Unibet is where all recs should go. Pro's, assuming they can play Hud-free should make the move there as well.

so we try to make changes to ecosystem for a better long-term EV for gamblers just to ensure they dont care about their long-term EV.

+1 freelance author who says senseless things because he has to work off amaya money

http://www.storminvestor.com/amaya-d...es-aya/141536/

'Amaya Director David Baazov Acquires 60,000 Shares'

At least someone will profit from the fall in share prices

That onlinepokerreport article is terrible. The author is ill informed and his analogies are nonsense. I'd stay well clear of that online news site if that's any indication of their quality of reporting. Someone linked to an earlier article of theirs on the same topic too, which was equally poor. Just because something is on a so called poker news site, it doesn't mean the author is any more knowledgeable than some of the jokers who post here.

For example below, the author completely misses the point, focussing on the fact that technically rake hasn't increased, only the effective rake has. This demonstrates his misconception of what "rewards" are and his lack of understanding of the system in general.

"PokerStars is raising the rake in high stakes games

No offense intended, but this is like saying when a store has a sale where the price of cereal is lowered from $4 to $2, that when the price goes back up to $4 they have doubled the price. The rake hasn’t changed at all – what has changed is the amount of a refund you get for being a consistent customer. It’s more akin to a store ending its rewards card.
Now granted, PokerStars has been running this sale for several years, so I can see why many people think this is the actual price, but it’s not. The effective rake some players pay will be going up, but the rake itself hasn’t changed.

Verdict = Mostly false, but somewhat true from a certain point of view"

I think the best part was when he said rake at micro stakes has to be high to incentive people to move up.

Well said MeleaB^^

A lot of people think that an opinion has more bearing when it comes from a "news" website. The reality is more often than not these sites are heavily sponsored by websites to put a slant on articles to benefit them. Even if they're not currently sponsored by websites a lot of these "news" sites are just playing the long game to build up their user base before they cash in their chips and obtain sponsorship at a higher price.

wtf does... false but could be true from a POV mean anyways?

He doesn't even have an opinion.

MTT's

He means "Technically, no, but the effective rake has."

the few articles I've read on onlinepokerreport were clearly written by fools, and this latest one is no exception.

Some amount of mental gymnastics required to come up with that one.

Even the most ill informed person in the world has to figure out this is ******ed right?

Hello - I have one 5,000 FPP WCOOP ticket left, how will this be reimbursed?

Really interesting podcast with Dnegs before this was announced where he hints at these changes.

http://www.pokermindcoach.com/episod...-poker-part-2/

Sorry if posted before

Its interesting to me how people are speculating about what will happen with Amayastars.
Lets look at what Amaya is and what it does in its essense.

1.It buys companies for low price
2.It milks it dry short term and increases the companys short term value
3.Sells it for profit leaving the longer term collapse and loss of value for the buyer.

Why would it do anything different with pokerstars and why did anyone expect them to Not be who they are when they bought it?

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sounds **** weirrrddd that they are gonna run FPP sats next year, when they stop awarding FPPs...but whatever

Well for one, they went into a huge debt to buy a monopoly. And secondly, if they somehow succeed to completely kill stars, it would probably bring their own death as well or at least too big of a blow. More likely they are "just" shifting towards gambling.

What are you actually talking about though? Amaya bought Cryptologic I would assume as an inroad to online gambling software and sold the "consumer facing online gambling sites" and sold OnGame Network off after they bought PokerStars

Pretty sure everyone involved made money in those deals...if not when you make crazy claims like that why wouldn't you actually cite what you are talking about?

.

lol A+

Dogs are slowly ceasing to bark and caravan moves on...

BTW podcast with Negreanu, talks VIP changes somewhere from 40th minute:

https://www.highstakesdb.com/6311-ne...-negreanu.aspx

Gonna be streaming in roughly 20 mins, playing 10nl zoom full ring. Will answer any questions you guys might have about the recent VIP changes

lol

And in what condition is Ongame now for players?

"The Ongame business will complement NYX Gaming Group’s market leading casino, bingo and lottery solutions in Europe and the US. The purchase price for Ongame is equivalent to eight times Ongame’s 2015 EBITDA, less any required working capital."

The sale of Ongame seems intentionally designed to be a bit vague/remove any sale-number from headlines about the deal. Plus there's the built in component that if the final price ends up being low, it can be spun as due to extra new capital reqs./the running of the site post-Amaya/etc.

It was purchased by Amaya for 15 million Euro + up to an extra 10 million depending on the degree of US-regulated iPoker w/in 5 years of the sale.

If the "true value" of Ongame at the time of re-sale by Amaya were something much smaller that the purchase price, it would make Baazov & Amaya look bad on their ability to profitably run/flip an online poker site (however fair/unfair). That in turn should affect market/investor confidence & belief in their future performance running Stars. Amaya's stock price is pretty hugely dependent on those beliefs of future performance/earnings. (ldo)

Interesting that it removes some simple performance-measurement math from public view (and this was done in April 2015 after the creation of AmayaStars). Why not just cut a simple check + some tie-ins?

Concurrently with the acquisition, Amaya Gaming invested in NYX Gaming Group through its subscription for a $10 million unsecured convertible debenture, thereby expanding the existing relationship between the parties. The convertible debenture matures two years from the date of issuance and bears interest at 6.00% per annum, payable at maturity. Interest and principal are payable in NYX Gaming Group’s ordinary shares at Amaya Gaming’s option.

My bad, very simple transaction that's easy to assign a present-value to