Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet Hit Back
Written by Roger S | Tuesday, July 29th, 2008
New revelations and allegations continue to hound Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet in the context of the superuser scandal.
But these two online poker sites with common ownership are not taking things lying down.
They have become proactive in a big way. First they engineered a coup of sorts by taking Tiffany Michelle, the find of WSOP 2008, on board. And now they have come up with Cereus.
Cereus will be the integrated poker platform of the sister poker rooms Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. The management of both poker rooms announced last week that they would soon be launching Cereus, which would not only combine the customer base of the two poker rooms but would bring together the features as well.
According to the press release given out by the companies it appears that Cereus is not a response to the super user scandal but has been in the pipeline for a year. The press release reads, “Cereus is the result of more than 12 months innovation and development”. But the timing of the announcement has come when a fresh round of allegations has surfaced. Cereus is not an amalgamation of the two poker rooms. Each will retain its own identity, asset base and brand equity. They will be using a common network in order to share players, have common events and tournaments, develop new features jointly and increase the level of promotional activity.
Network sharing is not new in the poker industry. Many poker rooms are on a common network and it is the synergy provided by the network that is enabling them to survive. Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet have decided to create their own network rather than joining one. Maybe no network will accept them because of the adverse publicity they have released in the past year.
Paul Laggett, who is the chief operations officer of both Absolute Poker and UltimateBet said, “I am so excited to announce the launch of our new poker network Cereus. This is a huge landmark for our company and online poker. … I’m confident that Absolute Poker and UltimateBet customers will be thrilled by the new platform, and we look forward to welcoming many new players from around the world.” Cereus will enable Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG, the owners of Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet, to create the “ultimate online experience”.
The industry is divided over Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet. There are many who feel that playing at these sites is the equivalent of flushing one’s money down the toilet. Yet the traffic at these sites has not suffered. The main reason for this is that the two poker rooms are presently being backed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which is one of the most reputed online gaming licensing bodies. Kahnawake have been fully involved in the investigations to the scandal and have certified that corrective mechanisms have been put in place. In a recent statement in connection with the investigations of Ultimate Bet, Kahnawake has said that its overriding concerns have been to ensure complete refunds to players and to ensure corrective measures are in place so as to prevent further abuse.
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· Written by Roger S · Filed Under Poker News · Comments Off
