There are 32 packages. 8 of the 32 are attainable for absolutely everyone via the giveaway and the eliminator freerolls - that's 25% of the total packages you can get for as little as 10 points for a ticket in the giveaway or 25 points a day (probably x7 needed) on the eliminator freerolls. Then 12 are available via satellites which start at 1.10. 62.5% of the packages are attainable for basically everyone.
After that there are 4 for league winners and 4 for DYM weeks with 4 unknown. The majority of packages can be won by absolutely anyone - for a prize worth 4,000gbp that is absolutely insane value.
It seems very entitled to me to expect that absolutely anyone should be able to win every promotion with such a massive top prize.
I always feel like it's sh*tty to complain about something and not have some constructive feedback on what could be done differently, or suggest some kind of alternative.
I think whatever happens, the site needs to move away from promos that give near-guaranteed prizes to the highest-raking spins regs and Turbo DYM regs.
Personally I wouldn't mind seeing some kind of prize wheel, where you take the points system from this promo and those points are instead used to spin a wheel (if you can't do this in the Poker client because of software limitations, you could do it in the promo page, similar to the Sky Vegas prize machine).
This would mean you're still rewarding the high-raking Turbo DYM regs by giving them far more opportunities to win, but you're not completely excluding recs who have zero chance of winning while they're also losing their money faster in reggier games.
To ensure low volume players can take part and the regs aren't having to spin a wheel a couple of thousand times to use up their points, you could have micro/low/medium/high wheels (to use maybe 10/100/1k/10k promo points at a time) and tweak probabilities and prizes accordingly.
Prizes could be: 1) Entry into a nightly all-in MTT, which awards maybe 1 final seat, 3 semi seats and 4-12 quarter seats in the Vegas sats for that night/week/month. This is somewhere in the region of £25k of seats being given out over the course of a month (I can't be bothered to work out the exact number, but it's in the ballpark of what Sky would give out during a regular promo each month, which is good enough for this post, to illustrate the concept).
This would have a variable starting stack with no upper limit, and future wheel spins can add to your stack - think of it like a golden ticket draw that you can rail.
Set it up to run like an FA cup style knockout, and ensure that after the first round there are always 2^n players remaining by simply waiting until every table has one person remaining before anyone moves table. This means you avoid issues with things like "who cashes if 80% of the field are knocked out every hand but one table finishes the hand a few milliseconds after the other table?", or people starting with one chip and having a disproportionately high chance of winning a seat by winning pots and having the big stacks knock everyone else out by winning side pots, which would happen in a 6-max all in game.
(This is also why the cumulative number of prizes are powers of two, i.e. 4 people get at least a Vegas semi seat and 8/16 people win at least a Vegas quarter seat).
Maybe one of the micro players wins 9 all ins in a row to knock out a reg and progress to the next round with a huge stack - or perhaps they get lucky draws against other micro players until they've suddenly got a quarter final seat and a chance to get lucky a few times in a row against a reg with a stack? It'd definitely be fun for people to rail. Yeah, recs' starting stacks would still be slightly more valuable per chip because of ICM, but that's not a bad thing IMO.
Aside from the obvious benefits of giving more than a handful of players a chance to win, this would be good from Sky's POV because: - If you have this at around 6pm every night, you get people playing night before, then logging on the following day to see if they win a prize. Perhaps they then decide "I'll play a couple of games while I'm here" or "I've won a satellite seat, so I'll play something else while I wait for the satellite to start". - It helps to stretch the promo budget further if you're giving away £20.60 / £94 / £430 seats, but only adding £18.80 / £86 / £400 to the prize pool. - It helps you to ensure you meet guarantees on the Vegas satellites (maybe you could even increase the number of semi seats guaranteed in the quarter final each night?) - The variable starting stack means you can just have people win this instead of having the disappointment of a nothing prize, but it's also completely free for Sky to give away extra tournament chips once you've committed to a freeroll with a prize pool of £x.
Will most of the prizes go to winning regs? Yeah, probably. But enough of them go to recs too. More importantly, the guys playing £1 DYMs *could* win and find themselves one satellite away from winning the trip of a lifetime. Sell the dream to the recs.
2) Entry to a freeroll which awards Vegas package(s?) to the winner at the end of the week/month (this would be separate from the regular Vegas satellite tree) and maybe some cash prizes.
