Breakout Gaming Uses Star Power for New Cryptocurrency Poker Site

October 17th, 2014 | by Brian Corlisse

Breakout Gaming launching cryptocurrency site

Breakout Gaming promises a dedicated site offering poker and casino games played using a brand new cryptocurrency. (Image: Breakout Gaming)

Breakout Gaming is launching a cryptocurrency gaming site that will run using its own dedicated currency, known as Breakout Coin (BRO), and the company has brought along some big names to help it promote the site. Plans are to offer a poker room, 88 casino games, fantasy sports and more on the new site, which is expected to launch soon after an initial coin offering for BRO on October 21.

Breakout has brought along some of the biggest “old school” names in poker in order to help promote the new site. Johnny Chan, Layne Flack, Huck Seed, Ted Forrest, Todd Brunson, Jennifer Harman and David Benyamine are among those that have been retained as brand ambassadors.

Initial Coin Offering Scheduled

When the initial coin offering goes live on the 21st, interested individuals will be able to purchase a limited number of BRO by exchanging Bitcoin for BRO, with early investors receiving a small bonus to their exchange rate.

This initial offering will represent 4.5 million BRO, or about 21 percent of the coins the company expects will ultimately be on the market within two years. Other coins will be awarded through giveaways and bonuses, through mining, or directly to developers and other employees.

What makes this system different from most cryptocurrencies, says Breakout CTO Jay Berg, is that BRO comes into existence with a support system already in place that will allow it to be usable almost immediately.

“Breakout Gaming represents the biggest dedicated platform ever built to support a new cryptocurrency, Breakout Coin,” Berg said in a press release. “We’re extremely passionate about delivering an entirely new cryptocurrency experience for gaming on a scale never seen before. Our goal with this new site is to provide the gaming and crypto community with comprehensive information about the coin and the gaming platform.”

Site Designed to Fill Niche

The sponsored poker pros that have signed on to represent Breakout have a combined 38 World Series of Poker bracelets. According to Johnny Chan, who has ten bracelets himself, the site will fill a void that currently exists in the marketplace.

“We felt there was an untouched niche for digital currency enthusiasts to play digital games such as Poker, Blackjack, and Fantasy Sports, all while investing in the long-term opportunity of Breakout being the next go-to gaming destination,” Chan said.

While they may not be a household name quite yet like the poker players are, Breakout’s management team is also quite well-regarded in gaming circles. They include former Rio Casino President and COO David Hanlon, former TMZ Creative Director Josh Wells, and iGaming lawyer David Gzesh. At the center of the team is Berg himself, who developed the Bergstake cryptocurrency technology that is driving the company.

While the names attached to the company are promising, some have already raised questions about various aspects of Breakout. There have been few details so far about exactly how BRO will be distributed, or how some of the offered games will work.

A report at Flushdraw.net also questioned the social media strategy being used by the company, as both the Facebook and Twitter pages for Breakout appeared to be flooded with fake accounts. According to that report, an analysis using TwitterAudit found that only 72 of the company’s 11,900 Twitter followers could be authenticated as real users.