Comments on: Ujogo Launches, Takes Series A Funding And Acquires Gaming Everywhere http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/ Startup and Technology News Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:24:26 -0800 hourly 1 By: Complete List of 2007 Web / Technology Acquisitions » The StartUp Blog at PartnerUp http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-2691947 Complete List of 2007 Web / Technology Acquisitions » The StartUp Blog at PartnerUp Thu, 09 Apr 2009 21:01:56 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/#comment-2691947 [...] games for web browsers and mobile devices. TechCrunch | DMW [...] [...] games for web browsers and mobile devices. TechCrunch | DMW [...]

]]> By: David Mackey http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-1514396 David Mackey Tue, 24 Jul 2007 03:18:18 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/#comment-1514396 Nice. Sounds like Moola. Though I am not a fan of poker (or any card game...except perhaps solitaire...find them boring). Nice. Sounds like Moola. Though I am not a fan of poker (or any card game…except perhaps solitaire…find them boring).

]]> By: Bill Templeton http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-1509169 Bill Templeton Fri, 20 Jul 2007 15:16:48 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/#comment-1509169 "Ujogo aims to provide the thrill of playing at a real-money poker site, without any of the risk" First, isn't this an obvious contradiction? How can "thrill" be decoupled from "risk"? And second, what exactly is the "risk" anyway? It is *entirely legal* for US citizens to play poker online for real money. What the recent legislation (UIGA) addressed is the transmission of funds from individuals to online gambling entities, eg it is directed at the money transmitters, NOT the players and NOT the sites. I'm not saying that this is a bad or unnecessary service, just that if they are trying to address the niche of "giving US poker players a place to play" then that is an erroneous assumption. There are millions of US poker players online every night on sites like Poker Stars, Full Tilt, Ultimate Bet and more and those sites have actually increased business since the law was made. “Ujogo aims to provide the thrill of playing at a real-money poker site, without any of the risk”

First, isn’t this an obvious contradiction? How can “thrill” be decoupled from “risk”? And second, what exactly is the “risk” anyway? It is *entirely legal* for US citizens to play poker online for real money. What the recent legislation (UIGA) addressed is the transmission of funds from individuals to online gambling entities, eg it is directed at the money transmitters, NOT the players and NOT the sites.

I’m not saying that this is a bad or unnecessary service, just that if they are trying to address the niche of “giving US poker players a place to play” then that is an erroneous assumption. There are millions of US poker players online every night on sites like Poker Stars, Full Tilt, Ultimate Bet and more and those sites have actually increased business since the law was made.

