Online poker in the US and around the world changed forever on April 15, 2011 when the US government seized the domain names and bank accounts of some of the biggest online poker companies in the world.
In addition to the immediate elimination of the vast majority of online poker in the US, the events of Black Friday would go on to change the trajectory of the evolution of the game.
Beyond the obvious changes such as greatly reducing the number of people that could play online poker and curtailing the growth of the poker industry as a whole, Black Friday also changed the lens through which poker players and many fans viewed the game.
Initially, players were concerned about the solvency of the companies that they had entrusted with their bankrolls and whether they would be able to recoup their money. But players were also interested in knowing if or when they could resume their cherished pastime – and for some, their careers.
In an instant, the interests of those that consumed poker media had changed. The desire to know more about the direction of online poker in the US became paramount for those in America, and the reaction by other governments around the world whose citizens were impacted by the events and fallout from Black Friday sparked interest in online gaming legislation, regulation and industry news on a global scale.
To further understand the effects of Black Friday on the media, pokerfuse solicited the input of those in the trenches including:
- Barry Carter – Poker journalist and news editor for PokerStrategy.com and formerly PokerNews.com, and co-author of several poker books including co-author of The Mental Game of Poker and Poker Satellite Strategy
- Kevin “Kevmath” Mathers – Poker social media expert and Information Coordinator at PokerAtlas.com and previously Poker Information Manager and writer for Bluff Media
- Michael Gentile – Co-founder of pokerfuse and Poker Industry PRO
- Remko Rinkema Senior Media Manager for PokerGO, former Content Developer for PokerNews.com and freelance poker content creator
Barry Carter
What was your role on Black Friday and how did you find out what had happened?
I’m pretty certain it was the death knell for poker print magazines
I think I was in the most interesting place in the world at the time. I was at Dusk Till Dawn, working for PokerNews on a partypoker live TV show which featured mostly American PokerStars and Full Tilt sponsored players. At the same time a big tournament was taking place in the club so hundreds of grinders were there too.
Everyone seemed to stop what they were doing and started congregating around laptops in the media room, we were all looking at those infamous DOJ images in disbelief.
I think it was the ultimate snapshot of the poker industry that day and it was fascinating. It was also the scariest time of my career, especially after releasing a poker book that day.
How did your job change as a result of Black Friday?
It literally changed. I worked for PokerNews at the time and I was very fearful that the American market that it served was not going to get poker for a very long time and thus I would be out of a job. I decided to focus more on mainland European poker and started working for PokerStrategy.com, where I have been to this day. I am delighted, however, to say that not only did PokerNews survive but they thrived after Black Friday.
I also released Mental Game of Poker literally on Black Friday. Two years working on a poker book only to release it on the worse day in history to release a poker book. Again, we doubled down on European players to promote that book while at the same time my co-author Jared Tendler used his counselling skills to act as a support system for US players. We self published the book at considerable cost to Jared, so in that respect it focused us on marketing perhaps more than we ever would have in normal times. I believe it is the biggest selling poker book of the post-Black Friday era now.
How did Black Friday impact poker media?
After Black Friday there was suddenly an appetite for reporting about regulation as well as more behind-the-scenes industry stuff.
It decimated it for a while. Back then we didn’t realise how all our eggs were in two baskets. PokerStars and Full Tilt accounted for almost all the advertising in the poker media. I’m pretty certain it was the death knell for poker print magazines, of which there were still a lot of them back then.
It also struck a huge blow for televised poker, there used to be a lot of studio based single table tournament shows here in the UK for which Full Tilt were the primary sponsor, they all dried up and I remember one TV show in the UK stopped filming midway because it didn’t look like they were getting their sponsorship money. It was only when recent innovations in streaming came in that broadcast poker found its way back.
What impact did Black Friday have on mainstream media coverage of poker?
We never ever wrote about regulation before Black Friday. The only times we ever wrote about the legality of the game would be when a random small country would either ban online gambling or do something quirky like declare it a mind sport.
After Black Friday there was suddenly an appetite for reporting about regulation as well as more behind-the-scenes industry stuff. A void which pokerfuse filled very well by the way.
What lesson did the poker community fail to learn from Black Friday?
The biggest lesson had to be the lunacy of keeping 100% of your net worth on any single site. In one fell swoop Black Friday ended a lot of careers simply because otherwise talented players decided to keep their entire net worth on Full Tilt. I think most poker players have learned this lesson now, having said that I know people who lived through Black Friday who now seem to keep their entire net worth in a Bitcoin wallet, so maybe not.
