Hi all

I have a good friend who was a programmer for various investment banks (Citi, Deutsche etc).

He left a few years ago and decided to go travelling and enjoy life. He is not super rich but fairly well off. He has two properties with a couple of years remaining before they are paid off. The value of these will probably be around ~1.5m. His rent covers the mortgage and he has some left over. He is not flush with cash and loves poker. He has been grinding live small stakes cash for a while and making money.

He produced his very own poker site. I have checked out the software and it is pretty good. We are based in the UK. He has not got a license yet but the product is pretty much good to go. He was talking about getting a license in Ireland which will cost around 10k. I think the issue is how to get players on there. He said he has a few contacts and he believes he could get players on there but it could take a little time to build up. He also said that a great advantage is that he built his own software. If like most other sites, you are just a skin, you have to pay loads of fees etc and it is very expensive. If you are a skin you have to ask yourself why people would play on your site and not others etc. His software is good, plus he has all the games on there and loads of choice. I then asked why more people do not build their own site and he said it is fairly complicated and has something to do with the network? (I know nothing about programming) but that is his strong point.

I played on the site yesterday to check it out. Currently full of bots and play money.

Since he hasn't got a lot of cash around he is open to investment. He said a comfortable cushion would be 50k and he thinks he would not need that much.

Does anyone think this could take off? I know the poker boom was years ago but poker is still popular, plus he has his own software which is good. He also said you could potentially get bought out down the line if it takes off, which would be good.

Make vid of it and upload! If did not want to do himself full website could sell software to GALFOND or someone. More info!

I don't think he has fully researched everything, or even had a cursory look at the legalities. If he wants to offer to UK players he will need a licence from the UKGC, not from Ireland. That will allow him to offer services to all acceptable jurisdictions.

So this is the real reason for your post

C ya

I'd give him $100K instead of $50K. It increases your odds of getting your money back from 0.0001% to 0.000101%

Yes, the UK needs a separate license. That itself is not so expensive but they have new software regulations which makes obtaining a license difficult. The external testing companies get the money, not the government. It would be around a 100k investment to get a UK license with the testing fees. Ireland has no testing requirements, it would just be 5k (euros) a year. If you set up in Ireland you can offer it all around the world except for specific locations like Australia, UK, USA etc.

The idea would be to get it up and running and then someone with deep pockets comes along who wants poker as part of their portfolio. They might not be too worried at the moment about the player base but would just want working and reliable software.

Places like India are big at the moment in poker and I believe it could be offered there.....anywhere that Pokerstars offers and don't have an explicit license.

This is pretty simple IMO.

1. Check the calendar. Is it 2000? If yes, go to question 2. If no, abort.
2. Check your friend's ID. Is either his first or last name "Dik****"? If yes, invest. In no, abort.

Hope that helps.

Even if your software is clearly better than stars and all the competitors, you're not even 5% of the way to a successful poker site.

His best shot would be partnering up with big names from the poker world. But he likely doesn't have anything valuable/unique/good.

http://www.morningstar.co.uk/uk/news...as-eyecon.aspx

A mickey mouse Australian online bingo company gets bought for 50 mill and only sells in the UK!

They're not mickey mouse - correct me if I'm wrong, but from the article they seem to be a software outfit that writes online gambling software - basically a software company. Your boy seems to want to start a gambling outfit. Not even in the same ballpark.

If you want to value it as a software outfit, that's another matter. But where will the revenue come from? He's broke if he needs $50K (wtf at owning $1.5 million in property, supposedly, but playing small stakes?? And needing $50K for his business? You just draw down on the equity), and a software startup is expensive if you want to grow big enough to get acquired starting many years behind.

Right, just spoke to my friend.

Let me start off by saying, in NO way and I asking for money or open to it, unlike someone above thought.

The reason (I guess in a selfish way) that I am posting here is in case I thought about putting up the money myself. I do not know much about the business but just wanted some feedback. Don't wan't any money and even if someone was remotely interested, don't be because I am not.

