Bidding for Poker Credit

"There's no such thing as a free lunch," my mother often told me, but a new web-based company called Bet4Dollar claims to prove her wrong. Now, customers of many European online poker sites can bid on this site for credit paid directly into their poker account. A successful bidder will literally be getting money for nothing.

Launched on May 3, Bet4Dollar.com is the poker world's answer to eBay and the brainchild of Norwegian entrepreneur Kjetil Telletsen. Most players are familiar with poker sites offering cash for referrals to friends and family, but this service represents a new twist in the development of strategies to procure new clients for online poker.

"A player might bid $40 for $100 to play on a particular site, and if that's the best offer in the end, he'll pay $40 to get $100 paid into his account," explained Telletsen.

The online gaming companies themselves are putting up the funds for punters to bid on, not only because they believe it will bring in new clients, but also to encourage former customers who have moved elsewhere to try their site again, according to the company spokesman.

"Some firms are sceptical about all of this, but I am sure that about 80 percent of customers are low-stakes players, and they would definitely want to benefit from the service," said Telletsen.

Bet4Dollar also plans to hold auctions starting at $1 for tickets to major competitions such as EPT and WPT events, hoping to attract seasoned high-stakes players to try their luck on new sites, he said.

Gambling to win the funds with which to gamble is traditionally a haphazard process at best, but, unlike playing side games, this form of building your bankroll entails no risk of going broke.

"The worst that can happen is someone outbids you and you are left with the money you started with," explained Telletsen.

But, despite the publicity that Bet4Dollar promises it will bring, major sites such as PartyPoker.com and PokerRoom.com have yet to jump aboard.

"Most of our clients are smaller European sites," admitted Telletsen, "but I expect the others to come around when they see that the system works," he added.

Bet4Dollar has attracted 284 registered clients during its first fortnight of business, and currently is offering speed auctions every 15 minutes.

"We expect the number of registered customers to grow considerably once the speed auctions are in place and after we have launched a very special forthcoming promotion," said Telletsen, although when pressed, he was unwilling to say what exactly the promotion will be. "We're gonna keep that a secret for now," he said.