2+2 monetizing aspects of their poker staking forum

A new thread –with an extremely interesting and attention grabbing graphic that puts the old ***OFFICIAL  xxx*** to shame—hit the 2+2 poker forums about a week ago detailing a policy change that will go into effect on July 1, 2013 for users of the Staking Forum on the popular site.

According to the original post by 2+2 Moderator Bobo Fett:

… We are going to split this forum into two. We will have a forum for those seeking stakes – this will remain a free forum. We will also have a forum for offering stakes, which will become a paid forum.

Basically 2+2 will start charging major stakers in poker who are looking to attract clients to their stable. These staking sites have become the norm in poker over the past four or five years, and now instead of trying to police threads created by these staking groups 2+2 will basically allow them to do what they need to do in terms of advertising their staking groups to bring in new players along with the following benefits according to the post:

• Full commercial site names, links, etc., will be permitted.
• Anyone with a paid thread will be able to have a “See my staking forum thread” undertitle.

It should be noted that players looking to sell shares of themselves or find a backer will still be able to do so free of charge on 2+2; the change is aimed at staking groups who up to this point, have been for all intents and purposes advertising their product on 2+2 free of charge.

According to Bobo Fett’s post, pricing for a thread in the Staking Forum will be:

• 1 month – $150
• 3 months – $400
• 6 months – $600
• 12 months – $1,000

It will be interesting to see if the decision by 2+2 pays off for them (It should be pointed out that they have been offering this service –which has others plenty of money over the years– for free up until now) or if the stakers move on to other forums or find other ways to bring in new recruits.

Staking has become big business in the poker world since a few pioneers (most notably Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy and Eric “Sheets” Haber) realized that the current staking model, which was usually a 100% stake for 50% of the profits, was foolish. Since the mid-2000’s staking deals have tipped more and more in favor of the backer, and with all of the hard-luck cases, up-and-coming players, and external forces like Black Friday, there is never a shortage of players looking to be put into tournaments, regardless of the split in profits.