This could have a variable starting stack, starting from 500 or 1k, and going up to maybe 10k? Obviously you have to cap the max starting stack on this to avoid people having ridiculous amounts of big blinds in the early levels.
Again, the variable stack keeps people coming back to the promo to maximise their chances at the end of the week/month, and it'd be pretty cool to see some of the recs or the lower stakes regs spin up a chip and a chair and have a deep run in the tournament.
Will it be won by a winning reg who started with 20x as many chips as half the field? More than likely. But everyone who gets into that tournament believes they have a chance, even if it's only for five minutes.
3) Instant Vegas tournament tokens 4) Sunday Major seats 5) Main & mini entry package for the following night (excl. Sunday)
- Anyone can win (but it still rewards regs who will get more seats from the promo) - Gives people a shot in your biggest games of the week - Helps you to reach the guarantee (especially in months when they are usually reduced), and gets people to come back on Sunday to play on the site if they win a Major seat - Having a fixed chance of winning one of these prizes means it's not costing anything out of a promotion budget - instead it acts more like rakeback, where the amount you pay back to players is proportional to how much people pay in rake during the promo.
Maybe add a Vegas package to the FT jackpot and/or the Sunday Major win for anyone qualifying through the promo, too? Now you can sell people a once-in-a-lifetime holiday plus the 'spending money' from winning the tournament(s).
Same principle throughout - No matter how unlikely, sell the dream to the recs. Doesn't matter if it's about as likely as winning the lottery for the guy who plays a handful of £1 DYMs every week to end up winning a Vegas package this way, because that's not what most people's brains immediately jump to when they see the promo.
6) Instant cash prizes
7) Free bets/spins on Sky Bet/Vegas - Cross-promotion obvs. But might annoy people who are self-excluded from either of the products and/or don't want to use them, so maybe allowing people to choose between "£x free bet, y * £x/y free spins, or £x/2 cash" would be better?
8) Gadgets/Sky Poker merchandise? This has nothing to do with my Sky Poker hoodie being 8 years old and me being too much of a life nit to replace my phone with a cracked screen, I promise.
Joking aside, you could easily take out Vegas prizes and add UKOPS prizes, Christmas prizes etc. - Play around with the concept.
Doesn't necessarily have to be limited to DYMs, either - You could apply it to any selection of games you choose, and just award some amount of promo points per Poker point earned.
That is a thoughtful post. It is trying to show objectively (rather than subjectively) possible ways forward.
I genuinely believe that various of these are possible ways forward. However, sadly, for a variety of reasons, I don't think they are likely (although I would be delighted to be wrong). In the order you raised them:-
1. Entry into a nightly all-in MTT. Great idea. I would love it. Trouble is-that is going to require considerable upgrades to existing software. Which does not look likely. 2. Sky have tried this before. The fact they are not doing it now suggests this does not produce the desired effect 3. That has the same problem as 1 4. Sky already do this 5. Sky already run qualifiers for the Main-this would impact upon the 6/7.15 quals. The added bits at the end are going to make that either too expensive or unworkable 6. Sky already do this 7. That would have been possible 10 years ago-maybe even 5. Now? Thanks to the UKGC, that is impractical 8. Sky usually do this as a Xmas promotion
There has to be weight given to both high volume regs, and everyone else. I think it has the balance right for everything except DYMs, where there seems (to me) to be too much weight given to 6 or so players, of which you rightly mention 4.
Sky had a choice. Their promo budget could not stretch to Vegas and a UKOPS-so they have chosen to miss the Easter UKOPS. Frankly, there seems to me to be precious little left to promote the Glasgow SPT adequately. There is nothing left for anything else until after Vegas.
I really wish that the owners of Sky Poker are willing to push Sky Poker. Rather than let it gradually wither on the vine. Similarly, I really wish that that would result in various of your ideas being implemented.
I expressed concern over this promo to but was basically told no one cared.
Okay there is a general attitude among some proportion of people here that is not a healthy attitude. The attitude seems to be one of well if you dont like it then go somewhere else.
If someone says they are not happy with the software crashing and gets upset in the forums they are told well if you dont like it go somewhere else. same for people mentioning promotions.
