Ultimate Poker - Ramping Up for Regulated US Poker

regulated online poker in the US is becoming a reality – three states have already cleared the path for online poker and more are actively considering it. Despite the favorable news and momentum for online poker over the past year, I’ve had difficulty grasping this new reality. That started to change last month when I visited the offices of Ultimate Poker in Las Vegas. Ultimate Poker and its parent company, Fertitta Interactive, are clearly gearing up for a market opportunity that is very real and potentially massive.

Fertitta Interactive is majority owned by Station casinos. As you may know, the Station Casinos are owned by the Fertitta brothers, the same duo that owns the UFC. In the cab on the way to meet with Ultimate Poker I assumed I was going to Fertitta's headquarters. I expected to be surrounded by UFC paraphernalia while meeting with the poker team in a tucked-away corner of the office. After all, there is currently no real market for them in the U.S., so I wasn't expecting much.

I couldn't have been more mistaken. Ultimate Poker already has its own office (pictured below) - a 20,000 square foot warehouse just off the Strip behind CityCenter.

Fertitta is not starting small and feeling things out. They are making a huge investment early to try to become the major player in regulated U.S. online poker. As you can see from the pictures, the office is still being built out, but there are already various salaried employees grinding away in the offices that line the walls of the main room.

These salaried employees are not random casino guys with no online experience – many of them have worked in some capacity with pokerstars over the years. I met with Joe Versaci, whom Adam Small and I had met with various times when he was the head of North American marketing for PokerStars. Joe is joined at Ultimate Poker by PokerStars vet Scott Yeates, one of the minds behind the beloved PokerStars VIP Program. Then there's Terrence TChan Chan, who started his career by building PokerStars' support team before going on to become a professional poker player and MMA fighter. These guys definitely know what they are doing.

For software, Fertitta Interactive purchased CyberArts, a gaming software company that has been in the business since 1995. The purchase of CyberArts positions the Ultimate Gaming brand to compete in various gaming markets across several platforms worldwide, but the focus will be on regulated online poker in the United States. CyberArts’ CEO Chris Derossi stayed on to lead Ultimate Poker's software team.

Ultimate Poker is bullish on the prospects of a compact forming quickly as states review their options and realize the added benefits of increased liquidity. They weren't able to share any specific projections on a number of states in the near future, but the amount of resources they are pouring into this is telling.

I haven't spoken much with the other companies that have received Nevada licenses, but I hope to find others making a similar investment. It’s going to be a long road, but the Fertitta brothers are ready for that. They’ve already persevered through a similar state-by-state regulation battle with UFC. PocketFives will keep you updated on all the state by state regulation news as it breaks. For now, we can all take some comfort in the fact that a strong, reputable group like Fertitta is making a major investment in regulated US online poker.



Copyright: pocketfives.com
By: Cal Spears
Published on Mar 18th, 2013

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Thank you very much JusSumGuy for the excellent update...I can only think that this bodes well for the US online poker future in that I believe it unlikely that a company would expend that kind of money without the potential of upcoming legislation making that investment viable...great job and keep us posted...

Always remember: If the states (many of which are going broke) can find a way to make poker legal AND get some much needed tax revenue from it, then they will be all over it like a dirty shirt. It's a simple and effective way to raise revenues without hurting anyone who doesn't want to pay.

My guess is end of 2013 will be a big deal for online US play. It will be interesting to see how it integrates into worldwide play.

Would be great to see this eventually merge with international player pools. Thanks for the post.

pretty cool and exciting...hopefully things keep going in a positive direction

Get this ish going already! Hope more well known poker sites follows! At least there are progress!

Isnt that the poker site that got caught cheating on there weekly 100K GTD,wouldnt dare play there ,old saying once a cheater always a cheater.

JUDGE1018 said:

Isnt that the poker site that got caught cheating on there weekly 100K GTD,wouldnt dare play there ,old saying once a cheater always a cheater.

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Eek.. was excited until I read this x D

JUDGE1018 said:

Isnt that the poker site that got caught cheating on there weekly 100K GTD,wouldnt dare play there ,old saying once a cheater always a cheater.

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Are you thinking of Ultimate Bet?

I turn 67 years old today,,, would like to see it become a reality before my next birthday....This info gives me hope...

wagon596 said:

I turn 67 years old today,,, would like to see it become a reality before my next birthday....This info gives me hope...

