The Ongame Network rolled out changes to the points system late last week that saw a reduction in rakeback for all tournament players. Prior to the change, players would receive 5 points for ever dollar in rake paid, resulting in an equivalent rakeback of 62.5% when clearing a cash bonus. This has now changed to 3.25 points/$, reducing players’ effective rakeback to 45%. 3k6c4y
Seen as an attempt to “re-balance” the disparity in rakeback between cash and tournament play, the tourney point reduction was accompanied with an increase in points for cash game players: now players will receive 3.6 points per $1 that is “attributed” to that player.
But, as cash game players at Ongame have had to learn, the concept of “attributing” rake to a player is based on the networks’ infamous “Essence” system, a proprietary algorithm that assigns how much a player contributes in rake based not only on the action of that hand but the overall standing and “profitability” of the . Simply put, the goal of Essence is to reward the recreational player over the professional. The result – at least in the case of the regular player – is a general lack of clarity to how they are rewarded for their play, and an overall reduction in the rakeback.
The Essence system, rolled out on skins network-wide back in July, only applies to cash games, so SNG and MTT players had, until now, avoided the cuts in their rewards. A 45% rakeback still appears to be a very competitive figure in the industry, but when coupled with the high general rake – still 10% on many SNGs – makes Ongame a much less tempting proposition for high-volume players.
TowerGaming, known for heavily promoting large rewards for high volume players, moved from Ongame to the Cake Poker network last month, seen as many as a clash in ideals, as Ongame continues to try to attract recreational play and Tower continues to encourage high-volume grinders.
Meanwhile, the for sale, with it’s owner bwin.party expecting to “recycle” this “surplus assets” by the end of the year.