It is impossible for the vast majority of business or governments or gambling sites to satisfy every customer/individual because very often many will have completely contradictory preferences/desires.
The issue in this promotion as I have seen on other sites is usually promotions like this result in anyone who wants to compete for the leaderboard in any tangible way will likely be losing or just break even throughout the promo and then profitable once you factor in rakeback/leaderboards.
few people have either the bankroll or the time to ever make going for such a prize realistic. I doubt though that high stake turbo dons full of mostly regs will have anyone significantly beating the rake if there is anyone beating the rake at all. I do not think most people in the position to potentially lose thousands of pounds within an hour. Something more then realistic for even the strongest regs when playing turbo dons at £100 plus.
I have time constraints due to exams coming up but I doubt many of people on here are Open UNI students combined with working whilst also playing on here. Clearly this promo would only really work for seasoned pros who do not have another day job and do are not studying for a degree etc. Who only have online poker as a commitment.
the Eliminator freerolls and the raffle promo I guess were more aimed at the casual player.
I guess the don regs complaining are the middle ground semi regs who have a day job who have a limited bankroll <£20000 who were hoping to be able to grind to compete for a realistic chance of a prize.
Sky cannot satisfy everyone and also be profitable I get that. I just think maybe we should not hate on people who express what they dont like or what doesnt work for them.
I guess really I am glad no promo offers me the chance to grind for a prize. The eliminator free roll works perfectly as a casual shot I cannot afford the time to play 50/60 hours a week on poker. </p>
Boldened part 1 (two paragraphs) :-
That's fine, we perhaps all have unhealthy attitudes to certain things some of the time. Patience and good-will is a virtue at these times especially I believe. There is also the human element of emotions. Not sure how well that covers my thoughts on your comment however there it is.
As said by others the software is old and works most of the time. On a personal level on why I still to play solely on Sky? ----- I know the games, I like most people on here and a big majority at that, it's friendly, the promos are great and there is a community feel to the games and forum on the whole as well as no 'dodgy shenanigans' and little controversy outwith personal opinions and forceful views. An easy trade to continue to play on the site.
The trade-off:- the software is garbage however has been stable more recently. If the pluses are more than the minuses then it's good, if not we can always leave and take to another site.
There are 32 packages. 8 of the 32 are attainable for absolutely everyone via the giveaway and the eliminator freerolls - that's 25% of the total packages you can get for as little as 10 points for a ticket in the giveaway or 25 points a day (probably x7 needed) on the eliminator freerolls. Then 12 are available via satellites which start at 1.10. 62.5% of the packages are attainable for basically everyone.
After that there are 4 for league winners and 4 for DYM weeks with 4 unknown. The majority of packages can be won by absolutely anyone - for a prize worth 4,000gbp that is absolutely insane value.
It seems very entitled to me to expect that absolutely anyone should be able to win every promotion with such a massive top prize.
This. To get the thread back on track. This is what people are moaning at. Jesus wept.
There are 32 packages. 8 of the 32 are attainable for absolutely everyone via the giveaway and the eliminator freerolls - that's 25% of the total packages you can get for as little as 10 points for a ticket in the giveaway or 25 points a day (probably x7 needed) on the eliminator freerolls. Then 12 are available via satellites which start at 1.10. 62.5% of the packages are attainable for basically everyone.
After that there are 4 for league winners and 4 for DYM weeks with 4 unknown. The majority of packages can be won by absolutely anyone - for a prize worth 4,000gbp that is absolutely insane value.
It seems very entitled to me to expect that absolutely anyone should be able to win every promotion with such a massive top prize.
This. To get the thread back on track. This is what people are moaning at. Jesus wept.
I always feel like it's sh*tty to complain about something and not have some constructive feedback on what could be done differently, or suggest some kind of alternative.
I think whatever happens, the site needs to move away from promos that give near-guaranteed prizes to the highest-raking spins regs and Turbo DYM regs.
Personally I wouldn't mind seeing some kind of prize wheel, where you take the points system from this promo and those points are instead used to spin a wheel (if you can't do this in the Poker client because of software limitations, you could do it in the promo page, similar to the Sky Vegas prize machine).
This would mean you're still rewarding the high-raking Turbo DYM regs by giving them far more opportunities to win, but you're not completely excluding recs who have zero chance of winning while they're also losing their money faster in reggier games.
