PokerStars to Purchase Jivaro?
8 years ago
06 Oct
Speculation that PokerStars could be planning to âmake a moveâ on Icelandic HUD developers Jivaro has begun to emerge on the 2+2 forum.
Coming on the back of last weekâs announcements on â3rd-party software restrictionsâ by PokerStars and other major players in the online market, 2+2 poster âmy_nameaintearlâ posted the following interesting possibility,
âPokerstars making a push to buy Jivaro? With the recent mandates passed down on what is ok per TOS it seems as if they would be the clean favoriteâ.
The idea that PokerStars would in some way âbuy-overâ the HUD developer, or âlicenceâ an integrated version of a âHeadâs Up Displayâ had some posters bemused, coming on the back of the recent âanti-bumhuntingâ rules passed on PokerStars, PartyPoker, MPN and other sites.
Back on 2+2, âHigher Visionsâ had several questions to ask about such a âdealâ.
âIf Stars decided to give everyone a Jivaro-like HUD for freeâ he asked, âwhy would they buy it instead of just making their own? Is just having the rights to Jivaro worth it?â
Questions without clear answers as of yet, but the original poster piped in with
âThere are a few facts mixed in with more rumours that leads me to this conclusion. I'm in the information trading business. I made a reasonable assumption laced with facts to help others understand.â
PokerTubeâs main contact at the Jivaro HQ in Iceland responded to the forumâs âdebateââ by stating,
"We are not going to comment on any of these speculations."
However, he added - somewhat cryptically if we are to give any weight to the online gossip-mongers -
âJivaro was always thought of as an add-on to the poker experience, and to level the playing field with its free version by giving everyone a HUD that was actually easy to use - and powerful.â
This last statement would not be entirely at odds with the rumours currently doing the rounds.
The background to todayâs story lies in the fact that major poker sites have recently begun to implement various restrictions to their online play, such as outlawing seating scripts, preventing hand histories from being stored or downloaded, and banning the more detailed form of HUDâs which industry leaders PokerTracker (PT) and HoldEm Manager (HEM) offer.
PokerStars SNG tournament manager Baard Dahl said last week that,
"HUDs are no longer permitted to display non-numerical data, categorize players or dynamically display statistics specific to a certain situation."
Because Jivaro donât rely on such information in their display, and have not been put on the âbanned or restricted software listâ that Stars have prepared, speculation that the two companies might somehow work together on an integrated HUD exclusive to PokerStars makes a certain amount of sense.
Jivaroâs âclean uiâ has only been developed for PokerStars and Windows OS so far, but it is already being used by some of PokerStars Team pros biggest names, such as Randy âNanokoâ Lew and Bertrand âElkyâ Grospelier
PokerStars online pro Jaime Staples has also been seen regularly employing the popular HUD on his live Twitch streams, and also produced a Jivaro tutorial.
One of the more interesting reasonings for why Jivaro and Stars might work well together as a business deal was given by âSect7Gâ.
âIf recs (recreational players) saw via a HUD that they are playing way looser than the rest of the table they might come to a reasonable conclusion that the reason they are losing consistently is because of their loose passive style. Without a built in HUD (that's free) they likely would never come to this conclusion.â
His view was supported by fellow 2+2 forumite âPasswordGotHackedâ who stated,
âwith the fact that many recs feel that people with a HUD are cheating them⌠Pokerstars could appear as the white knight making it fair for all players by having a default HUD, therefore taking away advantage to those who do not have oneâ.
This fits in well with Sect7Gâs comment,
âSince this HUD will help improve their play, their deposits will last longer and Pokerstars will get a higher percentage of rake compared to them going busto too quicklyâ.
Jivaroâs simplistic, innovative and highly-aesthetic HUD development has been widely praised. The 18-strong team based out of Reykjavik, Iceland have been working on the HUD since 2011 and would appear to have an edge over the mainstays of the HUD market â PT and HEM â in the new âanti-softwareâ landscape.
According to the OP on 2+2,
âthe only downfall at the moment is that there isn't a Mac client available yet. Once this dev (development) is complete the transaction may take placeâ.
Also with the fact that many recs feel that people with a hud are cheating them, Pokerstars could appear as the white knight making it fair for all players by having a default hud therefor taking away advantage to those who do not have one.
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