GGPoker today announced a range of measures designed to provide oversight of backing deals, with staked players now having to fully disclose their arrangements while backers must have GGPoker accounts. Notably, the site itself will determine how winnings are split, in a bid to avoid off-site backing.

The latest move by the industry giants is not entirely unexpected, though the details of what changes might be on the horizon were open to much debate until today’s update to the operator’s Security and Ecology Policy (SEP).

As we reported last month, the CEO of GG’s Russian poker skin, PokerOK, Ivan Bryksin, declared war on stables.

Bryksin stated that stables were ruining the game for recreational players and described them as “hands down, the greatest threat to the purity, integrity and equality of poker today”.

Allegations of stable-approved and even stable-led softplay, collusion, multi-accounting, bum-hunting and other decidedly dubious tactics have been in the headlines multiple times in recent years. It appears with the latest announcement that GGPoker have decided enough is enough.

Today’s change in the SEP declares that tournament players who are either fully or partially funded for tournament buy-ins “are required to disclose any private backing arrangements with third parties by using the ‘Designate Backer’ feature”.

As per GGPoker’s FAQ section, the ‘Designate Backer’ feature “aims to make these agreements transparent and prove that players with the same backer are playing fairly against each other and not engaging in soft play or collusion”.

The policy update states that “failure to disclose these arrangements will be considered as intentional deception,” and the site “may request documentation and proof regarding any backing arrangement”.

The penalties for breaches of the new rules include “WARNING, SUSPENSION, PERMANENT BAN,” the capital letters courtesy of GGPoker.