PurePlay Grows With CyberArts
PurePlay launched in 2005 and users rushed
in to play. But their first-generation software
was inadequate to the task and frustrated
players with lockouts and crashes. CEO Jason
Kellerman observes: "We originally launched
our free poker room in July of '05; by November
we decided that we were going to need new
software."
PurePlay's next stage of development required
a more robust and scaleable technology than
was available from existing software suppliers.
"When the poker industry took off several years
ago, many developers popped up with quickly-
built software, but only a handful solved the
tough issues of scalability. Many poker rooms
experience frequent crashes. Our review of
nearly 40 alternatives showed that CyberArts'
technology is very, very unique. There aren't
that many people on the planet that actually
know how to create enterprise-quality gaming
software, and CyberArts' Chris Derossi happens
to be one of them. The difference between
what CyberArts has done and what 95% of the
other folks have done is quite dramatic. There
are only 3 or 4 poker rooms on the planet that
can handle our scalability requirements and
many of them are not commercially offered."
CyberArts' Foundation platform allowed
PurePlay to grow without interruptions while
adding new features. According to CTO Kevin
Flood, "If you look at the support logs and
customer feedback, the difference is quite
dramatic. The number of calls and emails that
we get regarding what I would call major issues
of disconnects, and people not being able to
get into the room, has declined at least fifty
percent."
Customer retention is key to success for any
online business and Kellerman adds, "Our churn
numbers have gone down dramatically, and
that's because the software works very reliably,
and we can respond to customer feedback and
quickly make player-requested changes."
PurePlay's confidence is evident in the range
of new features that they are considering,
including new tournament types, enhanced
chat and other exciting community building
features.. Kellerman explains, "In the past, we
were afraid to make too many feature changes.
Over the course of two years we made fewer
changes on the prior platform than we've made
in two months since switching to CyberArts.
Previously we were afraid to touch the code,
and we also didn't have as responsive a team
as we do in the CyberArts engineers. I can't
speak enough for that. When one picks a
software developer, there are some minimum
requirements: (1) the software has to work,
(2) it has to be scaleable and (3) it has to be
flexible. But at the end of the day you're
investing in a team of developers, and these
guys are very good, very knowledgeable, and
when they make changes, they work."
PurePlay also employs advertising to monetize
its customer base. Jason Kellerman notes, "We
require a platform that is flexible, and allows
for a lot of HTML within the room, so we can
show different messaging to different types
of users. On most rake sites a user is a user;
whereas on our site there are different levels
of subscription and different classes of users to
whom we want to show different messaging."
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