SatoshiPoker Review (Closed)
SatoshiPoker.org was launched in April 2013, as a Bitcoin-only poker site that was designed to be the ultimate destination for all poker players, who used Bitcoin. Within the first few months of its launch, they were receiving daily traffic, slowly rolling in more and more players. They offered quite a bit of free rolls to get players involved in it’s developing stages, and quickly started gaining traction, within the Bitcoin poker community. As expected with any site, SatoshiPoker started developing problems within their interface and had some player integrity issues that were also added to the equation. Due to the interface being designed in-house, there were a lot of issues with how the actual poker client worked. These problems were quickly tended to, but as one problem was solved, it seemed as if another one was just beginning. As if that didn’t hamper the site’s productivity and its player retention, it also had a few users implementing bots that were going undetected. As time went on though, a lot of these issues were being fixed, and seemed to put the site back on an upward trend.
In July 2013, most of the problems were being solved quite rapidly, and the ones that did occur were quickly being dealt with, and the support constantly players updated. More players flocked to SatoshiPoker, and as a result, more tournaments were starting to come in and really started to put SatoshiPoker on the map. Alongside their guaranteed tournaments, they were also adding more ring games, more sit-n-go’s, and adding more styles of play, such as Omaha and Seven Card Stud. Players seemed to be really active within the site, as growth surpassed the 5000 player mark, of which 30% of the accounts had a balance. SatoshiPoker’s security and cheat detection had also strengthened over time. The players who were using two accounts and trying to manipulate the software, were getting their accounts banned and their balances forfeited. With software errors being few and far between and an accountability of removing cheating players, SatoshiPoker was starting to take a firm grasp within the market. In November 2013, SatoshiPoker announced they were going public, and things quickly started to change for the worse, after the announcement.
Abruptly in early February 2014, rumblings of SatoshiPoker being sold privately were starting to go around, but never seemed to really gain traction and cause players to leave. Players were still getting paid out, so at that point most of the rumors being whispered seemed to have no strong legitimacy behind them. But on April 14, 2014, that all changed when it was listed for a two day public auction by the owner, Bart van Oort. Van Oort released the following statement on regards to the reason he was selling Satoshi Poker:
“After working on the project for the past year, sacrificing my other businesses, investing a lot of time and money and running into personal debts to get it to where it is today, I don’t have the time or personal stability to move the business forward to its full potential. Since november I have been working with no marketing budget and no development budget and for the future of SP it is better if somebody with a new vision and a budget steps in and takes over. At this moment there is a deficit in player funds, and I would be able to cover them by taking out another bank loan but at this point I would rather sell it and cover all balances from the buying price, as it is pointless to run an internet business with no marketing or development budgets and basically working full time to maintain the just under $1000 in monthly turnover. I have to look for a project that gives me a paycheck and allows me more time to spend with my girlfriend who had a miscarriage while i was sitting in the waiting room in the hospital working on SP…”