]]> By: Alex Notov http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-1508448 Alex Notov Fri, 20 Jul 2007 07:01:52 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/#comment-1508448 From my VentureBeat (http://www.venturebeat.com) comment: I highly doubt this will work. Reading about the “nifty analytical analysis” and the “hands lost to bluffs” section makes me cringe. Poker is a game of partial information. Those who can uncover more information than their opponents and can do their own analysis, do better. Those that cannot, do worse. This is crucial for the game to have winners and losers. One can argue that people widely use analytical and tracking software on existing poker sites for this purpose. Poker sites, however, never offer this capability. It is never in the interest of a poker site to encourage its participants to improve. When games become tougher to beat, the bad players leave. Likewise, the good players leave, because the profitability becomes too little to bother, or entirely nonexistent. Cars and real world tournament entries as prizes? Whom are they kidding. At $1/hr per player divided by two, that’s .50c/hr, per player. How do they intend to generate enough revenue to cover the cost of a $10K tournament entry, much less a car? I highly doubt the success of this site and pity its investors. Then again, if gambling transactions are legalized in the near future in the US, maybe, just maybe, they are positioning themselves at a good time to cash in early. Then again, there’s the flipside. The major poker sites that are currently in rampant existence (although curtailed by the somewhat recent gambling ban), have all the infrastructure in place, and plenty of US based players (even after the gambling transaction ban). These poker sites will crush their competitors so fast (e.g. Ujogo) so quickly, they won’t have time to blink. From my VentureBeat (http://www.venturebeat.com) comment:
I highly doubt this will work. Reading about the “nifty analytical analysis” and the “hands lost to bluffs” section makes me cringe. Poker is a game of partial information. Those who can uncover more information than their opponents and can do their own analysis, do better. Those that cannot, do worse. This is crucial for the game to have winners and losers. One can argue that people widely use analytical and tracking software on existing poker sites for this purpose. Poker sites, however, never offer this capability. It is never in the interest of a poker site to encourage its participants to improve. When games become tougher to beat, the bad players leave. Likewise, the good players leave, because the profitability becomes too little to bother, or entirely nonexistent. Cars and real world tournament entries as prizes? Whom are they kidding. At $1/hr per player divided by two, that’s .50c/hr, per player. How do they intend to generate enough revenue to cover the cost of a $10K tournament entry, much less a car? I highly doubt the success of this site and pity its investors. Then again, if gambling transactions are legalized in the near future in the US, maybe, just maybe, they are positioning themselves at a good time to cash in early. Then again, there’s the flipside. The major poker sites that are currently in rampant existence (although curtailed by the somewhat recent gambling ban), have all the infrastructure in place, and plenty of US based players (even after the gambling transaction ban). These poker sites will crush their competitors so fast (e.g. Ujogo) so quickly, they won’t have time to blink.

]]> By: Duncan Riley http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-1507954 Duncan Riley Fri, 20 Jul 2007 01:56:30 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/#comment-1507954 ogoju (comment 6) They've previously taken angel funding so it would be fair to say it was more that $5000 for their moms. As for the gambling side...I'm a Pokerstars user myself, but not everyone is in to gambling for real money, even if personally I find it more fun :-) ogoju (comment 6)
They’ve previously taken angel funding so it would be fair to say it was more that $5000 for their moms.

As for the gambling side…I’m a Pokerstars user myself, but not everyone is in to gambling for real money, even if personally I find it more fun :-)

]]> By: laxcf http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-1507782 laxcf Thu, 19 Jul 2007 23:47:38 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/#comment-1507782 Thre of the last four comments are truly made with little knowledge of the online games space, people that don't have gambling problems but like to actually play for fun and sites which cater to people of all levels. The mention by Pokerroom is a great job at advertising for another site - way to spend your time. This is beta-launch - for those that don't understand beta get off the net and for those that do go through this site - this team really knows what they are doing and my bet is this site is one of the winners in this space. Thre of the last four comments are truly made with little knowledge of the online games space, people that don’t have gambling problems but like to actually play for fun and sites which cater to people of all levels. The mention by Pokerroom is a great job at advertising for another site – way to spend your time. This is beta-launch – for those that don’t understand beta get off the net and for those that do go through this site – this team really knows what they are doing and my bet is this site is one of the winners in this space.

]]> By: Jon Burke http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-1507729 Jon Burke Thu, 19 Jul 2007 23:03:47 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/#comment-1507729 hey Duncan - alarm:clock reported on ujogo's seed funding in early May here - http://www.thealarmclock.com/mt/archives/2007/05/ujogo_raises_se.html To your question of who did the funding, it came from Dixon Doll's Jrs.'s Longstreet Ventures. The connection is that the founder of the company is DCM Capital partner Eric Gonzalez. Dixon claims the investment here: http://www.linkedin.com/profile?viewProfile=&key=14616&fromSearch=0&sik=1184879461799&split_page=1&rd=in&authToken=27jj52lb0TE7CD_rOMOBkd8gR91hldvhkR1jA4Vhkp4d48Qe3ANdPoNdzgN&authType=NAME_SEARCH&goback=%2Esrp_1_1184879461799_in We don't know how much was raised. hey Duncan – alarm:clock reported on ujogo’s seed funding in early May here – http://www.thea..._raises_se.html

To your question of who did the funding, it came from Dixon Doll’s Jrs.’s Longstreet Ventures. The connection is that the founder of the company is DCM Capital partner Eric Gonzalez. Dixon claims the investment here: http://www.link...184879461799_in

We don’t know how much was raised.

