Online Poker Site MadOverPoker Suspends Operations

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  • Attreyee Khasnabis June 30, 2019
  • 4 Minutes Read

The online poker scene in India has been a dichotomy of sorts. Last year was witness to immense growth in the sector with global poker giant, PokerStars, entering the domestic ring-fenced market, established local poker brands like PokerBaazi and Adda52 bringing out lucrative offers and promotions for their respective player bases, and emerging poker sites like 9stacks and Pocket52 receiving huge investments. There was also a mushrooming of several other sites like Calling Station, UMA Poker, Poker Raj and Poker Stellar.

There is a dark side to this growth as well. The increasing competition in the industry has led to an exponential increase in marketing spends for sites to attract and retain players, and this has inadvertently led to the demise of many a poker start-up. We have examples like PokerMet that ceased operations in 2017, followed by PokerNation, that discontinued its services in September 2018.

The latest operator that seems to be exiting this competitive market is MadOverPoker, (MOP). The site has suspended its operations and deactivated all tournaments and cash game offerings on its client since June 21 and has issued an advisory asking all players to withdraw funds from the site before June 30.

The site had first made this announcement on its Facebook page on June 12.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please note that MadOverPoker is temporarily suspending its operations by 30th June’19 due to business restructuring. All players are requested to go through the T&Cs & claim unused cash balances. Feel free to reach our support in case of any queries.”

The brainchild of high stakes poker player Amit Kanodia, MadOverPoker was launched in August 2017 with the software provided by Russia’s Connective Games. The site had roped in well-known poker pro Zarvan Tumboli as brand ambassador in the first year of operations and over the next two years launched numerous promotions like Viva Las Vegas and the Summer Madness guaranteeing international packages to some of the most prominent poker destinations in the world. The site was among the first in the industry to conduct live and online tournaments by the same name, i.e., Hysteria Online and Live.

Despite the aggressive marketing, MOP was unable to keep up with the increasing cost of survival that eventually led to the site`s management deciding to shut shop. There were rumors that the owners were actively seeking funding for business continuity since the last few months, but given the recent announcement by the site, it is safe to assume that the talks didn’t materialize into anything concrete.

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