Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh

(I actually had a winning poker day yesterday. Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...)

Has there ever been such a dominant company in such a high-growth industry as Party, that has completely mangled nearly every business decision they make? I'm serious here, and not just chunking rocks. Are there other examples out there in the business world (past or present) of companies making money, hand over fist, despite completely and utterly mismanaging nearly every facet of their business?

I keep thinking we've weathered the worst of the storm, but they keep managing to up the ante. Mismanaging things like the Cabin Freeroll promotion, not responding to players blatantly playing multiple accounts in MTTs, alienating players by removing accrued points based on 30 days of inactivity, completely butchering their affiliate relations, testing new loyalty programs in a live environment, and the list goes on and on and on.

It's fun to create a check list for what the perfect poker site would be, as far as what us players like to see (and I've done that myself, more than a few times) but the honest truth is that a perfect business model for a poker site could be very short and Costanza-esque:

Do exactly the opposite of whatever Party Poker does.

There you go, poker sites of the world. Feel free to transfer $5,000,000 to my Neteller account, for that nugget of consulting gold.

2 comments:

kurokitty said...

ummm...maybe airlines?

Semi-Pro Poker Player said...

Love the Costanza "Do The Opposite" reference.

But as long as Party has the fish factor, it seems the have a grip on a lot of people's balls out there. Only a monumental screwup on their part will ever put a dent into their player base. They are the living embodiment of "being in the right place at the right time".