This occurred 2 weeks ago, but I forgot to post about it, so here we are.
Alan Keating, who became known to the public as a really rich mid-30s guy who splashed around a lot of money on high stakes Hustler Casino Live, is mad at them now and claims he's quit the show for good.
Why?
Well, let's go back 19 years to a different story involving some people you probably know better.
In 2004, a gentleman known as Todd "Dan Druff" Witteles showed up on a new but little-used forum called neverwinpoker.com. I was there simply to troll my then-online-rival Dustin "neverwin" Woolf. Neverwinpoker was Woolf's new "fan site", started by his then-unknown friend Bryan Micon. However, once I got there, I stayed around and interacted with a few degenerates and poker fanboys who had shown up out of curiosity. I then directed the tone of the site away from its intended purpose of being a Neverwin fan site, and instead turned it into a brash, free-speech-themed poker forum where almost anything was allowed. I also took serious poker questions (on limit holdem, because that's all I was good at) from anyone who wanted it. Despite having no piece of the site, and no power there, I was the one most responsible for its sudden blowup. I then contributed free content for 2 more years, before realizing I was screwing myself. I asked Micon and Dustin for a piece of the ownership. They told me they appreciated all of my contributions, but politely turned me down. Because I was winning a lot of money in poker anyway, and because I didn't actually have any rights to demand ownership, I put this aside and continued contributing, which was probably a mistake.
Now let's get back to the present.
Alan Keating now basically feels the same way about Hustler Casino Live in 2023 as I did about neverwinpoker in 2006.
He feels that he was largely responsible for it blowing up, including the recent "million dollar buyin game" idea. He also feels that he largely drove the show's popularity, and that it wouldn't be nearly as prominent as it is without his contributions.
He apparently demanded an after-the-fact ownership piece from co-owners Ryan Feldman and Nick Vertucci, but was turned down. In response, he has quit HCL, and claims he will start his own streamed game at some point down the line.
Here was Alan Keating speaking about the matter on Twitter Spaces, two weeks ago:
While I can very much empathize with Keating here, given the massive similarity to my own situation 17-19 years ago, I have to say I'm on HCL's side here. Keating definitely was a popular player and people enjoyed watching him. However, HCL was doing well from day one, and almost immediately became the stream to watch. This was mostly due to the production value, promotion, and Ryan Feldman's talent at setting interesting lineups. I believe Keating did give them some good suggestions, and probably did help their ratings somewhat, but I don't believe he was a game changer. I think he had a positive impact on HCL's popularity, but not to the extent he believes.
It is very difficult to demand after-the-fact ownership in a company where you voluntarily helped them grow, without actually being directly affiliated with them. It's really only possible if you are so important that it would collapse without your presence. Keating's departure will not cause HCL to collapse.
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