The story of online poker is still short but has a few twists along the way. To understand how Rakeback has evolved one must understand the close relationship that online poker rooms have with affiliate sites and the trust players put in their favourite affiliate sites. Rakeback is effectively a way affiliates share the revenue that poker rooms pay to the affiliates for promoting them with their loyal player base.

Until the end of 2008 online gaming sites were not allowed to advertise on Google and so had relied on affiliates to influence players to play on their sites. Online poker is highly competitive with deposit bonuses used as golden carrots to ensure player traffic. Affiliates would get an initial fee for player conversions or a share of the revenue the poker room earns from each player. Many sites passed back this back to the player in a form of deposit bonus for signing up through their site.

For high rollers this is no more incentive than for the Average Joe. The industry's need for a better incentive to offer high-rollers was actually generated in a forum around 2004.

The idea was a totally new concept originally referred to as rake rebate, but now known as rakeback based the high rakes and tournament fees charged by the poker rooms.

The poker affiliate sites wanted to share part of their revenue, which appealed to both parties, serving as a way to compensate players and a great USP for online poker rooms in an increasingly competitive market.

Whilst the concept was given a lukewarm reception Absolute Poker, being a fairly new poker room at the time, was the most willing to take the risk and be the first card room to offer rake rebate. Absolute Poker remains one of the most popular rakeback sites available along with Poker and Ultimate Bet Poker.

proved to be a winning one along with deposit bonuses and now a good rakeback deal is essential for any online poker player. Because of this popular formula there are so many options for player to choose from but not all deals are suitable. This is where the legitimate affiliate sites like pokerrakeback.com come in. Players get to see all the deals compared with the pros and cons.

The bottom line is, if you are playing poker online for real money, you are paying the poker room(s) you frequent in the form of rakes and fees. By registering for , you are getting some of that money back. It is like a rebate on poker chips.