To ensure low volume players can take part and the regs aren't having to spin a wheel a couple of thousand times to use up their points, you could have micro/low/medium/high wheels (to use maybe 10/100/1k/10k promo points at a time) and tweak probabilities and prizes accordingly.
Prizes could be: 1) Entry into a nightly all-in MTT, which awards maybe 1 final seat, 3 semi seats and 4-12 quarter seats in the Vegas sats for that night/week/month. This is somewhere in the region of £25k of seats being given out over the course of a month (I can't be bothered to work out the exact number, but it's in the ballpark of what Sky would give out during a regular promo each month, which is good enough for this post, to illustrate the concept).
This would have a variable starting stack with no upper limit, and future wheel spins can add to your stack - think of it like a golden ticket draw that you can rail.
Set it up to run like an FA cup style knockout, and ensure that after the first round there are always 2^n players remaining by simply waiting until every table has one person remaining before anyone moves table. This means you avoid issues with things like "who cashes if 80% of the field are knocked out every hand but one table finishes the hand a few milliseconds after the other table?", or people starting with one chip and having a disproportionately high chance of winning a seat by winning pots and having the big stacks knock everyone else out by winning side pots, which would happen in a 6-max all in game.
(This is also why the cumulative number of prizes are powers of two, i.e. 4 people get at least a Vegas semi seat and 8/16 people win at least a Vegas quarter seat).
Maybe one of the micro players wins 9 all ins in a row to knock out a reg and progress to the next round with a huge stack - or perhaps they get lucky draws against other micro players until they've suddenly got a quarter final seat and a chance to get lucky a few times in a row against a reg with a stack? It'd definitely be fun for people to rail. Yeah, recs' starting stacks would still be slightly more valuable per chip because of ICM, but that's not a bad thing IMO.
Aside from the obvious benefits of giving more than a handful of players a chance to win, this would be good from Sky's POV because: - If you have this at around 6pm every night, you get people playing night before, then logging on the following day to see if they win a prize. Perhaps they then decide "I'll play a couple of games while I'm here" or "I've won a satellite seat, so I'll play something else while I wait for the satellite to start". - It helps to stretch the promo budget further if you're giving away £20.60 / £94 / £430 seats, but only adding £18.80 / £86 / £400 to the prize pool. - It helps you to ensure you meet guarantees on the Vegas satellites (maybe you could even increase the number of semi seats guaranteed in the quarter final each night?) - The variable starting stack means you can just have people win this instead of having the disappointment of a nothing prize, but it's also completely free for Sky to give away extra tournament chips once you've committed to a freeroll with a prize pool of £x.
Will most of the prizes go to winning regs? Yeah, probably. But enough of them go to recs too. More importantly, the guys playing £1 DYMs *could* win and find themselves one satellite away from winning the trip of a lifetime. Sell the dream to the recs.
2) Entry to a freeroll which awards Vegas package(s?) to the winner at the end of the week/month (this would be separate from the regular Vegas satellite tree) and maybe some cash prizes.
This could have a variable starting stack, starting from 500 or 1k, and going up to maybe 10k? Obviously you have to cap the max starting stack on this to avoid people having ridiculous amounts of big blinds in the early levels.
Again, the variable stack keeps people coming back to the promo to maximise their chances at the end of the week/month, and it'd be pretty cool to see some of the recs or the lower stakes regs spin up a chip and a chair and have a deep run in the tournament.
Will it be won by a winning reg who started with 20x as many chips as half the field? More than likely. But everyone who gets into that tournament believes they have a chance, even if it's only for five minutes.
3) Instant Vegas tournament tokens 4) Sunday Major seats 5) Main & mini entry package for the following night (excl. Sunday)
- Anyone can win (but it still rewards regs who will get more seats from the promo) - Gives people a shot in your biggest games of the week - Helps you to reach the guarantee (especially in months when they are usually reduced), and gets people to come back on Sunday to play on the site if they win a Major seat - Having a fixed chance of winning one of these prizes means it's not costing anything out of a promotion budget - instead it acts more like rakeback, where the amount you pay back to players is proportional to how much people pay in rake during the promo.
Maybe add a Vegas package to the FT jackpot and/or the Sunday Major win for anyone qualifying through the promo, too? Now you can sell people a once-in-a-lifetime holiday plus the 'spending money' from winning the tournament(s).
