It was a costly decision but it wasn’t a difficult one Poker pros Dara O’Kearney and David Lappin say their split from WPT Global came suddenly — and left them with little room to maneuver.

“We were not told about the announcement ahead of time and felt totally blindsided,” O’Kearney told pokerfuse. “There is a lot more to it than just that but, suffice to say, it was a shock.”

“I immediately removed any mention of WPT Global from my social media and from The Chip Race accounts too. Right away, I asked for a meeting and got no reply,” Lappin added during an exclusive interview.

“Then that night, the announcement post was removed. Dara and I didn’t know how to interpret that but obviously hoped that the company had seen sense. We talked about it and decided that we would stay if they reversed their decision. The next morning, the post went back up and that was that. We had our meeting and began the process of disentangling.”

The decision to walk away from WPT Global followed the signing of high-stakes and former GGPoker ambassador Ren “Tony” Lin, a player who is known for having cheated. That made it untenable for Lappin and O’Kearney to continue in their role as ambassadors, they say, because of their outspoken feelings on the matter.

“On the last episode of The Lock-In we criticized the GGPoker and the WSOP decision to allow [Lin] to play again so soon,” Lappin told pokerfuse, as part of a wider conversation on the breakdown of their partnership with WPT Global. “[We expounded] on our reasons why it was such a serious offense and why his statements, particularly his initial one in which he said that 90% of players that he knows are ghosting, were concerning,” he added.

The signing of Lin was a line drawn in the sand — one they were not prepared to cross.

“It was a costly decision but it wasn’t a difficult one,” Lappin said. “We said what we said about Ren Lin because that’s what we believe. It would be the height of hypocrisy to stand by then as he became a fellow ambassador.”

“David and I were in lockstep on this,” O’Kearney added. “I spoke in depth on the most recent Lock-In about why the kind of cheating to which he admitted is a serious offense and far from being punished, it’s like he has been rewarded. We couldn’t give our tacit approval to that decision by staying, nor by staying silent.”

The pair have now officially disentangled themselves from the partnership. The deal was only inked back in June 2025. It lasted less than a year.

It started off so well. Their beloved podcasts, The Chip Race and spin-off show the Lock-In, had been put in jeopardy after losing their long-standing partnership with Unibet. WPT stepped in and offered ambassadorships and a headline sponsorship deal for the podcasts. WPT Global was the white knight.

The pair also worked extensively behind the scenes on the WPT Global partnership with the International Poker Open. They hoped to lend their expertise to other WPT Global events moving forward.

Roll the clock forward to January 2026, and within the span of 24 unfortunate hours, the relationship came apart at the seams.

To recap, Lin admitted to his part in the ghosting scandal during the final table of the GGMillion$ high-stakes tournament in October 2025, which resulted in his ban from both GGPoker and sister brand WSOP.

We said what we said about Ren Lin because that’s what we believe His ban was lifted just seven weeks later. O’Kearney and Lappin did not hold back with their ire for the situation. The pair are renowned for saying what they mean and meaning what they say. Always.

Lappin and O’Kearney had to watch the announcement of Lin’s signing play out in real time, with WPT Global announcing his signing on social media, deleting the post before then reposting the content to confirm that Lin was in fact a new ambassador for the brand.

“The horse had bolted,” said O’Kearney, “and from that point on, our only priority was safeguarding our own reputations.”

A statement from WPT Global refers to Lin’s humility and resilience and the company’s belief in redemption but Lappin and O’Kearney seemed unimpressed by that presentation.

“We have strong opinions on why they partnered with Lin but we would rather not discuss them at this time,” said Lappin.

Knowing these two, there is definitely more to the story — and one they probably will only share when they deem the moment is right.

What’s Next for The Chip Race

We don’t want to go into hiatus. For fans of the Chip Race and Lock-In, episodes are still expected for the immediate future, even if there is no main sponsor at this time.

“We don’t want to go into hiatus so, if we have to prevent that, we will put out an episode or two independently before making a big decision,” O’Kearney told us. “The popularity of The Chip Race has never been bigger and our last six months of episodes show a 13% increase on what was already the biggest numbers of any podcast in the poker space. We hope that sponsoring that is attractive to a company or operator.”

Who that sponsor could be is more of a head-scratcher. PokerStars would be an obvious fit, as the pair love the PokerStars live events and the brand is known for keeping high standards. However, sponsorship deals these days are few and far between, with Stars recently pulling back from such deals and scaling back certain marketing operations and ambassadorships.

“In short, we are exploring our options but I think our audience will receive notification of an episode release soon enough,” O’Kearney added.

The WPT Brand at Large

I have personally withdrawn all my funds and won’t be playing on the site in the foreseeable future It is uncontroversial to say that the World Poker Tour was once a pinnacle of what a poker operator should be. They ran world class events and were renowned for maintaining the highest standards.

In the last few years, the brand has been diluted. It has been licensed out to multiple independent operators, each with different business models and marketing strategies. Beyond WPT Global, a real money international online poker site, its new US sweepstakes offshoot, ClubWPT Gold, has employed risqué marketing techniques, facing criticism for sexist and offensive social media content. There has even been public infighting between the WPT brands.

“Zooming out to WPT writ large, I don’t think it’s controversial to say that it used to be the classiest operator with the highest standards. I don’t think we can say that anymore,” Lappin says.

“This is another subject on which we have a lot of opinions, but for now let’s say that there have been curious choices which certainly take the WPT Global brand identity away from core values like game integrity and player security,” O’Kearney concluded. “I have personally withdrawn all my funds and won’t be playing on the site in the foreseeable future, so people can draw their own conclusions from that.”