Was Black Friday ultimately good or bad for online poker and why?
You can make a plausible argument for it being good because it forced all of us to take the game more seriously, but I would still say bad. To force so many people out of the game and in particular to have almost no American market for a decade does not seem worth it to me.
Who are the heroes/ villains of Black Friday and why?
I don’t really have heroes or villains, but what I would say is that I respect anybody who is still in poker a decade on after it. Anyone still around after that is a survivor. I think Black Friday was much worse for the industry than the pandemic has been, so kudos for anybody still here.
How has live poker changed as a result of Black Friday?
The most noticeable difference, back when we had live poker of course, was just how many online qualifiers used to go to live events. It wasn’t uncommon for somebody like PokerStars to send hundreds of Americans to events all over the world and every major operator had to provide some sort of VIP perks to qualify with them. You would even have smaller operators like Betfair sending players to rival events like the EPT.
For many reasons that just doesn’t happen anymore and with some notable exceptions (Unibet spring to mind) very little is done for satellite qualifiers other than being bought in automatically to the target event and a few bucks for travel.
Kevin “Kevmath” Mathers
What was your role on Black Friday and how did you find out what had happened?
Ten years after Black Friday it appears that things are starting to look rosy as online gambling gets approved in more and more states
I was a few months into my position at BLUFF Magazine on Black Friday, and was reading 2+2 and Twitter (like usual) and saw a post in News, Views and Gossip from an appropriately named debut user called 'bye_stars_tilt’ saying the FBI had taken the Full Tilt Poker domain. Soon, that would also appear on the PokerStars and Ultimate Bet home page. That was the start of several days of chaos as people were scrambling to get their money back, figure out how to play outside the US, or just leave poker altogether and find a 'real’ job.
How did your job change as a result of Black Friday?
Personally, my job responsibilities didn’t change much, although it was certainly affected by the events of Black Friday. BLUFF limped along for the next few months before I was let go shortly after the end of the 2011 WSOP. Fortunately, they found an interested buyer in Churchill Downs and I was back working for BLUFF less than a year later.
How did Black Friday impact poker media?
Black Friday hurt poker media across the board as revenue through affiliate links dried up, only the well-established sites could handle the drop in revenue as the rest faded away.
What impact did Black Friday have on mainstream media coverage of poker?
The biggest impact was the elimination of various televised poker programs around the world that sites were sponsoring. Gone were the days of PokerStars 'The Big Game’ and 'Million Dollar Challenge, or Full Tilt Poker’s wide array of made-for TV events featuring their team of pros.
What were the biggest challenges you faced in your job as a result of Black Friday?
Figuring out what to believe from the rumors and innuendo that spread in the weeks and months after Black Friday like Bernard Tapie purchasing Full Tilt Poker, Phil Ivey’s lawsuit against FTP,
Was Black Friday ultimately good or bad for online poker and why?
Was Black Friday 'good for online poker’? There’s still plenty of people playing on unlicensed and unauthorized online poker sites in the US with just a few states offering licensed and regulated poker. While the current Department of Justice is unlikely to shut down those sites, if a site just decides to shut down and keep player’s money, it’s highly unlikely that money will be recovered.
The road to licensed and regulated online poker throughout the US was always going to be very long. Ten years after Black Friday it appears that things are starting to look rosy as online gambling gets approved in more and more states. While it’s impossible there will ever be online poker in all 50 states, more states are climbing aboard.
Michael Gentile
How did Black Friday impact poker media?
Black Friday spawned a new wing of poker media focused on law, regulation and the business of online poker
In my opinion, Black Friday had a tremendous impact on poker media. Prior to the events of Black Friday, the poker media I consumed was primarily focused on promotions being offered, the personalities of the game, strategy content, and coverage of events sprinkled with discussion on the most recent scandal.
And while those topics are still en vogue, Black Friday spawned a new wing of poker media focused on law, regulation and the business of online poker.
Today there is a whole faction of poker media in direct contact with lawmakers, gaming regulators and igaming companies. In addition, it is not uncommon to see mainstream media outlets sourcing poker media (and other igaming media that has evolved from poker media) on a variety of topics related to the industry.
