Rakerace: Hi Alex, thanks for taking the time for this interview! Many of our players are eager to get more details about RedStar's future once they parted ways with MPN, so your insights will be pretty useful for them!
Hi guys! Thanks for the opportunity to give an interview to your site
We have a great relationship with Rakerace and look forward to growing our business together.
First of all, I would like to say thank you to all the players who have chosen RedStar as their poker room. We are really glad that some players are staying with us for years and they trust us.
We have started as an independent poker room back in 2005 after we have joined Cake Network, which turns to Revolution and starting 2011 we are at Microgaming. Therefore, it is going to be our third Network switch and we are excited about the new challenge.
Rakerace: The closure of the Microgaming Poker Network has been a hot topic during the last couple of months. Could you please tell us a few words about how the RedStar Poker team felt when you first heard the news?
To tell you a truth we were really surprised by this decision as we had no feelings that Network will close. After a relatively bad period, we have started to recover and players' liquidity starts to show positive progression. I had booked tickets and hotel for the upcoming Network Meeting Board in Malta and 2 weeks before I got a call from our CEO that decision has been taken and the Network will close. I was really upset about it. We really enjoyed time working with our colleagues from Microgaming.
Rakerace: You were the first and only one from the MPN poker rooms coming out with the news about where you will move when MPN closes. Why did you choose the iPoker network and why do you think the other rooms are still not talking about where they will move?
We have looked into different options for RedStar Rakerace: iPoker, WPN, GG, Chico. We were looking for the best possible options for us and we really don't want to join Network that might have any issues in the near future.
iPoker guys prepared an amazing presentation for us, we have similar thoughts about the future of poker and we are planning together to make iPoker to be Poker Network #1.
I am not sure why other skins are not sharing their plans. Our understanding is that players feel safe when they know in advance what is going to be in the future. As soon as we reached an agreement with the iPoker we have shared our plans in public.
Rakerace: Do you know the exact date of RedStar moving to the iPoker? Will there be a period when both networks will be accessible by your players?
The switch is going to be on the 19th of May 2020. We are definitely are going to be ready by this time. So players shouldn't feel any technical issues after the move.
No, players are going to play at MPN till the 18th of May and then we switch to iPoker on the 19th.
Rakerace: How do you think most of your players will react when you move to an iPoker? What will the players "feel" at the moment you join the new network?
Looking at our social media channels we can say that players are excited about future changes and they are happy that we are joining a network with a good reputation. I assume that some of our players are already familiar with iPoker client so it will be much easier for them to switch from MPN to iPoker. On the other hand, it will take some time for players who never played at iPoker to get used to new software.
Two words about software Rakerace: iPoker is planning to release an absolutely new version of the desktop client right before we are going to move. It really looks amazing.
Rakerace: I'm sure it supposes to a smooth change, where players play in the MPN one day and then continue in the iPoker the next day. Can you go into the details? What can players expect? What about bankrolls? First deposit and other bonuses?
Yes, it will be a very user-friendly experience. MPN poker client will stop working and players will need to download an iPoker client from our site.
Username and password will remain the same, but players will be required to create a new nickname at iPoker upon the first login.
There is no need to cash out your bankroll and deposit back, we keep cashier at our RedStar backend, so nothing should be done about it. Bankroll that you have on account will be immediately available for play at iPoker.
Pending bonuses (first deposit, reload) will be canceled on the 18th of May, but we are going to give a first deposit bonus at iPoker to all players once again after the move.
Rakerace: Where do you think the rest of the MPN rooms will move?
My personal thoughts are going to be iPoker, Betconstruct, and GG.
Rakerace: What percentage of the MPN traffic do you think will move to the iPoker network? iPoker has quite a lot of poker rooms in its network already. How do you think RedStar Poker will be unique among these brands?
I would say it is going to be around 70Rakerace:80% of players that will move to iPoker from MPN. Of course, some of them already have accounts with current iPoker skins, but they might switch to poker rooms that they have played before at MPN. RedStar is targeting mostly CIS markets, and we have a pool of players that stay with us for many years. We are on the market since 2005 and never had any issues in the past. RedStar Poker is a trusted poker room with great promos, fast cashouts, very good support team. So we do believe that we have many advantages comparing to other iPoker skins.
Rakerace: Is there any other message you would like to express to our readers?
We are enthusiastic about the future of Poker as our players are. We can guarantee that our current players and all new players that are welcome to RedStar will have a great customer experience playing at iPoker.
Thanks. Good luck everybody.
