Boss Media Fines Licensees

So here's some good news in the world of eGaming, specifically online poker. I read this article on EGR this morning and through I had to write a post on it. From the article:

BOSS MEDIA HAS introduced fines for poker network licencees that rely too heavily on rakeback and don’t bring in enough casual losing poker players, or ‘fish’. The rule will focus on the monthly payout ratio of individual Boss Media licencees, analysing the percentage of winning players against losing ones. The payout ratio is calculated by dividing the total cash game winnings by the total cash game stakes recorded for each site.

Now there a few things here that I wanted to chirp about. I've been involved with eGaming Marketing now for 7 years, over those 7 years I have worked with alot of providers all over the world. Since it's a fairly unregulated market in certain areas (read: full of shoddy operations) there are some pretty interesting marketing practices. For instance I have seen "retention" marketers that rely on heavy gamblers "move" these players from one "brand" to another and call it an increase in business (that is specifically for a single company that has multiple brands or websites). Frankly I've seen that so many times over the years that it makes me want to vomit. That's not marketing, that's saving your own skin because the out dated marketing practices you are using are not driving in the recreational players (or in the world of Poker the "fish"). Boss Media has it right, absolutely and completely right. The fine structure they are putting in place will force it's licencees to invest in marketing and become mainstream - appealing to normal people out there. Far too many eGaming companies out there rely on a stock of heavy gamblers to sustain their business. When they do this they can continue to provide crappy customer service, slow payouts and treat new customers like garbage. It's a stigma that this industry needs to get through in order for it to be come mainstream. Think about it, if I'm a normal person and become interested in Online Poker do you really think I'm going to deposit $100 or $200 into an operation that has outdated philosophies of customer service and marketing? Those days are gone. It's time for eGaming and Online Poker rooms to put the customer first, market to recreational players and get with it in all areas of their operation. Good Job Boss Media. I wish that more providers would implement similar policies and weed out the dinosaurs of the eGaming industry.