines or hang out on 2+2 may never get to learn otherwise.

We can't make sure everybody wins. But we can ensure that they have a good time. PartyAcademy isn't part of an effort to fundamentally modify the poker economy. We're not trying to get rid of 'fish'. Our aim is simple: as an operator, we want to make sure that everybody enjoys their time at PartyPoker. Giving players the satisfaction of knowing they did the right thing, even if they don't scoop the pot at showdown.

Find out more about the initiative at: www.partyacademy.com