Prominent poker pro and social media talent agent Scott Ball has filed a lawsuit against Americas Cardroom (now ACR Poker) and its CEO, Phil Nagy, alleging breach of contract and non-payment of fees due to several influencers who promoted Americas Cardroom on several gaming and social media platforms.
The lawsuit, filed in San Diego County Superior Court of California by Ball and his agency, End Game Talent, LLC (EGT), asserts that Nagy and Americas Cardroom ghosted Ball after paying only a tiny portion of a $29.7 million contract with End Game Talent to enroll the influencers, including Alexandra Botez. The civil action also asserts that Nagy and ACR have subsequently defamed Ball and his agency by falsely and publicly claiming that the unpaid millions owed to the influencers were the fault of Ball, not of Nagy or ACR.
Ball's lawsuit names Nagy and Americas Cardroom as defendants, along with ACR business entities Foozle Ventures N.V. and International Processing Services, S.A., which are registered in Curacao and Panama, respectively. Though Ball lives in Minnesota, the case was filed in California, where EGT is registered. Ball is the sole owner of the agency.
The action was filed on Tuesday, December 24, and asks for "at least $30 million" in damages. An initial hearing for the case has already been scheduled for July 18, 2025.
Ball offers details of recruiting contract with ACR
The heart of the 17-page complaint details the agreement between EGT and ACR, with several appendices attached to the complaint offering supporting documentation. Ball began working with Nagy and ACR in July of 2021 and was tasked with running multiple marketing campaigns, including the recruitment of social media influencers to promote the ACR online poker brand and site.
The various deals worked out between Ball and ACR were formalized through a series of 'Insertion Orders,' or IOs, that detailed the campaigns assigned and the financing due to Ball and EGT. The agreement involving the still-unpaid influencers dates from April of 2023 and is attached as an appendix to the primary complaint.
Non-payment allegedly began almost immediately
The agreement, according to the complaint, called for total compensation of $29.7 million, consisting of nine monthly $3.3 million installments beginning on June 1, 2023, and ending on April 1, 2024. However, according to Ball, issues and delays arose almost immediately.
Ball and EGT worked directly through Americas Cardroom’s Chief Marketing Officer, who, in early June, asked for the first installment to be broken into three weekly $1.1 million payments, to be followed by a two-month pause and then a resumption of the remaining monthly installments. The reason given was that ACR "need[ed] to 'slow down' its prize pools and bounties" payouts.
The three $1.1 million installments, done using Bitcoin (BTC), were made on June 6, June 12, and June 19 of 2023. However, according to Ball's action, those were the only payments on the $29.7 million deal that Ball and End Game Talent ever received. Ball claims that Nagy ghosted him entirely from that point onward, while in July of 2023, an ACR representative messaged Ball on WhatsApp to explain that ACR "was 'still low on BTC' and unable to make payments."
By September, Ball's messaging to ACR became increasingly urgent. “There are influencers and employees I need to get paid," Ball wrote. "This is how my employees, including myself, provide for our families. I have heard from you one time since August 11. I need to get this processed and know what’s going on. Being left in the dark/ghosted here is a really shitty feeling.”
Two weeks later, Ball wrote, “Bear in mind there’s technically a contract signed for $30m that has one payment made already too. I get future stuff needs to be cancelled, but the fact is we were ghosted/left entirely in the dark and left with 0 time to prepare for that to be dropped. Now we just want people square.”
Influencers made matter public
The issue with IO-9 and the $29.7 influencer campaign was certain to become public at some point, and it also emerged that previous influencer campaigns had also included some slow-pay/no-pay issues. Influencer Ludwig Ahgren publicly blasted ACR over non-payment, though it appears he was eventually paid.
That led to public mudslinging, with Nagy appearing on an August episode of the Only Friends podcast hosted by Matt Berkey. Ball's lawsuit alleges that Nagy's comments on the podcast and elsewhere defamed Ball and EGT, and are another cause of action listed in the complaint.
Ball's complaint includes several quotes from Nagy's Only Friends appearance: “'Of all the things I’ve been dragged for in the past, this one feels like gross negligence on Endgame’s part', said Nagy, despite the fact that Nagy was well aware of Plaintiffs’ diligent performance under the Insertion Orders."
The alleged false claims continued, according to the complaint. "Nagy also falsely insinuated that payments had already been made, stating, 'Meanwhile, I’ve got my lawyer trying to negotiate with these agencies. I’ll be damned if I have to pay for something twice.' This statement falsely implies that Americas Cardroom had fulfilled its financial obligations to Plaintiffs and that any payment issues were the result of Plaintiffs' actions or mismanagement. In reality, Defendants had failed to honor their payment obligations under IO-9, causing significant operational and reputational harm to Plaintiffs."
Loaded LLC judgment against EGT
Ball had previously shown reluctance regarding the filing of an action against Nagy and Americas Cardroom, which is described in the lawsuit as a "fictional" business. (The site's current brand name, ACR Poker, is not mentioned in the complaint.) The core issue, as one would expect, is the difficulty in collecting an international judgment even if victorious. Nagy is a US citizen but lives in Costa Rica, and all of the ACR corporate entities are also domiciled outside the States.
Ball's complaint includes a text exchange he had with Nagy following the ACR CEO's Only Friends appearance:
"Indeed, Defendants and their agents were so conscious of the falsity of their representation that Nagy himself sent Ball a message shortly after the podcast, asking if he was 'ok.' After Ball responded, noting that Americas Cardroom had 'just lied about [him] publicly for an hour' and 'talked shit about [him], defamed [him] and continued to paint [him] as the bad guy,' Nagy shot back, 'Lfg [i.e., let’s fucking go]' and 'sue me.'"
The exchange came not long after a Los Angeles agency representing one or more of the influencers who contracted with Ball and EGT, Loaded LLC, was granted a default judgment in June for $718,331. Los Angeles County court records show that in late November, Ball and EGT filed a motion to have the judgment set aside or vacated. The judgment, combined with Nagy's alleged defamation and defiance, may have brought the situation to its legal breaking point.
Feature image courtesy of Triton Poker/Phil Nagy.
