Following some information transpired on a popular posting forum with concern to Royal Sports' ownership The Offshore Wire has received tens of requests to issue a statement with concern to the issue.

 

Royal Sports has been in a slow pay mode since the summer of 2001. These slow pays were ably kept out of sight and off the forums by two very capable Customer Service Managers in service with the book until early July 2003 ; Scotty Johnson and Victor. The average delay was then between 5 to 8 days. I retain hard evidence to support this statement.

 

In the summer of 2003 there was a drastic change in the book's shareholder and management, since 5 of the 6 original American managers left due to the failed merger between Royal Sports and Olympic.

 

Having discontinued the cover up tactics, and given the aggressive smear campaign put in place by departed management now working with other books, the well kept secret related to the slow pay mode quickly surfaced.

 

At the beginning of August 2003 a new ownership took over. I can attest, having remained at the helm of Royal Sports between August and December 7th 2003, that the average payout delay during said timeframe had dramatically dropped from the previous 5 to 8 days to an industry standard of 1 - 2 days.

 

A first significant wake of slow pays took place between end of December 2003 and early January 2004. This event took place primarily because of the lack of completion of the transfer of powers of signature between myself and the newly appointed CEO, Kevin King. This lack of completion occurred due to the premature birth of my son on December 19th 2003 and my impossibility to return to Curacao for the following three weeks.

 

I have not been actively involved with Royal Sports since December 7th 2003, with the exception of having recently provided some well defined consultancy services in relation to the Company's relocation to Costa Rica. These services have been provided between December 15th 2004 thru February 21st 2005, and were strictly limited to the assistance in the negotiations with the landlord and other service providers and the layoff process of personnel in Curacao.

 

I am not aware of any no pay related to Royal Sports. I am aware of some slow pays surfacing every now and then. These slow pays concern wise and sharp action in most cases. Obviously, there is no excuse to slow pay any player, hence The Offshore Wire's Royal Sports rating ( 6 ).

 

To the best of my knowledge, and with the sole exception of the period late December '03 - January '04, it is my understanding that Royal Sports' average payout delay has remained within the terms existing in 2001 / 2002, when Royal Sports was universally praised and recognized as a Top Ten Sports book.

 

Lastly I would like to add that current ownership, in charge since August 2nd 2003 of Royal Sports' ongoing concerns, has fully honored the sale and purchase agreements and has invested relevant amounts to support the book's activities and growth throughout the last 18 months. While I am puzzled about some of their marketing techniques and firmly believe they should be more cooperative and straight forward with their agents and promoters, I see no logical reason for them to jeopardize their huge financial investments at this time nor any time soon.

 

OK, again it seems to be Bash Royal time (again)… amazing.  Is it that selfish, greedy, self righteous people (who are actually simply motivated by fear because their fragile, illusory world is continuously threatened) will go to any lengths to retain market share and/or steer business?  I guess… all is fair in the business world, huh?  When its “them” doing it to “us” the them are “evil liars, etc.”  “When we sorta fade the truth, well, we are the good guys and people would understand if they knew what we are up against.” 

 

But what is the core of this mentality which is likely shared by both sides?  “We have the right to this… they don’t.” 

 

What’s equally amazing is how naïve it is to believe that a fair business world, a world in which free market practices would in fact determine who prospers… even who survives, is the actual playing field shared in this industry.  Shame we should want the product to be the reason a book or Royal for that matter succeeds.  Especially when I’m competing.  It’s far easier to lean on cronyism.  How terrible it would be to expose people who are limited in what they could do… in the role they can play.  But this is what seems to be the core of the western segment of this biz… it’s not what you do or how you do it… its who you know and how you stroke them and visa versa.  Few exceptions, Pinny, etc… but the rest, it’s just “us” and “we” intend to keep it that way.

 

Royal… So the old crew is gone and new players have hit the scene.  It’s just amazing to sit back and watch… watching people use slander instead of refining their competitiveness.  Guys, move on.  We made some mistakes…  those can be overcome.  What would be a fatal mistake is that we didn’t learn.  We have to move on.  It’s obvious the same old sentiment is alive, well and kicking.  Shill and agenda’d posts, when benefiting the “us” are just fine… yet when someone outside the us ever raises some truth, its war all over again.  Move on.

 

What’s really going on here?

 

Is the truth maybe that all we were capable of doing is protecting our crony connections (our bread and butter) instead of having a truly competitive product?  A product that evolves and remains competitive?  A business… not a gang.  That’s the truth I see.  But what do I know anyway?  But maybe I can say it because I was one of the gang who wanted to succeed based on merit, not who I happen to know or be in bed with.  I am certain comments like this are viewed as traitorous.  But what is the definition of friend?  To agree when the agreement sings the commonly accepted mantra?  Or is a friend someone who says what they truly believe.  I prefer friends who are in the latter group even if we agree to disagree.

 

As far as I can tell, Royal is not acting any worse than it did when it eeked through the summer of 1998, when it started to fall apart when I did…, and if anything, at least it has what appears to be actual business principles behind it (finally without inner war).  Something that was avoided by management when I was around based on logic like, “well, its our thing, man and, well, as long as you treat the right people the right way it should all be ok and most certainly should remain our thing.”  Just covers for our own inadequacies and our own shortcomings.

 

Amazing! 

 

Does Tej have equity in Royal?

 

It's not a hard question and they know the answer.

 

I have said from the start, if you are playing with Royal, take advantage of the SGA and OGD protection programs to mitigate your risk.

 

Intuition Bet was about as useless as tits on a bull.  There were several people there, including myself, who called him out every chance that we could, and I don't think any of us were ever banned.  Hell, I don't even think that McIrish liked him, and he probably would have been the guy doing the banning.

 

People get banned for shit they say in the RR.

 

People get banned for shit they say in other forums.

 

On Roberto's post

I like this post and believe it's agreat idea by TOW. I know that TOW does not care what other sites do, but I would like to make this comparison. Some sites started off with great posters but then became a breading ground for scammers. When you have no respect for a site the posts become a joke. Disagreement is great and leads to productivity. I have already had posters disagree with my posts here but have taken none of this personally. I like the approach that TOW has taken.