How Rake Back Sites Operate

[Big Slick Poka]

Is there a good forum post on how rake back sites work?

I'm looking into setting up a rake back site and just had a few general questions. I know not all the poker rooms approve of rake back programs and some of the ones that do offer stats and tracking. Do some of them just not care if you offer rake back and its all up to you to get the stats and get the money to your customers? You just give them a certin percent of the money your making off them? I'm just not 100% clear on how it works I guess.

Once you sign someone up and they start generating rake, it gets recorded and once the 25% reaches a set limit say $50 it gets transfered to their Nettellar account. Most of the affiliate rates are around 25%. How can these rake back sites offer rates of up to 35% and still be making money? Have they just signed-up so many players their rates are much higher?

Any help you could give me to get my tiny brain up to speed with this rake back issue would be greatly appriciated.

Cheers

[Godfather]

They have so many players, not really worth going to this market if you don't have
a super website.

GodFather

[absentx]

Now Godfather you now this isnt true! We all started with nothing

I started with zero six months ago and I have more than enough now.

It certainly is not the easiest market to enter, but it certainly can be done.

I agree with Godfather that a good website is very important though...

[Poker Coach]

Hey,

I just recently got into the the rakeback game myself. The way most affiliates do the rakeback (at least the way I operate) is that we pay our players rakeback monthly at the end of the month. You would pay your player a set % of their rakeback at the end of the month.

The biggest challenge is that you need the site to approve the rakeback program and you need the site to provide you with a detailed breakdown of the amount of rake each of your players paid. There are only a handful of sites that both allow rakeback and provide you with excellent stats so that you can accurately pay rakeback to your players.

I have found that many of the rakeback sites offer ridiculous percentages back to their players. I also scratch my head and try to understand how they can pay their players so much rakeback. I am giving them the benefit that they are being honest and I believe that many of them are operating on 5% points or less. In other words they are getting 30% rake and paying their players 25% rakeback.

I don't even bother trying to compete with them. It is almost a total waste of time trying to offer your players the highest percentage of rakeback compared to the other rakeback sites out there. I operate under the premise that 90% of poker players are not even aware that they can get rakeback and try to target that audience. Once they find out they can get something back from you it makes sense for them to join through you and they are unaware that they can get higher percentages elsewhere.

As for playing the players about half the sites that approve the rakeback allow player to player transfers so I pay them that way as for the other sites I send my players payment via Neteller or money order.

I know most affiliates don't like the concept of rakeback but I have been successful with it. Although I don't have an awful lot of players, I am able to retain high quality players and give them an incentive to join through my link by paying them rakeback.

I hope this helps.

Cheers!!!

Roy

http://www.rakesecret.com

[Godfather]

Well, you understood me wrong. Anyone can be a rake back affiliate, but to be SUCCESSFUL AND SIGN UP 1000 OR MORE, you need something else than the
average site. What comes to rates you should offer them what is left after you
take 5% of the cake. If you take more, don't expect much.....

Another thing is that there is much work in it, you need to update stats etc...

GodFather

We need Beanie's input in this thread, but I think what he would tell you could be summed up with, "Take care of your customers."

But that doesn't just apply to rakeback affiliates. That applies to all webmasters.

Last time you wrote an article, were you thinking about taking care of your customers? Giving them quality information that they were looking for and that were benefitting them?

Last time you posted a poker review, were you taking care of your customer by providing them with an honest appraisal and account of your experience with a poker site? Or were you copying and pasting and paraphrasing the info on the poker site itself? Or worse yet, were you using a boilerplate template review you received from the poker affiliate program itself?

[absentx]

Originally posted by Poker Coach@Oct 11 2005, 10:43 PM
I don't even bother trying to compete with them. It is almost a total waste of time trying to offer your players the highest percentage of rakeback compared to the other rakeback sites out there. I operate under the premise that 90% of

This is also very true, you by no mean need to have the highest rates. If you take care of your customers, as Randy says, or Beanie, you will keep them happy. Then, when you add a new site, your happy players will want to try it out. Soon enough you will have players who send their friends to you.

Then you will also develop great rapport with your customers. For example, I have a particular player who has been very happy with my service, he sends me players all the time, tells them what I offer and that it is a good service. I in turn make sure he is always taken care off, and this month I actually bought a seat for him at a big live tournament, all I asked in return was that he put on a rake shark hat and continued to spread the word.

[Betguiden]

2 things is popping up in my mind
1. DONT offer rakeback at sites, where you dont have a good coorporation/contact with your affiliate manager, it will waste a loot of your time. Make sure the rakeback is paid automaticly, dont waste you time with work a system should be doing.
2. Finish this sentance, and this is where you gotta go creative, and what defines you as and affiliate "I offer rakeback and .......". So many sites offer rakeback, the big ones are big because they treat there players as kings, and they can offer deals you will never be able to, so dont put your money/heart/efforts in, when youre way behind.


Come up with something unique, and use rakeback as the marketing parameter it is a long with something else to create something unique.
Network rules are network rules, respect and obey them, dont ever go for offering just 1 % more, or something like that.

Theres a reason people in the bizz are not to crazy about rakeback, it would have killed the business, if some off the bigger sites didnt take a stand against it. Now its working ok, at some networks. Banned by most or changed to VIP, and only slowly killing 1. major network.

GL with the site, let me know what i come up with for added value if you decide to go with my advice

[Beanie]

I honestly have no idea what advice I would give anyone. I don't think rakeback differs at all from regular in the fact that you need to provide the consumer with a service they value.

That said I can't imagine people could come in and really compete in a significant way. The rules have just changed too much. Maybe some kind of niche could work.

[NewPokerGirl]

Holy old thread bump batman!

...had to steal your phrase Holis