888Poker and Kara Scott Split but There’s Good News on Bots
One of the longest-running player/operator sponsorship ambassadorial roles has ended. At the beginning of the month, 888 used the poker blog section of its website to announce that respected broadcaster and player Kara Scott will no longer represent the operator. The Canadian had been the face of the poker site for eight years.
Scott came to prominence in the mid-2000s as the presenter of Sky TV’s dedicated poker channel, Sky Poker. She hosted several European television shows throughout the decade, including the 2007/08 series of the European Poker Tour and the World Series of Backgammon. It aired across Europe on Eurosport in 2006.
Kara Scott has long been regarded as one of the most popular personalities in poker. ©888poker
Relocating from London to California, Scott acted as a sideline reporter for ESPN’s 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event production. It was a tournament in which she ‘cashed’ in 2008 and 2009. In 2015, Scott fronted ESPN’s live Main Event coverage alongside Phil Helmuth and Daniel Negreanu.
Irish Poker Open Scott’s Biggest Score
As a player, Scott’s best tournament result was second place in the 2009 Irish Open Main Event, collecting €312,600. It could yet be bettered, albeit it is unclear if poker playing is amongst Scott’s future plans.
🌟 A heartfelt tribute to @KaraOTR, our phenomenal ambassador, as we close an incredible 8-year chapter together at @888poker.
🚀 Thank you, Kara, for your passion, brilliance, and unmatched dedication. Wishing you continued success on your next adventure! #poker pic.twitter.com/QWFmBzthUo
— 888poker (@888poker) December 31, 2023
“I enjoyed my time at 888poker, and I look forward to bumping into & rooting for all the ambassadors & streamers in Vegas,” Scott announced in a December 31 Tweet. In a PokerFuse interview published the same day, she said: “I’ll be putting my energy into finally finishing some non-poker projects for 2024, but if something comes up that catches my eye, it’s hard for me to say no to poker!”
888 Cut Off 161 Rogue Accounts
At a time when allegations of rogue accounts have rocked rival sites, 888poker has taken the opportunity to boast of its success in identifying accounts engaged in using artificial intelligence software or real-time assistance (RTA) at its online poker tables during 2023.
Amit Berkovich, VP Head of Poker and MD ROW at 888 & William Hill, told the PokerIndustryPro website it had blocked 161 accounts engaged in wrongdoing during the year. It proceeded to issue refunds of $362,893 to 4,068 players adversely affected by illegal activities.
When it was not possible to reclaim funds from blocked accounts, 888poker covered the losses – at a cost of $250,000 to the operator. “Through the vast resources we have dedicated to these aims, we have succeeded in tackling a record amount of bots and returned a total of over $1.2 million to players in recent years,” Berkovich proudly announced.
More Revelations on Two Plus Poker Forum
In a remarkable start to 2024, 888’s official comments came in the wake of not one but two online poker sites making poker news headlines for hacks and the presence of ‘bots’.
Quickly following the revelation – on the TwoPlusTwo poker forum – that GGPoker had a rogue account that had been winning in an unprecedented fashion, the same medium produced evidence of an industrial scale ‘bot farm’ that had won $10 million over a four-year period on the WPN Network of poker rooms.
Not an online poker site site trusted by Online-Casinos.com but, by operating in a grey area of the law, easily accessible and therefore popular with American players starved or regulated poker sites, ACR Poker (the foremost WPN skin) decided to fight the allegations with fire.
Via its brand ambassadors and sponsored pro-players, Chris Moneymaker and Ebony Kenney, ACR issued a Tweet/Video where the duo announced the site was offering $100,000 and a job “to the first person that can make a bot, and make it operate on WPN for 5,000 hands and show us.”
Think we got a bot problem? We don’t. Prove us wrong and win 100k. Check the video for details. 1 winner only 👉 READY… SET… GO 💪 pic.twitter.com/ta6k9rEvlM
— ACR Poker (@ACR_POKER) January 5, 2024
No Bot Logic Results in Challenge U-Turn
Twenty-two hours later, ACR laid out the criteria for its challenge and stated: “We appreciate that there are risks with challenging people to put bots on our network. We will ensure that no player funds are lost or risked as a result of this challenge, and any funds obtained by bots will be refunded to players as soon as possible.”
But the move – actively encouraging people to devise ways of cheating – was always going to be a PR catastrophe. And by 9 am the following day. The company performed a U-turn on its challenge and issued the following statement:
“Dear Players, we owe you an apology. After listening to your feedback, it’s clear to us that our recent decision to initiate the Bot Challenge on our poker sites has caused significant concern within our player community. The overwhelming feedback against this challenge has made us reassess our approach.”
“Our intention behind the Bot Challenge was to test the robustness of our security systems and showcase the advancements made by our game integrity team. However, we now realize that pitting individuals against our player base to create and deploy bots was not the right path to achieve this goal. We acknowledge our mistake and sincerely apologize to our valued player community.”
