I'm not sure which factor(s) will be the key one(s) when it comes to the decision on which direction they end up going in with this but I'm sceptical as to whether we, the players, the forum community, can/will have any influence one way or another.
Having said that, I will just echo the sentiments of a few others by saying that I will also not be migrating with my Sky Poker account if it means being integrated into the entire Stars player pool - not because I don't want to play with Ivan, Ivan's alright, no issues with Ivan... actually it is because of Ivan in a way (but not because he can't speak a word of the Queen's).
Whilst being a recreational player (who works full time and plays most evenings) I still don't like to lose money playing poker. I don't quite enjoy the game enough to view it as an amusing pastime that I'm prepared to spend both (potentially lots of) money and hours per evening grinding a few tables of MTT knowing that I'm very much going to be an underdog when/if I get to the business end of the tournament after 5, 6, 7, 8 hours(?) of play
The player pool is weaker, the tournaments are more manageable and I feel like I'm profitable. That's the bottom line for why I choose to play here from a poker playing perspective.
I do very much enjoy being a part of the Sky Poker forum community too though and have 'met' (they're still just Avatars and screennames to be honest - no real life meetings as yet) some nice/interesting/talented people here. It would be a real shame if the whole kit and caboodle goes in one job lot.
It's easy (and somewhat natural) to only really think about the impact this has on ourselves but I would also like to echo another sentiment in wishing the best for all Sky Poker employees in these uncertain times.
Sky poker isn't just a poker site it's also a site where the players are great friends with each other. I haven't been as active on sky poker recently but sky poker still means alot to me. I have bonded with the sky poker community so well, If we are to lose the forum poker tables and especially SPTs I might as well stop playing sky altogether because in cash terms I know sites which have much weaker cash tables than those you'll get on pokerstars and loss of the forum tables and SPTs means I'll lose the what is a very helpful respectful set of cyber friends.
I want to give a huge thank you to all the sky poker community and wish you all the best if I were to lose you
Most of us have accounts at various sites. They may give a few sweeteners at the time of migration but there after people will choose where to play. The cost saving from staff reduction will be lost to player reduction. There are huge issues in the coming years relating to problem gaming and it would be wise to keep options open. The sky brand is the real value and keeping the "acceptable face of gaming" should be a priority. There should be a weighting on the opportunity cost. At a time of consolidation in the market, players moving to rival sites may take up the opportunity to partake in their non poker related gaming thus devaluing the primary purchased product.
A real shame if it does happen. IF it does and we get advance warning of the closure date it would be handy to have a thread where people could recommend other sites with a similar feel to Sky ( if that exists ).
i have played on 888 poker and its a joke and if that was the only option to play then i would start playing chess because i dnt think they understand the game they call all in with 84 and other people call with 83 and 72 might see one player with jq ive been ruined many times with the stuff they call with all in pre flop i think at sky poker u get a little bit of respect not much but somtimes just enough to win the pot plus they hate the english always splatting me with eggs and toms and cakes hahaha i love it love ther emojs hahaha sort it out sky then u will be the bestest becky connor said the same
i have played on 888 poker and its a joke and if that was the only option to play then i would start playing chess because i dnt think they understand the game they call all in with 84 and other people call with 83 and 72 might see one player with jq ive been ruined many times with the stuff they call with all in pre flop i think at sky poker u get a little bit of respect not much but somtimes just enough to win the pot plus they hate the english always splatting me with eggs and toms and cakes hahaha i love it love ther emojs hahaha sort it out sky then u will be the bestest becky connor said the same
When I get a bad beat, it's definitely the lack of respect that hurts the most
RE Stars, at present I choose not to play there. For MTTs they essentially offer a different product (large field, mostly 9max) which I'm not interested in. If the player pools are merged I won't play there; there are plenty of other options.
From a business perspective, customers of Sky presumably play here because of Sky's USPs. If you merge the pools you destroy the USPs and I think it would be somewhat naïve to think the customer base will just mosey on over to Stars and not assess all of the options available to them.
Feel sorry for Sky Poker staff most of all, not just for the uncertainty, but because they literally won't be allowed to say what they actually think.
When I get a bad beat, it's definitely the lack of respect that hurts the most
RE Stars, at present I choose not to play there. For MTTs they essentially offer a different product (large field, mostly 9max) which I'm not interested in. If the player pools are merged I won't play there; there are plenty of other options.
From a business perspective, customers of Sky presumably play here because of Sky's USPs. If you merge the pools you destroy the USPs and I think it would be somewhat naïve to think the customer base will just mosey on over to Stars and not assess all of the options available to them.
Feel sorry for Sky Poker staff most of all, not just for the uncertainty, but because they literally won't be allowed to say what they actually think.
^^^^ 100% this.
Sky currently accounts for roughly 70% of my poker volume. Stars gets around 10% and the remaining 20% goes elsewhere. If Sky were to merge into the Stars pool and simply become a skin on Pokerstars (as ultimately happened with Full Tilt), then my overall volume on Stars/Sky would still remain at 10% with the deficit being made up by 'elsewhere'.
As it stands, Sky Poker offers a unique product to the online poker market place. The removal of choice is certainly bad for the consumer and, given that Sky enjoys some incredible brand loyalty due to its unique positioning, it seems illogical to try and force those customers onto Stars when they are already able to play there should they wish. If slick software, huge tourney guarantees and fantastic liquidity were all that mattered then Sky Poker would have died a long time ago.
i have played on 888 poker and its a joke and if that was the only option to play then i would start playing chess because i dnt think they understand the game they call all in with 84 and other people call with 83 and 72 might see one player with jq ive been ruined many times with the stuff they call with all in pre flop i think at sky poker u get a little bit of respect not much but somtimes just enough to win the pot plus they hate the english always splatting me with eggs and toms and cakes hahaha i love it love ther emojs hahaha sort it out sky then u will be the bestest becky connor said the same
If they move SkyPoker to the Pokerstars software "skin" but maintain the UK only player base separate from Stars itself, that would be perfect imo. IE keep all the positives we have now but with better software.
