Don't you think a poker site loses credibility when it starts to sell skins of itself to other investors,or take a rake from it,(not exactly sure what the financial terms of such a deal is). You'd think if you had a successful site you would want to keep it all to yourself ,as well as the software aspect of it. To me it seems like being a sellout,greed first. You dont see the larger more successful poker sites doing such a practice(and I dont include absolute poker,because I dont think of it as a legitimate site.....thievery site to me and Ill leave it at that). All these merge network offshoots have me wondering whether I still want to play there. Used to like playing at poker/carbon.com ,but now I'm starting to question whether I should stick to the bigger ,nonskin sites
Actually the "bigger" sites license their software to others - they just don't run it as a network
The advantage to a network - while a skin is building its brand there are games for its new members to play that have real value... Take a look at some of the new poker sites that are not part of a network. Everyone whines - nice software but I was the only one sitting at the table - there was no one on the site.
Being a skin on a network solves that problem. Being part of a network is supposed to be a help while a skin develops its own games and identity. Like
GR88,
FeltStars,
365bonitas and
PlayersOnly - all are part of a network to provide value to their players, but all also provide unique games only available to their members. Each is building its own identity.
Think of the network as a franchise - when you open a restaurant is it better to be KFC or Joe's Chicken Shack? Obviously there is the name recognition of KFC and the menu that everyone is familiar with. Is KFC greedy by selling franchises? No - their reach in the world is greatly expanded by all the new KFC's. 365Bonitas markets to Latin America and now brings Argentina onto the Merge network..
YogaPoker markets to the Asia countries and brings Asia onto the Cake network. Network expands to new markets, just like KFC.
Not greedy - its giving the opportunity to many to own skins (franchises) and get into the marketplace while expanding the network to marketplaces they can not easily reach. Sounds like smart business to me and we the players benefit by having more choice. We can play the skins that have the extras we are interested in while still getting all the things that make Cake and Merge networks great.
But that bottle of rum does sound good... would go well with Sunday brunch matey
