I think the most effective site for poker news is PokerRoad. While other sites provide an abundance of poker content, I feel PokerRoad differentiates themselves by bringing the average fan closer to poker professionals using PokerRoad Nation, Red Pro Strategy forums, and Blogfessionals.
While PokerNews has a Twitter page following the pros, PokerRoad does it in a unique away allowing fans to become apart of the PokerRoad Nation by including #nation in their tweets. This helps brings fans closer and makes them feel apart of the poker community.
All of the sites have poker forums but PokerRoad's Red Pro Strategy Forum are unique and different from the others. This forum allows for in depth analysis of certain poker situations without all of the noise from other users. It allows the fans and regular poker players to get into the minds of the professionals. By including a shadow forum for regular users, this doesn't alienate regular users either. So, I think this was a great unique idea that PokerRoad has come up with.
Also, PokerNews and Card Player both have blogs but once again PokerRoad has done something different by providing blogs as well as video blogs which they call Blogfessionals. We've all heard the adage "A picture is worth a thousand words", well I feel that a video is worth a thousand pictures. By providing this video blog, users are instantly connected with the poker professionals who are video blogging.
PokerRoad may not have some of the other content that PokerNews and Card Player provides but it does bring something new to the table. It may not have the detailed tracking of PokerNews or detailed player results like Card Player; however, PokerRoad does a great job of providing new and unique content to poker news bringing poker fans and players closer to the poker professionals.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Poker News Unique Competitive Advantages
PokerRoad
One of the unique features that separates PokerRoad from the other news sites is their unique Red Pro Strategy Discussions in their forums. A link to the PokerRoad Red Pro Strategy Discussions forum can be found here at http://www.pokerroad.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=57
The reason why this feature is unique is because the forum is locked so that only specific professional poker players can post in this strategy forum. This helps prevent a lot of noise from other fans and spam posts from other users. This exclusive forum allows for very complex and in-depth strategy discussions from professional poker players.
However, PokerRoad has allowed regular users to post in the shadow forums located here at
http://www.pokerroad.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=60 This allows the fans and other players to read the discussion and discuss it in the shadow forum.
Another unique feature of PokerRoad is something they like to call PokerRoad Nation which can be found at http://www.pokerroad.com/nation/updates
While other sites may have Twitter pages, PokerRoad has developed a robust Twitter page that updates in real time and allows fans to follow all their favourite players. You can sort the types of tweets you receive on the right hand side of the page, from media people to PokerRoad family members. Regular users can also become a member of PokerRoad Nation by including the hash tag #nation in their tweets. Any person who includes #nation in their tweets will be included in Twitter updates on the PokerRoad Unfiltered tab in the right hand side of the page. This allows fans to feel apart of the poker community and a part of PokerRoad Nation.
Another unique feature that PokerRoad has is something they called Blogfessionals.
A link to the page can be found at http://www.pokerroad.com/blogfessional
While most sites have blogs, PokerRoad was able to get video blogs from professional players. This is a unique way of giving fans a perspective of a professional poker player's life that words sometimes cannot describe. The Blogfessionals are also embeddable onto other pages, and can be shared to all the popular sites like Facebook by clicking on ShareThis icon. They also give users the opportunity to follow the Blogfessionals through RSS feeds.
PokerNews
One of the features that PokerNews does really well is their Live Reporting section. A link to the page can be found here at http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/
This live reporting feature is really robust as it has updates in real time in a reverse chronological order. It allows fans to keep track of all their favourite players while they are in poker tournaments.
You can select which tournament you want updates on in the upper right hand corner.
In the Live Reporting section on the right, you can also find out various things about the tournament. By clicking on the Chip Count sections, you can quickly find the chip counts of the top players and their chip trends. In addition to just knowing how much chips players have, it also has the trends of the players. For example, it will show Daniel Negreanu +212000, which means Daniel just won a pot and is trending upwards. If you click on the Live Reporting log, there is a cloud tag of popular player names that allows users to find all the details of their favourite players easily and quickly.
Another feature that separates PokerNews from the other sites is their Poker Odds calculator that can be found at http://www.pokernews.com/poker-tools/poker-odds-calculator.htm
This poker odds calculator is very in depth allowing players to show the mathematical % of poker hands in different situations in Texas Hold'em. It is very simple to use and has a ? button that also gives a quick tutorial of how to use the program. It gives step by step directions making it very easy for beginning users.
It shows your winning probability percentages as well as your opponents probability percentages to win. Along with that, it also gives very detailed percentage probabilities on making different hand rankings such as Royal Flushes, Full Houses, and Straights. This detail and ease of use makes this Poker Odds calculator the best compared to other sites. They also allow you to embed the Poker Odds calculator onto your web page or to share it to all the popular sites like Facebook, Delicious, and Twitter.
