Black Friday and the aftermath: Online Poker Implications

[AndrewT]

how did cereus still have players?!

Superusers gonna superuse.

[Sheriff Fatman]

Playtech Poker Revenue Down 33 Percent

First Quarter Revenue At iPoker Plunges From Same Period Last Year

by Brendan Murray 

Playtech, the publicly-quoted online gaming software provider which owns the iPoker network, today reported poker revenue down 33 percent in the first quarter of 2011 to €5.7 million compared to €8.5 million a year earlier.

Excluding France, whose market was regulated during 2010, poker revenue was down 25 percent.

The company did not give any reason for the significant decline but made a statement about the recent U.S. market shut out of some of its competitors saying, “The actions taken by the US Department of Justice against certain US-facing poker sites on 15 April has prompted considerable volatility, however Playtech believes that this action will in the longer term have a positive benefit to the iPoker networks both in the dot.com segment and also in the European regulated markets.” 


Total revenues at the company, which also includes casino and bingo, were up 2 percent to €36.7 million.

Maybe it was the fact that they effectively tried to kick-off anyone from their network who was deemed to be a winning player, thus driving away their highest-raking players?

[tikay]

Link below to the Poker Scout traffic Rankings for Black Friday & the two subsequent weeks.

In short, Cereus has totally imploded, dropping a whopping 40%, 42% & 30% on successive weekends, for a total downturn of 76%, & this is despite the fact it's suggested they are still allowing real-money players to play from the US, which cannot last much longer.

'Stars seem to be down 26% overall.

FT seem to be 38% down.

Overall, the global Online Poker Market appears to have shrunk by 18% since Black Friday.

Of the street-legal sites still operating in the US, Merge have gained most, by far, 69% up, with Bodog & Cake both losing share in "weekend 3" & now only 23% up since B-F. Everleaf has barely moved.

For the bigger ("major") European sites, there has been very little change, with Party & 888 gaining 10% & 5% respectively, whilst i-Poker & OnGame have actually posted net declines of 5% & 7% respectively, which is a real eye-opener, given the context.

The nitty gritty is here.....

http://www.pokerscout.com/news/weekly-traffic-update.aspx?year=2011&week=19

 

[Longy]

Looking like gg Cereus

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/can-we-discuss-cereus-specifically-1021513/index17.html (post 1663 onwards)

Good riddance imo, the only people I feel sorry for are the players who have suffered at the hands of this company.

[TightEnd]

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=53137.0

[DaveShoelace]

UB & AP filing for bankruptcy, shame

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/29/news-views-gossip/ub-ap-shareholders-filing-bankruptcy-article-1032457/

What % of players on UB/AP had no clue about the shadiness around them? I am guessing a shit load of casual players, perhaps not so much in the US because its harder to get money online so they need to be savvier, but there must be loads of UB players who have been blissfully unaware of all this.

[tikay]

Good piece on PokerNews today too....

Rumors have circulated around the poker community for days that Blanca Gaming of Antigua, the parent company to UB and Absolute Poker, would file for bankruptcy, leaving player balances in limbo. On Wednesday, Mike Brunker of MSNBC confirmed those rumors when he reported that Blanca Gaming had sent an email to shareholders outlining their bankruptcy plans.

According to Madeira Fjord of Norway, which represents the company's shareholders, Blanca Gaming will file for bankruptcy protection in Norway. In the email, the company said they had “no cash on hand and no prospects for any cash flow for the foreseeable future.” It went on to say: “Most importantly, Blanca Gaming has provided notice … that it is currently unable to make any payments toward its debt obligations. Additionally, Blanca has further advised that there will be no future payments.”

This comes on the heels of Absolute Poker and UB laying off more than 300 employees, approximately 95% of the staff, in its Costa Rican operations center. All of this, of course, has come as a result of the indictments issued by the U.S. Department of Justice to three of the biggest online poker companies in the world on April 15, 2011. It was then that eleven people, including Scott Tom and Brent Beckley, the founders of Absolute Poker, were named in the indictment by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.

Meanwhile, two other sites that were involved in the indictments, Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker, have taken steps in the direction of reimbursing their players. The former has already done so while the latter has stated their intentions to do so.

If recent developments are any indication, speculation that player balances on both UB and Absolute would never be returned may just prove to be true. Blanca Gaming did not respond to MSNBC when reached for comment

[TightEnd]

$300,000 on UB currently being offered for $60,000 according to our Super Sleuth.

[tikay]

msnbc.com has a good piece on it, too.....the party is well & truly over.

