Things have moved on a little this week, so as I know many of you appreciate occasional updates on how this whole thing is panning out for Sky Poker customers, I'd bring you up to date, as it's been a very revealing week in some ways.
Please remember that SB&G, which includes Sky Poker, is part of a much larger Listed Company now. As such, everyone connected with the business has to be very careful what they say in public due to various rules & regulations for Listed companies. In essence, I can only pass on what is already "in the domain", or info which is not share price sensitive. So much of what follows is out there already if you knew where to find it.
This whole story first broke back in April, & many of you were - quite reasonably - worried about the future of Sky Poker. Here are a few comments from that week in April after the news broke. I quote this not to embarrass those who wrote these things - quite the opposite - but to demonstrate how people naturally jump to the worst conclusion when they are not sure of the future.
Comments included;
1)
This probably will be the start of the end of SkyPoker as we know it.
For the better, or for the worse, only time will tell.
Fingers crossed for all those we know and love, who work for SkyPoker. I hope this doesn't adversely affect any of you.
Things will be quite different, fairly soon, I would imagine.
2)
+1 to all of this. Obviously sucks for us if we potentially have to find a new site, but it's equally concerning for those working at Sky to have the insecurity that something like this typically brings, especially in the short term.
3)
"Upset beyond consolation Awful news for our dear friends whom we've grown to love."
Well, 6 months on, nothing has changed, & I have not seen anything (yet) that suggests to me that Sky Poker won't be around for the foreseeable future. On the contrary, plenty of evidence now exists suggesting Sky Poker may well continue as is for a very long time yet.
First up, there were lots of negativity around Amaya & 'Stars generally. Well Amaya is no more, it's TSG (The Stars Group) now, & it's a very different business these days. Amaya was run by something of a maverick in the form of David Baazof. Well David is long gone, & so are all his colleagues - in a presentation this week, the current CEO, a chap named Rafi Ashkenazi, stated that not one of the then senior Management Team of Amaya still works at TSG - they have all moved on, or, more likely, been moved on.
Contrary to what many think, poker traffic at 'Stars has also increased significantly in the last 12 months. I'm not going to bother trying to persuade you that 'Stars is or is not a business to admire, but it's definitely not the type of business many in poker believe it to be.
Rafi is very much respected right across the online gamming industry - before he joined TSG (Amaya at the time) he was the CEO at industry giant Playtech for many years.
He's a hard-nosed businessman, make no mistake, a view reinforced, perhaps, by this standard corporate photo of him...
But wait. After he visited the SB&G Offices in Leeds this week, he was made an Honorary Yorkshireman, flat cap & all. Looks a whole lot less Corporate in this photo, right?
More good news is that there has been a complete re-shuffle of the Top Brass at SB&G, but here's the key thing - every single one of the new Operational Board at SB&G at Leeds are long-standing Sky employees. Nobody has been drafted in from TSG to oversee what they do - the existing Staff occupy all the local Operational Board seats.
Just to go back to that photo;
Rafa in the centre, of course, but the chap to his right (as we look) is Ian Proctor. Ian was the Chief Financial Officer of SB&G for 10 years, but he now steps up to become CEO.
To the left is Richard Flint, the man who, in effect, led the growth of SB&G over the last 16 or so years. Richard is now Executive Chairman of SB&G.
The day-to-day running of SB&G now falls to the Chief Operational Officer, who will be Conor Grant. Conor has been with SB&G for 10 years, & is not only a great guy, but he both likes, & fully understands how poker works. He has been to several Sky Poker SPT's & UKPC's, & may well turn up at SPT Manchester. There is nothing this man does not know about poker. If you happen to bump into Ambo at SPT Manchester, ask him about Conor, & you'll see how highly regarded he is in the online poker world.
Given the relative size of Sky Poker to SB&G as a whole, or indeed TSG, not much was said about Sky Poker. But it was mentioned, and the context was how TSG might be able to help give impetus to Sky Poker once integration has been completed some 2 to 3 years down the line.
That did not sound to me that TSG have plans to meddle with Sky Poker any time soon.
More grist to this mill came from how TSG has announced the newly enlarged Business will operate. There will be 4 separate P & L centres, as follows;
International - 'Stars as we know it I guess.
Australia - the newly acquired & merged Wm Hill Australia & Crown Bet business which will now operate as EasyBet.
USA - an area of huge growth now that wagering is being legalized across the USA.
UK - this is pretty much entirely the existing SB&G business.
Each of these will be run "locally", by existing Management.
From that, my view is that business will continue pretty much as before, & whilst UK will need to meet it's performance forecasts, it will be left to it's own devices & Management, & so 'Stars won't really have much or even any hand in local decisions.
All of which I'd say is a good thing for those that hope to see Sky Poker continue without being absorbed into the main 'Stars site.
