With online poker constituting one of the hottest investor markets today, a new concept has emerged- investment-oriented online poker rooms. PokerShare.com, an online poker site that launched this week, gives players the opportunity to earn stakes in the company, in return for their game play. Other than that, it works like any old online poker room, bonuses and all.

The company is divided into two main shareholding bodies- 60 percent of the company is owned by partners and principles, while the other 40 percent is held by a Gibraltar-based trust. Forty percent of the company's profits, which corresponds to the 40 percent of the company controlled by the trust, will be divvied out to players. Every quarter, PokerShare's player base will receive dividends according to the “share" that each player holds.

Players earn “share points" for the length of time they play at the site, the amount they shell-out for tournament buy-ins, and the number of pots they enter. Players receive a percentage of the company's profits according to the percentage of the total share points they own. For example, a player holding ten percent of the total share points will receive ten percent of profits designated to the trust. Thus, as the player base expands, each player ends up with a smaller percentage of the total share points. On the other hand, the larger the player base, the greater the company's overall profits will be.

Although PokerShare players will benefit from dividends, they're stake in the company is strictly financial, and thus, they will have no say in corporate decision-making and will not be able to trade their shares, unless, that is, unless the company ultimately goes public.

Source:  Poker777 Staff

Thursday, 18 August 2005