Hi Chris,
I would have replied earlier, but I just flew in from Macau to Seoul,
and I wanted to give my response a bit more thought.
Merge is open to US players and so is Hero,
but I'm not promoting to US players yet,
for two reasons,
1. I think players are traumatized by recent events and I want to be sensitive to that
2. I want to ensure that my company, when we take on any new player, that I can personally take care of the player and their funds.
So I've been in discussions with my investors, reviewing payment and our corporate structure to get to a place where I know I can back up each and every one of my players.
This is more than just the deposits, but in the case of any market where it it is in a similar situation like that of the US.
The statements issued by FTP and PS about the release of player funds couldn't be more different and I think in reality, FTP is being very frank and honest. It's not like the player funds weren't kept separately, but I'm sure when the DOJ got the transit accounts, it was easy to track back to the player accounts. I think PS is in the same situation, but because they are financially more stable and the majority of their player base is outside the US, even if the payouts wiped out all the profits and remaining funds in PS, they could still operate on cash flow alone due to their existing business- so for them to release player funds without having the frozen accounts released, they needed the dot com back. Whereas for FTP, a majority of their business is in the US, while they probably could pay out every player from the US, they may really not have enough cash flow to operate and thus be crippled anyway for the future. I'm sure it is not that extreme, but FTP is being prudent for the the survival of their company- if the payout to the US player ends the ability of FTP to do actually continue business, it is understandable that they will pause before action. So again, for FTP to issue such an honest and frank statement, they are taking both the players and their company's situation seriously. It is just that PS is 100% in a much better financial situation by future cash flow alone. But lets assume that I do my mass market launch and PS and FTP don't do any counter measures, then I'll know that both PS and FTP were hit extremely hard.
Right now, I don't have a huge influx of US players like Carbon or Bodog do, simply because I haven't posted or promoted on twoplustwo before this point, due to strategic reasons, so people do not know about Hero and I'm not spamming anyone. Now of course Hero is benefiting from the huge influx of players and now liquidity may not be such a big issue in a couple of months. But that doesn't change anything in regards to the legal and political situation that is going on. While I see the value of seeing this an opportunity, I am a pretty conservative guy and I'm not going to just rush into it. Right now because my payments are separate and done by the network, even if all my players funds were frozen, I could still pay out from my marketing or operational funds and still run the company. That is because, 1. We still have small player base, and 2. I'm willing to do that on a personal level as I feel the player must come first before the company if we really are going to give true value.
Again, the differences in RB are minor, but I'm not in competition with anyone on my network and you'll find that in a short period of time, 'extras' across the board in the network are going to centralized, so even myself, whether I like it or not, I will be participating in network wide rake races-which is fine with me- and basically takes away a lot more of these little extras that sites are competing on.
But if you want to join a site where you actually know who the CEO is, that he has a professional and proven business background and he is never farther away than a PM on LP or a glass of soju in Korea or a TsingTao in Macau, then Hero is a good choice. Still overall, even with whatever access you or anyone may have with me, still maybe the not best absolute choice as a site, but I'm willing to do whatever it takes to make sure your account is safe and secure on Hero.
Cheers,
David
Summary:
-not rushing to get US players or promote to them until I think its appropriate on a respect level and until I'm 100% confident that my own questions are answered
-can fully take care of all the players I have now and continue business, even if all deposits are frozen due to the investment funds
-FTP/PS are still in a tough spot, but even if FTP is a being a bit too honest, I feel they are being sincere
- RB and site differences on Merge will be minimized very shortly
-if you want to join a site where you do know who the CEO is and who will directly communicate with the community, then its Hero, otherwise, there will always be a better deal out there |
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