Scott Ball accused of stealing money meant for influencers who promoted ACR

[Dan Druff]

High stakes cash player Scott Ball has faced some allegations of impropriety over the years, but the allegations were never articulated clearly, and we never were presented with substantial proof. The last round of allegations came in 2021, but he mostly escaped those unscathed, and there hasn't been much said about him since.

Until now.

Ball, whose Twitter is @EndGameScott, ran a talent agency called "End Game Talent". End Game Talent signed various poker-interested social media influencers, such as Alexandra Botez, Ludwig Ahgren, and "Wubby", to promote ACR.

These influencers promoted ACR as agreed, but are now alleging that they weren't paid.

Eventually Ludwig got paid, after hassling ACR itself over the matter, but the rest apparently did not.

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https://twitter.com/SrslySirius/status/1827033624920912146

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https://twitter.com/alexandrabotez/status/1827163824161747030

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https://twitter.com/alexandrabotez/status/1827169908024865230

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https://twitter.com/Slyotic/status/1827861901302214960

clarifying some points here
1) the payments were handled through the sole agency ACR contracted at the time, End Game
2) the payment, if i remember correctly, was over a year late
3) when i tried going through ACR directly the head of End Game found out and called me and told me he and the CEO of ACR were very good friends and that was foolish of me
4) i was paid out shortly after and never did another deal with either groups
5) the payouts were more difficult from ACR back when i was playing (2020) and many people say good things about the speed of payouts now
6) this was my experience from years ago unsure how either entity operates now

ACR issued this statement:

ACR Poker engaged a third-party agency to arrange brand marketing by streamers they purported to represent. Every streamer worked under their own talent agency. ACR paid the central agency, which was to pay the streamers through their respective talent agents.

That arrangement unfortunately ended with serious disputes about whether the central agency stiffed or underpaid the various talent agencies or their individual streamer clients.

ACR stands by our positive track record with sponsored players, marketing campaigns, and streamers' talent agencies. The company that reportedly failed to pay talent agencies is believed to have been sued by the streamers' talent agencies.

Scott Ball gave a strange response to the above statement, via his Twitter:

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https://twitter.com/EndGameScott/status/1828245428124438919

This response appears to be a creative and transparent attempt at obfuscation and deflection, drafted by someone who seems to be unfamiliar with the facts of the matter. A complete and correct accounting of the ACR-third-party and influencer dealings would provide a more interesting and relevant read. I would be happy to send materials in my possession - including contracts and communications - to a neutral third party to assess if ACR approves of that action and agrees to do the same. A caveat of this offer would be that all the materials we submit would be available to the public. Interested parties may DM me.

I attempted to respond to Ball and offer to be the neutral third party he mentioned, but I didn't get an answer.


End Game Talent's website has been down for awhile.

poker.org found that LA County court records show a default judgment against End Game from June 2024 for $718,331. This was for breach-of-contract lawsuit, and was filed by Loaded, LLC, another talent agency for streamers.

[Dan Druff]

I believe the influencers, and I believe ACR.

Ball seems like a shady guy, and his lack of real denial here speaks volumes.

The (unrelated?) court judgment against him in June for $718k, plus the apparent end of his company, also suggests he's the one in the wrong.

Barring Ball showing proof that he actually paid the influencers on time and as agreed, I think it's safe to assume that ACR paid Ball, and then he didn't pay the influencers as promised -- or at least not within any reasonable amount of time.

However, there remains a second matter worth discussing here.

If we assume that Ball stiffed these influencers, is it ACR's moral responsibility to pay them, even if they already paid Ball and he misappropriated the funds?

In my opinion, the answer is: "It depends."


If these influencers were regularly or semi-regularly working under Ball, then their dealings are with him, and ACR is just a customer. So they shouldn't expect ACR to cover money stolen by Ball.

However, if this was a one-time deal where End Game (Ball) rounded up poker-playing influencers, set up a deal for them to promote ACR, and then he didn't distribute payment received from ACR and kept it himself, then ACR should do the right thing and pay them. Why? First off, it's bad optics. The last thing they should want would be big names like Ludwig getting on YouTube and bashing them as dishonest/shady. Second, ACR should bear some moral responsibility regarding not verifying End Game's stability, legitimacy, and likelihood of actually paying the influencers. There's no reason that Ball should have been handling all the money! They should have directly paid the influencers, and then paid Ball his cut separately. Their failure to do this is somewhat on them.

Regarding the above paragraph, I am speaking morally (and what makes the best business sense), not necessarily legally.

There's a lot of talk of, "Why don't they just sue ACR?" and "Why don't they just sue Scott Ball", but it's not that simple. Ball might be broke (notice there's already a $718k judgment against End Game), and ACR can't be sued because they're not a US company.

[ftpjesus]

Once again ACR is blaming somebody else. That POS Nagy has nothing to stand on. He lied about the Crypto provider theft when it finally was pretty obvious THEY OWNED the rogue crypto processor themselves add that to the bots issue and the shitty customer service and I have less then zero fucks to give what Phil Nagy has to say on anything. I don’t deny having a nasty bias against ACR but it’s for damn good reasons given all the evidence. Had to laugh some idiot on Poker Uncensored claimed ACR was regulated. Idiot didn’t even know that Costa Rico data processing license is about as valid a regulatory agency as a roll of charmin.

[Dan Druff]

Scott Ball gives his side: https://www.pokernews.com/news/2024/...ents-46916.htm

[haleylh]

Ball has filed a lawsuit against Nagy, ACR, and two ACR corporate concerns.

https://www.poker.org/latest-news/sc...-aqGQv6t2LVAr/

[Dan Druff]

Ball has filed a lawsuit against Nagy, ACR, and two ACR corporate concerns.

https://www.poker.org/latest-news/sc...-aqGQv6t2LVAr/

Thanks for the update.

Ball also contacted me awhile back and said he wanted to talk to me and give me his side, but then it never happened.

It would be interesting if Ball were actually the one in the right all along, and Nagy just stiffed him (and the influencers) the entire way.

If that were the case, why didn't Ball just put the proof out there right away, rather than let everyone assume he was the thief? Ball did ask Nagy if both sides could just drop everything out there, but oddly otherwise refused to post this proof if Nagy didn't agree to such terms. That never made sense to me. It would have been Ball's right to present the public with proof of an unpaid obligation on ACR's part, which was being blamed on him.

I am starting to change my view on this, though. I am starting to thing Nagy had some (or a lot of) fault in this.