In order to know the meaning of rakeback, it is important to know the meaning of rake. Rake in poker means the commission fee taken by the casino where poker is played. The fee is generally 5-10% of the pot in each poker hand. Generally poker players play poker against each other. The house in which poker is played does not wager against the players, hence the casino does not make any money. In order to generate revenue, players are charged this fee, which is called Rake.
All the casinos that supply the necessary things or services to play poker charge this commission fee. As popularity of poker increased and with the Internet, poker can be played online as well. These service providers need money to cover the coasts of the entire operation. It requires support, software, and personnel. There are three prominent types of rake is applied. It depends on the type of poker is played. In ring games players wager the money and the rake is some percentage of the wagered money taken by the dealer. In online poker, the game software automatically takes the rake.
Second type of rake is ‘time collection’ or ‘table charge’. Normally each player pays a predetermined fee after every half hour. For online site it could be monthly subscription. The third type of rake is when a player pays while entering a poker tournament
Rakeback is a term normally used for online poker game. Any one who has Internet connection can play online poker. If you want to play poker the traditional way, you have to go to a hotel or to a casino where one can play poker. But if you want to play it without going out of your house then online poker is for you. There are various sites that host poker games. To enter these gaming rooms the player has to pay entry fee. In order to entice people to visit your site and play poker the web sites offer some schemes as rake back. In Brick and Mortar rooms they use rate cards to keep track of the money and pay their rakeback.
Poker rooms pay affiliates to get them members for their poker sites. Once a player agrees to play at a particular table, the amount of money the player generates, his rakeback is the percentage of that accumulated money. The commission is normally between 20-40%. Some even become rakeback affiliates. What they do is they give incentives to players to sign up with poker rooms through their sites. The players pay the entrance fee and the affiliate promises to give some of the money back. The affiliate gets his commission from the poker room and he passes of a part of his commission to the player. This means the player gets 25-35% money back via the affiliate.
In traditional form of poker the players go to the casino with his/her own free will and then try and make some money. No added incentive is required. With the modern technology every one can play poker or gamble. There are sites that teach how to play poker to the new players. Until the player gets confidence he can play without real money and when he gets enough confidence he starts to play with real money. At this point rakeback becomes added boost. The rakeback amount depends on the rake the player pays. He can play on line for more than one table so his rake increases so does his rakeback. The rakeback can be paid by different methods. It can be paid direct to poker accounts. It can be paid by Cheque or by Bank transfer.