]]> By: duceswildz http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-1507597 duceswildz Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:26:23 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/#comment-1507597 has anyone actually tried to play poker on this site? It's totally unusable. Bad layout, ads everywhere, annoying sounds... Many better options out there. Pokerroom.com being my fav. (yes I know they don't give out "prizes", but at least you can play). has anyone actually tried to play poker on this site? It’s totally unusable. Bad layout, ads everywhere, annoying sounds… Many better options out there. Pokerroom.com being my fav. (yes I know they don’t give out “prizes”, but at least you can play).

]]> By: aksel http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-1507595 aksel Thu, 19 Jul 2007 21:25:06 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/#comment-1507595 yet another site betting da house on ad revenue ... these guys must be very young. yet another site betting da house on ad revenue … these guys must be very young.

]]> By: Olympius http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-1507558 Olympius Thu, 19 Jul 2007 20:55:08 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/#comment-1507558 @ Joe, adding to the dumbest claim, the domain is pretty dumb too! @ Joe, adding to the dumbest claim, the domain is pretty dumb too!

]]> By: Joe http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-1507525 Joe Thu, 19 Jul 2007 20:22:39 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/#comment-1507525 "Ujogo aims to provide the thrill of playing at a real-money poker site, without any of the risk." - dumbest claim I've ever seen a company make on TC. I can't visit this site now on principle alone “Ujogo aims to provide the thrill of playing at a real-money poker site, without any of the risk.” – dumbest claim I’ve ever seen a company make on TC. I can’t visit this site now on principle alone

]]> By: ogoju http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-1507452 ogoju Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:41:25 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/#comment-1507452 round A funding: $5000 from: mom :D seriously, cool looking site. nice training vids. avatar can be worked on some. round A funding: $5000
from: mom

:D seriously, cool looking site. nice training vids. avatar can be worked on some.

]]> By: Life http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-1507440 Life Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:31:59 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/#comment-1507440 Any Nick's blog ??!?!?! Any Nick’s blog ??!?!?!

]]> By: Kaiser http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-1507406 Kaiser Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:08:27 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/#comment-1507406 Congrats to the Ujogo team; Eric, Don and all the other guys. Looking for good things. Congrats to the Ujogo team; Eric, Don and all the other guys.

Looking for good things.

]]> By: laxcf http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-1507395 laxcf Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:02:02 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/#comment-1507395 This site seems great - now we can get back to some poker. It is about getting more people involved and playing on the net. I think these guys found a huge niche and may be the next big user generated site. People play every other multi-user game online without betting - why not poker. Great site. This site seems great – now we can get back to some poker. It is about getting more people involved and playing on the net. I think these guys found a huge niche and may be the next big user generated site. People play every other multi-user game online without betting – why not poker. Great site.

]]> By: SutroStyle http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-1507388 SutroStyle Thu, 19 Jul 2007 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/#comment-1507388 Killed three birds with one stone- launched (i.e. no users, no revenue), took series A, and acquired! Something tells me the bust is near ;) The end of the new 7 year business cycle since 2000. Killed three birds with one stone- launched (i.e. no users, no revenue), took series A, and acquired!

Something tells me the bust is near ;) The end of the new 7 year business cycle since 2000.

]]> By: Ben Yokitis http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/comment-page-1/#comment-1507351 Ben Yokitis Thu, 19 Jul 2007 18:43:25 +0000 http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/07/19/ujogo-launches-takes-series-a-funding-and-acquires-gaming-everywhere/#comment-1507351 I don't know, no gambling poker? What's the point? The training tools videos are pretty cool. I don’t know, no gambling poker? What’s the point? The training tools videos are pretty cool.

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