If they just just drop SkyPoker, that's not so good.
Would we be able to have our normal Stars account and a separate account for the migrated SkyPoker wing?
Otherwise "migrating SkyPoker players to the Stars platform", is just a polite way of saying they're going to ditch SkyPoker. Imo of course.
Star's software is nice to play on, but that comes at a cost for a Reg, very little rake back, battling seating scrips, Huds, and playerpool ECT (Russian stables).
Don't see any up side to this merger imo for a Reg.
It would be a no brainer for me to move to one of the other sites that don't have the same problems.
So , would be genuinely interested to know what business benefits Stars would gain from keeping the skypoker brand ( even with different software ) , rather than just total integration and migration over to stars and goodnight skypoker ?
So , would be genuinely interested to know what business benefits Stars would gain from keeping the skypoker brand ( even with different software ) , rather than just total integration and migration over to stars and goodnight skypoker ?
So , would be genuinely interested to know what business benefits Stars would gain from keeping the skypoker brand ( even with different software ) , rather than just total integration and migration over to stars and goodnight skypoker ?
Did you read any of the rest of the thread?
Did you ? I'm asking for a " from a business perspective " as opposed to from a players perspective . if you can't provide any insight to that , then move over so someone else can !
Comments
'Ivan' is also pretty good, isn't he...
Ivan The (not so) Terrible
I'm not sure which factor(s) will be the key one(s) when it comes to the decision on which direction they end up going in with this but I'm sceptical as to whether we, the players, the forum community, can/will have any influence one way or another.
Having said that, I will just echo the sentiments of a few others by saying that I will also not be migrating with my Sky Poker account if it means being integrated into the entire Stars player pool - not because I don't want to play with Ivan, Ivan's alright, no issues with Ivan... actually it is because of Ivan in a way (but not because he can't speak a word of the Queen's).
Whilst being a recreational player (who works full time and plays most evenings) I still don't like to lose money playing poker. I don't quite enjoy the game enough to view it as an amusing pastime that I'm prepared to spend both (potentially lots of) money and hours per evening grinding a few tables of MTT knowing that I'm very much going to be an underdog when/if I get to the business end of the tournament after 5, 6, 7, 8 hours(?) of play
The player pool is weaker, the tournaments are more manageable and I feel like I'm profitable. That's the bottom line for why I choose to play here from a poker playing perspective.
I do very much enjoy being a part of the Sky Poker forum community too though and have 'met' (they're still just Avatars and screennames to be honest - no real life meetings as yet) some nice/interesting/talented people here. It would be a real shame if the whole kit and caboodle goes in one job lot.
It's easy (and somewhat natural) to only really think about the impact this has on ourselves but I would also like to echo another sentiment in wishing the best for all Sky Poker employees in these uncertain times.
I haven't been as active on sky poker recently but sky poker still means alot to me. I have bonded with the sky poker community so well, If we are to lose the forum poker tables and especially SPTs I might as well stop playing sky altogether because in cash terms I know sites which have much weaker cash tables than those you'll get on pokerstars and loss of the forum tables and SPTs means I'll lose the what is a very helpful respectful set of cyber friends.
I want to give a huge thank you to all the sky poker community and wish you all the best if I were to lose you
The main issue is to play for decent prizes you usually have to commit to 12 hours of play in a regular speed mtt.
if they call allins with 83, 84, 72... sign me up
No...sorry...still confused.
RE Stars, at present I choose not to play there. For MTTs they essentially offer a different product (large field, mostly 9max) which I'm not interested in. If the player pools are merged I won't play there; there are plenty of other options.
From a business perspective, customers of Sky presumably play here because of Sky's USPs. If you merge the pools you destroy the USPs and I think it would be somewhat naïve to think the customer base will just mosey on over to Stars and not assess all of the options available to them.
Feel sorry for Sky Poker staff most of all, not just for the uncertainty, but because they literally won't be allowed to say what they actually think.
Sky currently accounts for roughly 70% of my poker volume. Stars gets around 10% and the remaining 20% goes elsewhere. If Sky were to merge into the Stars pool and simply become a skin on Pokerstars (as ultimately happened with Full Tilt), then my overall volume on Stars/Sky would still remain at 10% with the deficit being made up by 'elsewhere'.
As it stands, Sky Poker offers a unique product to the online poker market place. The removal of choice is certainly bad for the consumer and, given that Sky enjoys some incredible brand loyalty due to its unique positioning, it seems illogical to try and force those customers onto Stars when they are already able to play there should they wish. If slick software, huge tourney guarantees and fantastic liquidity were all that mattered then Sky Poker would have died a long time ago.
If they move SkyPoker to the Pokerstars software "skin" but maintain the UK only player base separate from Stars itself, that would be perfect imo. IE keep all the positives we have now but with better software.
If they just just drop SkyPoker, that's not so good.
Would we be able to have our normal Stars account and a separate account for the migrated SkyPoker wing?
Otherwise "migrating SkyPoker players to the Stars platform", is just a polite way of saying they're going to ditch SkyPoker. Imo of course.
G
I bet they won't want to keep The Rail though.
Don't see any up side to this merger imo for a Reg.
It would be a no brainer for me to move to one of the other sites that don't have the same problems.
I have enjoyed it here, good while it lasted.
Many players already have Stars accounts; they can't have two.
All players currently have the option of playing on Stars but many choose not to.
If Stars keep Sky going, they get rake from both above categories that they otherwise wouldn't.