Bodog’s Recreational Poker Model now available for Macs
- by Josef Rantamaki
When the Bodog Poker Network launched it last December, the concept behind its new software, the Recreational Poker Model, was considered controversial and was virtually ignored by many professional players.
Now the Bodog Poker Network has introduced a fully compatible version for Mac owners.
With Apple Macs consistently selling well, and showing no sign of slowing down, the Bodog Poker Network had always intended to offer the Recreational Poker Model for the Mac system, but has surprised itself by the speed of the introduction.
It is seen as a huge boost by Jonas Odman, CEO of the Bodog Poker Network, who said: “The Mac client was always a ‘must have’ offering but to have it up within the first year of the software going live puts us well ahead of where we hoped we would be in terms of player reach at this stage. Now that the Mac client is ready, we can concentrate on the first B2C marketing push of the Recreational Poker Model.”
Despite all the initial reservations, many poker rooms started to align themselves with the new model, changing their rakeback structures to make themselves attractive to winning players rather than to depositing ones. Data mining was made impossible in the next stage of the model, when all-anonymous tables were made available.
This, in effect, also protected depositing players. Not long after this development, all heads-up tables became anonymous on Microgaming, while PokerStars successfully managed to block two data sites, Poker-Edge and Poker Table Ratings (PTR).
It soon became clear that the recreational player was becoming an important element in online gaming, persuading many sites to change tactics.
Zoom Poker, its casual and player-friendly game, was recently launched by PokerStars and last month, Microgaming introduced its True Value rake system. This, Microgaming announced, “gives greater value to new players, thus encouraging operators to acquire, retain and reactivate recreational players.”