On Monday, the Only Friends podcast made its triumphant return after more than 18 months off the air – and host Matt Berkey shared new details on why the show shut down in the first place.
In April of 2025, during the 700th episode, Berkey announced that the podcast's run was coming to an end. The studio where Only Friends was recorded was being sold off and the show's lease on the space was being terminated.
"We're getting kicked out. They're evicting us," he said at the time. "We just got our 30-day notice. It's all coming to an end."
In the podcast's return to the airwaves, Berkey described the lease termination as the "primary driver" behind the show's conclusion – but it wasn't the only factor.
Legal dispute played a role in Only Friends end
As it turns out, an extended legal dispute between Berkey and his Solve For Why co-founder Christian Soto also played a role in the show's shuttering.
"The secondary thing was that Solve For Why owned the rights to Only Friends podcast so it was under our larger company and the issue with that was that I had been in an equity dispute with Christian [Soto] for the better part of like a year at that point," Berkey said on Monday's return. "I was of the impression we mutually went our separate ways because he wanted to work for Hybrid Poker, which was MJ Gonzalez's startup at the time."
Hybrid Poker was allegedly offering Soto a lot of money to come aboard and Berkey encouraged him to take the deal, arguing that his equity in their company wouldn't be worth that amount of money "anytime soon."
Berkey thought that was the end of it – but then the lawyers got involved a few months later.
"And then it became a negotiation for how much I would buy him out for," he continued.
Christian Soto (center) took legal action against his Solve For Why co-founder Matt Berkey. Berkey was not open to a buyout as he believed that Soto was in breach of contract by working with a competitor in the space.
The two parties went back and forth for a while, discussing a price for Berkey to absorb Soto's equity, but failed to come to an agreement – partly because the two sides had vastly different valuations for the company.
Dutch Boyd, three-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and Soto's legal representative, believed the company to be worth somewhere in the realm of $5 million.
With the company only pulling in $600,000 in yearly revenue at the time, Berkey argued the figure was substantially smaller and this led to an impasse between the two parties.
"And then... I just get sued. I get sued, the company gets sued," Berkey said.
'Now I own everything again'
So, what was the basis for Soto's legal action?
Berkey had formed a new limited liability company as a way to properly expense anything related to his poker career, rather than being self-employed for tax purposes.
"Like a dummy, I lazily just [named it] Solve For Why LLC," he explained.
And that's where he ran into trouble – because the newly-formed, separate entity had a nearly identical name to the Solve For Why Academy LLC.
"They sued me for breach of contract," Berkey went on. "They were claiming that I was competing against myself basically. And there was a bunch of other... there was like six or seven things that they were suing for, a bunch of them got dismissed, one or two stuck, and it dragged out for like 18 months in court."
By April of 2025, Berkey had had enough and didn't see any point in continuing to fight for a passion project entirely hindered by legal disputes – he wanted out.
"We finally settled out of court and now I own everything again."
At a certain point in the legal dispute, Matt Berkey decided to wash his hands of the situation. Soto walked away with an undisclosed sum – an amount of money that was a "fraction" of what Berkey had offered to pay him years prior.
"So, you're happy with how it all ended up?" asked Brent Hanks.
"No!" replied Berkey.
"Are you guys still friends?" Hanks pressed.
"F**k, no!"
Image of Christian Soto courtesy of Hustler Casino Live.
