Shells - you are never long winded and always make salient points! I agree with all you said (in reply).
I think 'ambassadors' could work but their use/application needs to be more interactive and social with the average player. Not too long ago (EPT Monaco last year?) they had a live side tourney where various PokerStars members could play with ambassadors/representatives ( Velhius, Moneymaker etc.) for charity. It was very good fun and a pleasure to watch. I thought at the time these should be rolling events, on-line and live that PS features all the time, perhaps weekly.
Another thought -I think they need a hundred and one of these ideas all based on customer engagement through a passionate CEO- is to go back to a broad spread freerolls to encourage an expanding customer base. We here are members of the CC FR club and that is wonderful. However, PS could broaden their range of FRs offered to great effect. Take the Platinum Madness FR they recently staged - it attracted 62,000+ entrants as a one off.
About a year and a half ago PS staged daily FRs for several weeks and the fields were running at between 6K and 10K round the clock. The payouts were to a broad number of players and obviously everyone loved playing them -the min cashes were small at 10 cents but that wasn't the point. People felt engaged and that the site was being generous and embracing( not to mention that basically all these 'payouts' stay within their financial infrastructure).
I also think PokerStars and the wider industry have remained clueless when it comes to social media and, again, those who project a warmth and passion for the game.
On a weekly basis Andrew Neeme has around 100,000 viewers to his blog. His partner in 'meet up games' Brad Owen is heading for 200,000 weekly viewers. Together they are staging meet up games all over the States, seem to have secured a regular tourney each month in LA and just got back from their first international tourney held at Aspers London. At venues wherever they stage, they are regularly getting as many as 20+ full ring tables playing as so many love the friendly atmosphere.
Then you have more recent vloggers such as Ryan DePaulo who is also gaining between 30k and 60k viewers per episode uploaded. Funny as hell, he is constantly getting into trouble for filming in casinos...and if that doesn't underline a rift between casinos and their potential customers, I do not know what would.
In short, it's my belief poker needs to be thought of as a stand alone product within gaming - it is so unique and distinct, and so are poker players to a large degree. Yes, they might indulge in sports betting also but the there is a unique/separate skill set applied to poker.
That is what PokerStars needs to understand and keep appealing to. The more poker gets folded into a general gaming and a casual player envelope, the more passionate players will feel alienated and that they amount to little more than an income stream (and one which is taken for granted).
In the interim Neeme and Owen, with little more than a camera and passion are having hundreds show up for meet up games on virtually a weekly basis on the East Coast, West Coast, Texas, Las Vegas, London...
arty:
