Rakeback and online poker

I made an interesting discovery this week.

I am a fairly regular player of poker online and after doing some investigation for a potential new site to use, I uncovered the world of Rakeback.

Simply - this is where you sign up to a poker site through an affiliate (similar to a broker i guess), and when that affiliate receives a % of your rake as commission, they pass some back to you as the player.

Well, thats interesting. just for breaking even in the poker room, I could be getting paid money back.

The stupid thing, is that as an existing customer, I dont qualify for this rakeback deal!! So what incentive is there for me to stay? I could move to another poker room and pay less commission effectively. There absolutely no incentive for existing players... I think this is something poker rooms should look into further as they are just creating a massive circluar movement of market share. I cant see how there's a net benefit to anyone.

Anyway, I have written to Betfair, and am hoping to get my account moved onto a rakeback account. If they refuse I'll just sign up elsewhere...