Why did Party Poker not want rakeback?
This is simple dollars and cents. To understand it, you need to understand how rakeback works. The affiliate site is paid a commission percentage of rake generated by players they refer to the poker site. They give the majority of this commission to the players themselves. In the case of rakeback at Empire and Party Poker, the affiliate was usually paid 35%, and they gave the player 28-30%, keeping 5% profit for themselves. Every player who signs up for rakeback, means another player that Party is paying out at least 35% of the revenue to the affiliate and player. Worst yet (for Party anyway), many players who already had accounts were either finding a way to create a new account at Party or just creating a new account at Empire or even getting rakeback at Party skin somewhere else. The goal of an affiliate program is to bring in NEW players, and most rakeback affiliates just cannibalize existing player databases and bring in no real new players themselves. That, in a nut shell, is why