In a weird way, I think Black Friday’s influence on poker media helped poker move further away from its smoky backroom reputation and added a bit of legitimacy to the industry.
What impact did Black Friday have on mainstream media coverage of poker?
The change in coverage of poker in the mainstream media was almost immediate. In the days following Black Friday, ESPN was quick to pull poker related programming including World Series of Poker segments and coverage of the 2011 North American Poker Tour. It also dropped all PokerStars advertising in what appeared to be an attempt to distant itself from any connection to the indictments.
Fox also moved quickly to replace episodes of the PokerStars Big Game and PokerStars Million Dollar Challenge.
After the initial shock wore off, the sponsorship money that funded the production and secured the air time for poker content was gone along with the US online poker market.
players today seem to be just as comfortable playing on sketchy loosely regulated sites, trusting poker apps distributed by unknown companies/individuals and using VPNs to circumvent poker site policies
What lesson did the poker community fail to learn from Black Friday?
Despite the revelations on and following Black Friday that hundreds of millions of dollars in the poker community were much more in jeopardy than previously realized, players today seem to be just as comfortable playing on sketchy loosely regulated sites, trusting poker apps distributed by unknown companies/individuals and using VPNs to circumvent poker site policies.
Ultimately these practices put funds at risk, and if there was one lesson I would have thought that the poker community would have learned after Black Friday, it would have been how to be more selective about who to trust your money with online.
Remko Rinkema
How did Black Friday impact poker media?
Black Friday brought poker media members closer together
Black Friday brought poker media members closer together since, for many months after, there was a sense of everyone in the game being in this together. I’ll never forget the FBI notice popping on screen on all major poker sites and seeing my inbox getting flooded with messages from poker media members from all over the world. The guys from QuadJacks, and Marco in particular, included people from all countries to get their thoughts on the matter as their live streams captivated everyone.
Financially, Black Friday forever changed the poker media landscape. Where budgets for projects such as Live Reporting, feature writing, and video production seemingly never ran out, Black Friday saw those budgets vanish or at least get drastically reduced. Back then, poker media largely relied on the fierce battle between PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker wanting to outdo each other both from a branding, sponsorship, and affiliate point of view.
What lesson did the poker community fail to learn from Black Friday?
Playing on unregulated poker sites is a terrible idea and supporting those websites has you contributing to the problem by increasing their popularity. I’m not saying that every unregulated poker site has bad intentions, far from it, but without regulatory protections in place your money and gameplay can never be considered 100% safe, secure, honest, and transparent.
What impact did Black Friday have on mainstream media coverage of poker?
From a fan’s perspective, the game of poker is everywhere, available globally via both streaming services and linear TV deals, and that’s what matters most
The lesson we learned is that no matter how great the stories, personalities, charitable initiatives, or events are, mainstream media will only truly care about the game we love when there’s something negative to report.
Personally, I think that this is totally fine. The game of poker and its industry are strong and big enough to stand on its own two feet and it gets attention in all the right places to reach and grow its massive fanbase.
We, in poker media, underestimate how poker is seen by the outside world. From a fan’s perspective, the game of poker is everywhere, available globally via both streaming services and linear TV deals, and that’s what matters most. Poker being on ESPN, CBS, NBC, and various global broadcasters is multitudes more important than any other coverage the game and its player might feel they deserve on mainstream channels.
Currently, I think the poker landscape is in a better place than it’s ever been and I couldn’t be more excited to be play a small part in it.
How did your job change as a result of Black Friday?
When Black Friday happened, I was writing exclusively for the Dutch arm of PokerNews and at first nothing changed for me. I traveled the European events circuit along with the World Series of Poker both before and after Black Friday, but looking back on it I think that this major industry shift heavily contributed to the opportunities I came across in the years that followed. Black Friday changed the lives of many poker players and media members for the worst, but as someone who was still just coming up in the industry it allowed me to fill in for those that were leaving the game.
Don’t get me wrong, Black Friday was awful for content budgets, but for someone who was just getting their feet wet writing and creating in English, it gave me room to grow as some people left the industry behind or moved into different roles.
What were the biggest challenges you faced in your job as a result of Black Friday?
I’m fortunate to say that Black Friday didn’t affect my job in a negative way, although there’s no telling how many future opportunities I missed out on due to the industry as a whole shrinking. Currently, I think the poker landscape is in a better place than it’s ever been and I couldn’t be more excited to be play a small part in it.
