Dear Bet21.com I wanted to thank you for providing a great game, Elimination Blackjack (EBJ) for the general public to play. As a member since August 2006 I just wanted to review what has transpired and make some suggestions if I may be so bold. When you opened the site there was very little fanfare. You simply WERE! Poof! Many people were not aware of your existence and then the unthinkable happened - The passage of the UIGEA in 2006. You sponsored the St. Kitts UBT event which has a lower than anticipated turnout but thanks for all the satellites that you hosted. Then there were the freerolls – oh the freerolls. How many were there? Some for final tables in Vegas, some for LA final tables, and some for Vegas prize packages, etc. Thanks for those Then came the guaranteed tourneys, first there were just 100, 250, 500 and 1,000. Then came the 2,500 and then the 5,000 Saturday night events. Life was good. In December you announced the first 25,000 online EBJ tourney – turnout exceeded my expectations with more than enough players to cover your costs. That was followed by the second, February 25,000 tourney and now a third March 25,000 tourney. In spite of the UIGEA it seemed like things were picking up and going well. Then when I saw the latest on your promotions page, $50,000 guaranteed weekly I was astonished! According to the promo you were going to hold the following: Alas I thought it was too good to be true. Apparently the guarantee is only good if X number of players show up. So in essence you are just having $1-$100 MTT every day. Fair enough after all it’s your site. I just wish that you hadn’t stooped to the level of the other sites with the term Guarantee when as it currently exists it isn’t. I mean sure you still have the 1,000 guarantee 20+2 at 2100 hrs EST but you’ve taken away the two (2) daily $2,500 guarantee 50+5. Kudos’ to adding the $25,000 satellites – they are the best value on the web, (my opinion) and I think that holding more of them will continue to bring more players to the bigger events. My suggestions: 1. Resolve the bonus issue ASAP. It’s not a lot of money for a lot of players – it’s mainly a principle issue and it would help the credibility issue immensely 2. Work on your communication skills with your players – Use the same format that Ultimate Bet has – weekly e-mails. Now you may think that since players get them and Bet21.com is just a skin it doesn’t matter – but it does. Write e-mails touting the Blackjack portion better 3. Hold more of the smaller tourney’s 100-500 guarantee’s for the newer players to get the experience. 4. Bring back the Saturday & Sunday night $5,000 tourney. 5. Hold less of the 2,500 and 5,000 but make them more visible and higher profile – make them standout more 6. Have a tote board/leader board for BJ players like the poker players have. People like to compete against one another – even if it is just for bragging rights! 7. Have a player loyalty program – For example for every 200 you spend in fees you are automatically entered into our monthly VIP MTT where the grand prize is $1,000 or a trip to Vegas or an ipod, etc. It doesn’t have to be HUGE but once again it rewards those who are your best customers. 8. Work out arrangements with UBT for satellites for prize packages for The Palms UBT stop and the Europe UBT stop. It will be a good thing for you both. 9. Hire a PR person and clean up the customer service department. People want answers and NOT canned responses – common courtesy please 10. Identify your BJT as a game of skill and be firm about it. It is NOT gambling – but you’ve got lawyers working on that I hope In summary I’m a big fan of your site. I support it, as evidence of over 600 games to date, and will continue to support it in the future, although at a much slower pace! Please utilize this BJ forum for ideas in the future and I would encourage you to have a Bet21.com representative join the board to keep us updated on a monthly or as needed basis. It really isn’t fair to other members like Joe Pane and Hollywood Dave to do this and they have taken much flack for it in the past. Also, please look at your current schedule of events and either make the $50 and $100 MTT a guarantee or $2,500 and $5,000 or change the promotion page – don’t be misleading. Respectfully Fred K. a.k.a. FGK42
Excellent letter assuming the C.S. department has taken their A.D.D. meds for the day. (This is a compliment and a slam on the website BTW).
I could log in after maybe a dozen attempts but there is almost nobody there and all scheduled tournaments since 5 PM were cancelled. A few 5$ sit and go's are running.
Major upgrading going on??? The first time I tried to log in, a message told me they were "upgrading" the software and to try again later. That message appeared only once. The next retries were all failures at the loggin point.
Working for me too. I'd add--and I think others have commented about this--that a flaw in their software that calculates prize amounts for each finishing place prevents the amounts from displaying correctly when you sign up. It resets and displays correctly only when seating mode kicks in, or sometimes shortly before it goes to seating mode (i.e. 2 mins to go or so). They should fix this feature to update regularly in order to draw more players. I'd add that leaving the $50 games at the same times as before the changes would be better for us (and them) as well...
