The Party Is Over
Party Poker Spain and France will be joining the iPoker Network today as a skin, merging its player pool with other iPoker sites.
The Bulletin Board
THE LEDE: PartyPoker joins the iPoker Network in select European markets.
BEYOND the HEADLINE: Survive at all costs.
ROUNDUP: Foxwoods new poker room; MA selects iLottery supplier; Aristocrat’s new RG campaign; DK offers specifics on IL surcharge.
VIEWS: LA City Attorney files suit against Stake.US, Kick, and suppliers.
QUICK HITTER: Underdog partners with Crypto.com.
AROUND the WATERCOOLER: Sports were 85% of Kalshi’s weekly volume.
STRAY THOUGHTS: It’s okay to disagree.
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The Lede: PartyPoker Joining iPoker’s European Network
One of the OG online poker sites’ independence appears to be coming to an end.
As reported by Poker Scout: “Starting September 2, the France-Spain network will become nothing more than a skin on iPoker Europe… The move is being presented to players as a software update, but they are effectively being migrated to another operator entirely and merged with iPoker’s player pool. All that will remain is PartyPoker’s branding.”
The last two decades have been a bit of a rollercoaster for PartyPoker. Once the largest online poker site in the world, the passage of UIGEA in 2006 forced a US exit, and the company fell way behind PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.
PartyPoker attempted to regain its former glory when global leader PokerStars overhauled its VIP program in 2016. PartyPoker lowered its rake and instituted other player-friendly policies to appeal to disillusioned PokerStars players. As Poker Scout’s Alex Weldon noted:
“It did experience a Silver Age of sorts circa 2018, after other rivals to PokerStars’ throne like 888poker had fallen by the wayside, and before GGPoker emerged as the new top dog. During that period, PartyPoker tried to position itself as a site more sensitive to professional players’ needs than its competitors, with the help of ambassador Patrick Leonard. However, that meant lowering rake and running huge volumes of tournaments with high guarantees, producing a lot of overlays in the process.
“Ultimately, that made it a low-margin business for owner Entain. Gradually, PartyPoker dialed back its aggressive strategy, and Leonard moved on in 2023.”
The ecosystem was clearly broken, which necessitated PokerStars’ VIP program changes, and as I wrote in a 2017 article titled, Is PartyPoker Sitting On A Gold Mine Or Mining Fool’s Gold, anyone who thought they could do what PokerStars couldn’t was in for a rude awakening (don’t say I didn’t warn you):
“The model to which PartyPoker is reverting has proven highly flawed. Rakeback schemes reward the wrong type of behavior. These behaviors diminish the fun and excitement that poker can deliver.
“So far, PartyPoker is reaping some rewards. However, speaking with some industry professionals who have been down this road before, a quick gain is to be expected. The problems with this strategy only start to surface down the road.
“PokerStars learned the hard way what happens when catering to high-volume players for too long.
“I’d imagine many inside PokerStars’ Isle of Man headquarters are giggling at PartyPoker’s new loyalty scheme and the way some PartyPoker people are making the solution sound so simple and obvious. They might even be happy PartyPoker’s numbers are ticking up, as it may embolden the company to double down on its new strategy.”
Beyond the Headline: Survival Is the #1 Priority
In the late 1800s, following Japan's annexation of Okinawa, traditional Okinawan martial arts like karate risked fading as Okinawa integrated into Japan's imperial system, which was focused on modernization. To preserve their art, Okinawan karate masters sought to adapt and promote it through public education, emphasizing its benefits for physical health, discipline, and character building —the core aspects Japan aimed to cultivate in its modern military.
Anko Itosu played a central role in this revival. In 1901, he demonstrated karate to Okinawan school officials at Shuri Jinjo Elementary School, which led to its initial adoption into the curriculum as part of the physical education program.
In 1908, he authored the "Ten Precepts of Karate," a letter to Japanese education and military officials advocating for the integration of karate into schools to foster strong bodies, minds, and national spirit—aligning it with Japan's militaristic ethos.
These efforts helped karate survive cultural shifts and gain legitimacy. Itosu's student, Gichin Funakoshi, further promoted its integration into Japanese society, demonstrating karate in Tokyo in 1922 and establishing it as part of the university curriculum. This school-based approach transformed karate from a secretive Ryukyu (Okinawa) tradition into a global martial art, ensuring its preservation amid rapid cultural and technological changes.
However, the karate taught in schools was not the same as the karate they had previously taught. It was watered down, with combat-focused techniques simplified for safety and mass instruction. The explanations of moves (bunkai) became less violent or were omitted entirely to suit children and emphasize kata as exercise rather than self-defense.
In effect, karate was transformed into a sport and a tool for physical education, stripping away much of its original brutality and practical application to align with Japan's broader goals of discipline and national unity.
This didn’t sit well with other Okinawan karate masters, such as Choki Motobu, who feared that this watered-down version would dilute karate's true combative essence, rendering it superficial and ineffective in real-world fighting.
Motobu, a renowned brawler who stressed pressure-testing techniques in actual confrontations, openly criticized Funakoshi's adaptations as soft and commercialized, viewing school karate as a vulgar departure from the art's roots.
He was right in many ways, as modern karate often prioritizes tournaments, aesthetics, and certificates over the application-based training of old. Still, without Anko Itosu and Gichin Funakoshi’s foresight, there wouldn’t be an art to rediscover. It would have died out.
Oh yeah, this is about online poker. Much like karate’s transformation to survive modernization, online poker faced a similar crossroads. Had PokerStars not reformed its VIP program, the game risked becoming an elite, inaccessible domain like chess or backgammon, where pros devoured newcomers. PokerStars’ changes, like Itosu’s reforms, saved online poker (as we know it). The question is, will it experience a renaissance?
