New UltimateBet Pros Seek To Calm Cheating Scandal

June 10 - The online poker site, UltimateBet has taken the necessary PR steps to counter the latest cheating scandal in the industry, involving former employees at the site and unsuspecting players who were allegedly cheated out of millions of dollars.

To counter the wave of bad publicity, UltimateBet has signed up two top poker professionals in the industry, Eric "Rizen" Lynch and Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy. Both players command top respect in the poker world and UltimateBet hopes that by them endorsing the poker room, much less damage will be felt overall.

One Wednesday, just one day after his new partnership deal with UltimateBet was announced, Eric Lynch, who cashed five times at the World Series of Poker and made the final table twice, wrote on his blog: "I realize that this decision is not without controversy and I assure everyone it is a decision I did not take lightly. The most important reason for me personally (I cannot speak for the other pros) in that I believe in my relationship with UltimateBet that their management is committed to creating the premier place to play online poker. I believe that the new management 'gets it' and that my input and feedback will be listened to and used to improve the site."

Lynch said that when researching whether the wanted to be associated with UltimateBet or not, prior to signing on with the site, he saw absolutely no red flags that warned him away from the deal. He admitted that he did more detailed research into this decision than he had in any other business venture in his life before signing. "If I had ANY doubts in my mind that going forward that the management team at UltimateBet did not have security as a top priority and that they had the ability to execute those security improvements in the future, we wouldn't be having this conversation because I wouldn't have signed with them," he said.

Meanwhile, WSOP bracelet winner, "Johnnbax" Josephy said on a poker forum: "I have always enjoyed playing at UltimateBet. The interface and the structure are second to none. It is my belief that management is committed to doing the right thing on a going forward basis. Thus I have decided to support them. I will do all I can to ensure that the players really like the improved UltimateBet."