How a Poker Network Works — Gasper Janezic on WePlay

A proprietary poker network is one of the most complex business models within the poker vertical of the iGaming industry, requiring extensive experience and a constant search for creative solutions. To give you a glimpse into the inner workings of this type of business, we’ve prepared an interview with Gasper Janezic, CEO of the WePlay Network, which operates on the EvenBet Gaming platform.

Specifics of Running a Poker Network-Based Business

How did the idea of creating a network come about? And why a network specifically?

The most obvious business model in online poker is the standalone poker room, where a separate, self-sufficient platform is created to attract players who generate rake. Projects attracting millions of players per month certainly thrive under this business model. However, not everyone can ensure such traffic, and about 95% of those who try to launch a standalone poker room quickly close down.

Unlike slots or sportsbooks, where users play against odds, poker is a peer-to-peer game. For the project to thrive, it’s essential to maintain player activity around the clock. A player who logs in at 5 am needs to find enough opponents for an engaging game. There must be at least 2-4 tables running. If you only have 100 active players per month, you won’t be able to ensure this. Operating such a room wouldn’t be successful, as liquidity is crucial for poker.

With a poker network, unlike standalone poker rooms, operators don’t face such challenges. An operator joining a poker network, even with a small number of players, gains liquidity because their players can always find opponents and active gameplay continues non-stop. We realised there was a demand for this, and chose to develop in this direction.

We also take a flexible approach, allowing an operator working with us to act as a standalone room. They can establish a partnership with us, receive licensing assistance, and host their online project on our servers, but if they don’t wish to be part of the network, they don’t have to. If, however, they find their liquidity isn’t sufficient and want to join the network, they can do so almost immediately without transferring any player data since they’re already using WePlay’s infrastructure.

Tell us about the partnership with EvenBet Gaming. How does it look from WePlay’s perspective?

EvenBet Gaming is the IT provider for WePlay. They provide the technological framework for the poker network. Operators joining our network get access to this technological component, including, for example, the affiliate system.

In this partnership, we have a division of responsibilities. EvenBet Gaming provides the gaming platform, games, financial and marketing tools, as well as expertise and support. WePlay handles the poker management, offering operators additional services.

It should be mentioned that WePlay runs a B2B business model and not B2C. However, we aid our members of the network with operations of poker, managing product, managing all infrastructure available, anti-fraud management, marketing, maintaining the ecosystem of the player community, payment management, and promotions. Furthermore, we assist our operators to reach better player acquisition through high quality service and support that is offered under the network umbrella.

Legal Issues of Operating a Poker Network and Ensuring Security

What are the key legal and regulatory requirements for operating a poker network in various jurisdictions?

Here we also have a division of responsibilities. EvenBet Gaming doesn’t deal with licensing matters; they are responsible only for software certification, which is necessary for obtaining licences. WePlay handles licensing for itself and its operators. We have a dedicated compliance team that ensures compliance for the network and vendors. The vendors requiring strict compliance are usually casino providers, sportsbook providers, and payment solution providers.

Regulatory compliance in WePlay is ensured through gambling licences, which we obtain from two different authorities. As a master licence holder, we also offer sublicences to our clients for white-label operations.

We offer both Curacao and Anjouan licences. All operators in the network can choose which package to use. The Curacao licence is generally considered more credible in the gambling world. The Anjouan licence is less known but still appealing. We checked with all our vendors and third-party providers to see if they had any objections to the Anjouan licence, and 95% had no issues. That’s why we decided to offer this licence, as it provides a more cost-effective solution, especially for smaller operators focused on local rather than global traffic. Typically, they can’t afford the Curacao licence.

How can a poker network ensure robust cybersecurity and protect against potential breaches or fraud?

EvenBet Gaming predominantly handles data security, taking care of server security. I know that we use cloud servers with substantial capabilities and several layers of protection. EvenBet Gaming provides a certified random number generator, one of the best in the online gambling market, ensuring fair play. They also provide tools, including algorithms that detect fraud by analysing behavioural parameters and creating incident reports indicating suspicious activity. However, we don’t have many details about this, as disclosing security methods would pose a risk.

