"EX Raids (From a Business Perspective)"

#PokemonGO: Having monitored EX raids since the introduction here are my findings. I hope these help you to understand what is actually happening with EX Raids at the moment.EX raids target casual players as a priority, the idea is to encourage them to return to the game or raid more and get them to pay more money to Niantic. Casual players are an untapped market compared to the already hooked constant raiders. Niantic needs to attract new players otherwise they wont show signs of growth.EX raids no longer invite a large number of players. The three main reasons is that a smaller number of players keeps crowding issues down, it also reduces the chances of spoofers being able to complete an EX Raid if the IRL players use a private lobby and the final reason is that it keeps a majority raiding to try and get an EX Raid.Badges do not help you to get an EX Raid invite, you actually have a lower chance of getting an EX Raid invite if you have a gold gym badge. The graphs shared by the Silph Road are warped due to a majority of players contributing being hardcore players who already have most places as gold gyms - skewing the results. The reasoning behind this is that you are already hooked on raiding so Niantic do not feel the need to reward you for raiding as chances are you have everything else at that stage you are only after Mewtwo.EX Raids intentionally do not occur at set times of the year, such as a break occurring during holiday periods when more people are raiding. The reasoning behind this appears to be that people have more time and as such will raid more regardless so they dont need EX Raids as an incentive.*Forgive me for the poor layout, first thread. *Posted here as requested, was previously on TheSilphRoad but is likely going to get removed via /r/pokemongo http://ift.tt/2EivWsP