Poker enthusiasts that became members of PokerGo to watch the World Series of Poker $10,000 Main Event received an unwanted surprise when the final table started. PokerGo blacked out the final table in North America and ma y other countries throughout the world.
Viewers in these countries received the image to the right when trying to tune into the event. While an early press release about the World Series of Poker and PokerGo made it clear where the final table would be viewed, this was not made clear when people signed up for the service.
The official PokerGo Twitter account became inundated with complaints about this as soon as the final table saw cards in the air.
@PokerGO i paid for your service and i cant watch final table in jersey feels scammed😶.
— Hady Sheikh (@SheikhHady) July 23, 2017
“Anytime anywhere, were there”. Seems like it’s not anywhere at any time. Cancelling subscription. Along with many others disappointed.
— Michael madden (@Michaelmaddennn) July 23, 2017
why don’t you just say it’s not available in the US and make it clear in the us version
— The Beed (@therealbeed) July 23, 2017
These are just samples of the numerous tweets from unhappy customers. The reason many said they bought PokerGo is because they did not have cable or satellite. This practice is known as “cord cutting” and is common these days.
Some Americans decided that the solution was to sign up for a free trial at sites like Sling. ESPN and ESPN2 are available on this platform. Residents of other countries were not as likely to have access to this type of temporarily free service. Some suggested using a VPN for countries that were not blacked out, including France.
While these complaints piled up, PokerGo continued to advertise its service to Americans without any mention of the blackout through social media sites like Facebook. Threads on these sites included complaints from players over the blackout issue.
PokerGo has also noted that it will not have video of the Main Event’s final table in the U.S. and other countries affected by the blackout. Those rights also belong to ESPN.