One of three online poker companies named last month in a federal indictment will be forced to enter bankruptcy, leaving American card players with money on deposit with the Absolute and UB poker sites at least temporarily empty handed.

Madeira Fjord of Norway, which represents shareholders in the poker websites’ parent company, Blanca Gaming of Antigua, said in an email to shareholders this week  that it planned to file for bankruptcy protection in Norway after being informed that the latter company had “no cash on hand and no prospects for any cash flow for the foreseeable future.”

“Most importantly, Blanca Gaming has provided notice … that it is currently unable to make any payments toward its debt obligations,” it said. “Additionally, Blanca has further advised that there will be no future payments.”

Meantime, a source in Costa Rica, where Absolute Poker and UB (formerly Ultimate Bet) have their operations center, told msnbc.com that more than 300 customer support and marketing employees – approximately 95 percent of the staff — had been laid off.

Blanca Gaming could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

Absolute Poker and two of its founders — Scott Tom and Brent Beckley — were named in an April 15 indictment by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York along with two other popular poker sites — Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker. UB was not directly named in the indictment, but it has common ownership and shares operations with Absolute Poker through parent company, the Cereus Network, which is in turn owned by Blanca Gaming.

The indictment alleges that the sites committed bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling offenses by “tricking” U.S. banks into processing online gambling transactions, a violation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006. The indictment seeks at least $3 billion in penalties and forfeiture.

Advertise | AdChoicesAdvertise | AdChoicesAdvertise | AdChoicesThe government also seized five Internet domain names used by the companies, but later relinquished control of those owned by Poker Stars and Full Tilt to facilitate repayment of U.S. players’ deposits.

The former has begun repaying money on deposit to U.S. poker players while the latter has said it is making arrangements to do so.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said it was willing to make a similar deal with Absolute Poker and UB, but no agreement was forthcoming. Nor have the sites been honoring withdrawal requests from non-U.S. players, according to “Fonzi,” who runs the Holdem Poker Chat, an affiliate marketing website that first reported on the bankruptcy announcement.

“The problem is they haven’t paid anyone outside the U.S.,” he said. “You are allowed to request $250 a week — request — but that doesn’t mean you’re going to get it.”

Fonzi, who spoke to msnbc.com on condition that he not be identified by his real name, said he expects that the bankruptcy means that players will never receive the money they deposited with Absolute Poker and UB.

“I already consider my money gone,” he said, adding that he had a “few hundred dollars” on deposit with the sites.

Absolute Poker, which was founded in by four fraternity brothers at the University of Montana in 2002, grew to become one of the top poker sites for American card players when it refused to stop accepting bets from U.S. players following passage of the UIGEA. But a cheating scandal in 2007 that the company blamed on a rogue insider shook the faith of many players, leading to erosion of its market share.

Management of the company, which merged with UB sometime in the mid-2000s, also has been involved in a running battle with shareholders over what many considered runaway spending. In 2009, for example, the company reported a loss of $33.7 million despite income of $215.3 million, according to the St. Petersburg (Fla.) Times.

Shareholders were working on a plan to sell the company last month, but that was quashed when the federal indictment was handed down, the newspaper reported Sunday.

[Hairydude]

Think It just shows UB/Absolute to be the crooks that they are; their directors living a life of luxury in costa rica or Antigua and paying themselves exorbitant wages and consultancy fees.... so much so that they make a loss even with huge revenues.... I think it looks like they knew the writing was on the wall hence why the past few years they have been slicing chunks out of it to set themselves up for life. Really hope the US authorities can get them extradited.

Think absolute/UB are the strongest case why this game should be legalised over the pond.... so it can be monitored and regulated under their jurisdiction aswell as earn the US billions in tax.

[paulhouk03]

$300,000 on UB currently being offered for $60,000 according to our Super Sleuth.

wow thats crazy
my mate sold 1k for 650

but 300k for 60k
shows how unconfident of withdrawing $$$ off the site

[RED-DOG]

Dude. I'm curious about your avatar. I mean, why ffs?

While I'm on the subject, I also hate gatso's "Yeasty clunge" strapline.

 


And breathe.....

[brummieboy]

Anyone managed to get a withdrawal off Full Tilt within the last two weeks? Been waiting 13 days now for a Neteller withdrawal..

[StuartHopkin]

Anyone managed to get a withdrawal off Full Tilt within the last two weeks? Been waiting 13 days now for a Neteller withdrawal..

Withdrew to my visa debit Monday, arrived yesterday.
Dont know about Neteller though.

[paulhouk03]

withdrew to my back account on friday iirc

and its hit my accounts now so all is good