Exclusive interview with the Game Integrity Bros team

Author

Vargoso

Published

1/8/2021

Updated

1/29/2021

Although PokerBros was launched after PPPoker and Upoker (they opened their doors in 2019), they have already gained worldwide recognition for developing a cutting-edge app. In this exclusive interview, the Game Integrity Bros team shares with us details of their operation and their results in the last year.

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Disclaimer 1: PokerBros is an online social gaming platform and does not provide any real-money service.

Disclaimer 2: PokerBros is not a sponsor of or in any way involved with this promotional activity, nor does PokerBros endorse it.

What is Game Integrity Bros?

Game Integrity Bros (GIB) is the PokerBros fair-game team. They have invested over one million dollars in recruiting 14 poker experts (developers, players, etc.). Their objective is clear: to detect any form of cheating, including but not limited to chip dumping, collusion, bots, real-time assistance, etc.

"Our mission is to offer the safest platform for people to enjoy the game of poker and ensure nobody gets unfair advantage."

What's more interesting about GIB is that they recruited almost the entire team from MPN after the network closed. Microgaming was known for working hard for the poker ecosystem, under Alex Scott's leadership, who told us before.

"We have a dedicated team of poker integrity specialists and software developers, who work closely together to build detection mechanisms and catch colluders, bot users, and other fraudsters."

Hence, all this experience is now being applied to PokerBros. According to GIB, they identified thousands of cheaters a month, including bots and several collusion cases.

GIB’s main KPI – proactive detection rate – reached 97% in November

Worldpokerdeals (WPD): Is still the team composed of the 14 original members, or has it grown?

Game Integrity Bros (GIB): Our GIB (Game Integrity Bros) headcount is still the same – 14 experienced poker integrity enthusiasts. The only change that has been introduced recently is that a few members have moved from regular investigations to our Bot Detection Unit to streamline and support those operations.

WPD: What have been the results of GIB during the past months?

GIB: We have seen constant progress each month since the team joined PokerBROS in May 2020. As a result, the PokerBROS platform is now safer than ever. This progress comes mostly from the development and refinement of detection tools, which are being smoothly delivered by our designated and extremely professional GIB development team. The team has also put a lot of effort into automation, which allows them to save valuable time, work more efficiently, and scrutinize more accounts on the fly. They are capable of carrying out more proactive investigations now, and this allows them to spot fraudulent behavior and syndicates faster.

GIB’s main KPI – proactive detection rate – reached 97% in November and this is something we are very proud of.

WPD: Please tell us how a regular workday in GIB is.

GIB: The team works in shifts, and usually, 4-5 people are working together in any one shift. They have a centralized and automated dashboard with a ticketing system, which allows them to manage incoming workflow efficiently. This includes various alerts originating from our Live Alerts Engine, which flags suspicious accounts to be reviewed manually, and gameplay and player background requests from our Unions and Clubs. People on shift prioritize cases based on urgency and importance. They then conduct full investigations, sanction accounts, and handle all the related communication. A significant amount of time is spent on reviewing actual hand history logs to identify foul play, collusion, and chip dumping.

The Bot Detection Unit, together with our data analysts, are keeping themselves busy exploring various datapoints and analyzing the entire player population to identify bot farms and accounts using AI assistance.

WPD: What’s the biggest challenge that PokerBros faces today?

GIB: While our bot detection capabilities are in much better shape than most of our competitors, the use of AI and real-time assistance tools remains the biggest challenge for us and for the entire industry as a whole. It is a constant arms race, and in order to come out on top, the team needs to be vigilant in researching how bots evolve and figure out new measures and techniques to detect and prevent them.

Passion, care, and experience: the GIB secret

Game Integrity Bros

WPD: What do you think makes GIB unique?

GIB: Passion and care are the first words that come to mind. Of course, experience in the field (and the team has a lot of it!) is important, but you don’t achieve as much as you could without passion. The team really cares about the integrity of our games and strives for players to have a pleasant experience while playing poker on our platform. Another aspect that distinguishes us from most of the other competitors is that our GIB team have the full backing and support of our management team, who share the same values, have zero tolerance in regards to fraud, strongly believe in the concept of fair play, and invests heavily to achieve the goals we have set ourselves.

There are poker sites out there who bluff about caring about integrity and use it merely as a PR tool, while no actual effort is made to improve integrity. PokerBROS is not one of those sites, we truly care.

WPD: What can you tell us about the future plans of PokerBros?

GIB: From a game integrity perspective, we will keep pushing the gas pedal. We will not settle for what has already been achieved. We will keep on going to reach new heights, to improve our detection capabilities further, advance our tools, and focus on prevention.

WPD: How can a player report suspicious behavior?

GIB: Players should get in touch with the Club they are playing with (whether it be an agent or Club owner/manager) and provide as many details about the suspicion or the incident as possible. This will then get escalated to our GIB team, who will conduct a full investigation and take any necessary measures.

Our players can report any suspicious activity to our team, who will handle the situation with the club.

AI and RTA tools are the most common violation

WPD: What is the most common cheat you detect at GIB (bots, collusion, chip dumping, etc.?)

GIB: While every week, numerous colluders and chip dumpers are detected and locked, running bots and use of AI and RTA tools are the most common violation, constituting around 67% of all banned accounts.

WPD: What do you think of developments like Rebel by Facebook?

GIB: There is no doubt that “Rebel” is powerful and can take down the best players in the world in certain poker formats like HU, but this does not come as a surprise, as it is inevitable that in certain areas, machines will become smarter than humans. Unfortunately, poker is one of those but limited to certain formats only. Luckily, such sophisticated technology is not available to a wider audience (at least not yet), and we are sure they will keep their promise not to release the source code. Even if that were to happen, detection methods are still available regardless of how big of a crusher the bot is.

Commercially available bots are also evolving and it is likely that certain formats that are close to being “solved” will lose their popularity in time (something we have seen happen with FLH for instance).

WPD: If you could send a message to poker software developers (poker trackers, HUD, etc.), what would it be?

GIB: Ease of use and intuitive interfaces for recreational players is key. This will contribute to the growth of games and longer life cycles for the average.

We would like to thank the Game Integrity Bros for their effort to keep the games clean and for the time to answer our questions.

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