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Happy birthday ya old fart.

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im still leary after blk friday.always keeping my fingers crossed that stars and tilt will return to usa but my hopes are still in the air..may give it a peep once they have the ball rolling for awhile.

That is very interesting. We may not realize it but those of us who are still playing online poker are continuing to increase our poker skill level. When regulated poker comes to the US it will bring back a lot of casual players and we will have a good shot at making some money. Black Friday actually helped me in a way because it led me to join a bunch of forums which have helped me tremendously.

rw11687 said:

Are you thinking of Ultimate Bet?

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I remember reading something about one of the owners of UB who was a wsop main event winner... I think, and he did some sort of cheating or something.. I dont remember exactly lol but i know something went down lol xD

wagon596 said:

I turn 67 years old today,,, would like to see it become a reality before my next birthday....This info gives me hope...

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Happy birthday!!! I think I can speak for all of us US players here and say that we want to see it come back soon also. Hopefully we can play on Pokerstars soon :]

People who are worried about this type of site "because of Black Friday" are missing either something of the point of regulation or don't know what Black Friday was.

One of the biggest reasons that Black Friday happened was because online poker was a legal grey area in the United States - with regulation, there is far less (ideally no) grey area, and as long as the sites that open are afraid of getting caught by the US gov (which they KNOW would likely happen), they won't do anything to jeopardize their business.

After reading JusSumGuy's write up I went to the Ultimate Poker site. I gotta tell you, I'm really disappointed in the software they are using now. The game is harsh sounding and the graphics suck, imho. If this is their Ultimate.....I'll happily play at what they must consider mundane sites.

Is Ultimate poker going to be available in California?

Whoever named this new site is a moron.

dj11 said:

Whoever named this new site is a moron.

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Was just thinking the exact same thing.

dj11 said:

Whoever named this new site is a moron.

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We have a winner. Its obvs a completely different company and site but any perceived(wrongly) association with ultimatebet is surely gonna damage there reputation with the more recreational players whos only following of blackfriday and US regulations will have only been segments on 60mins and a like.

Question for the Americans here that have a decent understanding on the current regulation schemes.
Am I right in understanding that the state by state regulations will mean closed player pools for you guys? So people from Nevada will only play with other people from Nevada or will the licenses mean that if a pokersite sets up shop in a US state, gain a state gambling license they will be allowed to accept players from all US states that have "allowed" online gambling as well as international players from other countries with legal online gambling?
Or is unclear still with all the legislation still in the works?

Pic of the software looks pretty good.

S93 said:

We have a winner. Its obvs a completely different company and site but any perceived(wrongly) association with ultimatebet is surely gonna damage there reputation with the more recreational players whos only following of blackfriday and US regulations will have only been segments on 60mins and a like.

Question for the Americans here that have a decent understanding on the current regulation schemes.

Or is unclear still with all the legislation still in the works?

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Everything about it is unclear.

Most is unclear, however right now it's looking like each state that regulates will have a closed player pool.

But that being said, some states will likely attempt to enter into agreements with each other that will allow combined player pools from those states, so if say Nevada and California and New Jersey were to enter such an agreement, they would likely have enough players to maintain legitimate traffic.

Scourrge said:

Most is unclear, however right now it's looking like each state that regulates will have a closed player pool.

But that being said, some states will likely attempt to enter into agreements with each other that will allow combined player pools from those states, so if say Nevada and California and New Jersey were to enter such an agreement, they would likely have enough players to maintain legitimate traffic.

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What would prevent any State from being open to any player from anywhere? No existing law. It would fall on any particular State to make it illegal via a specific act or make some sort of deal with the states that end up hosting sites. If Nevada OLP for instance just said they were open for business to anyone anywhere, nationally or internationally, there are no laws that would stop that. Doing that might get the Federal Gov to do something, but I sort of doubt they would.

I do not think any state has the balls to do it tho.

The only law that would effect anything would be the UIGEA, which would be amended pretty fast IMHO, else using Nevada as an example again, the sites could require live depositing in the state the site resides in. So we would all go to Nevada to deposit, and while we were there we'd drop a pocketful of cash. Tourism boost for any state who did show some balls.

There are some states in which OLP is explicitly illegal I believe, but yes in theory that is ok.