Winning Poker Network CEO Phil Nagy has claimed that Americas Cardroom could be one of the top five online poker sites within the next twelve months.
Phil Nagy is a man who is rarely short of words and, in a recent interview for ontiltradio.com, he was at his most eloquent – discussing everything from the failure to regulate online poker in the US, to the threat of players losing money on Daily Fantasy Sports sites, to the changes he proposes to turn Americas Cardroom into a top five poker site within the next twelve months.
Nagy was particularly scathing about advocates of regulated US poker who – he claimed – would talk poorly of offshore poker sites before logging into their accounts at Americas Cardroom and playing online poker illegally
. He also had words of scorn for those who suggested that regulated poker was going to be the next big thing
, quite categorically stating well, it´s not
.
“Ain´t Nobody Else Trying” (to bring online poker back to the USA)
Despite all the column inches written about future plans to regulate online poker in various states, Nagy is convinced that there ain´t nobody else trying
to bring online poker back to the USA. The Winning Poker Network´s CEO said that effective regulation was still ten years down the road and it would only be successful if there was federal regulation that allowed US players to play with players from the rest of the world.
Nagy cited New Jersey as a prime example of the problems associated with regulated online poker and he claimed that players are finding it difficult to get a game because of the ring-fenced player pools. He also alleged that state-by-state compacts are susceptible to money laundering, and gave the example of a player in California chip dumping $100,000 to a buddy in Florida.
Without pausing to draw breathe, Nagy also launched an attack on the companies providing an online service to residents of New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada. He claimed that there was a big problem with non-US companies coming into the market with their software already in place, and taking money out of the country without creating any new jobs. Normally a man full of answers, Nagy was at a loss to see how this situation could be resolved.
Watch Out DFS Players – Your Money is at Risk
There was plenty of discussion in the interview about the post-Black Friday effect on online poker in the US – Nagy claiming that only 20 percent of pre-Black Friday players now play online poker – and the challenges involved in bringing former players back to the game, when companies such as Americas Cardroom were unable to market their product in the States.
Parallels were drawn between the demise of Full Tilt Poker and the current popularity of Daily Fantasy Sports – Nagy voicing the opinion that DFS sites were spending too much in marketing to attract players and that he could see the sites going the same way as Full Tilt Poker and Ultimate Bet, but this time with no PokerStars on hand to refund player balances.
Nagy said that the DFS business model was unsustainable. Imagine if PokerStars had just one MTT per day
he said. They would never attract the revenue to support the level of marketing that is being pumped into advertising Daily Fantasy Sports
. The lack of regulation in the DFS market was also commented on, something which Nagy believes puts players´ money at risk.
Americas Cardroom will “Keep Doing What We´re Doing”
Nagy´s claim that Americas Cardroom could be one of the top five online poker sites in the world was supported by the statement we´ll keep doing what we´re doing
. If you are familiar with Americas Cardroom, you will be aware that this does not mean that the site will sit back on its laurels and wait for new players to turn up, but that the site will continue to create innovative promotions to introduce new players to the game and attract some of the 80 percent of players Nagy believes have fallen off the radar since Black Friday.
After speaking about how the forthcoming FreeBuy Series will allow players to compete in valuable poker tournaments without having to make a deposit at Americas Cardroom, Nagy hinted that a new format of Jackpot Poker was on its way which would resemble a steps program and allow players to win their way into the highest value events at the site.
Also mentioned in the interview were the “Beast” and Sit n Crush” promotions and Americas Cardroom´s VIP program (which you can read about in our review). Nagy said that he had no plans to change either of the promotions and admitted that the site´s VIP program was basically a copy of the PokerStars rewards program. The PokerStars VIP program is the best in the world
Nagy said, and I had no intention of re-inventing the wheel
.
Other innovations on the way include a “withdrawal bonus” for players who take their funds out of their account using Bitcoin, but there was bad news for players hoping for a significant improvement to Americas Cardroom´s software. I´m not going to take player balances to put into rockstar software
Nagy commented with an obvious reference to Full Tilt Poker. Americas Cardroom is the number one site [in the US] for paying players
and he commented he intends keeping it that way.
