Despite the sagging economy in the United States and throughout the world, subscription-based online poker site PurePlay has thrived. The site doubled its player base during the 2008 calendar year and, according to a press release distributed on Tuesday, is now 10 times as large as its next closest competitor.
The company’s Chief Executive Officer, Jason Kellerman, told Poker News Daily, “We’re thrilled with our growth in the past year. Given the size of our community, we generate great word of mouth awareness and are able to offer the most cash tournaments and the highest prize pools of any site. We expect to leverage these advantages as the largest legal online poker site to accelerate our growth in 2009 and beyond.” In March of 2008, PurePlay eclipsed the one million member mark after launching in 2005. At the time, it had awarded $3 million in prize money.
PurePlay now hosts 1.7 million players and is in the midst of doling out seats to the 2009 World Series of Poker, to be held at the Rio in Las Vegas. The final tournament for a place on poker’s most prestigious stage occurs on Sunday, February 8th. Qualifiers are currently running. Each week, PurePlay hosts $5,000, $2,000, and $500 tournaments and every day, the site offers $500 and $1,000 prize pool events. The only difference is that instead of paying money to enter tournaments, PurePlay runs on a subscription model. Players pay $19.99 per month and a free two week trial is also available. Games include Texas Hold’em, Five Card Stud, Seven Card Stud, and Omaha. Poker Points serve as the site’s currency and each member’s account is automatically funded with 100.
Smaller scale cash tournaments are also available, including events that dish out $10, $20, $50, and $100. Over $150,000 is up for grabs every month. The site accepts U.S. customers because it is subscription-based. Sites such as PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, contrastingly, generate revenue by taking a rake out of each hand dealt. The ability to market to the United States has led to a number of subscription-based sites popping up, including ClubWPT, which is owned and operated by the World Poker Tour. Zozos, Fleet Street Games, and Duplicate Poker, meanwhile, have fallen by the wayside. Each shut its doors during the 2008 calendar year.
ClubWPT offers its customers $100,000 in monthly prizes and, like PurePlay, charges $19.99 per month for membership. The site has received a considerable boost in visibility due to ClubWPT tournaments airing on Fox Sports Net. Qualifiers for the six-handed events are drawn directly from the online poker room. In addition, ClubWPT receives advertising during World Poker Tour programming, which also appears on the cable station. WPT tournaments began airing on Sunday, January 4th with the first of 26 new episodes as part of its seventh season. Part one of the Bellagio Cup IV marked the debut of the WPT on Fox Sports Net.
Fleet Street Games, which was managed by a former PokerStars executive, closed down on October 31st, citing the “chaotic economy” as the reason for its departure from the market. Duplicate Poker ceased operations in October due to the “global financial crisis.” Worldwide stock markets were diving daily when the company made its announcement. In September, just one month before its closure, Duplicate Poker registered its 250,000th member. Zosoz ended a brief run in the online poker world in December, two months after opening for business. The reason given for the abrupt halt to operations was “circumstances beyond our control.”
The competition appears to be heating up between PurePlay and ClubWPT. The latter announced in December that it had awarded $2 million dollars in prize money since opening. Recently, Players Network and the National League of Poker (NLOP) partnered to form a new online poker site, although no launch date has been given. Many of those who play on NLOP do so for free and the company stresses that is not similar to ClubWPT or PurePlay.