Same principle throughout - No matter how unlikely, sell the dream to the recs. Doesn't matter if it's about as likely as winning the lottery for the guy who plays a handful of £1 DYMs every week to end up winning a Vegas package this way, because that's not what most people's brains immediately jump to when they see the promo.
6) Instant cash prizes
7) Free bets/spins on Sky Bet/Vegas - Cross-promotion obvs. But might annoy people who are self-excluded from either of the products and/or don't want to use them, so maybe allowing people to choose between "£x free bet, y * £x/y free spins, or £x/2 cash" would be better?
8) Gadgets/Sky Poker merchandise? This has nothing to do with my Sky Poker hoodie being 8 years old and me being too much of a life nit to replace my phone with a cracked screen, I promise.
Joking aside, you could easily take out Vegas prizes and add UKOPS prizes, Christmas prizes etc. - Play around with the concept.
Doesn't necessarily have to be limited to DYMs, either - You could apply it to any selection of games you choose, and just award some amount of promo points per Poker point earned.
Funnily enough, this exact model was pitched at the latest board meeting. Whilst, on the face of it, it seems innovative and compelling, the data just leads us to the JohnMonty Vegas invitational. Better luck next time.
Sky is a business not a charity. There is ample opportunity for anybody to win a package, between (often overlaying) satellites, the eliminator freerolls and the golden ticket promotion. The fact a UK exclusive site in decline is able to offer £128,000 worth of packages is insane (especially compared to how poor the promos of much bigger sites are), but god forbid they run promotions aimed at high volume players to recoup some of that. I think James does a great job of balancing promotions between recreational players and higher volume players. Feels like some people in this thread won't be happy unless all 32 packages are given away in a recreational exclusive freeroll.
Just to give an alternative to this, I'm loving this promo, yes it guarantees the high bankrolled players willing to grind turbos (and likely lose thousands in the process) will win however it's also kept the regular DYMs nice and busy, especially at mid-stakes.
Sky is a business not a charity. There is ample opportunity for anybody to win a package, between (often overlaying) satellites, the eliminator freerolls and the golden ticket promotion. The fact a UK exclusive site in decline is able to offer £128,000 worth of packages is insane (especially compared to how poor the promos of much bigger sites are), but god forbid they run promotions aimed at high volume players to recoup some of that. I think James does a great job of balancing promotions between recreational players and higher volume players. Feels like some people in this thread won't be happy unless all 32 packages are given away in a recreational exclusive freeroll.
Have you got the password to this freeroll please?
Totally agree with @ITSQUADSY on this one. Amazing that some players have so much self entitlement nowadays and think they could run this business better from their Mother's back bedroom after just finishing school.
There are 32 packages. 8 of the 32 are attainable for absolutely everyone via the giveaway and the eliminator freerolls - that's 25% of the total packages you can get for as little as 10 points for a ticket in the giveaway or 25 points a day (probably x7 needed) on the eliminator freerolls. Then 12 are available via satellites which start at 1.10. 62.5% of the packages are attainable for basically everyone.
After that there are 4 for league winners and 4 for DYM weeks with 4 unknown. The majority of packages can be won by absolutely anyone - for a prize worth 4,000gbp that is absolutely insane value.
It seems very entitled to me to expect that absolutely anyone should be able to win every promotion with such a massive top prize.
I have zero interest in winning a Vegas package. I just want a promo that gives a chance to win a decent cash prize. I'm sure others feel the same.
Dym steak week is the only promo the site run that gives the chance to dym players who play modest volume at low to mid stakes a chance to win significant prizes and it seems to have been replaced by this which gives 99% of the regular dym players absolutely no chance of winning something decent.
I'm not disputing it's a generous give away as are the other Vegas promos but every year since I played on the site dym streak week has ran for two weeks around this time. To see it replaced what is essentially another rake race is a real shame.
Yes that was the point I was also trying to make @gregkdy82 - I was hoping this promo wasn't replacing streak week where more modest prizes could be won. A shame we were misunderstood by a few select posters.
There are 32 packages. 8 of the 32 are attainable for absolutely everyone via the giveaway and the eliminator freerolls - that's 25% of the total packages you can get for as little as 10 points for a ticket in the giveaway or 25 points a day (probably x7 needed) on the eliminator freerolls. Then 12 are available via satellites which start at 1.10. 62.5% of the packages are attainable for basically everyone.