Finally, another unique aspect of PokerNews is that they provide their site in many different languages called PokerNews International. A link to the page can be found at http://www.pokernews.com/international/ Pokernews has their site in 27 different languages including French, Portugese, Polish, Chinese, and Swedish. The sites are not just simple translations of the Global website. Each site is different for each country and contains different news that is relevant to that poker market.
This caters to a large geographic area as poker is exploding worldwide and they are able to target these specific geographic markets.
Card Player
One of the unique features that Card Player has over other sites is their Poker Player Rankings including Player of the Year and Online Player of the Year.
A link to the section can be found at http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-players
Card Player provides a very detailed database of results of all the poker players in major live and online tournaments. It has information including the player's name, their location, lifetime winnings. For Player of the Year (PoY), it includes information such as how many final tables they have made, and how many titles they have won, and the PoY dollars they have won.
The Player of the Year can be categorized by North America, Europe or the World. It also has an advanced search function to search for specific players from different countries. The database is updated regularly so that results stay current.
Card Player also has a feature called Card Player TV which contains streaming video content.
A link to the section can be found at http://www.cardplayer.com/cptv
While other sites have videos, I feel the CardPlayer video player is the most complete and polished. They have dedicated content like High Stakes Living which is similar to MTV Cribs which gives fans an insight into how poker players live. It contains the usual features such as embedding the videos onto other sites, and sharing to popular sites. It allows users to post comments on videos which other poker sites are lacking. Another addition that separates it from other sites is it has a related videos section similar to YouTube. This makes it easier for users to find related content and increases stickiness to the site.
Finally, the last unique differentiating factor that brings users to Card Player is their online magazine. Card Player has a magazine that they distribute on news stands but also puts all of their articles up online. They must feel that they generate enough online advertising revenue to make this profitable.
The Card Player magazine section can be found at http://www.cardplayer.com/cardplayer-magazines
This aspect of the site is unique since it provides professional content for the users to read if they choose not to purchase the hard copy of the magazine. It lists all of the articles under the appropriate subheadings to make it easy for users to read. Also, it provides an archive of all the previous Card Player magazine volumes. This allows users to search for specific issues they would like to read. It is very easy to find the appropriate Card Player volume using the two drop down menus provided. One drop down menu selects the year, and the other menu selects the issue.
One of the unique features that separates PokerRoad from the other news sites is their unique Red Pro Strategy Discussions in their forums. A link to the PokerRoad Red Pro Strategy Discussions forum can be found here at http://www.pokerroad.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=57
The reason why this feature is unique is because the forum is locked so that only specific professional poker players can post in this strategy forum. This helps prevent a lot of noise from other fans and spam posts from other users. This exclusive forum allows for very complex and in-depth strategy discussions from professional poker players.
However, PokerRoad has allowed regular users to post in the shadow forums located here at
http://www.pokerroad.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=60 This allows the fans and other players to read the discussion and discuss it in the shadow forum.
Another unique feature of PokerRoad is something they like to call PokerRoad Nation which can be found at http://www.pokerroad.com/nation/updates
While other sites may have Twitter pages, PokerRoad has developed a robust Twitter page that updates in real time and allows fans to follow all their favourite players. You can sort the types of tweets you receive on the right hand side of the page, from media people to PokerRoad family members. Regular users can also become a member of PokerRoad Nation by including the hash tag #nation in their tweets. Any person who includes #nation in their tweets will be included in Twitter updates on the PokerRoad Unfiltered tab in the right hand side of the page. This allows fans to feel apart of the poker community and a part of PokerRoad Nation.
Another unique feature that PokerRoad has is something they called Blogfessionals.
A link to the page can be found at http://www.pokerroad.com/blogfessional
While most sites have blogs, PokerRoad was able to get video blogs from professional players. This is a unique way of giving fans a perspective of a professional poker player's life that words sometimes cannot describe. The Blogfessionals are also embeddable onto other pages, and can be shared to all the popular sites like Facebook by clicking on ShareThis icon. They also give users the opportunity to follow the Blogfessionals through RSS feeds.
PokerNews
One of the features that PokerNews does really well is their Live Reporting section. A link to the page can be found here at http://www.pokernews.com/live-reporting/
This live reporting feature is really robust as it has updates in real time in a reverse chronological order. It allows fans to keep track of all their favourite players while they are in poker tournaments.
You can select which tournament you want updates on in the upper right hand corner.
