So, ive only been following this thread half heartedly as it was going.
Im confused at what the £10 is for?
I know its to "process your application", but what is it to be used for (please say Team Winners Medals from last year?!!?!? )
I just find it unusual to see why the charge is there, if you want to deter idiots flooding the forums, then you could still have the application AND the 1% fee, and just dont give status to those you dont want to hold it.
CMU, PTP etc didnt require a Join Up Fee?
Ive always held APAT in good regards due to the value they offer to their members, dont understand why all of a sudden you want to charge people to post a stake request?
If i have missed all these answers prior, apologies.
Dann
The £10 is there for a few reasons.
One is to take a few of the cowboys out of the mix. We don"t have the time to be going through lots of verifications, which we would end up doing if this was a free service. Cowboys aren"t going to be worrying about the 1% fee, they"ll just do a runner if they win.
Secondly, the fee adds another level of verification, in that we get provided with the player"s name and address through PayPal, which is helpful if we don"t know who it is. It"s something else to cross check elsewhere and if some of an applicant"s story doesn"t add up, we won"t license the player.
Thirdly, we"re far from perfect, but in the six years that APAT has been around we"ve tried to do things right. This feels like us doing the right thing. The other sites may offer a free service, and we have no interest whatsoever in competing with them. This is not about volume, it"s about being able to keep some level of control over what is posted on this forum, particularly where money might be concerned.
Last but not least, we"re having to go through a bit of a mindset change at APAT. We"ve offered high quality registration free poker for five years before this season, but the sponsorship market has changed considerably and for that reason we need to adopt a wider commercial outlook. APAT cannot be in a position whereby it relies on one poker site for its operating budget. Our strategy needs to evolve to ensure APAT generates revenue so that we can resource our development in a much greater way, grow and create an even bigger and better tour. So we"ve added a fee with sensible justification for players looking to find funding to step their game up, but we"ve kept the service free for players willing to invest in some of the talented players that we have at APAT.
I think the Exchange is a good win win scenario. It"s on strategy for APAT and it introduces a nice new quality service for our members. Hopefully players will both stake and play, but ultimately it"s your decision.