POKER: A NEW HOPE FEATURE
“If you had them in that market already who backed out. That may still active, it would leave very little chance for be so, considering Weigold’s the rest of the operators to capture any assertions that “until any action kind of market share. To ?ght them on is taken against PokerStars their own home market would have made that results in them shutting down, we things very difficult,” he explains. are unlikely to see a huge bene?t.” Still, the exclusion of the worldwide market leader from any regulated American Cereus business environment could ultimately go some With much of the public and press way towards having the desired effect. attention focused on the PokerStars-Full One year since PokerStars signed an Tilt dichotomy, the Cereus network – agreement with Wynn to provisionally home to Absolute Poker and UltimateBet launch PokerstarsWynn.com and Full Tilt – has slipped under the radar. Perhaps reached a similar agreement with Fertitta due to previous misadventures, not least Interactive, both partnerships have fallen the superuser scandal, which rocked the through and there is no immediate sign previous incarnation of Absolute Poker, the of similar deals being revived. Further withdrawal from the US market, loss of 99% to this, neither of the operators feature of its player base and sacri?ce of sponsored among the list of more than 20 applicants pros was by and large shrugged off by those for a licence in Nevada, the only American more preoccupied with the travails of the state to have opened up its egaming two larger poker rooms affected by the application process. Black Friday indictments. Outside the states, however, business has continued as normal for PokerStars. It is one of only a handful of operators to receive a Belgian licence, while a Spanish application was accompanied by Karim Wilkins, Rake the Rake April’s announcement that it had joined the country’s egaming association JDigital. It took the network almost a month It also continues to enjoy a strong market to decide it would forfeit its dot.com share in the already-regulated markets domains, while a further ?ve passed of Italy and France, although it has been before a repayment plan was presented overtaken by Winamax in the latter. to the Department of Justice, suggesting It could be argued, however, that the some level of mystery with regards to its marketing expenditure that has helped activity in the meantime. Yet this has been establish such a presence would not tempered somewhat by Absolute Poker have been possible without the platform co-founder Brent Beckley being the only one provided by PokerStars’ US activities. of the six indicted individuals tied to poker Discussions over a potential takeover operators to have entered a guilty plea. of Full Tilt have gathered pace since As well as a signi?cant number of players French consortium Groupe Bernard being left out of pocket by the demise of Tapie emerged as the leading candidate Full Tilt, the poker affiliate space has also last September, in the same week that the changed drastically since Black Friday, and Alderney Gambling Control Commission not just in terms of ?nances. “Obviously the (AGCC) made the decision to revoke events of April and beyond have had a big the licences held by FTP subsidiaries impact on the majority of affiliates, if not Filco, Oxalic and Vantage. However, all,” explains Karim Wilkins, CEO of highdespite rumours to the contrary, there powered poker affiliate business Rake the is no guarantee of new management Rake. “Revenues for most affiliates [with representing an opportunity for re-entry business from Full Tilt and Cereus] dropped into the US market. between 50 and 100%. We were among those Freiberger accepts that: “[One] very who lost a signi?cant amount but of course important effect from Black Friday was those whose remaining 20-25% is enough the exclusion of PokerStars and Full Tilt to keep them going will be okay.” A number from the future potential US market. of leading affiliates have since manipulated That’s a massive change. their business models to the extent that fewer
16 August
2011
PokerStars appoints ex-Microsoft exec Alex Payne as its new chief marketing officer
BLACK FRIDAY:
ONE YEAR ON
B Y D A N C Y P R A , E D I T O R - I N - C H I E F, POCKETFIVES.COM
‘WE WERE AMONG THOSE WHO LOST A SIGNIFICANT AMOUNT BUT OF COURSE THOSE WHOSE REMAINING 20-25% IS ENOUGH TO KEEP THEM GOING WILL BE OKAY'
One year ago, the online poker community was rattled when the founders of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker were indicted by the US Department of Justice. On PocketFives.com we saw a flurry of activity as players from around the world discussed the fate of their poker bankrolls and the future of our industry. In the year that followed, we have seen US online poker pros come to a crossroads. Some have fled the United States using services such as Poker Refugees in favour of poker-friendly countries like Canada, Panama and Costa Rica. This process requires relocating, setting up utilities, securing a reliable internet stream, and leaving the life and place they once called home. Other US-based poker pros have turned to brick-and-mortar card rooms in order to continue their passion. With slower paced games and not being able to multi-table, however, live card rooms provide an entirely different playing experience. As a result, we created a live poker forum in order for players to discuss the unique brick-and-mortar environment. Other members of our community have focused on various side projects. Take Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka, who has honed in on building his casterboarding company and is launching an energy drink. Others have returned to school in order to complete their degrees. Above all, our priority is informing our members, and we’ll continue to do so going forward.
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