Sports Legends Poker Challenge Uses Spam EveryJoe

I had two comments calling my attention to a spamming ring going on with Sports Legends Challenge, an upcoming poker tournament in the Bahamas presented by AbsolutePoker featuring poker pros and former athletes. As the official poker blogger watchdog of tropical sports tournaments everywhere, its my duty to look into these things. Here is my report:

The people promoting the Sports Legends Challenge are spamming forums, YouTube, and Twitter.

One Patrick O’Keefe wrote a blog on the Sports Legends spam about the rampant spam which included his forum.

Observatory Conclusion: They spammed.

Here’s the YouTube video complete with promoter’s Awesome! comments on the YouTube page (not that commenting positively on your own video is spam):

What comes of it: Probably nothing. Spam is a huge problem that is extremely hard to stop. In this case we know the culprits and who they represent so you can consider it another black eye for Absolute.

I don’t share the same outrage because I’m used to people spamming the heck out of me and just skim right past it. The thing is I don’t even know if the spam would help them at this point. When you spam, it doesn’t sound of a legitimate event anyway.

The blogger O’keefe obviously felt strongly about it. I say call out Absolute Poker and make them issue a public apology. I’d enjoy that, but again I am less than shocked. Spam on the net, who would have thunk it?

http://www.patrickokeefe.com Patrick

Thanks for writing about this story, Mr. Jones.

Being a community administrator for around 9 years, I’ve seen my fair share of spam, too. But, in this case, what struck me here was the incredible depth and readily apparent pattern to the spam, allowing it to be tied to the company and, perhaps more importantly, the fact that the tournament was associated with various respected companies and individuals. This isn’t your everyday case of spam where it’s some random website no one knows and is a pretty unique circumstance, in my experience. And, certainly, just because it happens a lot, that doesn’t make it OK or OK for an event that wants to be perceived in a responsible, respectable manner.

Thanks again,

Patrick