I can speak more about fraud prevention, which is directly managed by us. Like any gaming project, poker networks occasionally encounter dishonest users trying to defraud operators or other players. We often face issues such as multi-accounting, where a user gains an advantage over opponents by having multiple accounts and exploits promo rewards.

In poker networks, the most common type of fraud is chip dumping. This occurs due to the large number of operators in the network, each in different jurisdictions. Some operators have stricter withdrawal limits or payment system restrictions than others. This motivates some users to “lose” their money to another of their accounts, registered with an operator in a more lenient jurisdiction.

We have developed an AI-driven automatic fraud detection system that continuously detects and improves fraud identification. In addition to the automated processes, our dedicated anti-fraud teams manually verify flagged cases and fine-tune the detection algorithms based on these reviews. Our protocol aligns with regulatory requirements for AML protection. We thoroughly investigate cases, freeze the assets of fraudulent players, and return funds to affected users, ensuring a secure and trustworthy environment.

Revenue of a Poker Network

What are the current sources of revenue for your poker network?

Our primary revenue source is rake commission. Our commission structure is very competitive. We operate a tier system for operators, which corresponds to their raking level. The more rake revenue an operator generates, the lower their commission to the network. All operators joining our network start at the lowest tier, tier 1, except for cases where a larger operator has a proven raking history from previous operations. After a set period within the network, the operator’s tier is reviewed and adjusted to reflect their actual performance.

However, we also have other, albeit minor, sources of income. These are more like side businesses, such as design and branding services that we provide to operators. We can also create landing pages and run customised marketing campaigns for individual operators, alongside the standard campaigns we run for the entire network.

We are actively developing our social media presence. As a result, we are attracting more operators who recognise the quality of our audience and offer sponsorships in exchange for promotion. We don’t push this as a full-fledged business on our own initiative, but when we receive such requests, we don’t turn them down, even if the contracts are small. Besides a bit of extra revenue, we also gain exposure to the subscriber bases of those operators.

Additionally, we provide licensing, but this brings in very little revenue, and we don’t even offer this service to operators outside our poker network.

Is revenue the key metric by which you assess the success of your poker network?

WePlay is currently in a phase where our primary focus isn’t on maximising revenue. While we certainly monitor it and ensure it remains at a healthy level, we are not aggressively pursuing rapid growth at this stage. Prioritising profit too early could affect the balance of our network.

When defining our success, we took inspiration from Amazon’s approach, which zeroes in on one key performance indicator (KPI) at a time. For us, that KPI is player liquidity, the most powerful driver of growth in a poker network. Achieving strong player liquidity makes our network more appealing to a wider audience, laying the groundwork for future revenue expansion.

Rather than concentrating on high-stakes games that typically attract professional players, our focus is on a broader, more consistent player base. These are players who may not always wager large amounts but contribute steadily to the community. By nurturing this consistent activity, we create a more engaging and sustainable environment for everyone.

Player Acquisition and Maintaining a Healthy Gaming Ecosystem

What strategies are used to attract new players?

We don’t acquire players directly, players are acquired through our clients, who purchase our software and use our infrastructure. However, Weplay Network is here to assist with advice, with resources, to create marketing campaigns, advice on promotions, etc. We also offer a variety of promotional tools, including welcome bonuses and a referral system, where players earn rewards, rakeback, etc., for inviting their friends. Of course, we make extensive use of an affiliate system.

The key acquisition tool for poker networks is player liquidity. We focus on gradually but steadily increasing this metric. It’s better to have liquidity grow slowly but organically than to experience big surges followed by sharp drops. For instance, if you have 2,000 players online at peak, and in two weeks that number falls to 500, it’s a bad sign. Large spikes in growth followed by rapid declines pose a serious threat to the credibility of the poker network. We prefer steady growth, leading to a solid and loyal player base.

How do you maintain a healthy gaming ecosystem?

