Thread by @pokerprojones

Interesting article on PRO this week on poker apps. thought this would be a good opportunity to go over some back story on apps.

First, GGPoker launched their own app, ClubGG 👇

pokerindustrypro.com/news/article/2… (1/24)

So, this is GG's first entry into "home games" features and in that way competes with the offers from PokerStars, partypoker, 888 etc.

But, notably, it follows much more closely the agent model of private clubs. More on that in a bit. (2/24)

Refresher on what we mean when we talk "apps": They are mobile-first, often mobile-only apps that allow you to run private clubs. They do not handle real money withdrawals.

They might have a "global" player pool, but most action is private tables. (3/24)

App monetization come from real money purchases of an in-game currency (often Diamonds), which can be used to acquire new chips, or for hosts to administer their games. (4/24)

For that reason, they can get into app stores in markets real money online poker is not regulated- notably US and Asia.

Purchases are usually done in-app, so Apple/Google is getting a cut. (5/24)

Still, this definition is not enough to separate them from "social" apps nor free-play home games.

Social apps, like Zynga Poker and PokerStars Play - like "app" sites - allow in-game purchases for play chips. However, they usually do not allow private clubs. (6/24)

Then you have the Home Games (in PokerStars' parlance) features on regulated real money sites. On party, this is Club Games; 888 its Private Tables; 888 password-protected tournaments etc.

Obv a huge hit last year, big investment there.

pokerindustrypro.com/news/article/2… (7/24)

However, these are usually real money games. Though they might offer play money games. However, the differentiator with the "apps" is the restricted control over the free chips in the game, and the tools given to game hosts to run them. (8/24)

Ultimately, whether facilitated or not, the hosts have tools to arrange games where everyone agrees the free chips are worth money, and they settle up offsite. Nothing potentially wrong with that. However, some of these private home games can include thousands of players. (9/24)

Even tens of thousands. Then you have "Unions" of huge networks of clubs, often sharing a player pool, even coordinated across multiple networks. Then you have agents facilitating credit, real money cash deposits, withdrawals etc. (10/24)

And now we're on dicey ground - at least for hosts and agents, depending on their locale. And obviously its risky for players. But still, the model has proven to be a huge hit in markets where traditional real money gambling is unavailable. (11/24)

Think of like this as close to decentralized online poker. The apps are running the platform, but game fairness, deposits and withdrawals, club liquidity are overseen by a third party. (12/24)

Notably, even where there is lots of regulated online poker (like UK), clubs seem to be a big hit, though hard numbers to corroborating this are not available. (13/24)

The Apps in this space are often very good: mobile first, engaging, lots of fun games, blending in many social elements. Indeed, they have inspired real money poker apps, particularly around mobile design (portrait first), as well as some of the fun/gamification features. (14/24)

In particular, from last year - partypoker's new mobile app takes a lot of inspiration from these apps. Consultant Rob Yong is known to play on the app sites.

https://twitter.com/pokerprojones/status/1198950496733745154

(15/24)

So - prominent poker "apps" include PokerBros, PPPoker, UPoker, Pokerrr2 and KingsClubPkr.

(and relevant re apps in stores - PokerBros had their app recently taken down due to a "misunderstand"; was soon reinstated)

pokerindustrypro.com/news/article/2… (16/24)

So GGPoker entered the field with ClubGG. Super quiet launch a few months back, PRO covered it this week. We were told:

“[ClubGG] is under beta at present and we hope that its introduction could replace our lack of a home game feature in the GGPoker app.”
(17/24)

So, they are the last major dot-com site to now have private tables/clubs. But the implementation is notably different.

- Mobile only
- Separate client
- Free play only
- In-game purchase for "Diamonds"
(18/24)

And there are a *load* of features available to agents (their terminology used in the app). You can:

- restrict players on the same IP
- restrict players by locale based on device GPS
- mute chat per player
- anti-ratholing measures (19/24)

Notably, there is no public player pool, like with most poker app sites - it is purely clubs. However, there is in-app discovery of clubs, so you don't have to get an off-app invite. (20/24)

The other news this week - Poker-King (aka Poker-King Asia, seemingly to disambiguate from PokerKing.com, the skin on real-money US-facing network WPN) has formed a partnership with WPT to run an Asian poker festival. (21/24)

Poker-King is even more under the radar here, they have been for a long-time Chinese only. But you may remember a while back how they quietly signed on perhaps #1 and #2 most notable ambassadors of poker - Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan - as ambassadors.

f5poker.com/poker-news/202… (22/24)

Notably Poker-King is a real money site not a pure "app" site like those discussed above. It handles the cashier, and has real money poker tables on a site-wide liquidity. However, the private clubs are a much more prominent component than, say, Home Games on PokerStars. (23/24)

Anywho, we'll be tracking the rise of poker apps a lot more this year, that's for sure.

pokerindustrypro.com/news/series/ri… (24/24)