BOTS! [Tom Segura Voice]
After a 15+ year buildup, poker pros are now in agreeance that online poker bots are ruining the game, with bot farms one of the hottest topics in poker.
The Bulletin Board
NEWS: ACR is accused of having a bot problem, and the offshore online poker site tried to handle it in the most unconvential way imaginable.
NEWS: North Carolina provides mobile sports betting license hopefuls a compliance checklist to complete.
NEWS: EKG’s 2024 Predictions include muted progress on RG and legalization.
VIEWS: PrizePicks Adam Wexler talks about the pressure on states to restrict certain fantasy sports contests.
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: The importance of the 2+2 poker forum.
STRAY THOUGHTS: BIKES!
SPONSOR’S MESSAGE - Underdog: the most innovative company in sports gaming.
At Underdog we use our own tech stack to create the industry’s most popular games, designing products specifically for the American sports fan.
Join us as we build the future of sports gaming.
Visit: https://underdogfantasy.com/careers
ACR’s Strange Reaction to Bot Allegations
Online poker is having a rough go of it at the start of 2024. Following the superuser scandal at GG Poker, the poker world has turned its attention to an ever-increasing problem: Bots.
The main target of the community’s ire is America’s Cardroom (part of the Winning Poker Network, WPN), one of the more prominent offshore online poker sites still serving the US market. The site was accused by a 2+2 poster of being the home of a major bot farm. As with the GG Poker superuser, the 2+2 post lit up social media, but with no resolution, the bot chatter seems to have more staying power.
ACR responded to the accusations in an “interesting” way, issuing a $100,000 challenge (along with a job offer) to anyone who could prove they were running a poker bot on the site for a minimum of 5,000 hands. Haley Hintze, over at Poker.org, has a great writeup of the bot challenge.
Following community backlash (see the quotes below), ACR realized the error of its ways and rescinded the challenge.
“Did ACR just inspire the community to create bots? This is dumber than a bank saying if you can successfully rob a bank 5 times, we will give you a 100k bonus!” Poker pro Tim Reilly said on X.
“I've done my little jokes and had a lot of fun, to be serious for a moment. This is the stupidest and most tone-deaf PR response I have ever seen in poker.” Poker journalist Barry Carter posted on X.
“Why doesn’t ACR just accept that their botting challenge was a big mistake, apologize, and offer to do some serious work with the community to eliminate present/future bots? They’re torching their brand really badly in the past 2 weeks, and that’s despite GG having a superuser!” Poker pro and owner of the Poker Fraud Alert forum Todd Witteles said on X.
Online poker bots have been around for a very long time but have become an increasingly worrisome problem as the technology has improved, making bots cheaper and more sophisticated. This is a topic I will delve into in my feature column on Friday.
You’re Mission, Should You Choose to Accept It
What will it take to go live on the forthcoming launch of mobile sports betting in North Carolina? According to the North Carolina State Lottery Commission, it’s up to the operator. Following licensing approval, each operator will need to complete a checklist to receive a certificate of compliance.
That was the message from Sterl Carpenter, who has one of the longest professional titles in the business as the North Carolina State Lottery Commission Deputy Executive Director for Gaming Compliance and Sports Betting.
“This certificate of compliance is in shorthand way of saying that an operator has demonstrated to the commission that they can meet statutory and regulatory requirements,” Carpenter said. “If an operator can complete the checklist to the satisfaction of the commission, then it can go live and offer and accept wagers in North Carolina. So, this means that an operator’s ability to get to market is in its own hands once it has a license.”
The checklist is not dissimilar from the requirements in other states, but according to Carpenter, anyone seeking to go live on Day One (which has a very loose target of March Madness) would be wise to tick off the boxes sooner rather than later.
Of note, the state will launch mobile sports betting before new retail locations - the inverse of the typical order of operations.
Retail books are already up and running at the state’s tribal casinos, but the mobile betting law passed last year allows for new retail betting locations at arenas and venues (racetracks and golf courses) that host professional teams and major events.
Sponsorship opportunity
Want to sponsor the fastest-growing newsletter in the gambling space? Straight to the Point has multiple sponsorship opportunities available.
Reach out to Steve at iGamingPundit.com for more details.
PrizePicks CEO Talks DFS 2.0
In an interview with Vixio GamblingCompliance’s Matt Carey, PrizePicks CEO Adam Wexler discussed the increasing scrutiny of Pick’ Em style DFS contests.
Pick Em contests are tricky, as different locales are coming to different conclusions about their legality, and even within those two categories, legal and illegal, there are different shades of gray, with states like Colorado and Alabama placing certain restrictions on the contests.
Where is the push coming from? Wexler has some thoughts, telling Vixio that PrizePicks’ success led to DraftKings and FanDuel applying a full-court press.
“They know we’re formidable,” Wexler told Vixio. “They’ve tried to hit us from a lot of directions, and not just us. This is the category as a whole. It’s not like the regulators woke up in our seventh football season and said they have an issue with our product.”
The way Wexler sees it, DraftKings and FanDuel are not only alerting regulators but also driving the continued pressure.
“If anything, I would’ve thought there were bigger issues in states where we don’t possess [licenses] and don’t have the ability to get licensed. But all of a sudden the states where we already possess licenses, where we already pay taxes, became an issue. That’s kind of crazy to me.”
This has been an ongoing debate, and as I mentioned last week, it will continue to be hotly contested in 2024.
Five Big Predictions From Eilers & Krejcik
Eilers & Krejcik Gaming released a note titled “5 Big Predictions For US Online Gambling In 2024,” and as is always the case with EKG, there is a lot of meat jammed into two pages.
Three of EKG’s predictions point to 2024 being a downcast year for the US market. EKG expects minimal TAM growth (new markets and new verticals), competitors taking a small slice of DraftKings and Fanduel, and little short-term improvements on the responsible gambling front.
A more splashy prediction was the possibility of major M&A deals occurring over the next 12 months. EKG pointed to DraftKings (which has a sizable war chest) casting its gaze south with Brazil’s recent legalization of sports betting.
Entain, PrizePicks, and Rush Street Interactive are also on EKG’s M&A watchlist.
On Entain: “… the ongoing leadership turmoil at Entain leads us to believe MGM will try to finally get that acquisition over the line.
On DFS 2.0 operator being a logical target: “… given their current regulatory uncertainty and proven ability to acquire and retain US customers. Fanatics acquiring PrizePicks is one potential fit, in our view.”
On Rush Street Interactive acquisition rumors becoming a reality: “…FanDuel is a logical acquirer, with the deal a decent proxy for the DraftKings-Golden Nugget deal that beefed up DraftKings’ casino capabilities and catapulted it to the top of the US online casino market.”
Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
The recent poker kerfuffles (Today’s lead and the GG Poker Superuser story) have reaffirmed the importance of the 2+2 Poker Forum.
2+2 will never be what it once was in its heyday, but it is still the public square of the poker world, where poker players can visit to discuss anything and everything.
This post from Cole South (a former online crusher) led to a great thread with many comments from well-known poker players like the two I posted.
Stray Thoughts
For anyone unfamiliar with the reference in the title (WARNING: adult language):