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If Sky are trying to encourage new players, how can promotions that recreational / new players haven't got a bats chance in hell of winning, achieve this goal?
Its like squeezing a baloon filled with water, the shape changes but the volume remains the same!
If random prizes were awarded for percentage win rates with say a minimum £20 staked maybe recreational players would have the incentive to take part and it might make the promotion fun.
I admire and respect Donttellmum he's a gentleman, classy and a dedicated player. He contributes on a regular basis to the forum and thouroughly deserves the rewards he's enjoying!
but to be honest rather than having promotions Sky might just as well write him a cheque at the start!
If it had been someone like Matt Le Tissier or a celebrity like Orford I can see why an ambassador would work!
I would say, the few occasions she has been interviewed. She has been charming, well informed and a delight to listen to.
But I still know nothing about what she's done or what she's doing on Sky Poker and judging from previous posts I'm not the only one!
the 2 main reasons for a promo should be:
1) to attract new players to the site. (a massive challenge faced by the whole online poker industry)
2) reward and retain current players.
2) the 'big deal' promotion rewarded the most loyal (highest rake payers) players on the site. im not one of them but they do need to be rewarded because they are where sky get most of their profits. i think people should be grateful there was even consideration for lower stakes players because not all sites do this and winning £500 for grinding nl4 is a great reward and was no doubt well earned. you could also argue that to some extent c4p is a good reward for these players and also the priority club. it could be improved but on the whole it's ok.
1) The promos to attract new players are really poor in my opinion. the number of players online statistic (however accurate it is) seems to have been static for a while now - maybe the promos arent working.
- I don't know anyone who would create an account and deposit money for the once a week opportunity to play against Charlotte Jackson - why would they?
- or the chance to have x number of golden tickets if they play a certain amount.
- or the deposit bonus is nothing special in terms of how it matches up to the competition
- a new recreational player is unlikely to sign up to play ukops which to most will be an unaffordable series of tournaments.
- they won't sign up to play VLV for obvious reasons
- will they sign up for rakeback offered?
- will they sign up for a range of games? (e.g. it's only nlh) or a wide range of tournaments? (e.g. it's only bounty hunters)
- will they sign up to play 'the big deal' which they cant possibly dream of winning?
- will they sign up to try and win the jackpot? (to many recreational players they won't be able to afford many attempts at entering both the main and mini event in an evening)
- are they going to join for the software?
It's obviously not easy to get people to join poker sites at the moment because i assume most players who want to play online poker are already doing so.
FWIW I'm another one in the 'Charlotte who?' camp. I'd never heard of her before she was appointed. Also I was embarrassed for the site when I saw her playing on a recorded live show soon after I'd she'd been joined, merrily doing all the terrible things the analysts drum into the audience never to do. I haven't watched Charlotte play since, so I'm relieved to hear her game has improved.
I could understand some of this thinking if she was on the tables a lot and there was an open opportunity to play her but she plays so rarely that no new player can ever really believe they will get to play her or 'be more involved with her'
any sensible stalker will just stick to twitter
I'm not sure on the Charlotte criticism. On the live show where they followed her play the first time, she made lots of 'new player' mistakes, limping in, min-betting post flop etc. Tikay and the team were quite vociferous about these, and no doubt this would have pricked the ears of any newbies watching the show. Tikay then said he 'take her away' and work on a few things. When she returned her play had improved markedly, and perhaps following the journey from complete novice would be interesting/helpful to some. Part of the problem I guess is that a lot of the people watching the show, and certainly posting on these boards are already streets ahead in terms of knowledge/ability. Some of the shows are going to be targeted to new players, and for me that's fine.
Back to the topic, the recent 'volume' promotions seem to have put a few noses out of joint. I knew I couldn't compete for the cash, so didn't try - plus it was the first decent weather over bank holiday weekends for what feels like decades. The people who cashed (certainly at the low stakes) would have worked very hard for their reward, and shouldn't be bashed for participating. Someone mentioned after the tournament hands promotion that perhaps there should have been a code for the different tiers, but on the cash race there didn't seem to be much overlap.
Let's not forget that a lot of other little comps and community tournaments are supported and as such are promotions and give that bit extra. Probably doesn't quite compete with what other sites are able to offer, but you takes your choices I guess.