PartyPoker offers new players a great deposit bonus worth 100% of your first time deposit up to $/£/€500. Once you secure your bonus by making your first deposit, you’ll then need to play real money poker online at PartyPoker to start earning your bonus. This bonus accrues in your account in 10 equal increments as you earn PartyPoints, and you will have 60 days to gross your bonus. If you are playing with US or Canadian dollars, you will need to earn six times your bonus in PartyPoints; for Euros, the rate is eight times; for Sterling, nine times.
Promotions
PartyPoker has a superlative promotional schedule featuring both online and live tournament events, some of which you can qualify for at little cost. Check the promotions link at PartyPoker.com often for major monthly promotions, and in the meantime, participate in more than $100K in monthly freerolls, compete for the Bad Bead Jackpot, work your way up the tournament leader boards, or try your hand at the Steps Challenge.
Tournaments
Weekly tournaments run regularly at PartyPoker. On Saturday alone, the tournaments are worth $200K guaranteed, and the Monday through Thursday No Limit Hold ‘em tournament schedule features $30K guaranteed. Qualify online for World Poker Tour events around the world.
PartyPoker offers multi-table, sit & go, shootout, shootout satellites, heads up, and bounty tournaments.
Games
At PartyPoker, players enjoy No Limit Texas Hold ‘em, Limit Hold ‘em, Double Hold ‘em, Omaha, Omaha Hi/Lo, 7 Card Stud, and 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo online poker games.
Software
PartyPoker’s online poker platform is one of the premier software applications out there with mad features including multi-tabling capabilities that offer various elements making it effortless to multi-table. For instance, the tiling and cascading functions allow you to organize tables on your screen, time-out alerts and the “your turn” button keep you focused on which table you need to act on next, and the quick seat search box makes locating the right table in record time a breeze. Additionally, the Single-Click Session Option is extremely handy as well.
Other software features include anonymous heads-up play, pro player highlighting, fold and show option, easy bet slider, player notes, time bank, deck and theme options, equal prize tournaments, speed tables, keyboard shortcuts, and so much more.
Rewards
A five-tiered loyalty rewards program provides an array of reward opportunities for PartyPoker players. PartyPoints can be redeemed for a wide range of items, big-money tournament buy-ins, gift certificates, or even cash. At the highest level, Palladium Elite players receive a 50% rakeback deal.
Deposit Methods
PartyPoker has an assortment of online payment options available to fund your account including credit card, NETeller, entropay, moneybookers, Click2Pay, and Ukash. Additionally, Western Union, Bank Wire Transfer, and WebMoney are also offered. There are no fees on PartyPoker’s side for using any of these methods.
Cash Out Methods
Player wins can be withdrawn from player accounts using Bank Wire Transfer, which takes one to two days and requires a $10 fee and a minimum withdrawal of $100. Alternatively, checks by mail require a $5 fee, a $5 minimum, and will take 7 to 20 days to reach you, or for a $30 fee with a $100 withdrawal minimum, premium delivery checks by mail via Fed Ex, UPS, or DHL are available and can arrive within two to three days.
Customer Service
PartyPoker has always been at the forefront of customer service, and their Customer Care Team can be reached 24/7 via phone from countries all over the world, live chat, or email, all of which can be accessed via the PartyPoker website or software.
History of Party Poker
Beginnings
PartyPoker is one of the many online gambling brands that stems from the far reaching PartyGaming Internet gambling corporation started in 1997 by Californian Ruth Parasol. With her husband, Russ DeLeon, Parasol first launched Starluck Casino Online based out of the Caribbean, which eventually became known as PartyGaming Plc. After making Anurag Dikshit a partner in her company in 1998, and he in turn made her partner in his IT services business based out of India, the PartyGaming brand that we know today started to take shape. Parasol also brought on Vikrant Bhargava for his marketing expertise.
Parasol came from a background of various entrepreneurial endeavors (i.e. audiotext businesses in horoscope, trivia, tarot, adult, and chat telephone services, as well as an online peep show site). With her expertise in website content management, electronic payment processing, and Internet gaming regulations, as well as international taxation, and Dikshit’s proficiency as operations director, Parasol was able to grow the PartyGaming brand exponentially.
2001
Once the company began to grow and the realization was made that the online gambling market was only going to continue aggrandize by the second, PartyPoker was born in 2001 in an effort to tap into something even bigger. At first, PartyPoker allowed other companies to use their skin and make the PartyPoker software available to their players (e.g. Empire Poker), and PartyPoker’s affiliate program flooded the readying market and provided PartyPoker with vast amounts of new signups for a decent share of the profits.
Marketing campaigns worked as Bhargava headed up the marketing leg of the company, signing on with Mike Sexton, who became the face of PartyPoker and even came up with the name “PartyPoker” back in 1999.
Another brilliant online poker staple that helped catapult the brand into the top spot for online poker play was the offering of bonuses for new PartyPoker players to get them interested enough to deposit their own money. And still yet, PartyPoker began dabbling in promotions and launched the first Party Millions poker cruise. This event was the first to tie online satellites with a live event. It was also the first time a woman, Kathy Liebert, had won more than $1 million playing in a poker tournament, not to mention it was the first live poker tournament initiated by an online poker room to take place on a cruise ship in the middle of the ocean. This innovative and tri-fold business strategy model (bonuses, promotions, sponsorships) paid off immensely, and to top it all off, PartyPoker’s novel multi-table tournaments were a huge hit across the board.
2002-2004
In 2002, the World Poker Tour (WPT) appeared on television, which opened up new opportunities for PartyPoker to advertise. They also advertised via the World Series of Poker (WSOP), and online poker forums such as Two Plus Two were buzzing about PartyPoker. The brand quickly came to represent the largest online poker site in the world, blowing all who came before off the map. By 2004, the company was profiting more than one million dollars every day.
