Type Private Founded 2002 Headquarters Isle of Man | Industry Poker Founder Antanas Guoga | |
Key people Jon Squires (CEO)
Jon Sykes (Director)
David Bufton (CFO)
Justinas Bėčius (CTO)
Matthew Parvis (Editor-in-Chief/CCO) | ||
PokerNews is a website dedicated to providing poker enthusiasts with a place they can find industry news, live tournament coverage, strategy, player interviews and videos, podcasts, and information on bonuses and freeroll tournaments available at online poker rooms.
Contents
Antanas "Tony G" Guoga, a Lithuanian-Australian businessman, founded the site in 2002. Gouga bought the domain name PokerNews.com for $6,000, hired a couple of programmers to set up the site, and began publishing articles.
International Editions
In November 2005, PokerNews launched its UK edition. In January 2006, the Swedish language site was launched. In May 2006, another Scandinavian site launched as PokerNews Norway. One month later, a Greek edition was added to the PokerNews global network. The language expansion continued with the launch of a Danish language site in August 2006. In January 2007, the site released a new edition written exclusively in Hebrew as PokerNews Israel. Also that month, a Romanian language site called PokerNews Romania launched. In April 2007, Czech Republic was launched as PokerNews Czech. The Bulgarian version was launched in May 2007, followed by a Slovenian version. In October 2007, the site's global reach expanded again with the addition of PokerNews Ukraine. PokerNews also offers native language sites in Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy, Russia, Poland, Australia, China, Portugal, Japan, Norway, and more.
Contributors
PokerNews employs a number of poker editors and writers that bring its readers news and gaming coverage. Active editors include: Giovanni Angioni, Jason Glatzer, Frank Op de Woerd, Mo Nuwwarah, Matthew Pitt, and Martin Harris. PokerNews also employs contributors from various countries that help put together its global coverage.
The PokerNews video team, which travels all over the world covering events, features Sarah Grant as the on-camera host. Sarah was a former film industry professional before the end of the 2011 WSOP, when she was offered a full-time position as a video host for PokerNews and PokerStars.
Live reporting
In May 2007, PokerNews was named the exclusive Live Reporting Partner to World Series of Poker, replacing previous partner Card Player magazine. PokerNews produces and provides live play-by-play updates and chip counts for publication on the World Series of Poker website, as well as on PokerNews.com. The partnership has continued for over 7 years. PokerNews has covered events all over the world including those on the European Poker Tour, Asia Pacific Poker Tour, Caribbean Poker Tour, World Poker Tour, Aussie Millions, Latin American Poker Tour, UK and Ireland Poker Tour, National Heads-Up Poker Championship, and of course the World Series of Poker.
Lederer Files
On Saturday, September 8, 2013, PokerNews' Head of Content Matthew Parvis conducted an exclusive interview with Howard Lederer that was released as a seven-part series titled, "Lederer Files". During the seven-hour interview, Lederer discussed the collapse of Full Tilt Poker, the board, the investors, Ray Bitar, Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey, Black Friday, and more. Each episode was roughly 30 minutes in length.
MyStack App
Released in May 2013, the PokerNews MyStack App is a mobile application that directly links poker players to the PokerNews live feed. If a player is participating in a tournament that PokerNews is live reporting from, he or she will have the ability to update his or her own chip counts, post comments, and share photos with other PokerNews readers from around the world. These player-generated updates link directly in to the PokerNews live reporting feed. The mobile application is downloadable for iPhone and Android.
Awards
In 2013 and 2014, PokerNews received the honor of the Best Poker Affiliate awarded by iGB Affiliate taking into account criteria such as web traffic, innovation, and reputation with players, and brand power. In February 2015, PokerNews was awarded the title of Best Affiliate in Poker. In February 2016, PokerNews was awarded the title of Best Affiliate in Poker for the fourth consecutive year.