888POKER

Pacific Poker was founded in 2002 by the proclaimed “Number 1 casino in the world” Casino-on-Net. Most of you who played online casino in the early days remember Casino-on-Net as one of the most heavily promoted casinos online.

Pacific Poker & Casino-on-Net later changed name to 888.com and all the brands were renamed in 2010 under the umbrella 888.com to 888casino, 888poker, 888bingo, 888games & 888sports.

888 Holdings Plc went on the stock market in September 2005 and was one of the first online gambling sites to be publicly traded.

The 888poker network is not a network similar to iPoker and Ongame. 888 Holdings Plc does not allow operators on the network to do their own support, processing etc. 888poker keeps strict control of its skins. We would argue that it is more correct to call their partners white-labels and not actual stand alone poker operators.

When Lucky-Ace-Poker launched on the network and for a period of time was pushed very hard to promote itself it showed 888.com wanted to become a serious network with serious operators. However the expanding network plans seem to have been put on hold and instead of signing new poker rooms 888poker is focusing on growing its own brand.

888Poker Statistics

PacificPoker now called 888poker has historically been known to have extremely fishy games. The reason being that Casino-on-Net later called 888casino has been promoting its poker product heavily.

Unlike regular poker rooms which focus on traditional poker promotions 888casino has been cross-branding 888poker turning many casino players into clueless poker players.

Until the UIGEA 888poker was a heaven for pros and semi pro poker players. The games were so soft that even mediocre poker players could earn a living.

Today the games are changed and 888poker is no longer labeled as a network with a lot of fish on the mid- & high stakes tables.

WSOP.com owned by Harrah's Interactive Entertainment signed with 888 Holdings Plc in the September 2011 which marked a great day for the Israeli controlled gambling company.

Whether it is WSOP.com that gave a boost or if its 888 Holdings' recent focus on poker that has caused the rapid growths is hard for us to tell. We believe it is the investment in 888poker more than anything.

Rake back has never been a real issue on the 888poker Network. 888poker have kept the margins for affiliates rather low. Their white labels have not been able or willing to break the rules so only very few larger affiliates have been able to get away with offering rake back. 888poker has at times allowed larger affiliates to offer rakeback on especially Scandinavian affiliate sites but it has been time limited offers.

Up until winter 2003-2004 Pacific Poker gave 10% loyalty points to all its players. This was a symbolic gesture that didn’t get much attention in their promotion section. However around this time they removed the 10% loyalty scheme for most winning players. It was a clear signal that PacificPoker did not want to please its winning players with cashback rewards.

Overall 888poker has a healthy network structure and never been part of any rake back war.

888poker has as most networks nowadays a network wide loyalty program whereby playing you earn points that can be changed to dollars. Rake back offered by affiliates is strictly forbidden and hard to come by. You can earn up to 36% cash-back via the official loyalty program.

	888poker is the flagship brand of the network
	World Series of Poker aka WSOP

888poker is the sole poker skin owned by 888 Holdings Plc

1 888holdingsplc.com September 5, 2011

2 Based on statistics from PokerScout.com written by PokerHistory.eu October 12, 2011