It has been recently reported that Montreal based Internet Media Company Webstormmedia was not returning calls to owners of internet websites where they placed advertising. This first came to light when the owner of a sports handicapping website posted information at several high profile gambling forums. In these posts, the owner claimed that Webstormmedia had not honored an advertising contract and that they owed him for a period of advertising. The advertising in this case, was for SportsInteraction, a Kahnawake based online bookmaker. It is believed that SportsInteraction had paid Webstormmedia in advance for this advertising. At time of writing, SportsInteraction was not returning the forum owner's calls.
Webstormmedia and SportsInteraction have had a long partnership. It is believed that SportsInteraction was Webstormmedia's first real client, and quickly became Webstormmedia's major account. Some in the industry will agree that SportsInteraction were ahead of many much larger online sportsbooks in the early days on the sector's internet marketing. These days, some of their initial delivery methods may be seen as questionable, but they certainly built a large customer data base for initially their sportsbook and later there casino and poker operation.
An ex-employee of Webstormmedia, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the Webstormmedia/SportsInteraction relationship went much further than media buying agreements. "The owners of Webstormmedia had made a lot of money from advertising online gaming. The company went from 2 people in a basement to 25 in a very nice office in the Old port of Montreal in less than 3 years. But they really wanted to be online gambling operators themselves."
The anonymous source continued: "The main owner opened several of his own online casinos a few years ago. He had a programming team write some casino software and he used that. But he could not just start an operation without help."
This is where the SportsInteraction connection, the source claimed, came into play.
"Webstormmedia operated out of SportsInteraction's Kahnawake offices when they first launched the casinos. They also used the SportsInterraction payment services. If you look at the websites (they) mention SIA or SportsInteraction"
