GPWA Times Magazine - Issue 42 - October 2018

How dramatically has the online poker market changed since you started your site? It is another world. Not a long time ago, the poker rooms were aimed at the poker pros, to build a career. Today, the sites are encouraging the recreational players and fighting reg- ulations. It’s normal — this is a business, and businesses are meant to make money. Also, the regulations in countries like the U.S., Spain, Italy and France have changed the market. What’s the poker scene like in Co- lombia these days, either online or live? Colombia’s poker scene is going through a bad time with local regulation. Last year, despite the recommendations of local economists and players, local authorities launched a regulation for- bidding any kind of live or online gam- bling without a license, creating a closed market. PokerStars, bet365, PartyPoker, Bodog and all the big poker rooms left the country in response, and, of course, as a result, less money and income are flowing to the nation. There are no good perspectives to online gambling. As for live poker, we have some small tourna- ment series with good attendance, and it’s starting to grow. Do you have plans for additional sites? Actually, we do! At Worldpok- erdeals, we believe cryptocurrencies and blockchain are the future, and right now we are deep into the development of a new website about this digital revolution. What makes your site unique? We belong to the new era of companies selling experiences. When a player finds our web- site, he finds all the resources he needs to play: software, rakeback deals, recent news. And when he decides to start play- ing, he finds a whole dedicated team that warmly welcomes him in his language, with strong contacts and that’s highly mo- tivated to help the players make the best decision. Also, we have our style. We like to be informal, but keep our poker faces. We have a slogan: You play, and we take care of the rest. How do you decide what poker rooms to promote? We always try to build close relationships with the poker rooms we promote. We try to understand G P W A t i m e s . o r g 49