I know my friend very well. He has two properties with a couple of years remaining on the mortgage. He does not really want to take money out, he wants to pay the mortgages off. He used to work as a programmer at some investment banks but left a few years ago, went on holidays etc.

Your logic about having a bit of money and therefore playing bigger stakes is flawed. He only wants to cover his living expenses and maybe slowly move up the stakes. When I did not have money in life, I always wanted to play bigger and did. When I made money in life and have money like now, I have zero interest in playing big. Winning doesn't do anything for me and if I lose I feel a little stupid. I just like indexing which will compound and also renting out a property I have. Anyway.....

He believes the software is what makes it valuable but he also wants to get it up and running. He said that a running business with a player pool using it multiplies its value.

He is a little cautious about laying out money. He lost 10k a few years ago by getting scammed by a lawyer getting a Costa Rica license (for something else). He wants to stick to local countries.

Sites license in places like Gibraltar and Malta due to low tax reasons. However, he wants low startup and running costs, so that is Ireland. He also said the gaming software industry is that companies are a bit secretive and won't tell you because they do not want you taking their business so you have to figure a lot of stuff out for yourself.

Maybe my initial post was a bit misleading since I was talking about how to get players on there etc. The real goal of this though is to sell the software. If players are on there that makes it more valuable.

None of it makes any sense. This is coming from someone with similar amounts of money. Some simple questions:

1) How much equity is he offering for the $50K? Given this:

2) Estimate your odds of getting your money back
3) Estimate your odds of getting 10x your money back

Business questions:

a) How does he plan to get players on without substantial marketing spend?
b) Who does he think would buy software, and why? Name three parties that might one day be interested
c) How is his software unique? Does it scale?
d) How does he plan to manage things like further development, customer service, etc?
e) How is he getting paid right now? Has he been able to find a merchant to process cards for an unlicensed gambling service residing in the UK?

You've spent too much time on this

Galfond announced he was going to launch a site around 5 months ago. Nobody knew if he was running a skin, writing his own software or buying software. At Christmas he wrote a blog about how he has a team of 40 people in Malta writing his own software from scratch. That costs 3 million per year min. He has no chance of writing his own site from scratch. They will be at least 10 million in the hole before they have something reliable.



1) He basically just briefly pointed out to me that he would rather have an investor than release equity in his property and I have not discussed this with him.

2) Don't know yet.

3) Don't know yet.

a) You can run free rolls, satellites for Irish tournaments, and generous rake back to start. If you have low running costs and not concerned about profits while you build up a player base, you can undercut everyone.

b) His software is slick. I am not sure of the parties, will chat to him.

c)It scales.

d) Not an issue.

e) Merchant processing is an unknown but with a valid license should be possible to get merchant banking.

It is play money right now until licensed.

Show a simple youtube recording of the SOFTWARE ALREADY! Not hard!

Hello

Sure, I could create a video and post on YouTube.

One can also go to www.gridpoker.eu and download the site.

They have training tables and tournaments running around the clock. All play money right now.

Can download and play on Windows (I think the Android version is not finished right now).

Good software!!! is same as is SWCubs bitcoin software. Friend made that too?

Yes, he did.

You didn't think that was relevant information to put in the op?

Bizarrely left out of the OP, it would appear your friend has already had the project working live for real money?

Massive legal issues, nobody will ever buy that software.

Also insecure http://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-poke...ty-compromise/

I am going to see him at the weekend so will speak properly about it.

I am almost 100% sure he was not involved at all in running the site and didn't have anything to do with it etc, because I remember him telling me ages ago about how he built some software to do with Bitcoin and how he did it for other people. He just made the software and nothing else.

Will speak to him properly to confirm. Again, I only came here for advice, not looking for money from anyone and will say again, don't bother offering because I am not open to it. I am an investor.