We prioritise the experience of recreational players. Casual players are not here to earn money; they come to enjoy the game and have fun. They might win some and lose some, but they value the process itself. We ensure that casual players have a positive experience, without becoming easy prey for professionals. Recreational players primarily contribute to player liquidity, while professionals often diminish it.

The key difference between recreational and professional players is the use of various tools aimed at increasing win rates, like trackers or solvers. We address the use of third-party tools through EvenBet’s advanced Anti-Fraud Module. This tool is capable of detecting all kinds of gameplay deviations, greatly assisting our Ecology Team in maintaining a balanced ecosystem.

Additionally, we have developed a robust Security and Ecology Policy to prevent any legal complaints from professionals. To eliminate any potential doubts, our ecological approach is clearly defined by the vision of the WePlay Network Project — a platform specifically designed for recreational players, where they can enjoy games without being exploited by others.

Building a Community Around a Poker Network and Player Engagement

How do you keep current users engaged?

We reward players for playing. It’s similar to those simple online games where you log in to water plants, build something, or groom a pet. If you don’t log in, your pet dies. But if you do, you get a reward. Here, too, players who log in daily gain access to a promo campaign and earn rewards such as tournament tickets, bonus money, and other benefits.

In general, all retention tools available to standalone poker rooms can also be applied in poker networks: jackpots, rakeback, leaderboards, etc.

There’s another way to build retention — building a community. Poker differs from sportsbooks and casinos in that it tends to foster a more loyal player base. Poker, unlike various casino games, creates communities due to the interactive nature of the game. Players chat, blog, make friends, and develop emotional connections with the room through this community.

Tell us more about your experience in building a community.

We are primarily focused on building brand awareness and fostering community engagement, rather than solely on player acquisition. In the future, being part of the WePlay Network will serve as a token of trust for operators. Players will trust these operators because of their association with WePlay, which guarantees game integrity, player liquidity, and an exceptional player experience. Therefore, the WePlay Network must establish a strong market presence and gain industry prominence.

We use different platforms to attract potential clients. For example, we now have around 12,000 followers on Instagram. Most of them are from the Balkans because our team is based there, and we are launching our pilot marketing projects in this region.

We create various content, including offline material. We sponsor professional poker players who participate in offline poker tournaments. Our marketing team accompanies them and creates vlogs about their journey, sharing tips on the best routes, accommodation, costs, and more. This provides insider information for all poker enthusiasts, some of whom may aspire to take part in such tournaments themselves. We also have different shows on other topics, which helps grow our subscriber base.

Earlier this year, we started creating content on YouTube, and we now have around 3,500 subscribers. Gaining followers on YouTube is the hardest. One YouTube subscriber requires about the same effort as five Instagram followers. However, YouTube followers are the most loyal. They might watch more than 50 of your videos before subscribing, but once they hit the “Subscribe” button, they tend to stick around and genuinely watch your content. All this builds a potential player base, as those who follow us are clearly interested in what we offer.

We use a similar approach to our acquisition strategy. We prefer a consistent, gradual, and organic approach, which results in a high-quality and highly relevant audience. Our experience has shown that this is the right strategy.

Once, we participated in a giveaway, which cost us a few thousand euros, and within a week, we gained 55,000 subscribers. But what happened next? Over the next three months, they gradually unfollowed, dropping us down to 25,000. It looked very bad. It became obvious that most of those subscribers were artificially acquired. Even Instagram’s algorithms noticed this, and they stopped promoting us organically. We had to close the old profile and start a new one from scratch, as maintaining it became pointless.

In other words, we rushed to gain an audience quickly, but this haste forced us back to square one, where we started growing organically again. That’s why we believe it’s better to grow slowly but steadily.

The products offered by EvenBet Gaming allow iGaming operators to implement various business solutions, including creating their own poker network. Our software is fully certified, enabling operators to work in the most attractive markets globally. If you have a business vision where EvenBet Gaming can assist, we’d be happy to discuss mutually beneficial collaboration. Just get in touch with our managers.