After that there are 4 for league winners and 4 for DYM weeks with 4 unknown. The majority of packages can be won by absolutely anyone - for a prize worth 4,000gbp that is absolutely insane value.
It seems very entitled to me to expect that absolutely anyone should be able to win every promotion with such a massive top prize.
I have zero interest in winning a Vegas package. I just want a promo that gives a chance to win a decent cash prize. I'm sure others feel the same.
Dym steak week is the only promo the site run that gives the chance to dym players who play modest volume at low to mid stakes a chance to win significant prizes and it seems to have been replaced by this which gives 99% of the regular dym players absolutely no chance of winning something decent.
I'm not disputing it's a generous give away as are the other Vegas promos but every year since I played on the site dym streak week has ran for two weeks around this time. To see it replaced what is essentially another rake race is a real shame.
Can't deny that and giving everyone a chance to win would be ideal.
For reasons of business and well explained points by others that have been around Sky for years there is nothing more to add from my point of view.
Yes that was the point I was also trying to make @gregkdy82 - I was hoping this promo wasn't replacing streak week where more modest prizes could be won. A shame we were misunderstood by a few select posters.
I hear you both by the way. The reasons given are the reasons and would have loved to have seen a system in TDYM/DYMs where people like yourselves have a shot at qualifying in those particular games.
As stated, there are a few other options. Business is business and over the piece the overall promo for Vegas qualifiers is top notch. WP Sky!
As for being a 'spoiled brat' I suppose you are perfectly entitled to think I am a 'brat' but would like an explanation as to how I am spoiled? I pay between £200-£400 a month in rake every single month to play on the most out of date and dysfunctional software in the world of online poker. As mentioned before the rake in my chosen games is far higher than on any of the alternative sites yet I am spoiled because I expect a promo that benefits player in the games I play for 2 weeks out of 52? Ffs really?
As for being 'entitled' yes I think everyone across the site should be entitled to a promo that gives them a chance of winning something now and again. It is perfectly acceptable that people who pay far more in rake have far more opportunities to get something back but everyone should get a chance at some promo cash in the games they regularly play at least once a year. This is far from unreasonable.
This thread is a good read! Before I get lynched at SPT Glasgow by an angry Scotsman you'll be pleased to know this promo is just a one off for Vegas qualifying purposes and that Streak Week will return this year.
The leadership team took a lot of convincing to run the Vegas trip this year and part of that convincing comes down to running promos that will give a positive ROI i.e rake races.
I'd love to have better software to work with and a bigger budget but I'm doing the best I can. I think the overall Vegas promo is more than generous and there'll be a good mix of regs and recs qualifying.
I pay between £200-£400 a month in rake every single month to play on the most out of date and dysfunctional software in the world of online poker. As mentioned before the rake in my chosen games is far higher than on any of the alternative sites yet I am spoiled because I expect a promo that benefits player in the games I play for 2 weeks out of 52? Ffs really?
If all the other sites have lower rake then why not play there? The reason is that the games are softer here and you play here because you make more money here than you would anywhere else everything considered.
This thread is a good read! Before I get lynched at SPT Glasgow by an angry Scotsman you'll be pleased to know this promo is just a one off for Vegas qualifying purposes and that Streak Week will return this year.
The leadership team took a lot of convincing to run the Vegas trip this year and part of that convincing comes down to running promos that will give a positive ROI i.e rake races.
I'd love to have better software to work with and a bigger budget but I'm doing the best I can. I think the overall Vegas promo is more than generous and there'll be a good mix of regs and recs qualifying.
This thread is a good read! Before I get lynched at SPT Glasgow by an angry Scotsman you'll be pleased to know this promo is just a one off for Vegas qualifying purposes and that Streak Week will return this year.
The leadership team took a lot of convincing to run the Vegas trip this year and part of that convincing comes down to running promos that will give a positive ROI i.e rake races.
I'd love to have better software to work with and a bigger budget but I'm doing the best I can. I think the overall Vegas promo is more than generous and there'll be a good mix of regs and recs qualifying.
Comments
Try the ombudsman next.
This is outrageous.
