Launching a new online poker site is not for the faint of heart. Technical hurdles, regulatory red tape, and marketing challenges are just some of the key obstacles to overcome, but in a sector dominated by a few big names there’s another, perhaps more important question: What can you offer that the competition can’t?
'Putting players first’ is an overused phrase in the market, as every operator claims to have your best interests at heart — even when making decisions that appear to be clearly aimed at maximizing profits.
But what if profits for the operator directly benefited the players at the table? Creating a product that is additive to the poker community, rather than extractive, was a fundamental driver for the creators of Phenom Poker when it launched a year ago.
“Sometimes when you play on other sites it feels like there’s some guy getting rich off of every button you click,” Phenom Poker co-founder Matt Valeo tells PokerOrg. “But what if you could be a player and the house?”
It’s a tough trick to pull off, but with the likes of top players like Brian Rast, Dan ‘Jungleman’ Cates and Ben Heath on side, it feels like if anyone can come close it should be Phenom Poker.
With their first year of operation behind them, we caught up with Valeo for an up-close update on where Phenom is now, and where it’s going.
No Blockchain experience required
“There have been some unexpected challenges relating to the technologies we're using,” confesses Valeo, highlighting one of many innovations Phenom has brought to the table: a focus on decentralization, Blockchain and a novel shared ownership model.
“We have a very complex system that involves centralized components, decentralized components, Blockchain components, and getting everything to work together reliably — and then work in a way that doesn't require the end user to be a Blockchain expert, is not an easy task.”
As we outlined in our previous interview with Valeo, published the very day Phenom Poker launched in 2024, the platform is crypto-based and leans heavily on new and developing technology. But the goal is not to be the best site in terms of tech, but in terms of player experience.
It’s a familiar claim, but one where Phenom Poker is putting its money where its mouth is — literally — thanks to its Phenom Token shared ownership model, a form of rakeback or loyalty system that allows players to collectively accrue up to a 50% stake in the business.
Of course, not everyone is going to be comfortable with crypto, or even interested in the token system. And that’s fine, too.
“Some players completely don't understand the value of Phenom Token and how it works,” Valeo explains. “They don't want to go through the trouble of reading all the material, they just want to play poker.
“We have to find that balance of catering to the players who want to take advantage of that ownership opportunity, as well as the players that just want to show up and have a great poker experience, or players that care about something else.
“There are a lot of different types of players,” Valeo continues. “Some think it's really cool that they can use something like PolygonScan to see that their funds are always there. Some just want to pay a lower rake. Some just want to play on a site that listens to them. What's most important is going to vary depending on the player.”
And what’s most important to Phenom Poker is ensuring that, whatever your priorities, they’re addressed.
“We care about all players as a community, and we want to listen to what's important to them, because if we build something that we think is cool but nobody else does, we're not really accomplishing anything, right?”
Building the right community
It’s a sword that cuts both ways, though. As Valeo points out, when building a community the people you leave out can be as important as those you welcome in.
“We do the KYC [Know Your Customer verification] process upfront, which might not seem like a good thing on the surface, because it's a lot harder to grow that way. We could probably be 3 to 5 times bigger right now if we just removed upfront KYC.
“But you can't be serious about security if you don't know who's playing. Someone could get caught cheating or using RTA [real-time assistance], you ban them, and they just create a new account.
“I don't care how much rake someone's generating, and I don't care how much action they're giving; if they're acting maliciously towards other players, they do not belong on Phenom Poker, period.
“There is no leeway, there is no compromise there. If that’s your intention, we just don't want you here.”
Mixed game paradise?
Building a healthy community is a theme that runs through much of what Phenom Poker is on track to achieve, from the ownership model, increased transparency, and tightened security right through to its generous offering of mixed games.
It’s rare — if not completely unheard of — for an online poker site to spread games like dramaha, badeucey 2-7, Archie 66 and badacey A-5. But fire up the lobby, and you’ll find plenty of options to play these and other lesser-spotted variants.
And again, the impetus springs from a desire to simply give players what they want — and what they can’t get elsewhere. It doesn’t hurt that the majority of key decision makers at the company are players themselves.
“We wanted to have mixed games available at the start, because when you're launching a new poker site and you're coming to market, it's extremely difficult to find that critical mass and early liquidity, and we thought it would just be a really natural thing to tap into the mixed game community, because it’s our community.
“These are players that we play with regularly, that we know, that we see at the World Series every year, but there’s no home for them online. Other operators just ignore that group, which sucks because some of these guys are the best players in the world.
“So we wanted to have a home for mixed game players, but our grand vision is for Phenom Poker to be the home of any poker player, of any skill level, at any stake, at any place in the world. Some place to go that's fair, transparent, secure, listens, and puts the community first.
“Mixed games was kind of a natural niche for us to focus on first, but our brand vision is to have a large no-limit and pot-limit offering and just really to spread the games that players want to play.”
‘Pay to see people’s cards? Why the f*** would anyone ever do that?’
Helping to shape that vision are a number of high-profile ambassadors with deep roots in the game, from the aforementioned Rast, Cates and Heath to the likes of Viktor Blom, Angela Jordison and Sergio Aido.
“I don't look at them as just ambassadors,” says Valeo. “We really wanted to find the people that could bring a lot of integrity, experience, and also be a voice for the different types of players. We also wanted people that weren’t just going to be like, ‘Okay, how much are you going to pay me? What do I have to do?’
“There are plenty of brands out there that'll give you a contract to be a paid shill for some period of time; if that's your thing, then go for it. But we want people that really believe in and have an interest in what we're trying to accomplish, want to be involved in it, and are going to be proud to support it.”
Having authentic player input — and not just walking billboards wearing the patch — is something in which Valeo places a lot of importance and helps to underline the different tone Phenom Poker is attempting to strike in the industry.
“When you think about what a poker site is and how revenues are generated, to really think through a model that is going to add to the community and not extract from it, and not have competing interests with the players, this is a really delicate thing.
“It’s not easy to do, but that’s why we have someone like Brian Rast as an ambassador — because he's really freaking smart. He's a guy that likes to think on multiple levels, likes to go really deep on things, and is also going to push back and challenge if we put something out there that's clearly not aligned with the players."
“For example — and not to throw a competitor under the bus — but we see some of these features get launched, like, ‘Oh hey, how about we pay 3 big blinds to show everyone's cards?’, and we’re like, ‘Why the f*** would anyone ever do that?’ And the answer can only be that there are no poker players in those meetings.
“If this feature gets past the product team, the feature team, and into development without anybody stopping it, there can’t be any real players in that loop.”
A new hope
With a clear roadmap of improvements in the pipeline, from downloadable desktop clients to gameplay features like run-it-twice and run-it-three-times, tournament series, bad-beat jackpots, and new game formats, Phenom Poker is doing everything in its power to drive home its USP.
It boils down to that old, corny phrase we’ve heard many, many times before, but never quite with the conviction embodied by the actions Phenom is taking in this difficult, competitive market: putting players first.
“Look around and you're going to see high rake and no consideration for players’ needs and demands,” says Valeo. “Rake traps and operators that prioritize profit over everything else, and we think the players deserve better.
“That's our biggest differentiator, and everything else is a function of that. Take our token model, for example: that exists because we wanted to figure out a way to build value and then to keep that value within the poker ecosystem.
“We never want to put profits before the community. The second we do, we’ll have gone from being the Rebellion to the Empire, and I'm not interested anymore.”
The saga continues at Phenom Poker. Check it out for yourself here.
