Cyberarts chosen to power new online poker site

The play-for-fun online poker site owned by Canadian sports television network The Score re-launched its revamped and re-powered website this week. The site is supported by advertising, and the games now come from software poker gaming experts Cyberarts.

ScorePoker.com was on the Tribeca network up until its sale to Playtech and withdrawal from the US market. The site is committed to providing players with an exclusively play-for-fun poker room experience although prizes can be won.

Built with the sports fan in mind, ScorePoker.com features the famous Score ticker to keep players up on all the latest sports scores, news and information during their visit.

ScorePoker.com is operated by Score Media Ventures Inc. and AGN Partners Limited and is powered by software owned by CyberArts Licensing LLC and used under license. The advertising idea comes from former Tribeca Tables managing director Todd Walderman, who has experience as chief technical officer of Advertising.com, and Bob Williams, who was brand manager for the Tribeca Tables network.

Walderman spoke about the new site, saying: "The CyberArts technology is a perfect fit because of the way the client user interface is rendered on the screen. It's extremely dynamic. The screen is rendered onto the player's computer at the time of delivery, and any other advertising messages or media content or game types are delivered as individual components visible to the players. It's unique and perfect for the delivery of marketing messages, whether they be banners, contextual advertising or even video or audio content."

Brendan Fyfe, director of product development at The Score, is confident its mostly 18-34-year-old male viewers will accept advertising around their games. "People who go to NASCAR races understand that their race series would not be possible without those sponsors," he said. "Our players understand that our free poker model would not move forward without the support and participation of the advertisers. We have had nothing but really positive feedback so far."