Roundup: Foxwoods Poker Room; MA Selects iLottery Supplier; New RG Campaign; DK Clarifies IL Fees
Foxwoods will unveil its new poker room on Friday [Press Release]: The Foxwoods poker room is on the move. One of the largest poker rooms on the East Coast is getting an upgrade and a new location, moving to the Fox Tower, with a state-of-the-art environment “including advanced technology, automated sign-up kiosks for quick seating, 37 high-definition TVs showcasing live sports and poker, and nearby DraftKings Sportsbook kiosks to keep the action close.” The grand opening is scheduled for September 9 at 10:30 AM.
Aristocrat lands coveted Massachusetts online lottery contract [Lottery Geeks]: The Massachusetts State Lottery Commission (MSLC) selected Aristocrat Interactive as the state’s online lottery vendor last week. Aristocrat also has lottery contracts with New Hampshire and Michigan. Per Lottery Geeks, “The contract begins July 1, 2026, and runs five years, plus it includes three opportunities for three-year extensions.” The deal’s structure is a revenue-sharing model that will pay Aristocrat up to 5% of the Massachusetts Lottery’s online sales revenue. The big question is, when will Massachusetts launch its online lottery?
Aristocrat launches new RG campaign ahead of RGEM [Casino Reports]: Speaking of Aristocrat, the company has also launched a new responsible gambling campaign: “Aristocrat Gaming has launched its new RG-focused website KnowYourMax.com, emphasizing 'positive play' and encouraging gamblers to take advantage of tools to help them avoid problematic behavior.”
DraftKings clarifies its per-wager fee in Illinois [Legal Sports Report, X]: DraftKings per-wager fee will not be across the board per the Legal Sports Report X account: “The fee is only for certain tiers and will not be applied to parlays above $10 and single bets above $50. Fee starts at 25 cents.” For more on how all ten licensed sports books responded to Illinois instituting a per-wager fee, you can check out yesterday’s newsletter here.
Views: A Sweepstakes Lawsuit Worth Watching
Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court that, per SBC Americas, “alleges that Stake.US is operating a de facto illegal gambling site and, in addition to violating several state laws related to gambling and the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), is also in violation of the state’s Unfair Competition and False Advertising Laws.”
The suit also targets Stake’s suppliers and streaming service Kick, which is accused of promoting Stake in California.
Among the co-defendants are Evolution Gaming and several of its subsidiaries, Hacksaw Gaming, Pragmatic Play, and Veriff, a KYC solution.
As Daniel Wallach noted on LinkedIn, “The complaint seeks a permanent injunction, restitution (i.e., recovery of all funds lost by Californians),” as well as civil penalties. “This is a really shrewd move because California law generally bars private civil lawsuits to recover gambling losses, but governmental officials can sue on behalf of the people for injunctive relief, restitution, and mandatory civil penalties of up to $2,500 per violation,” that could run into nine- or ten-figures for Kick, Wallach said.
Wallach also posited that this could be just the beginning: “The L.A. City Attorney's Office has brought in a private law firm as its co-counsel — Susman Godfrey LLP — the same firm that filed a nationwide class action lawsuit last week against VGW, its founder Laurence Escalante, slots influencer Brian Christopher, and VGW's California vendors. In other words, VGW may be next.”
So why is this one worth watching?
As reported by Earnings+More, the lawsuit appears to have had an immediate impact on the stock prices of Evolution and Hacksaw Gaming, with Evolution's stock price falling nearly 5% and Hacksaw's dropping 6%. And Next.io is reporting that Pragmatic and Evolution have pulled their games from Stake in California, with Pragmatic telling Next.io it will “discontinue licensing its games to sweepstake operators in US States where restrictions were not already in place, in light of regulatory developments and evolving legislation.”
As previously noted, I shy away from reporting on class action lawsuits in the gambling sector: “Gambling is a magnet for class-action lawsuits, which is why I only sporadically report on them.” However, some lawsuits have a bit more bite (or at least the threat of biting) than others.
Quick Hitter: Underdog partners with Crypto.com
*Author’s Note: Underdog is a newsletter sponsor.
Some pretty significant news on a Tuesday morning, with CNBC reporting that “Underdog is partnering with Crypto.com to offer sports prediction markets in 16 states, mostly focused on where legal sports betting has not been adopted, the companies told CNBC on Tuesday.”
A press release announcing the deal reads in part, “With this launch, customers can express and trade their opinions on sports events contracts across all major sports leagues, including NFL, college football, NBA, MLB, and more. Prices update in real-time, allowing customers to react instantly and express their opinions on what’s going to happen on the field or court.”
Underdog is the first sportsbook/fantasy sports operator to clearly step over the prediction market line, despite recent statements by Nevada and Ohio regulators about licensees dipping their toes in these waters. In addition to its DFS offerings the company holds a sports betting license in North Carolina and has applied for a license in Missouri.
STTP will offer up some more thoughts on the prediction market landscape in the near future.
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Around the Watercooler
Social media conversations, rumors, and gossip.
This is something I’ve been keeping an eye on for several months.
As I noted in May, “After analyzing Kalshi’s trading data between February 25 and May 17, InGame found, ‘More than three-quarters of Kalshi’s trading volume now comes from sports.’”
And more recently, I noted that it’s hard to call Kalshi anything other than a sportsbook: “The bulk of Kalshi’s business is on sports markets, with sports accounting for two-thirds to three-quarters of trading volume every week — a number that’s likely to go up when the NFL season starts.”
And as expected, with the start of football season, it’s skewing even more in that direction, and we still haven’t hit the NFL regular season:
Stray Thoughts
"Do not think of knocking out another person’s brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago." – Horace Mann