Online Poker News: WPN’s The Venom on record course; PokerBros anti-bot feature; Unibet’s new loyalty program; Run It Once Poker’s “Earn and Learn”
In this column we deliver you the latest and most interesting online poker industry news from across the world and all platforms.
WPN’s The Venom on record course
The Winning Poker Network (WPN) is hosting their flagship event The Venom for the fifth time. It has already started with Day 1A and 1B on 22nd and 24th January. But there are still two Day 1s to come for this $2,650 online event.
- Day 1C: Friday, 29th January, 1 pm ET
- Day 1D: Sunday, 31st January, 1 pm ET
- Day 2: Monday, 1st February, 1 pm ET
- Day 3: Tuesday, 2nd February, 1 pm ET
- Day 4: Wednesday, 3rd February, 1 pm ET
Last year in August, The Venom had a $7 million guarantee, but smashed that with a total prize pool of $9.68 million. This month WPN is guaranteeing $8 million and there is a chance for it to become a record-breaking event for the U.S. market.
There are still satellites available to get into one of the last two starting flights. So, get involved.
PokerBros anti-bot feature
The club-based app PokerBros has announced a new anti-bot feature for their application. Club-based apps have been enjoying massive popularity in recent years, but a big concern of many players has been security all along.
Many players might not be able to play on the big regulated poker sites with whole departments fighting bots and cheat and so trust towards this smaller unregulated offering has been fragile.
PokerBros is now working to ease the fear of bots on their application by introducing a captcha-like verification when players are in the process of joining a table. But not just that. They also have to solve the “puzzle” randomly during games. Players have 15 seconds to complete the verification and if they fail they get kicked out of the game.
A bot operator would therefore be present and paying attention to the table at all times, which simply wouldn’t make it worth the while creating bots to cheat other players in this way.
This solution might be quite intrusive for actual real players, but it is for the good of everyone. If players will like it and accept this solution remains to be seen.
Unibet’s new loyalty program
The Unibet loyalty program has been based on a challenge system, which has proven to be not the best solution for most players. Challenges had to be completed for different game types, for example. As most players have a favourite game type, however, the interest is not necessarily given to spend time elsewhere.
Starting from 1st April, Unibet is going to introduce a new loyalty program that is more aligned with an industry standard of gamified rakeback. More than 50% rakeback is offered to high volume players and it scales down to smaller volume players accordingly.
“The ambition has been to build a new loyalty system with gamification added to the regular poker game play with measurable and fun progression that unlocks rewards in all markets,” Unibet states, “even the ones that don’t allow monetary incentives.”
For the operator this is a great way to adjust the loyalty program depending on different markets and jurisdictions and for players it will be way more streamlined and simplified.
Run It Once Poker’s “Earn and Learn”
Run It Once Poker is making a statement. Now that at least some form of tournaments has been introduced with their Sit & Go produced CUB3D, RIO is working hard to attract more new players to their site.
High Stakes crusher Phil Galfond’s brainchild Run It Once will combine its two components – the training site and the actual poker site – for the most exciting welcome bonus offer the poker industry has seen as of yet. A €600 deposit bonus, eight weeks of boosted rewards, up to €100 in free-play tickets and hundreds of dollars worth of training content are waiting for news players.
This “Earn and Learn” offer really drives home the scope of the Run It Once universe: Learn and study the game and take your knowledge straight to the tables.
“How well did the last poker site you signed up for treat you?” Galfond asks in a promotional video on the operator’s website. “Whether you just play for fun, or working hard towards becoming a big winner, or already playing professionally, we want to help you get the most out of your play at Run it Once.”
Phil Galfond is not just proving that he’s still got it in his very own Galfond Challenge, beating opponents for hundreds of thousands of dollars, he also proves that his dream of creating a fair poker site from players for players might finally be on the right track.