In the Live Reporting section on the right, you can also find out various things about the tournament. By clicking on the Chip Count sections, you can quickly find the chip counts of the top players and their chip trends. In addition to just knowing how much chips players have, it also has the trends of the players. For example, it will show Daniel Negreanu +212000, which means Daniel just won a pot and is trending upwards. If you click on the Live Reporting log, there is a cloud tag of popular player names that allows users to find all the details of their favourite players easily and quickly.
Another feature that separates PokerNews from the other sites is their Poker Odds calculator that can be found at http://www.pokernews.com/poker-tools/poker-odds-calculator.htm
This poker odds calculator is very in depth allowing players to show the mathematical % of poker hands in different situations in Texas Hold'em. It is very simple to use and has a ? button that also gives a quick tutorial of how to use the program. It gives step by step directions making it very easy for beginning users.
It shows your winning probability percentages as well as your opponents probability percentages to win. Along with that, it also gives very detailed percentage probabilities on making different hand rankings such as Royal Flushes, Full Houses, and Straights. This detail and ease of use makes this Poker Odds calculator the best compared to other sites. They also allow you to embed the Poker Odds calculator onto your web page or to share it to all the popular sites like Facebook, Delicious, and Twitter.
Finally, another unique aspect of PokerNews is that they provide their site in many different languages called PokerNews International. A link to the page can be found at http://www.pokernews.com/international/ Pokernews has their site in 27 different languages including French, Portugese, Polish, Chinese, and Swedish. The sites are not just simple translations of the Global website. Each site is different for each country and contains different news that is relevant to that poker market.
This caters to a large geographic area as poker is exploding worldwide and they are able to target these specific geographic markets.
Card Player
One of the unique features that Card Player has over other sites is their Poker Player Rankings including Player of the Year and Online Player of the Year.
A link to the section can be found at http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-players
Card Player provides a very detailed database of results of all the poker players in major live and online tournaments. It has information including the player's name, their location, lifetime winnings. For Player of the Year (PoY), it includes information such as how many final tables they have made, and how many titles they have won, and the PoY dollars they have won.
The Player of the Year can be categorized by North America, Europe or the World. It also has an advanced search function to search for specific players from different countries. The database is updated regularly so that results stay current.
Card Player also has a feature called Card Player TV which contains streaming video content.
A link to the section can be found at http://www.cardplayer.com/cptv
While other sites have videos, I feel the CardPlayer video player is the most complete and polished. They have dedicated content like High Stakes Living which is similar to MTV Cribs which gives fans an insight into how poker players live. It contains the usual features such as embedding the videos onto other sites, and sharing to popular sites. It allows users to post comments on videos which other poker sites are lacking. Another addition that separates it from other sites is it has a related videos section similar to YouTube. This makes it easier for users to find related content and increases stickiness to the site.
Finally, the last unique differentiating factor that brings users to Card Player is their online magazine. Card Player has a magazine that they distribute on news stands but also puts all of their articles up online. They must feel that they generate enough online advertising revenue to make this profitable.
The Card Player magazine section can be found at http://www.cardplayer.com/cardplayer-magazines
This aspect of the site is unique since it provides professional content for the users to read if they choose not to purchase the hard copy of the magazine. It lists all of the articles under the appropriate subheadings to make it easy for users to read. Also, it provides an archive of all the previous Card Player magazine volumes. This allows users to search for specific issues they would like to read. It is very easy to find the appropriate Card Player volume using the two drop down menus provided. One drop down menu selects the year, and the other menu selects the issue.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
3 Poker News Competitors
The industry that I will be focusing on will be Poker news sites. Poker and on-line poker is a booming industry. Poker is played by over 50 million Americans and millions more around the world. Successful poker players have become celebrities and many fans want to follow their progress in tournaments and to follow the daily lives of poker players. These poker news sites have forums, statistics, articles, blogs and many other features to address the needs of poker fans and players. All of these sites are pure-play.
The name of the first news site is called PokerRoad.
Here is a link to the site: www.pokerroad.com
The name of the second site is called PokerNews.
Here is a link to the site: www.pokernews.com
The name of the third site that I will be comparing is called Cardplayer.
Here is a link to the site: www.cardplayer.com
These are 3 major competitors in the poker news industry that I will be comparing.
The name of the first news site is called PokerRoad.
Here is a link to the site: www.pokerroad.com
The name of the second site is called PokerNews.
Here is a link to the site: www.pokernews.com
The name of the third site that I will be comparing is called Cardplayer.
Here is a link to the site: www.cardplayer.com
These are 3 major competitors in the poker news industry that I will be comparing.
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