Betting Market:
I am a researcher employed by a leading award winning UK based independent production company, that specialises in factual programmes. We are currently researching the online poker industry, for a forthcoming documentary that will look at the broader issue of the regulation of the online gambling industry.
I am interested in hearing from people who were or are involved in any disputes with their online poker provider. I would be particularly interested to hear from persons involved in the recent incidents at Absolute Poker and Ultimatebet. And I am keen to track down anybody with inside information relating to the recent Betfair heist (not least the player who goes under the name “-Chillindude”-).
All information received will be treated in the strictest confidence and anonymity will be afforded to anybody that wishes to appear in the programme, but does not wish their identity to be known.
In the first instance, please contact me at the address below, so that we can arrange a meeting.
Email: pbenckendorf (at) web.de
Previous blog posts by Chris F. Masse:
- REBUTTAL: SalesForce, StarBucks and Dell demonstrate that enterprise prediction markets as intra-corporation communication tools (as opposed to forecasting tools) are overhyped by the prediction market software vendors and a little clique of uncritical courtisans.
- Comments are often more interesting than the post that ignited them.
- Harvard fella says prediction markets are doomed.
- How should prediction market firms (e.g., InTrade-TradeSports, BetFair-TradeFair) deal with Blogosphere’s criticism?
- BetFair’s future bet-matching logic
- If Midas Oracle were to meet, would we use Huddle, and why?
- WORLD’S SUCH A SMALL PLACE: Smarkets meet HubDub.
This chillindude seems like a fascinating character.
http://forumserver.twoplustwo……p?t=136785
There are allegations here, that he took part in the heist; and then placed a bet with 1K that was not his, and duly won.
It then would seem that he was reinstated to the Betfair Poker site and forum, and allowed ot keep his ill gotten gains from his bet???
Presumably, after he returned the heist money…???
This is fascinating on many fronts; not least, when one asks the question, whose money was it that these guys actually stole in the first place – Betfair’s …or that belonging to other poker players.
And what about the person who lost out to this chillindude bloke (the counterparty to his bet)…Why would he have had to pay out, when the source of the money, should have meant that the bet was voided???
I think I was the person who may have triggered the "Betfair heist". I was moderately bored in September 2007, and asked a few other players to join a $5 each table, and all of us go all in on the first hand. It was $5 of entertainment whilst bored. I had a good hand anyway, and hit two pair I think, so I happened to win that pot anyway, but the other five players all said in the chat window that they all got paid out for finishing in 2nd place. We tried a second time to see if there was a bug, and it did indeed seem to be paying out the money for 2nd place to people who finished 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th. It may have been one or more of these people who then went on to repeat this to the reported tune of apparently $1.4 million (??).
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I didn’t let BF know about the flaw as I had repeatedly told them previous problems and flaws, and was tired of never getting any answer, and of having one of their lawyers be abusive across different internet forums attacking me under multiple chatnames. He stopped when he was outed, but its still annoying to have been paying $30,000 to $40,000 a year in commission, paying for the wages of a lawyer who camps on the internet attacking me.
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I think BF poker is a good-looking, attractive product. It is no more prone to collusion than any other poker site. The critical thing with all poker sites is maintaining the integrity of them – it defeats the whole point of the game if a highly skilled user can be beaten by say a BF staff member sat in the office in Hammersmith, who can see what cards a user does or doesn’t have, and when that user is bluffing etcetera.
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A journalist looking for muck on BF poker has to establish whether there is insider trading on the BF poker platform, by people with access to who has what hand. It seems far-fetched that that is the case with BF poker, though there is one well known site that I would avoid like the plague, run by one of the big 3 traditional bookmakers, where repeated suspicious activity has been reported, of the kind where someone does seem to be betting with access to details of what cards each player has before placing his/her bets.
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Texas Holdem and other poker games are all games played in the real world, and put onto an online platform. The future of poker may lie in the development of similar games, adapted to the internet, taking advantage of new opportunities that aren’t available in face to face play. I have invented something new myself, but will just have to see if I can copyright it, and if there are any takers for a new game
. Anyone with a credible fresh idea could change the poker world hugely in a very short space of time. I’ll probably have to look to a different gaming provider other than BF tho to promote it 
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