Ultimate Poker ends Iovation agreement
Players showed concern at service provider's ties with Black Friday-indicted Ultimate Bet
Ultimate Poker has terminated an agreement with player verification service provider Iovation after players expressed concern at its ties with Black Friday-indicted operator Ultimate Bet.
Iovation is a partner of CAMS, the service provider supplying geolcation, payment processing and age verification services to Fertitta Interactive’s Ultimate Poker, which last month became the first operator to accept a real-money bet in Nevada.
However, Iovation’s links to the now defunct Ultimate Bet, have caused concerns among US players. The founder and CEO of Iovation, Greg Pierson, was the CEO of software firm ieLogic that supplied the original software for Ultimate Bet prior to its sale to Excapsa in 2004.
Ultimatebet was at the centre of a cheating scandal between 2004-8, with the Kahnawake Gaming Commission discovering persons with inside knowledge had used a tool to view players’ hold cards. The majority of affected players were later refunded as part of a US$15m settlement.
In a post on the TwoPlusTwo forum, Chris Danek, poker product manager at Ultimate Poker, said the operator has now “discontinued the use of all services from Iovation” as of 9 May. He acknowledged users’ concerns, adding he hoped “this makes our players feel more comfortable”.
Ultimate Poker, an interactive subsidiary of Las Vegas-based Station Casinos, became one of the first operators to obtain a licence from Nevada’s Gaming Commission in October 2012.
In recent months Fertitta Interactive has signed a number of deals in preparation of its real-money launch. As well as the deal with CAMS, it recruited professional player Antonio Esfandiari as its brand ambassador and signed an affiliate marketing deal with Income Access.