Joe Sebok: UltimateBet’s Newest “Get”
One of the brightest stars in the sport’s real-world incarnation, Joe Sebok has recently dedicated himself to making the online poker experience better for millions of players as part of the team at UltimateBet. Why would Sebok, known for his media presence and appearances on hundreds of programs to discuss the sport, sign up to be not only a sponsored professional but a cardroom consultant for the beleaguered poker room that had some setbacks in recent years thanks to a superuser incident? “They told me that they were very interested and initially I was too turned off by the past scandal to even consider it. We kept talking, though, and it quickly became apparent that both [COO of UltimateBet’s parent company, Tokwiro Enterprises] Paul Leggett and I were on the same page with wanting not only to do things completely differently, but also to atone for the way things had been handled in the past. From that point, it was just a matter of getting a few things started to make us both feel comfortable” Sebok said in an interview with Pokernews.com. Sebok has worked closely with UltimateBet over the course of several months to expose those who had access to superuser accounts and continues to make details public when possible. “There are a number of factors which make it tough to release the physical names of the cheaters, but we are working on some of those. The team at UB understands that things were handled poorly in the scandal and are genuinely working to try and correct those mistakes.” In addition to the grinding work related to the superuser issue and its attendant data, Joe’s position as the poker room’s Media and Operations Consultant has helped him shape the poker room’s future in the wake of the security problem. He has spent time in meetings with the heads of marketing, security, and management as well as individual team members to help ensure that the company establishes itself as the safest place to play the game online. As more data is available, Sebok has been issuing updates through his personal website at JoeSebok.com as well as on the UltimateBet blog.