Upswing Poker, one of the most well-established training platforms in the industry, now belongs to ClubWPT Gold.
Upswing co-founder Doug Polk announced the sale Friday, as the sweepstakes-based online poker site added Upswing to its portfolio for an undisclosed amount.
“It used to be the Upswing was my baby and the only thing I was working on,” Polk said in a video on his YouTube channel. “And now it’s starting to become more and more and more things. It came up that there was a good opportunity for someone to acquire the company. That made a lot of sense for everyone.”
After jokingly dropping in a promo read for ClubWPT Gold, Polk continued.
“In all seriousness, this purchase by ClubWPT Gold, we talked it over, we had a dinner. We hashed out some details. Honestly, this was a lot more painless than I thought that it might be. I’ve actually gotten to see what kind of goes on behind the scenes in some of these deals. It was a pretty easy negotiation process, and we got this thing hammered out pretty quickly. We have been working out all the details over the last few months to get to this point today.”
Polk founded Upswing Poker with Ryan Fee and Matt Colletta in 2015. In the ensuing years, Upswing brought on more than a dozen different pros as part of its training programs, including Nick Petrangelo and Dylan Weisman among many others.
Deal Is Most Recent Expansion Relationship
Over the last year, the affiliation between Polk and ClubWPT Gold grew deeper. After running a $100,000 in one month challenge on the platform, Polk officially signed on as a ClubWPT Gold Ambassador on April 1 of this year.
The Lodge Card Club in Round Rock, Texas, co-owned by Polk, is the site of the first-ever World Poker Tour event in Texas. WPT Prime makes its way to the Lone Star State in October.
Upswing Member Experience Shouldn’t Change
In his video explanation, Polk stated that the intention is for Upswing to function in largely the same way.
“All of the people currently working on Upswing will remain working on Upswing,” Polk said. “I’m still going to be doing marketing for Upswing and I’m still going to be doing coach recruitment for Upswing. We’re trying to find good quality candidates to come work at the company. I think we have extremely competitive pay. For the advanced signature courses, it’s thousands and thousands of dollars an hour. We are actively recruiting coaches. Mike Brady and Matt Colletta both will stay on as well to help oversee things and make sure that this goes smoothly, and that the Upswing brand continues to flourish.”
Players who continue to train with Upswing Poker, and those who sign on moving forward, will receive additional benefits in the form of sweeps coins from ClubWPT Gold.
Lucid Poker, a training tool partially owned by Upswing, is now be co-owned by Polk and ClubWPT Gold.
In time with the acquisition by ClubWPT Gold, Upswing will launch Upswing Poker Lab 2.0, run by Uri Pelle, with enhanced user interface, later in August.
