Mike McDonald's PokerShares Poker Betting Platform to Fold in 2024
December 30, 2024 Jon
Sofen Senior Editor U.S.
PokerShares, known as the 🧲 prominent sports betting platform,
will cease to exist in January, the company announced in a five-part Twitter thread
Wednesday.
The website 🧲 was founded by former poker pro Mike "Timex" McDonald, an avid
gambler and investor. PokerShares allowed players and fans to 🧲 wager on various poker
events and tournaments such as the Doug Polk vs. Daniel Negreanu heads-up challenge,
along with high 🧲 rollers and more.
All Good Things Must Come to an End
McDonald launched
the site in early 2024, and the main purpose 🧲 for PokerShares was to give fans and
investors an opportunity to have some skin in a poker contest even when 🧲 they weren't
playing. Users could purchase virtual shares of a certain player in a tournament. The
gambling platform was also 🧲 useful when it came to wagers traditional bookies didn't
offer, such as Polk vs. Negreanu and all the other heads-up 🧲 challenges from the past
couple of years.
But after five years, McDonald decided it's time to fold. PokerShares
announced its decision 🧲 to call it quits starting sometime next month, but didn't
provide specific details as to why, just a general comment.
It 🧲 has been a rewarding
experience to help make the poker staking market more efficient, give fans at home more
ski… 🧲 //t.co/1jnbMIXSUd — PokerShares (@pokershares)
The @pokershares Twitter
account continued: "As time has progressed our team has grown more focussed on other
🧲 ventures, and grown further removed from the ins and outs of top-level poker, as well
as found regulatory limitations have 🧲 limited our ability to continue growing our
business effectively."
The site will discontinue accepting wagers and staking effective
in January, but 🧲 customers can still cash out any remaining funds through the month of
March.
McDonald, one of poker's most successful investors and 🧲 prop bettors, is
apparently more focused on his numerous other ventures, such as NFT's and
cryptocurrency.
Max Silver, who won a 🧲 World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet in 2024,
joked about the downside to PokerShares shutting down.
What a great day for 🧲 medicore
regs who once won a named tournament //t.co/zLChMH3RE9 //t.co/9fTuksXZI5 —
Max Silver (@max_silver)
Nikolai Yakovenko (@ivan_bezdomny) wrote, "Thanks for having
🧲 this up for our enjoyment," as a quote tweet in response to the PokerShares
announcement. At the time of publishing, 🧲 there weren't many other comments of note
related to the news.
Sharelines Find out details on the @pokershares closure in this
🧲 article.
