Party Poker Announces New VIP Program
Party Poker has decided to listen to what its customers want and reintroduce cash-for-points as an option. This major change also coupled with some pretty big promotions over the next two weeks provides a lot of extra value for players to take advantage of! If you are not in the US, PartyPoker is asking for you attention!
Party Poker Reconfigures VIP Program in 2015
Party Poker, which as seen its player base shrink in the past 6 months according to GameIntel.com, is attempting to get back in the good graces of its players with the announcement that cash-for-points will be an option in the VIP store for all players. While this change in itself is very big, the change in points required to reach different VIP levels is also drastically being changed. This change will allow most players to reach a new level of VIP program and be eligible for different bonuses.
New PartyPoker VIP Program Tiers
The names are not going to change, but how to qualify for them is changing pretty drastically. While Bronze, Silver, Gold and Palladium are still the names of the four levels of the VIP program you no longer need to put in the hours to reach good rewards. Bronze remains zero points, but silver’s requirements are getting much easier to meet by going from 400 points per month down to 50 points per month. Gold drops from 1,000 to 750 during a calendar month and Palladium goes from 9,000 points per quarter to 2,000 points per month. If a player reaches the top tier then they will be able to exchange points for cash rewards up to a 22.2% effective rakeback percentage!
There were some other changes to the rewards and prizes players can purchase from the store, but no details were given on those and players are instructed to go to the store on March 1st to see them. These changes are huge though, as you now need 33% less points per month (on average) to reach the top level, and with it no longer being a quarter based system players shouldn’t get shut out of rewards for having one bad or abnormally busy month. These changes are something that players were asking for and PartyPoker delivered in a big way.
VIP Change Promotions!
These changes are just the first of many big happenings at Party Poker over the next couple of weeks. To ring in these changes Party Poker has set up two large reward promotions that give players the chance to earn varying amounts of money depending on their VIP level. The first promotion is called the “Freeway to 500k,” and does pretty much what it sounds like it should. Players have until the 28th of February to earn the point total that corresponds with their VIP level to receive a ticket into one of 4 freeroll tournaments. Bronze players must earn 5 points to get a ticket into a freeroll that has 10 seats, Silver needs to earn 50 points for a chance at 30 seats, Gold 750 points for a chance at 30 tickets and Palladium needs to earn 2,000 points for a chance at 40 seats. All freerolls will start at 17:00 CET on March 1st.
The second promotion is perhaps of more interest to cash game players as it will see players earn cash rewards for earning a certain amount of points. Bronze players will earn $0.50 for getting 5 and 10 points, $1 for 15 and 20 points and $2 for reaching 25 points, meaning a total of $5 cash can be earned. Silver players earn $2 at 25 points, $3 at 50 points, $4 at 75 points, $5 at 100 points and $6 at 125 points. Gold players and Palladium players are going to have a slightly different rewards skew as each will receive a multiplier on their points for the month. Gold will receive 25% extra and Palladium will earn 50% more points for the allotted time frame. Players will have from March 1st- March 8th to earn these extra points.
Conclusion
Party Poker has seen its numbers drop in the last 6 months, but instead of trying to take rewards from players and getting more cautious they are trying to take back their market share by offering cash rewards. This change puts them ahead of some networks that have jumped ahead of them in the race and makes them an interesting choice for players outside of the US. If anything, the promotions running for the next two weeks can provide extra value for players. Do you play on Party Poker? Does this change that? Tell us on Twitter and Facebook!