Burnley Joe Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 Trouble in Paradise Paradise isn't always what it's cranked up to be. Sportingbet PLC, the parent company of Paradise Poker, announced late last week that it would no longer have stand-alone status and players would be rolled over to a new Paradise Poker skin on Boss Media AB's International Poker Network. "Sportingbet will retain the Paradise poker brand and migrate all Paradise players to Boss in due course," said a statement from the company which now faces writing off the existing software, estimated to be worth over £55 million, or $107 million. Paradise, which formed part of the first wave of online poker rooms, was also one of those that suffered heavily when the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was introduced last year. It saw Paradise lose three fourths of its site traffic. Whilst player numbers to the site have levelled off the Sportingbet network skin is providing 60 per cent higher revenue on a per player basis than those still on Paradise, hence the closure. Sportingbet's Group Chief Executive, Andrew McIver, said: "This deal combines all our poker players in one destination, maximizing liquidity whilst reducing the complexity of running two separate poker operations. The addition of the Paradise Poker players to the Boss poker network will make the Boss network one of the largest in Europe." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swampster Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 Re: Trouble In Paradise wheres that story from Joe ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burnley Joe Posted February 14, 2007 Author Share Posted February 14, 2007 Re: Trouble In Paradise Challenge TV.com Poker news Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teaulc Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 Re: Trouble In Paradise a bit more in-depth info......................... Paradise Lost as the Boss Steps In After experiencing a turbulent year in the gaming market, London-listed Sportingbet plc has now agreed to migrate its Paradise Poker player base to Swedish-based Boss Media's poker platform. As one of the pioneers in the burgeoning online poker revolution a few years ago, Paradise Poker soon garnered a large and loyal following and this success was acted upon by the original Canadian founders of the Paradise platform who sold out in 2004, in a move of exquisite timing, to Sportingbet plc, for around $300,000,000. This also boosted Sportingbet's own fortunes - that was until the US authorities starting getting heavy-handed! It has been a struggle ever since with Paradise Poker having been heavily $500 free chips dependent on American business. Now, Sportingbet has announced, as part of a new three year casino and poker contract, that, while it will continue to use Boss software to power both its casino and poker offerings for its European-based websites, Sportingbet will also now "combine" its Paradise Poker players with the Boss network. Sportingbet says that it will "…retain the Paradise Poker brand and migrate all Paradise players to Boss in due course…" This is clearly a move based on economics if the figures quoted are any guide. Sportingbet says that, during the three months ended 31st October 2006, rake from the Boss-powered European poker platform amounted to £4,300,000, up 72% year-on-year, whereas the Paradise Poker platform generated rake from non-US players of £3,800,000, up only 9% year-on-year. Again, while daily active real money players on both systems amount to approximately 6,500 each, the greater liquidity on the Boss system, which is shared with a huge number of other Boss licencees, means, according to Sportingbet, that yields per active player are approximately 60% higher from the Boss players compared to Paradise Poker players. By combining all poker players in one network, Sportingbet aims to maximise yields from all players. This operation comes with substantial cost to the Sportingbet group. It says that the redundancy of the group's Paradise Poker software will result in a further exceptional cost of approximately £55,000,000 representing the write-off of the remaining carrying value of this asset and associated costs. The Group Chief Executive of Sportingbet plc, Andrew McIver, said: "This deal combines all our poker players in one destination, maximising liquidity whilst reducing the complexity of running two separate poker operations. The addition of the Paradise Poker players to the Boss poker network will make the Boss network one of the largest in Europe." Boss Media Chief Executive Officer, Johan Berg, said: "The partnership with Sportingbet is material to the success of Boss Media and is one very important reason that we are one of the leading providers of e-Gaming software. The strengthened partnership will enable the two companies to work together to bring second to none e-Gaming products to the market Mon, 12 Feb 2007 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jones12345 Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 Re: Trouble In Paradise I,ve just realised something very dodgy going on at paradise,i know when you enter tournies on paradise like most sites they dont charge you a fee,but the i entered a $5 10 player tourney this afternoon and the prize money should of been $50 but between us the top 3 accumalated $44.55,so were did the other $5.45 go?Right now i just checked who was registered for the paradise poker leauge 19 entered $57 top 3 at mo get paid 1st 25 2nd 15 3rd 10 = $50 so weres the other $7 gone? Be grateful if some1 could explain this to me.Might just be me but it looks well dodgy to me . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GaF Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 Re: Trouble In Paradise The rake is taken as a percentage of the prize pool - so whilst other sites are $5+50c and pay the full $5 in the prize pool, Paradise only take the $5 but deduct their fee from the prize pool ....... I much prefer the $5+50c - is far more transparent Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jones12345 Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 Re: Trouble In Paradise cheers gaf never noticed before :ok Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dodger Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Re: Trouble In Paradise On Paradise the fee for STTs is payed up front. It is the MTTs that deduct from the pool...and it always seems to be 9%. At first I thought we were gaining a 1% advantage over other sites, but this is not so... example 20 players on Betfair paying $5.50 each ($5 + fee) total pool, including the fees is $110. So the $10 total that Betfair take is 9.1% of the total pool. Conversely if Paradise had a 20 player MTT for $5.50 entry fee, then they would take 9% of the $110 = $9.90 So by my reckoning you are only 0.1% better off on Paradise MTTs when it initially appears to be ten times that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.