Hi Everyone:

We just received this from Ultimate Bet and they asked us to post it. So here it is.

Best wishes,
Mason

ULTIMATEBET INTERIM STATEMENT


Contact: Press@ultimatebet.com


Montreal, Canada (March 6, 2008) – UltimateBet (UB), one of the ten largest online poker cardrooms, today issued the following interim statement with respect to allegations of unfair play on its site.

“On January 12, 2008, UltimateBet was alerted to allegations that a player with the online handle “NioNio” exhibited abnormally high winning statistics and was accused of having an unfair advantage during play. These allegations were made both directly to UltimateBet by concerned players and the KGC, and indirectly through several web forums. The allegations also included reports of suspicious activity concerning the deletion of the NioNio account and other accounts that may have been related to this scheme.

“We immediately launched an extensive inquiry involving an independent third-party expert to review hundreds of thousands of hand histories, all of which were promptly locked down and made available to this expert. The initial findings of our third-party expert confirm that the NioNio account’s winning statistics were indeed abnormal, and we have expanded the investigation to look into whether an unfair advantage existed, how such a scheme might have been perpetrated, and whether additional accounts beyond those of NioNio were involved.

“UltimateBet is in regular communications and contact with its regulatory authority, The Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC), and will continue to cooperate fully with that body.

“UltimateBet is determined to complete a full and thorough investigation. We pride ourselves on providing a safe, secure playing environment for our customers. The investigation has proven to be extremely complex and, therefore, has been more extensive and taken much longer than initially expected. We continue to aggressively pursue the matter and will communicate the findings of our full investigation to our regulatory authority and to our customer base as soon as practicable.”

# # #

yawn
UB really started going down the drain about 1.5 years ago
Also, maybe next time send this out with in the week, instead of with in 6 months.

So they're saying "yea he's been winning a lot" and it took them 2 months to also see that?

hahaha

so how can they not know how it happened?

it's their ****, isn't it?

shouldn't they know how it could ever be possible to take advantage of THEIR stuff?

idiots.

gg UB

better than absolute tho rite!!

Another 3 months until next response.

god do i ever hope they don't cover it up and hope they confirm he cheated.

i debated some other guy for 6 months on another site that this could happen and probably is happening. he and a dozen supporters all told me i was nuts.

haha!!!!!

that would be 2 online poker sites guilty

Mike Omaha NE: What's your favorite pocket hand? Mine would have to be a 9, 2 offsuit.

Phil Hellmuth: 2 black nines!


nio = nine in swedish


hmmmmmmm

In a seperate announcement, UB has announced a series of HU high stakes NLHE between Phil Hellmuth and Dwan.....

Lol go **** yourself UB/AP. No one gives a **** about your pathetic statements or "investigations".

Three months for a zero content email..... lol what

ya seriously, they would have been better off not saying ****, now they just look like bigger douches

has the traffic at UB/AP gone down since this **** started surfacing?

Why does this get posted in NVG instead of Internet Gambling?

Hi Mason,

I have little interest in the specific situation at hand here, but I have some comments about the manner of UB communicating this to the 2p2 community. While you are doing a service to some degree for the posters here by posting what UB asked you to, I think that in reality it is somewhat of allowing UB to copout. UB has never had good communication with posters here, as in having an official rep to 2p2 like other sites and a long-term commitment to engage the 2p2 community as respected customers deserving of direct communication . FTP is clearly the leader in this regard, and even stars who rightly is well-thought of around here, has fallen down in the communication department since Lee Jones left.

Allowing UB to use indirect means to communicate something here allows them to engage in a one-way only conversation where they don't have to face any tough questions in response. That does not seem to me a good situation long term for 2p2 posters, and rather only benefits UB in the short term.

While I realize you are just trying to help posters here primarily by keeping them informed, perhaps the better course of action in the future is just to inform UB that they are welcome to make an official rep account and have same verified by the mods of the zoo, and then to make their own posts. *And* then to stick around and answer some questions about same instead of being able to make what might only be a self-serving insufficient reply to a situation and thereby be able to claim that they are keeping their customers informed.

Again I think you are trying to help 2p2 posters who play on UB, but for the reasons above, making them carry their own water is perhaps the better path.

Bluff

Just reposted the statement over to IG.

The Chickasaw Nation stands behind the Kahnawake Gaming Commission

Although they don't come right out and say so, this is effectively an admission that something shady was almost certainly going on. They wouldn't say this much if they thought nothing happened - or if they planned to cover things up.

It's a positive step, and I'm cautiously optimistic that the full truth will be forthcoming, at least to the degree that they can determine it.

lolololololololol

edit-hahahahahahahaha

Full Tilt Poker for the win!

so happy i left that ****ing site

"Dear Poker Players,

We have been 'investigating' allegations for 3 months. Over the course of these three months, we have come to the conclusion that player Nionio did, in fact, have abnormal winning statistics. To clarify, we have spent 3 entire months doing absolutely nothing. It was blatantly clear through the evidence compiled in a 1-week timeframe by forum members that Nionio had abnormal winning statistics. We chose to ignore this evidence and spend 3 months doing... well, we don't have to tell you. So we won't. We also chose to ignore the fact that several other players shared the same qualities as Nionio and that these players were almost certainly cheating as well. We also chose not to take any actions to learn how these players were cheating. Or maybe we already know, but we certainly refuse to tell you anything about this matter.

In summary:
-We have spent 3 months of 'investigation' to release a statement that reveals exactly what has already been revealed 3 months ago by some forum members who found concrete evidence in a very short timeframe
-We will ignore anything relevant
-We will continue to deprive players of any information, although who knows, maybe we'll make another statement in a few months or so"

I agree 100%. In fact, this indirect method of communicating such news is what bothers me most about AP & UB -- and why I no longer play on either site.

Sure, it sounds nice for UB to say, earnestly, how it plans "communicate the findings . . . to [their] customer base." But truth be told, only the small percentage of that base who happens to peruse forums, blogs, or a few of the news sites will ever know the first thing about them.