Myself and Tony were chatting last night on the phone about this very subject. We looked at the amount of players on-line (3400) and the tournament's (both being played and the ones waiting to start). Also we looked at cash tables and the conclusion was cash game players on mini-stakes were in the majority, and tournaments had very little or no guarantee payouts.
Ladbrokes as 'The Captain' says, is where most of us started playing online because to be fair Ladbrokes were one of the first company's in the UK to get up and running and (this old chestnut) there banking is second to none
However Ladbrokes have continually failed to recognise their loyal customer not in my opinion on purpose but because there senior managers and marketing team kept missing opportunities and have been greedy in not putting back and reinvesting in their paying customers. Look back over the years at the big payouts the directors gave themselves and you see where their interest really lies.
We all feel the same, that it's a shame to see our original online site which had a good community going down hill fast but if there's no value and other sites give more cash back and guarantee's what's the point of staying there.
There have always been problems with the software and this has never been resolved. Customer service would never admit it was there 'server' with all the disconnections which cost customers money for many reasons
Ultimately they in the long term are the losers and as you found out have become a laughing stock of the online and live poker players in the UK .
I doubt this will worry them to much because they are still making record profits but what price their reputation.
Glk Chik keep going to live events, it's much more fun.
