Re: My Experience in Online Backgammon GE-Play65-Partygammon ....

On 1 Jul., 00:52, monty1...@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
What ever happened to the PiranhaZone project?

Let´s see:

My current beta seems stable, besides a minor bug in "auto play forced
moves".
I´ve been working on a new version, but I didn´t spend so much time on
it recently, basically because the next step I´m waiting for is to get
a license for real money play.
So as of right now, there is a working server available, completely
for free, with a software far better than most other free servers,
only without advertising not many players know about it and the few
who pop in once in a while often find noone to play with.
It seems that the expected availability of real money play makes
players think, the free part isn´t worth going for, so everyone is
waiting for the real thing.

For the real thing, the posts above couldn´t describe better, what the
problem is.
Getting a license is not really the problem, it is the expenses it
causes and the way, how to get the business into the profit zone.

The usual way, how to open a real money server is:
1) Find one or more investors
2) Buy a license somewhere in the Caribbean
3) Buy a server in same location
4) Pray that the profit will be enough to satisfy the investors

This is already the beginning of a chain of expenses that can never be
compensated.
Providers in the Caribbean charge for a server about 20 times as much
as the same thing would cost somewhere else, only problem, somewhere
else a real money server isn´t legal, meaning they wouldn´t have a
license in the first place.

The investors want to see a plan, of how the server will generate
profit in the near future and the very first thing required is active
players.
So the server comes up with a signup bonus, which attracts tons of
vultures.
This doesn´t generate any profit, just the opposite, it requires
additional investment, but the investors see some action and the law
of business says, every customer has a price, so they pay and believe
that in between all the vultures there will be enough real players who
will stay later on to compensate the loss.

Sooner or later the investors realize, all this signup bonus is wasted
money, because there are in fact only a few players who signup
multiple times, cash the bonus and disappear, just to reappear with a
new nick a minute later.
That´s when they usually terminate the signup bonus, or at least lower
it to a minimum, start checking for double signups and invent a
deposit bonus.
Obviously the very same vultures will be back instantly, using the
signup bonus they had cashed out earlier to re-deposit it, get an
additional deposit bonus, cash it out all together and disappear
again.
Still doesn´t generate any profit, still the opposite, even worse, on
top of paying tons of bonus the server now has to pay transfer fees
for all the deposits, but instead of wasted money the investors now
see a cashflow, so they take all the patience they can find and keep
going, after all they have already invested so much money, they just
don´t want to give up on it yet.
In german we call that "throw good money after bad money".

After another while the investors realize, all the cashflow is just
their own money, nobody is using his own money to deposit, they all
just move the investors money around, causing more and more expenses
for transfer fees and additional staff they need to process all the
transfers.
From there on, it goes downhill, depending on their strategy more or
less fast and depending on the contracts it takes more or less time.

The usual things they try:
- Increase the rake
- Implement ratings and progressive rake to prevent sharks from
winning
- Install house robots
- Confiscate winnings if the slightest reason is available

Since all this leads to players running away, they try to find less
expensive ways to attract players:
- Hold freerolls for pennies
- Hold added money tournaments

But no matter what they try, the business rule that every customer has
a price turns out to be too expensive to compensate for it, because
all the side expenses for transfer fees, hardware, license etc costs
more than a handful of real players could ever compensate.

At this point there is one last option, as far as the investors are
still willing to waste more money, they figure their problem as the
combination of 2 details they hadn´t even considered yet.
1) Checking the only 2 real successful real money servers (GE/Play65
and PartyGammon) they figure, a rake close to open street robbery doesn
´t even matter, a messy software is no problem at all, all they need
is advertising, if only they run enough advertising, they will have
the players.
2) All profit is based on fish, weak players are the only ones who
make deposits, and the only way to turn those deposits into profit is
to prevent sharks from stealing it.

But then comes the surprise, GE has occupied the entire web with
banners, almost any website remotely connected to BG already carries a
GE banner, there is just no room for a new server and their
advertising.
PartyGammon had the resources to run worldwide TV-ads for a while, but
I don´t think many other companies will have that kind of money.
Depending on the contracts the managers and investors have, they are
forced to keep the server running for a while, but from here on nobody
expects anything anymore, they just try to minimize the loss and wait
for the final collapse.
They end up with a handful of real players, but by far not enough to
even out the basic expenses for hardware, license and staff.

From a players point of view things are much easier:
There are always some servers wasting tons of money, all one has to do
is find them and collect free money while they offer it.
If one server terminates free money, players move to the next.
Once in a while their is no free money available, or just pennies for
hours playing freerolls, that´s when players come back to the
fishfarms like GE and try to figure out a way, how to beat the system.

Now, unlike other servers, I have done my homework in advance, I´m not
wasting millions on a fruitless attempt to generate self financed
traffic, I´ve worked out a different solution.
It may take a while to do this all by myself, but sooner or later I´m
getting there.
So let me answer the question, what happened to my project with a few
facts:
1) My server causes ZERO expenses, I can keep it up forever.
2) I am doing the entire thing all by myself and even though I would
apreciate some help, I don´t depend on it, if neccessary I am capable
of doing it all alone, just takes longer.
3) I´m currently negotiating with a few people who offered me a real
money license for free, with a bit of luck I might be able to have it
up by the end of the year, but if not, there is nothing running away
for me, I have all the time in the world to do this right and really
make a difference in the end.
.

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