I have been a regular on this forum for a while now and have also been known to dip in and out of the site to play a bit of poker.
I have to say I love the SKYPoker experience in terms of the forum, the friendly nature of the site, being able to play in £'s, and the TV channel.
At the moment, however, I play my poker elsewhere.
Why? I hear you ask.
For 2 reasons mainly.
1. The software, both in terms of it's functionality, or should I say lack of it, and the inability of my laptop to smoothly run more than 2 tables, whilst on other sites I can run 6 tables and HEM without any hitches.
2. The lack of traffic and decent guaranteed MTT's in the £10 - £20 range.
I would love to know what SKY's long term plan for the poker site is.
I honestly think that if SKY were to take this poker lark seriously they could become one of the leading sites in terms of the poker market.
So here are a couple of suggestions if they want to get serious.
1. Sort out the software. It is miles behind the best sites and is akin to playing on a Spectrum 64 whilst your best mate plays on an X-Box. There was talk some time ago about the release of a new software package. This seems to have disappeared.
2. Why limit Skypoker to only the UK, Bulgaria and some other tiny countries in terms of poker playing countries. Open it up to the masses, obviously where legally allowed, sorry all you Yanks.
3. Advertise. When do we ever see SKYPoker advertised anywhere apart from on CH 861. Surely you can take advantage of the SKY network.
4. Take a risk and have a look at the MTT schedule at prime time. At the moment we have a nightly guaranteed MTT at 8pm with a £33 buy in. This is to high for your average recreational player. There is a mini at 8.15pm I hear you say. Great, but I want to play more than 1 MTT at a time. I would suggest that you introduce a 7.30pm £10 MTT with a guarantee of £5k and a 7.45pm £10 MTT with a guarantee of £10k. I know this may seem like big guarantees but if you advertise and stick with it the players will soon come.
At the end of the day it is up to SKY whether they really want to take poker seriously or not. With their huge name and associated customer perception of a safe place to play they could be monsters if they choose.
I really hope they do want to be taken seriously as I would love to see the site grow and grow.
With Zynga Poker about to transform the huge Facebook player pool into the new poker boom, SKY need to act now.
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