Intertops Battle with Lock Continues as Players Segregated, Guarantees Reduced
The battle between the Lock Poker-flagshipped Revolution Network and prominent skin Intertops is back in the news, with Intertops confirming and specifying the segregation of its higher-stakes player from Revolution-operated cash games and tourneys, where Intertops is a skin.
The recent developments heighten the increasingly antagonistic relationship between Intertops and the rest of the Revolution network, where Intertops in recent times has generally been viewed as a gem of professionalism mired within a network of overall horrid performance, a situation likely created by contract obligations.
Among the latest developments are a message sent out from Intertops to its players, confirming the extent of the site’s partial player segregation from the rest of the Revolution Network. Intertops is reputed to be owed a considerable sum by Revolution and Lock for player reconciliations, and several moves of late (including this latest announcement) further detail the apparent situation of Intertops not wanting to send good money after bad.
Here’s the message Intertops sent out to its players, and it’s an eye-opener:
Ever since Intertops accepted the world’s first ever online sports bet in 1996 we have built a reputation as a dependable and serious partner for all types of online gaming. We can already look back upon a long tradition of integrity and satisfied customers around the world.
We want to keep our reputation and continue providing our customers with the service and support that they deserve. Furthermore, we want to be able to continue to guarantee our players their funds and remain one of the most trusted and safe places to play.
In order to achieve the above we have been forced, due to circumstances beyond our control, to make some changes to our segregation.
We know we haven’t been very open with various segregation changes in the past, but this will now change.
So what kind of segregation is in place now? Well, for Intertops the following applies:
Cash Games: All cash games, including and above $2/$4, are segregated from the rest of the network.
Sit n Gos: All Sit n Gos above a $20 buy-in are segregated from the rest of the network, this also includes the double up SnGs.
MTTs: From this weekend on we have also been forced to opt out from all guaranteed tournaments higher than $1000.
We apologize for any inconvenience this might cause. We hope we can clear up a few of the issues over the next coming weeks and get back to where we know we can be. One thing is for sure – we have finished paying for the mistakes of others.
It is important for you to keep in mind that we are in this for the long-run and we will not abandon our players! This will allow us to continue paying your winnings in a very timely manner as we have been doing for the past 17 years!
Best regards,
The Intertops Poker Team
The Intertops history is well-known, and among the longest-running of all online-gambling sites. They’ve also continued to use their own cashier, apart from that used by Lock and other Revolution skins, and have been able to provide much, much faster cashout times in recent years — another hard indication that Lock Poker’s problems in that regard are due to Lock’s own issues.
Intertops also makes up a sizable enough portion of the Revolution Network’s player base that the network itself has made immediate adjustments, by reducing guarantees on a couple of major tournaments by 20% to 25%, effective immediately.
Lock and Revolution have also been in the news again in another player-unfriendly way, by removing their paid-forum support from popular discussion site 2+2. Instead, Lock now operates a Lock-only forum which is only accessible after one generates significant rake (GGR) for Lock, reputed to be $100. In other words, even if you sign up with them, you have to make them money before they’ll speak to you.
The news of the new Lock-only forum was announced in a piece on a favored Lock shill site, Gambling911, which published a multiple-part fluff “interview with Lock CEO Jen Larson a few months back. We’re linking it up just this once because it’s so-o-o-o funny. According to the G911 piece, Lock’s erstwhile PR rep, Shane Bridges, will operate the forum, while G911’s owner Chris Costigan, will also participate. (Here’s a link to the Urban Dictionary’s definition of “shill“; Definition #1 applies.)
The Intertops / Lock situation represents an interesting dilemma — What does a definitely not-rogue site (Intertops) do when it’s trapped into a business relationship with a network gone rogue (Revolution and Lock) that it can’t immediately escape? The recent developments appear to show how the process unfolds, though the end game — that point at which Intertops bolts to another network, can’t be that many months off.
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