As a bit of a history buff, I’m pretty sure I’ve read somewhere that the Replay Poker site was purchased in 2007 and moved to the UK later that year where it has been located ever since. In the online poker world, that strikes me as 'a long time."
My personal history here is nowhere even close to that long. Although the Forums list my presence as beginning on 16 Feb, 2016, I KNOW I was playing here in December, 2015, and may have actually signed up in late November, 2015. I’m also pretty sure there were only around 700K registered users at that time. So, at least some of the dates shown for players’ longevity is likely incorrect.
The “oldest player” I’ve identified so far, (but it hasn’t been an exhaustive search) is dated as having been here since November, 2005. The second oldest is dated as 2006, and a there are a couple from 2007 who aren’t far behind. If these dates are valid, I have some questions.
Who originated the site and when?
Where was it originally located (before moving to the UK)?
Is “Replay Poker” the original name of the site or has it had other names in the past?
Replay is currently indicating there have been more than 1,450,000 registered players, and appears to have an average “players on line” at any given moment of around 1400. Unless it is confidential, may I ask how many of that 1.4+M players have been active within the past few (2 to 4) months?
Does a time ever come when Replay drops a player for inactivity?
Is there anything special in Replay’s history we should know?
Interesting post. These two passages found in ‘about us’ page of Replay has some history:
We’re obsessed about offering our community of players an awesome poker site. Our goal is to make Replay Poker the home of recreational poker online. The site was originally founded in Sweden in 2005; hundreds of millions hands later and now located in the UK, Replay Poker continues to offer the same great play-money poker experience its players have come to love.
Paul is a serial entrepreneur with a passion for online communities and gaming. He first became involved in Replay Poker in 2008 as an investor, and then in 2010 took over the role of CEO. He was born and raised in London. He graduated from the University of East Anglia with a Bachelor of Laws degree.
I really wanted that name LOL. Had to put a hyphen after Maya because Maya was taken by this almost 12 year old account that is still active although it hasn’t been used or accessed for 12 years. So it’s safe to say that Replay doesn’t drop players for inactivity.
Thanks for your interest in the history of the site, Alan25main. I’m probably the best to answer those questions as I’ve been around the longest, at least from amongst the staff. So here goes…
The domain was bought in January 2005, and the website went live later that year. There were three Swedish founders originally, an investor, a developer and an entrepreneur.
The original company was located in Sweden. In 2008 I bought out two of the original founders and teamed up with the remaining founder. We then created a UK company and transferred all the IP across. In 2010 I bought out the remaining founder and became the sole remaining owner of the company.
Replay Poker is indeed the original name for the site, and the company name was Replay Gaming RG AB, before becoming Replay Gaming Ltd.
We track internally how many registered players visit us in the last month; for December 2018 it was 56K.
Currently we don’t drop a player for inactivity, although we do place limit how far back we’ll contact someone who we haven’t seen recently on the site. In the future we might consider deleting inactive accounts and freeing up the usernames.
Back in 2005 Replay Poker partnered with Carlsberg in Sweden to create a white-label poker website for their beer brand called Falcon beer. It was promoted heavily online and across the largest TV channels in Sweden during a 2 month campaign. It’s thanks to this campaign that Replay Poker really got off the ground, as after the campaign finished, the players were redirected to the Replay Poker website. It’s quite possible that some of those original players are still playing today, 13 years later!
Wow! Thanks for the overview.
i was mainly curious because I saw a few (one to maybe a handful of) players whose date of beginning here seemed to predate the 2007 “start” date I thought I read somewhere.
Thanks also for running a pleasant site with pleasant players and helpful staff. That’s why I’ve stayed here just over three years and considered volunteering for RP when the opportunity was mentioned.
If the company ever tries another beer-related promotion, you might consider talking to Boston Brewers, maker of the Sam Adams beers that are now sold nation wide in the USA (I like their Boston Lager and their Octoberfest is quite nice, too–no, I have no connection to them, I just like their beer, LOL, and it’s made about 45 miles–60km, if you prefer–from my house).
Thanks again.
You’re welcome guys! It’s great to share a bit of background about the site. We’ve come a long way, but there’s still a long way to go!
Thanks for the tip Alan25main re. Boston Brewers, I like to think in the coming years we’ll be able to work on some interesting partnerships; so will keep your suggestion in mind!
