Ultimate Poker Predicting A Brighter Future

The USA’s first regulated online poker site, UltimatePoker.com, may currently be suffering from disappointing traffic numbers but the gaming operators’ new chief marketing officer, Tom Kobrin, is predicting a bright future ahead as the company implements a new strategy to elevate the business to a whole new level.
Station Casinos owns Ultimate Gaming which in turn operates the Ultimate Poker brand currently present in both the regulated Nevada and New Jersey iGaming markets. However, in The Silver State UltimatePoker.com has seen its traffic trail off from 220 cash game players over a week to just 55 players, according to PokerScout, while in the saturated Garden State market the site is not showing any player at all, and just 29 players at peak times.
Amongst the reasons cited for Ultimate Gaming’s poor performance are geo-location and payment processing issues, unattractive software and a lack of promotional offers with any real draw. However, as Tom Kobrin commented recently on a cardschat interview, Ultimate Gaming has had to start from a disadvantage position and “didn’t have the advantage of partnering with a Borgata or WSOP that had very well-known, trusted, land-based platforms with huge databases of poker players.”
Ultimate Gaming also has had to contend with the departure of Terrence Chan, its former Director of Player Operations who was well-known on the poker forums for his tireless efforts improving the company’s relations with its players. The appointment of Ali Hajjafar in his stead now also appears to be having a positive effect, and as Hajjafar explains:
“He [Chan] felt that I would continue his vision. We take pride in how quickly player issues are addressed, answering emails in under 20 minutes and handling most issues quickly by live chat or phone. We are IT people and poker experts, and it shows in our ability to handle player problems and questions.”
Improved customer service, coupled with a number of upcoming live and online poker promotions, and a soon-to-be released software update appears to have given Tom Kobrin confidence the company is now on the right tracks and will soon experience an uptick in its traffic volume.
“Players will see big improvements to our product in the near future, as well as the top customer service they’re used to,” commented Kobrin.