Big Changes at Cake Poker
Cake Poker has revamped their brand. They now have a new website called WinCake.com and have also added a casino section and sports betting section for players. With this change Cake is trying to become more of a full online gambling company, which is transitioning from simply a poker room.
Many other online poker rooms have already made this transition. Some examples include PKR adding a PKR casino and Titan Poker adding both a casino and the Titan Bet sportsbook that has become fairly popular. There is also word that Full Tilt, one of the biggest names in online poker, is set to add some casino games to their software. This piece will go over some of the changes made by Cake Poker and try to determine if Cake is up there with Bovada and other USA facing rooms as having a strong online poker USA feeling.
Cake Casino
The Cake Casino is live. Blackjack is the featured game for the casino, but there are also ten different slot machines offered, as well as some classic casino table games such as casino hold’em and craps. There is also several video poker games available.
The Cake Casino is awarding players with frequent player points. At the casino slots you earn 3 FPP’s for every $100 wagered. At video poker it is 8 FPP’s for $100 wagered, blackjack is 1 FPP for $100 and casino hold’em is 3.5 FPP’s per $100 wagered. This compares to the poker tables where you earn 7 FPP’s for every $1 that you pay in tournament fees.
Cake Games
Cake has added a games section as well. Here you can play Ceelo for Green, Russian Roulette, Cake War or 1-4-24 for real money.
Cake Sportsbook
The Cake Sportsbook is not yet live, but it is set to launch in the summer of 2013 according to the website. With it already being August you can expect the launch of the sportsbook very soon. Cake likely wants to get the sportsbook launched before the start of the NFL season. There is also a Live Bets section of the site that is set to launch in the summer, so Cake is likely going to have a Live Betting software added to their site.
Cake Bonus
With this revamp Cake has also upped their new deposit bonus to 200% up to $5000! That is quite the big bonus that is now available. The bonus is released in $5 increments and still must be cleared within 90 days of your initial deposit. You would have to play quite a bit to clear a $5000 bonus in 90 days at Cake Poker.
Jackpots
Cake now has Jackpots available as well of up to $2 Million. These jackpots are at the blackjack, roulette millions, jackpot bingo, joker poker, lotto games and more. The jackpots are insured through a Lloyd’s of London Broker so you can know that you will be paid even if Cake is about to go bankrupt.
All-in-all it seems like a valient effort by Cake to make themselves more appealing to online gamblers, but it might be too little too late. Cake is a small player in the poker world and it is very difficult to gain any market share in sports betting. The casino games are a good addition because Cake can make some more money through them off of their current players, but I don’t see the company growing much in the future.
