Cake Poker Network Partners With PokerListngs
Over the last few weeks, rumors have been circulating in the industry that the troubled Cake Poker Network had been purchased by mega-affiliate Poker Listings. The truth finally came out today when Poker Listings confirmed the rumors by stating that they have undertaken ?a strategic partnership? with the Cake Poker Network and that they expect to drive a ?minimum of 2,000 new depositing players to the site per month.?
In the last year, many industry observers have wondered aloud about the future of the network. Cake Poker has seen its traffic decrease by over 60%, be a part of well-publicized security issue and see the departure of cardroom manager Lee Jones. Many have even feared -- especially after Doyles Room left Cake Poker -- that the network could collapse as liquidity dried up. Many of these fears will undoubtedly be eased with the Poker Listings partnership.
With our plentiful industry contacts, we heard a lot of the rumors about the Cake sale in recent weeks. We took particular note that the top two sites listed on the Poker Listings front page were both Cake skins -- Cake Poker and Juicy Stakes Poker (there are now three at the top of their list). This change occurred sometime between December and March; Poker Listings previously had Sportsbook and UB as their top US sites (thanks TimPAS). Being a bonus guy, I took particular notice to the unusual sign-up bonus of 110% up to $1,000 available at both sites. I don?t know if I have ever seen such a large bonus on the Cake Poker network, which is much higher than the ?maximum? amount allowed -- 110% up to $600. Poker Listings seems to allude to the special promotions in the press release by stating that ?fantastic deals? will be in store for players referred by Poker Listings.
What The Partnership Means For Cake
So what does the purchase of Cake Poker by Poker Listings mean to the network? First of all, there is no doubt Poker Listings is a force in the industry and has some very smart people at their organization. Most major affiliates in the industry are certainly well aware of this. So do they have what it takes to turn Cake Poker around? If Cake Poker was indeed in trouble ? which certainly seemed to be the case ? then the sale is probably a *good* thing. Here we have some very smart people with extensive industry success who believe they can turn around what some see as a ?sinking ship.? Yeah, I think that?s better than a worse-case scenario that could have had players and affiliate possibly losing money.
The 6 month traffic chart for Cake Poker looks terrible, and if you were to go back another 6 months it would look even worse. If I were to own a room, I don?t think I?d want to own them, honestly. But at least one major affiliate believes they can buy low and sell high, even claiming to be able to send 2,000 real money players to the network per month. And who are we to doubt them? Having rooms listed as #1- #3 on the Poker Listings home page -- along with their huge clout elsewhere (a Cake graphic takes up almost ½ of the ?above the fold? space) -- would presumably send a lot of traffic to the network. But will it be enough to stop the slide? Affiliates may also wonder how the sale will affect them, if at all. I don?t believe there is a track record of a network being owned by an affiliate, so we don?t really know how that will shake out. Combine this with the uncertainty that surrounds a company any time there is new ownership, and it?s all a bit of ?who the hell knows? what will happen.
