Unibet Poker Removes “Damaging” High Stakes Tables

January 5th, 2018 | by Kaycee James

Unibet Poker has removed its high stakes No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha tables in a bid to sustain a profitable ecosystem.

Unibet Poker removes high stakes cash tables to help make its games more lucrative for low stakes players. (Image: YouTube/Unibet)

News of the change was posted on the European poker site’s forum on December 29 by Unibet employee, David Pomroy.

Officially, the site removed all NL800 and PL800 cash games from the lobby on December 31, 2017, because they were damaging Unibet’s smaller games.

“Our mission has always been to build a sustainable poker site and after nine months of running those games, we’d gathered enough data to be able to say for sure that the impact is a net negative,” wrote Pomroy.

No More Money in High Stakes Games

As well as making the site less stable for casual and small stakes players, Unibet’s research indicated that the high stakes table weren’t profitable for the company or those that used them.

“We also don’t rake enough from those games to allow us to run any sort of meaningful promotions there,” Pomroy continued.

The removal of high stakes tables has become something of a trend in the online poker industry over the last two years. Aside from a drop in traffic at the top levels, operators have been working to make their platforms more attractive to new players.

By removing high stakes games, it not only frees up physical space in a site’s lobby, but financial resources which can then be used to offer low stakes deals.

Unibet Continues to Push the Casual Angle

For its part, Unibet has long championed the idea of building a more sustainable poker economy that focuses on casual players. In December 2016, the operator launched Unibet 2.0 in conjunction with software supplier, Relax Gaming. When the site went live, it ushered in a wave of a newbie-friendly features.

On an aesthetic level, cartoon-style avatars made games look more appealing. Additionally, a revamped hand replayer, the banning of tracking software and a new loyalty scheme where players completed “missions” were introduced.

The end result was a site that catered for low stakes players and those crossing over from Unibet’s sports betting and casino platforms. In line with this evolution, high stakes tables have been removed and the operator will be investing more money in promotions that benefit losing players.

While the decision has been met with approval from many members, some have suggested that more direct investment needs to be made for low stakes players.

“I think that eliminating the 800 stakes is a mistake. With this logic you should eliminate 400NL too. You have to admit that poker on UNIBET is dead on 50NL+ stakes until late afternoon, even now on holidays. You should do some promotions for playing in those dead hours instead of rewarding losers,” wrote Unibet forum user Balonas.