2005
In June of 2005, PartyGaming’s four owners, Parasol, DeLeon, Dikshit, and Bhargava, decided to take the company public. They each put up 23% of their shares and floated it on the London Stock Exchange for a value of £4.64 billion. Within one month, the value of the company had almost tripled and was worth more than £12 billion.
Also in this year, PartyPoker recognizes that it doesn’t need skins to be successful and can thrive on its own. Five main skins were on the network at the time including Intertops, PokerNOW, MultiPoker, Empire Poker, and Coral Eurobet Poker. PartyGaming began doing away with their skins by buying out the companies or merging with them. PartyGaming purchased Intertops Poker and MultiPoker, only to release an entirely new and upgraded software client in October of 2005 that left users of their previous software skins in the dust.
An agreement with Empire Online, owner of Empire Poker, could not be made, and once the new software came out, Empire ultimately ended up suing PartyGaming for retracting the new software from the existing Empire client base. The case never made it to court, as a settlement was reached, whereby PartyGaming bought out Empire for $250 million, acquiring all of Empire’s assets.
2006-2007
In 2006, PartyGaming introduced an integrated platform that enabled players to use all PartyGaming online gambling legs from the convenience of one Party account.
Forbes listed Parasol as the 197th richest American, but she was off the list by 2007 completely once PartyGaming shares lost 75% of their value thanks to the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) passed by the US Congress in 2006. The UIGEA made it illegal for online payment processors to facilitate Internet gambling related money transfers. In compliance, PartyPoker immediately withdrew from the US market despite the fact that the UIGEA didn’t target the players or the poker site—just the payment processors. At this time, many online poker sites chose to ignore the UIGEA and enjoyed countless new signups from jilted PartyPoker players.
An October 2nd, 2006 a press release, directly from PartyPoker, stated, “The Company will suspend all real money gaming business with U.S. residents, and such suspension will continue indefinitely, subject to clarification of the interpretation and enforcement of US law and the impact on financial institutions of this and other related legislation.”
2008
Despite losing its top online poker site position, both in the US and globally, and much of its revenue, PartyPoker remained afloat. In fact, in August of 2008, PartyPoker broke the record for the biggest Internet poker Bad Beat Jackpot when a player won more than $1,013,000. They held the record until 2009 when another network broke the record with a $1.2 Bad Beat Jackpot payout.
In addition, May 2008 saw Jim Ryan take over as PartyGaming CEO in an effort to expand the site beyond PartyPoker.
In December 2008, acting independently from the PartyPoker and PartyGaming brands, Anurag Dikshit pleaded guilty in the US to violating the US Federal Wire Act pre-UIGEA. All charges against him were dropped by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) in exchange for a payment of $300 million.
2009
The next year, in April 2009, PartyGaming signed a non-prosecution deal with the DOJ admitting PartyGaming had targeted US players prior to the UIGEA, which was against US gambling law. In exchange for a mere $105 million paid over four years, the PartyGaming corporation would be exonerated and have no outstanding legal trouble with the US. This was important in the case of future PartyGaming re-entry into the US market if regulation takes place.
With all of that behind them, PartyGaming purchased the World Poker Tour Enterprises in November 2009 through Peerless Media, subsidiary group of PartyGaming, for $12.3 million with an additional $3 million in rev share for the following three years. This is another move in the direction towards re-entry into the US should online poker ever be deemed legal there.
Also in 2009, PartyPoker and “Ambassador of Poker,” Poker Hall of Famer, and spokesman for WPT Mike Sexton renewed their 10-year+, on-again-off-again relationship. Sexton was quoted, “PartyPoker.com has always had a place in my heart and is special to me. I am delighted to pen a new deal; it means so much to me.”
2010
The brand began to concentrate on reputation, marketing, and sponsorships, signing on lively poker pros believed to bring more than just poker to the party. The controversial Tony G, the sexy Kara Scott, Dragan Galic, and Sexton were all brought on in 2010 and together form the PartyPoker hub of pros, Team PartyPoker.com, and act not only as representative players, but also as spokespersons for the brand.
Also, with the help of Ryan, the brand has become more than just poker, as the company does value its PartyCasino, which definitely brings a great deal of revenue into the mix. The site continues to draw in play money players from the US who may someday instantly become real money players overnight, as quickly as real money players were demoted back in 2006. After all, the main goal of the company is to conquer new and more markets, or to be perfectly positioned in an effort to enter into markets that could possibly one day be re-opened.
2011
The biggest event for the PartyGaming brand as a whole thus far has to be the company’s merger with bwin in April 2011. This merger created the largest listed online gambling corporation in the world when it opened on the London Stock Exchange for £1.94 per share. Ryan and Norbert Teufelberger (CEO bwin) became co-CEOs of the new company, bwin.party Digital Entertainment plc.
The next big step came when the bwin.party conglomerate officially partnered with MGM Resorts International. Many online poker websites have joined forces with a land-based US casino in an effort to get a better leg in if and when the US regulates Internet poker. The partnership serves both parties, as the online poker site has a direct line into the market, and the land casino has a developed platform online. When the US market opens up, instead of trying to compete against each other, land-based and online poker rooms will come together to bring their own area of expertise to the equation.
Today, PartyPoker continues looking forward and chases newly developed poker markets around the world, for instance, answering Italy’s online poker regulations with PartyPoker.it. bwin.party and the PartyPoker entity continue to grow and expand throughout the world, some day possibly making its way back into the US market—the same market that made it possible for PartyPoker to become what it is today.