Additionally, Sky Poker, as I have reported several times (correctly in every instance) continue to plan for the future. Really, SPT is neither here nor there in the TSG global scheme of things, but plans for a 2019 SPT are now quite advanced, & it's at the stage of looking at dates & venues. Sky Poker can't guarantee it will happen, but if it does not, it won't be due to any interference from TSG.
Plans for all the other Sky Poker Promos for 2019 also continue to be developed.
So, nothing concrete (sadly), but the straws in the wind all seem to be blowing in the right direction.
And so to the Sky Poker software. And yes, we all know it is in need of a big upgrade.
This is the one area where Sky Poker have been unlucky. A new set of software was planned & well advanced, but once the deal was announced in April, it had to be placed on the back-burner, as nobody was sure how the future would pan out. For Sky Poker, unforch timing, for sure.
And if folks say it needs big improvements, nobody from Sky Poker will argue. Every now & then someone comes on the Forum & tells us it's a heap of poo. Well I'd not describe it in those words, but yes, all the Poker Team, & in fact the new SB&G Management Team, Conor, & Sam at the Poker level, know that full well.
And on that subject, I have nothing new to tell you, because I've not heard anything recently. I did hear some very positive rumours a month or two back, but nothing solid yet.
So there you go, that's where we are. I'd say the early fears back in April have turned out to be unfounded, & Sky Poker as we know it - for better & for worse - will be around for a very long time yet.
I'd go a step further, in fact, & say Sky Poker will outlast me, I'll be pushing up the daisies long before it disappears. Go on, help yourself & volley that one in.
As long as we don't have a repeat of the other night when the connection to the tables was on & off & on again............
Well Sky Poker definitely can't & won't ever promise that I'm afraid. Occasional outages will always be something that happens from time to time. 'Stars, 888, Party & Winamax have all suffered major outages lasting several days this year, and it's (almost) inevitable that Sky Poker will have them from time to time.
Sky Poker, you might be surprised to learn, has a much higher "availability rate" than most other Online Poker Rooms. For balance, of course, it also has far more of those annoying little glitches - "My Account", "Info Not Avail" & those sort of things than most other rooms.
I'm sure there is now, or will soon, be a plan to address the software shortcomings here, but at this point, I don't know the how or when.
As long as we don't have a repeat of the other night when the connection to the tables was on & off & on again............
Well Sky Poker definitely can't & won't ever promise that I'm afraid. Occasional outages will always be something that happens from time to time. 'Stars, 888, Party & Winamax have all suffered major outages lasting several days this year, and it's (almost) inevitable that Sky Poker will have them from time to time.
Sky Poker, you might be surprised to learn, has a much higher "availability rate" than most other Online Poker Rooms. For balance, of course, it also has far more of those annoying little glitches - "My Account", "Info Not Avail" & those sort of things than most other rooms.
I'm sure there is now, or will soon, be a plan to address the software shortcomings here, but at this point, I don't know the how or when.
Sorry @Tikay10 , that was more a pi$$-poor Status Quo lyrics joke than any dig at Sky Poker's reliability....
Comments
Morning.
Things have moved on a little this week, so as I know many of you appreciate occasional updates on how this whole thing is panning out for Sky Poker customers, I'd bring you up to date, as it's been a very revealing week in some ways.
Please remember that SB&G, which includes Sky Poker, is part of a much larger Listed Company now. As such, everyone connected with the business has to be very careful what they say in public due to various rules & regulations for Listed companies. In essence, I can only pass on what is already "in the domain", or info which is not share price sensitive. So much of what follows is out there already if you knew where to find it.
This whole story first broke back in April, & many of you were - quite reasonably - worried about the future of Sky Poker. Here are a few comments from that week in April after the news broke. I quote this not to embarrass those who wrote these things - quite the opposite - but to demonstrate how people naturally jump to the worst conclusion when they are not sure of the future.
Comments included;
1)
This probably will be the start of the end of SkyPoker as we know it.
For the better, or for the worse, only time will tell.
Fingers crossed for all those we know and love, who work for SkyPoker. I hope this doesn't adversely affect any of you.
Things will be quite different, fairly soon, I would imagine.
2)
+1 to all of this. Obviously sucks for us if we potentially have to find a new site, but it's equally concerning for those working at Sky to have the insecurity that something like this typically brings, especially in the short term.
3)
"Upset beyond consolation
Awful news for our dear friends whom we've grown to love."
Well, 6 months on, nothing has changed, & I have not seen anything (yet) that suggests to me that Sky Poker won't be around for the foreseeable future. On the contrary, plenty of evidence now exists suggesting Sky Poker may well continue as is for a very long time yet.
More follows.....
Contrary to what many think, poker traffic at 'Stars has also increased significantly in the last 12 months. I'm not going to bother trying to persuade you that 'Stars is or is not a business to admire, but it's definitely not the type of business many in poker believe it to be.
