An introductory course on online poker and skill games as a business, and why they work so differently from casino and sportsbook. It covers the poker revenue model and the player ecosystem an operator is really managing, the main formats and how each balances skill and chance, rake structures and their effect on player outcomes, where the money flows and how reward programmes change it, ecosystem management and its effect on different player groups, game integrity in player-versus-player games and how detection relies on patterns, adjacent skill-based categories and the skill-versus-chance arguments that decide how they are regulated, and the functions a poker operation needs, from scheduling to liquidity.
Written for product, operations and compliance staff working on poker or skill-based products, and anyone new to player-versus-player gaming.