8 of the 32 are attainable for absolutely everyone via the giveaway and the eliminator freerolls - that's 25% of the total packages you can get for as little as 10 points for a ticket in the giveaway or 25 points a day (probably x7 needed) on the eliminator freerolls.
Then 12 are available via satellites which start at 1.10. 62.5% of the packages are attainable for basically everyone.
After that there are 4 for league winners and 4 for DYM weeks with 4 unknown.
The majority of packages can be won by absolutely anyone - for a prize worth 4,000gbp that is absolutely insane value.
It seems very entitled to me to expect that absolutely anyone should be able to win every promotion with such a massive top prize.
I genuinely believe that various of these are possible ways forward. However, sadly, for a variety of reasons, I don't think they are likely (although I would be delighted to be wrong). In the order you raised them:-
1. Entry into a nightly all-in MTT. Great idea. I would love it. Trouble is-that is going to require considerable upgrades to existing software. Which does not look likely.
2. Sky have tried this before. The fact they are not doing it now suggests this does not produce the desired effect
3. That has the same problem as 1
4. Sky already do this
5. Sky already run qualifiers for the Main-this would impact upon the 6/7.15 quals. The added bits at the end are going to make that either too expensive or unworkable
6. Sky already do this
7. That would have been possible 10 years ago-maybe even 5. Now? Thanks to the UKGC, that is impractical
8. Sky usually do this as a Xmas promotion
There has to be weight given to both high volume regs, and everyone else. I think it has the balance right for everything except DYMs, where there seems (to me) to be too much weight given to 6 or so players, of which you rightly mention 4.
Sky had a choice. Their promo budget could not stretch to Vegas and a UKOPS-so they have chosen to miss the Easter UKOPS. Frankly, there seems to me to be precious little left to promote the Glasgow SPT adequately. There is nothing left for anything else until after Vegas.
I really wish that the owners of Sky Poker are willing to push Sky Poker. Rather than let it gradually wither on the vine. Similarly, I really wish that that would result in various of your ideas being implemented.
That's fine, we perhaps all have unhealthy attitudes to certain things some of the time. Patience and good-will is a virtue at these times especially I believe. There is also the human element of emotions. Not sure how well that covers my thoughts on your comment however there it is.
As said by others the software is old and works most of the time. On a personal level on why I still to play solely on Sky? ----- I know the games, I like most people on here and a big majority at that, it's friendly, the promos are great and there is a community feel to the games and forum on the whole as well as no 'dodgy shenanigans' and little controversy outwith personal opinions and forceful views. An easy trade to continue to play on the site.
The trade-off:- the software is garbage however has been stable more recently. If the pluses are more than the minuses then it's good, if not we can always leave and take to another site.
Funnily enough, this exact model was pitched at the latest board meeting. Whilst, on the face of it, it seems innovative and compelling, the data just leads us to the JohnMonty Vegas invitational. Better luck next time.
Totally agree with @ITSQUADSY on this one. Amazing that some players have so much self entitlement nowadays and think they could run this business better from their Mother's back bedroom after just finishing school.
Dym steak week is the only promo the site run that gives the chance to dym players who play modest volume at low to mid stakes a chance to win significant prizes and it seems to have been replaced by this which gives 99% of the regular dym players absolutely no chance of winning something decent.
I'm not disputing it's a generous give away as are the other Vegas promos but every year since I played on the site dym streak week has ran for two weeks around this time. To see it replaced what is essentially another rake race is a real shame.
For reasons of business and well explained points by others that have been around Sky for years there is nothing more to add from my point of view.
As stated, there are a few other options. Business is business and over the piece the overall promo for Vegas qualifiers is top notch. WP Sky!
As for being 'entitled' yes I think everyone across the site should be entitled to a promo that gives them a chance of winning something now and again. It is perfectly acceptable that people who pay far more in rake have far more opportunities to get something back but everyone should get a chance at some promo cash in the games they regularly play at least once a year. This is far from unreasonable.
The leadership team took a lot of convincing to run the Vegas trip this year and part of that convincing comes down to running promos that will give a positive ROI i.e rake races.
I'd love to have better software to work with and a bigger budget but I'm doing the best I can. I think the overall Vegas promo is more than generous and there'll be a good mix of regs and recs qualifying.
You are spoiled.