U.S. players discriminated against at Stars

[pirates831]

Its always bothered me, but moreso now than in the past. Apparently, Stars holds regular freerolls for foreign players with prize pools upwards of $2,500. I know Norway is one country that gets this.

Why not for U.S players though? I mean, they've remained open to the U.S. But the freerolls for us are few and far between.

What gives?

[johnnas]

i would like to know too. other contries have alot more than us players and they are worth more. lets ask them

[scrawnybob]

hi

the simple answer would be that its sensible business IMHO

the US market and online poker players were the focus of all sites in the early days ... they neglected the rest of the world in preference to US ... much in fairness to the annoyance of the rest of us who had to stay up late / get up early to play games and get action

I remembers when I used to play alot I had a pratically midnight to 8 am UK time slot for playing poker

now the US market has had time to get established - they are rightly figuring that those US players who are going to deposit and play for real money have had the opportunity to get used to the site (via freerolls) and by now should have deposited ... those that havent are most likely (as an overal figure for them) not to deposit and are therefore of less importance

The European / Rest of the World market is however less mature and less developed so all sites (including the ones still open to US) will be putting their marketing efforts into those areas and less so the US

at the end of the day freerolls are a marketing cost to the sites - they cost the sites money and make them no money ... once they see their conversion from freeroller to real money player go below a certain level they will figure that adding more freerolls is not adding to their bottom line but just increasing costs

cheers scrawnybob

[wixx]

Good business decisions, sometimes anger good customers. In the end, though, the site is in business to make money, not to make friends.

[scrawnybob]

hi

just to add as maybe it wasnt terribly clear - that is not specific to individual players but they like any sensible business will look at markets

eg. US / UK / Sweden / Timbukto

if overall % wise they feel one market has potential for more new players (attracted by freerolls) and they have x budget then they would decide that half of it is better invested on x market or y market

its not a personal thing - but a general thing

I'm not sure how any poker business would view long term freerollers as good customers

the whole idea of freerolls is for new players to try out the site and win some real money, its really not great business for a site to have long term career freerollers playing ... which is why I think many sites are focussing their freeroll budget on new markets and not on the US which they must have given a fortune to over the years

I'm not sure that after a certain point a long term freeroller would be considered a customer at any poker site ... they cant really be a customer if they've never spent any money

freerolls are promotional tools, tournaments for people to try out the sites, see what the software is like etc

cheers scrawnybob

[killerpot]

Very good info there scrawny was wondering the same thing stars is always holing free rolls for other countries it would be nice to get some for the US players but that is all up to the marketing game i am sure they are to come just hope i am still on the scene when they do... I have made deposits on a few site and have taken advantage of the new depositor free rolls cashing for something in at least 50% of the ones i have played have not had to make a deposit in some time (knocking on desk as i say this) but they do get people hook with the small ones they do have to promote the site

[ROYALKNIGHT]

Just like the negraneau thing. you see that promotion just for canadians? maybe if the PPA can get the bill turned around in favor of us, there might be some good promotions. other than that, im just happy stars didnt leave us in the dirt like most sites did.

[pirates831]

i have finally found a daily freeroll at stars for u.s. players with a decent prize pool. it is password-protected, so it keeps the numbers down, but i can't get the computer away from my daughter at this point to play, so i have to wait for school to start back up again.

[SunnyDbluffer]

I was just wondering if the one you found was on fulltilt? I found one on thier tonight and I know in my profile and info that it says us but it would not let me register can you help? thanks

[pirates831]

the same site runs freerolls at tilt as well. but they are mostly in the afternoon U.S. time (2 p.m. EST generally).

tilt runs a lot of freerolls for foreigners as well, probably the same reason as scrawny bob pointed out for stars.