Kindred cuts high-stakes poker games to protect recreational players

Unibet has cut its highest stake cash games from its poker lobby in a bid to protect recreational players and support the “long-term health” of the site.

The recent removal of €800 games, which were added in March 2017, means the new max buy-in on the site is €400 in Hold’em and Omaha formats.

David Pomroy, head of poker at Unibet, said the higher limit games were currently “too rich” for the firm’s philosophy.

“Our main priority has always been to safeguard the ecology of our site as everything we do is ultimately built on that foundation,” Pomroy said.

“The addition of NL800 and PL800 contributed to short-handed games and slightly faster loss rates of recreational players at our higher stakes. Although the situation was by no means critical, we decided it was best to act on that trend sooner rather than later.”

Pomroy said Unibet would be launching a new promotion next month aimed at the “recreational higher stakes players” who may have been affected by the closure, while the formats could be brought back in the future, once a “sufficient support structure” had been put in place.

The exec added: “This decision doesn’t change our long-term ambitions to continue growing the site but right now our focus is on ensuring that we continue to offer a non-predatory environment and the most enjoyable cash games online.”

Kindred saw poker revenue decline slightly in Q3 from £3.2m a year ago to £3m, although the firm still claimed to be “the fastest growing licensed poker network in the industry”.