The Equity Poker Network (EPN) announced on Friday that it has mutually parted ways with the 5Dimes Group. The Group, better known for its online sports betting than for internet poker, includes the sites 5Dimes.eu, Sportbet.com, IslandCasino.com, and Vietbet.eu.
In a press release, an EPN spokesperson said, “We are happy with where the Network is heading, and with the steady climb in player numbers. Our month-on-month increased guaranteed prize pools, quality promotions, and consistently fast and reliable cashouts are markers of EPN’s early success, and our growing reputation amongst players.”
“We bid farewell to 5Dimes on good terms, and we wish them continued growth for the future.”
The Equity Poker Network is less than a week away from its one-year anniversary. Launched on November 8th, 2013, the Network was founded as what it calls a “cooperative,” with the attitude that the Network exists to support its member rooms, rather than the rooms simply being a source of revenue for the Network operator. Rather than taking a percentage of a poker room’s revenue, the Equity Poker Network requires a $10,000 fee per month, which is supposedly used to simply keep the Network up and running.
The Network encourages competition and expects each operator to work hard to grow their business. Voting rights and profit distribution are based on individual poker room volume. So the better a member room does, the more influence it will have on the Network.
And unlike what often happens on other internet poker networks, there will not be any poaching on the Equity Poker Network because of a simple policy. Whichever poker room acquires a customer gets that person’s rake for life. Thus, other rooms are free to pull that player over, but it will not do them any good, as the player’s revenue will still go to his original poker room.
Loyalty programs and rakeback are at the discretion of each poker room, but these types of rewards cannot add up to more than 50 percent rakeback equivalent. The poker rooms also have the freedom to run their own tournaments if they would like. The poker rooms need to design the loyalty programs well, though, as the Equity Poker Network is really big on recruiting recreational players. It imposes a “Shark/Winner’s Tax” on rooms that have too high a proportion of seasoned veterans, so while high rakeback and lucrative rewards may appeal to high volume grinders, these are also the kinds of players the Equity Poker Network wants to avoid.
EPN has done a decent job building up its player base in its first year from literally nothing. With PokerStars lording over everyone and another ten or so rooms dominating the market, it is not easy to build something from scratch. According to PokerScout.com, the Equity Poker Network currently ranks 30th in cash game traffic with a seven-day average of 220 players. It is also one of the few networks that readily accepts customers from the United States, though it did exit regulated U.S. markets this year.
No specific reason for the split with 5Dimes was given, just the vague statement, “EPN’s infancy online was very much about attracting established Operators as part of an important push for player awareness and added liquidity, and the Network’s organic growth has allowed EPN Management to take stock of this particular ‘marriage’; the time is right for 5Dimes to move on, and both parties have mutually agreed to go their separate ways.”
