Categories: Poker News
| Published On Jan 29, 2015 10:56 am CET  |  Updated on May 2, 2021 11:57 am CEST | By Daniel Allermand

iPoker Changes Rake Allocation Method From February 1st

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The iPoker network has been the biggest poker network for many years, with most of its competitors falling behind despite iPoker’s many problems lately. Now they are looking to create an even better poker ecology with a brand new rake allocation method, which they will introduce from February 1st along with the traditional rake allocation method, Pokerfuse reported.

iPoker started out by dividing the player pool into two different networks a few years back, where they took the operators who brought a lot of players, deposits and so on and put them into one pool to make them benefit more from their players, while those with a few signups, few deposits and lots of winners/grinders were put in another group.

This however created a problem as a lot of the action in the network died out, with the skins in the iPoker 1 group having a hard time making money and those in iPoker 2 finding it hard to find enough action to actually rake more than they otherwise would.

The new rake allocation method is called SBR, which stands for Source Based Rake, and it is going to affect both players and the skins on the network once implemented fully. SBR is only applicant for cash games, so sit n go’s, tournaments, twisters and all other games not related to cash games will not be affected by the changes and continue to have the normal rake allocation scheme.

For cash games it is different however, as skins who brings more players and more liquidity in terms of signups and deposits contra withdrawals will receive a bigger piece of the pie. All players will have a real-money account and a virtual-money account, which the network will use to make their SBR calculations on and reward the skin.

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This might lead to the definite closure of some smaller iPoker skins, who’s only strategy has been to offer under-the-table rakeback deals to grinders and have high revenues that way. When fully implemented, it should be more or less impossible for skins to continue offering high rakeback deals, as they will not know exactly how much of the revenue they will actually receive.

On the positive side, it may force skins to rethink their marketing strategy to bring more recreational players and increase their deposits. It may also lead to a united iPoker network once again, as the smaller iPoker 1 should be allowed back in with the rest when they will have to partake in the SBR rake allocation scheme.

Only time will tell if this will benefit the iPoker network in the long run or if it will “scare” away too many regulars and the smarter recreational players with rakeback deals. For now it looks like a positive idea to make the poker ecology better overall in the network and treat the recreational players better. 

Daniel Allermand

Daniel Allermand is a freelance writer, with more than 14 years of experience in the industry as an operator, affiliate and poker player. Daniel has decided it was time to try and bring more coverage about the industry to the general public by writing articles about everything from poker to casino.