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.
