Quote:
Originally Posted by Tigermoth
The problem with this is that (so I'm told) iovation's product works really well. If a company who relied on the service simply removed it, it could lose a LOT of money as a result of increased fraud. I doubt anyone is going to do this until they have implemented an alternative - it would be a serious mistake.
A better solution is to find an alternative vendor, who have a clean history and impeccable reputation, and demand that poker sites switch to them. Are there any such alternatives?
iovation technology has been gathering device reputation data since 2002, first at UB, then at a bunch of Central American sportsbooks and then at Full Tilt Poker. The only company that could come anywhere close to the qualitative information in the gambling sector is PokerStars and they are not going to spinout their own version of iovation.
The unfortunate truth is this, players may cause enough uproar to get iovation looked at, but when the lawyers get to wrangling it is not going to be cut and dried since nobody was ever prosecuted and players were remunerated to some degree. The company has a reputation problem but Pierson's day one goal is to grow the business and sell it off via M&A. Internally, they are likely evaluating options. Rebranding ala Andersen to Accenture isn't probable because the same people are still there.
If I have to guess, I would bet the process of selling the company is now on an escalated timetable so that Pierson and the other UB founders can gracefully exit the management suite and take their place in the 1%. To a prospective buyer, there might be some newfound price cutting based on this situation, but they will arrive at the conclusion that iovation's gambling sector data is deep and valuable in a coming legal poker world.
The other side of the coin is the company has not done a very good job in cross selling into more legitimate business. And maybe the larger issue has to do with the viability of device reputation itself. Pierson use to make sure to mention they are not concerned with account information/details in his interviews, but tying accounts to devices is what makes the data so valuable. Here's why.
I buy a computer in 2002 and cheat players using a tool to see everyone's cards. By 2005, that computer is old and I need a new laptop. Device reputation is more than a box, it probably includes routers and modems between the user and the Internet. But even these get replaced fairly quickly. Where iovation has stickiness is that when I login to my old poker accounts with my new laptop, all the negative associations come with me and my new gear is added to the iovation database. So now its 2013 and I may be living in Aruba and haven't cheated anyone for years but iovation keeps kicking me off the sportsbetting site I am trying to sign up with.
There are enormous privacy issues in play and so far iovation has skirted areas that credit reporting bureaus are subject to.