Rafi is very much respected right across the online gamming industry - before he joined TSG (Amaya at the time) he was the CEO at industry giant Playtech for many years.
He's a hard-nosed businessman, make no mistake, a view reinforced, perhaps, by this standard corporate photo of him...
But wait. After he visited the SB&G Offices in Leeds this week, he was made an Honorary Yorkshireman, flat cap & all. Looks a whole lot less Corporate in this photo, right?
More good news is that there has been a complete re-shuffle of the Top Brass at SB&G, but here's the key thing - every single one of the new Operational Board at SB&G at Leeds are long-standing Sky employees. Nobody has been drafted in from TSG to oversee what they do - the existing Staff occupy all the local Operational Board seats.
Just to go back to that photo;
Rafa in the centre, of course, but the chap to his right (as we look) is Ian Proctor. Ian was the Chief Financial Officer of SB&G for 10 years, but he now steps up to become CEO.
To the left is Richard Flint, the man who, in effect, led the growth of SB&G over the last 16 or so years. Richard is now Executive Chairman of SB&G.
The day-to-day running of SB&G now falls to the Chief Operational Officer, who will be Conor Grant. Conor has been with SB&G for 10 years, & is not only a great guy, but he both likes, & fully understands how poker works. He has been to several Sky Poker SPT's & UKPC's, & may well turn up at SPT Manchester. There is nothing this man does not know about poker. If you happen to bump into Ambo at SPT Manchester, ask him about Conor, & you'll see how highly regarded he is in the online poker world.
So on Friday of this week, Rafa came to Leeds & addressed all the staff at a "pitch".
Here's the general scene.
That did not sound to me that TSG have plans to meddle with Sky Poker any time soon.
More grist to this mill came from how TSG has announced the newly enlarged Business will operate. There will be 4 separate P & L centres, as follows;
International - 'Stars as we know it I guess.
Australia - the newly acquired & merged Wm Hill Australia & Crown Bet business which will now operate as EasyBet.
USA - an area of huge growth now that wagering is being legalized across the USA.
UK - this is pretty much entirely the existing SB&G business.
Each of these will be run "locally", by existing Management.
From that, my view is that business will continue pretty much as before, & whilst UK will need to meet it's performance forecasts, it will be left to it's own devices & Management, & so 'Stars won't really have much or even any hand in local decisions.
All of which I'd say is a good thing for those that hope to see Sky Poker continue without being absorbed into the main 'Stars site.
Additionally, Sky Poker, as I have reported several times (correctly in every instance) continue to plan for the future. Really, SPT is neither here nor there in the TSG global scheme of things, but plans for a 2019 SPT are now quite advanced, & it's at the stage of looking at dates & venues. Sky Poker can't guarantee it will happen, but if it does not, it won't be due to any interference from TSG.
Plans for all the other Sky Poker Promos for 2019 also continue to be developed.
So, nothing concrete (sadly), but the straws in the wind all seem to be blowing in the right direction.
Which just leaves the elephant in the room.....
And so to the Sky Poker software. And yes, we all know it is in need of a big upgrade.
This is the one area where Sky Poker have been unlucky. A new set of software was planned & well advanced, but once the deal was announced in April, it had to be placed on the back-burner, as nobody was sure how the future would pan out. For Sky Poker, unforch timing, for sure.
And if folks say it needs big improvements, nobody from Sky Poker will argue. Every now & then someone comes on the Forum & tells us it's a heap of poo. Well I'd not describe it in those words, but yes, all the Poker Team, & in fact the new SB&G Management Team, Conor, & Sam at the Poker level, know that full well.
And on that subject, I have nothing new to tell you, because I've not heard anything recently. I did hear some very positive rumours a month or two back, but nothing solid yet.
So there you go, that's where we are. I'd say the early fears back in April have turned out to be unfounded, & Sky Poker as we know it - for better & for worse - will be around for a very long time yet.
I'd go a step further, in fact, & say Sky Poker will outlast me, I'll be pushing up the daisies long before it disappears. Go on, help yourself & volley that one in.
However, would still hope that old man Teekster outlives even that-that telegram from the Queen must be in touching distance by now
Hope all is well with you.
Sky Poker, you might be surprised to learn, has a much higher "availability rate" than most other Online Poker Rooms. For balance, of course, it also has far more of those annoying little glitches - "My Account", "Info Not Avail" & those sort of things than most other rooms.
I'm sure there is now, or will soon, be a plan to address the software shortcomings here, but at this point, I don't know the how or when.
Thanks for the update @Tikay10 I imagine the employees were worried but from what's been said hopefully they're feeling better.
Ha, sorry mate, my bad, I got proper whooshed there. I should have realised you are not the sort of guy who usually digs us out.
I really should not reply to stuff early morning, as I tend to wake up grumpy.