Dan Fleyshman, the former CEO of Victory Poker was recently named as the new head honcho at Ivey Poker
Despite Phil Ivey still having overall control of the free play poker and training site, Fleyshman will now lead the site into 2015.
For those that aren’t familiar with Dan Fleyshman, he is the youngest ever founder of a publicly traded company. An initial job as a retailer was followed by the foundation of an energy drink company called Who’s Your Daddy.
A Move into Poker
After selling his stake in the company, Fleyshman went on to launch Victory Poker in 2010. Originally seen as an online poker site with a lot of potential, the impact of Black Friday was enough to force it to close.
However, before the brand was dissolved, the site boasted a number of high profile pros, including Andrew Robl, Antonio Esfandiari and Dan Bilzerian who also acted as co-founder. In fact, after closing down Victory Poker, Fleyshman kept in contact with the poker world and will now use his business experience to lead Ivey Poker into a new era.
Following the disappointment of Victory Poker, Fleyshman stated that he was finished with the poker industry. In fact, in a blog post written after he closed Victory Poker’s doors, Fleyshman confessed that he was ’emotionally done with continuing a poker site after Black Friday.’
Stepping into 2015
However, it seems that his latest business move will take him right back into the fray and, possibly, in the jaws of the US online poker industry. Last month Ivey Poker’s social gaming platform was shut down but according to a message on the site, the closure is only temporary. Now it seems that with Fleyshman at the helm, the site will have an altogether different vibe when it re-launches.
‘The closure is the first step in our evolution as we prepare to launch an even bigger and better gaming experience for you all in 2015,’ read a statement on the site’s forum.
Quite what the temporary closure means for players is unclear, but following the appointment of Fleyshman, some members of the industry are speculating that Ivey Poker will follow the likes of PokerStars and 888 into the real money arena.
Not only that, but with a footing in the social gaming world already forged, Ivey Poker could also be looking to optimise its platform for mobile players. Again, although nothing has yet been confirmed, the play money poker site could take a leaf out of products such as mobile Betfair Casino and open itself to an entirely new gambling demographic. Of course, such a shift would make the platform almost unrecognisable to the one that closed its virtual doors in October, but there’s no doubt that a mobile platform boasting both poker and casino games would be very much in keeping with the industry’s latest trends.
More Changes Afoot
On top of Ivey Poker’s recent appointment, there’s also speculation that the poker pro’s training site, Ivey League, will also be closing for improvements in the coming weeks. Although this news hasn’t been confirmed, there have been rumblings across various forums that the site will be re-launched under a different guise.
Adding to that speculation, Fleyshman tweeted soon after his appointment as CEO that Ivey’s online poker brand could be in for some exciting developments in the coming months.
‘Expect to see a dozen product extensions from Phil Ivey and a major rollout by the all-star team we’ve put together for Ivey League 2015.’
Of course, whether Ivey Poker becomes a platform similar to ones such as mobile Betfair Casino remains to be seen. However, if it does, then it will certainly be interesting to see how the game’s biggest player fares against the industry’s biggest corporate players.
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