Online Poker Report Editorial Policy

Online Poker Report and our sister sites in the Catena Media network strive to be the most trusted sources of information on and analysis of the US online gambling industry.

We pledge to bring you content that’s informative, accurate, and framed in a way that reflects the sincerely held perspectives of our writers.

That said, this is an industry that has produced a huge number of online media outlets. All of them claim to be legitimate, and many are. However, there is also a lot of misinformation out there, and you can’t just trust a site’s owners to tell you if they’re honest or not.

For that reason, it’s important that we show you why you can trust us, rather than just telling you. The easiest way to do that is to show you what we do and what we don’t do.

What we do at Online Poker Report

At OPR we:

• Work with experienced journalists and those with direct, relevant experience with the gambling industry
• Promote regulation and responsible gambling as a means of harm reduction in the gambling industry
• Publish only articles which have been fact checked by the site runner Alex Weldon, and additional sets of eyes as needed
• Act within the larger Catena Media North America network, which comprises dozens of experts who share their knowledge freely with one another
• Operate in full compliance with US law and hold a valid, current vendor’s license in all states which require it
• Source our facts as directly as possible, from lawmakers, regulators and representatives of the companies we report on
• Issue corrections swiftly when information is found to be in error, and are transparent about our mistakes
• Do our best to keep our permanent pages up to date, and indicate the time of last update on “living” pages that change frequently
• Keep our news writing separate from other aspects of the business
• Adhere to journalistic best practices

What we don’t do at Online Poker Report

At OPR, we promise we:

• Will never report on rumors or engage in conjecture without indicating them as such
• Will never encourage irresponsible gambling
• Do not consider our business relationships in deciding whether or how to cover a story
• Do not use sources that have proven themselves unreliable in the past
• Will never promote offshore gambling sites or any other illegal business
• Do not publish third party content or “guest posts,” or accept money for news coverage
• Do not limit writers in how they can cover a story, so long as they’re being truthful and complying with all relevant laws

The Online Poker Report team

The permanent team at OPR consists of just two full time employees:

• Site Runner and Editor Alex Weldon is a long-time online poker industry journalist, who brings an analytical, numbers-oriented approach to the table thanks to his science background.
• Lead Writer Heather Fletcher is a veteran writer with a master’s degree in journalism, with bylines in publications like Adweek and The New York Times. She brings a more human, marketing-oriented touch in her writing.

Alex and Heather both report to Catena’s Head of Content Dustin Gouker, also a gambling media veteran. In addition, OPR occasionally publishes work by freelancers or writers for other sites within the Catena Media North America network.

For more on our team, the site, and Catena Media, see our About page.

How we make money and manage conflicts of interest

Transparency is important. Online Poker Report makes no secret of the fact that we, like the rest of sites in the Catena network are licensed affiliates of the sports betting and online gambling industry.

What that means is that we make our money by connecting players with legal online gambling sites that suit their needs. We do this through our reviews, state-by-state information pages, and other such permanent content.

How do we reconcile this with our commitment to providing honest news coverage? By keeping the two separate:

• Affiliate pages do promote some sites over others based on business relationships, but only contain factual information about those sites
• News stories are wholly independent of our affiliate deals, and our writers work on stories without considering those business relationships

Our news writers are aware of our affiliate deals. However, the negotiations for those deals are carried out by a different department at Catena. That department is at the level of overall North American operations and not attached to any particular site in the network. When writers speak with representatives of our partner companies, it is purely in a journalistic context.

We make it clear to our partners that our journalistic integrity is paramount. They know that this means we will sometimes be critical of them.

Whether or not we have a deal with any given company is never a consideration in our coverage. Our partners do not have any say in what we write in our articles.

We cover whatever we think is newsworthy and of interest to our readers. Our writers have full discretion in how they cover stories, so long as they stay within the bounds of truth, journalistic best practices, and the law.

Corrections and feedback policy

We do our best to be as accurate as possible in our reporting. However, we are a small team producing a large volume of output in a rapidly-changing industry.

Significant factual errors in our reporting are rare, but they do happen, as they can at any media outlet.

If you encounter what you believe to be an error on our site, don’t hesitate to contact the editor. We’ll be quick to correct the error if that’s what it is, or clear up any misunderstanding.

This applies to both our news and affiliate marketing content. Even when it comes to promoting our business partners, we are committed to ensuring anything published on our site is as complete, honest and accurate as possible.

We also welcome general feedback, positive or negative. Our readers are a diverse group, including everyone from players and journalists to investors, lawmakers and industry figures. Whoever you are, we’d like to know how you found us, what you think of our content, and what types of stories you’d like to see more of in future.