This article was originally published in InsideBusiness Magazine.
Virtual communities predate online poker, and have been an integral part of many businesses ever since the Internet began serving billions of users worldwide. Offering surfers a platform to discuss, debate and communicate ideas with strangers from the other side of the globe has proven a key element to the success of many online companies, not only in terms of accruing new members, but also in retaining existing ones who become 'attached' to their recently formed circle of friends.
Of course, money is the driving force, and the purpose of nearly all online communities is to create brand loyalty and encourage users to purchase whatever that particular company is selling. In poker, the gaming platform is the product with operators earning their profits from the rake (or scaled commission). The inevitable step would therefore be for the poker company to set up an online community in order to drive traffic towards its cardroom. However, whether due to 'overselling' or an over-saturation of competition, cardroom-exclusive sites have generally failed to succeed in this area with potential players preferring to frequent independent forum-based sites which then act as affiliates to the cardrooms.
One exception to the rule appears to be staking site Blackbeltpoker.com, one of a number of skins on the iPoker network. Co-founded by professional poker player Neil Channing ("by players, for players," is a common slogan in the industry), Black Belt Poker is one of the few poker sites to create a thriving community from scratch while simultaneously running its own cardroom. As a result, they have the cost-free luxury of dipping into their own community to generate profits, rather than relying on affiliate sites to produce their traffic.
"There were a number of key factors," reveals Neil. "The community preempted the cardroom by a few months, which gave us a chance to focus on building a community first without putting users off with promotional messages. I had thousands of contacts on Facebook, so I was able to use that connection to invite them to take a look at Black Belt Poker, and I worked hard in convincing well-known poker pros and celebrity players to sign up. I was playing in Monte Carlo when the site launched, but as soon as I got knocked out of the tournament, I headed straight to my hotel room to send personal messages to everyone who signed up, thanking them for joining the site. Within three months, we had over 2,000 members, which was incredible since we hadn't paid out a penny on advertising."
Although the industry enjoyed a boom circa 2003, the market has now become oversaturated, with everyone trying - and mostly failing - to grab a piece of the poker pie. Forums, in particular, feel like 'old hat', so Neil decided to link the ideas of staking (of which he had become renowned for) with social networking and give the site a more 'Facebook' feel. In doing so, Black Belt Poker immediately looked and felt different to other poker sites.
It also seemed to nix one of the online communities biggest enemies: the forum troll. "I think it's excellent that we don't get trolls; people seem to just leave us alone. I expect it's because we discourage anonymity by encouraging people to sign up using their real name, but we also don't implement a nanny state. Poker is an adult game, so we don't enforce lots of rules and restrictions on our users. We give them a level of trust that I think they appreciate. This, and the fact that we rarely get people trolling or directly spamming the site, has led to a friendly and popular community."
Attracting players is one thing, but keeping them is another, and a common pitfall for poker sites is the offering of unsustainable rakeback deals and excessive sign-up bonuses. Neil sought to provide something different, and so opted for a points rewards system, as used by titans PokerStars.
"A lot of people told me that it wouldn’t work without offering rakeback, but I was confident that we could entice players in other ways by presenting them with the prospect of becoming a sponsored pro and receiving thousands of dollars to play live tournaments. We live in a celebrity-obsessed world, and people look up to players like Patrik Antonius and Tom Dwan, so instead of just handing them a percentage of their rake back, we're giving them the chance to work their way through the ranks and become a pro themselves. Along the way, we encourage improvement through training, and thus make Black Belt Poker a much more aspirational and progressive place to play. It's ideal for those who are more ambitious and want to become better players.”
For many sites, the key band is the one made up of recreational players. Although the big rakers are deemed more noteworthy, they are few in comparison, and predominately a tool for branding and inspiring others to play on the site. But whilst the amateur players are plentiful, they also have a tendency to flicker between sites, rarely settling and always hunting down that latest 'bonus' or 'special offer'. This is likely where Black Belt Poker's strong sense of community becomes such a vital blessing.
What Black Belt Poker have done so well, however, is the effective manner in which they utilise that group of players, not just offering community leagues and exclusive freerolls, but also by encouraging involvement through Academies, Workshops, online seminars, and live events (the 2011 London Live, for example, sold out at 400-plus runners), all of which allow players to interact with the other users of the site, and move away from that alienating sense of being stuck behind a computer.
"I don't know where the idea of using Belts came from," divulges Neil. "I just woke up one day with the image of martial arts in my head. It seemed to embody everything we wanted to achieve with the site, such as improvement, training, discipline, progression. It was a perfect match and I immediately bought the domain name for £2,000, which was very out of character for me.
"I was juggling so many things at the time,” he continues, “that I decided to incorporate them all into one business. My aim was to take elements of other successful sites, but still make ours different and unique. Above everything, I wanted Black Belt Poker to be a fun place to play and talk about poker, and I think we've achieved that. In the process, we offer our users some great deals that they won't find elsewhere with unique promotions that enable them to win a big amount from a small investment.”
Despite the Black Belt Poker cardroom celebrating its third year, these are undoubtedly dark times in the poker industry. The events of Black Friday (in which the Department of Justice seized the domain names of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute Poker and indicted 11 individuals on allegations of fraud and money laundering) have created an unease within the poker world, adding a severe element of doubt and hesitation in to the minds of potential new players. "Black Friday does still worry me," confesses Neil. "People said that the value of the company would double due to the domain seizures, but I wasn't sure and was worried that we'd be unfairly tarred with the same brush. I've always thought that it would be much better if everyone was doing well and the game received support."
Given the current climate, now, more than ever, is perhaps where Black Belt Poker's vibrant community and brand loyalty will come into fruition and prove such a vital tool in both it survival and future success.