1. Begin forwarded message:
From: Keith Taylor <akasha8@me.com>
Subject: path in to PG and first month
Date: October 1, 2011 11:23:05 PM GMT+02:00
To: "adam.lucas@live.ca" <adam.lucas@live.ca>
----- Original Message ----- From: K.A.T <akasha8@me.com>
To: Jim Ryan Sent: Wed Apr 08 16:06:07 2009
Subject: Congrats > > >
Hello Jim, > > We met briefly in 2005 at the airport
in Nice, France. My name is > Keith Taylor and I was for a
few years, (2005-2008) Senior > Director of Payments for
PokerStars. > >
I just wanted to sent you a note of congratulations
on yesterday's > news. I wish you and your team all the best
in putting this chapter > behind you and focusing on
dominating again. > >
Warmest Regards > >
Keith Taylor
On 8-Apr-09, at 7:18 AM, Jim Ryan wrote:
Keith thank you. I do recall the meeting. I hope all is well
where are you working these days. Best regards Jim
On 8-Apr-09, at 7:54 AM, K.A.T wrote:
Hello Jim,

2. All is great with me. I came back to Canada last
year to finalize custody of my daughter after being
in St Kitt's or Costa Rica essentially
since 1997. As you are a fellow Canadian, I am
sure you agree winters get old really fast here:(
I have been consulting small projects with some
of the major processors for International
Solutions that I have a long history
with. MainlyStrategy for new markets or process
refinements to have a better acceptance/conversion
rates.
I did a short stint with one of the Major Software
Suppliers last year, but to be honest their
operators/major suppliers processing initiatives are
180degrees different than what I believe in. I have
always been against 'shortcuts" in my career and
have find many groups get tempted with it and loss
sight of what processing is really all about in our
business.
Now that my family situation seems to be coming
to a close, I am looking for different projects that
would suit someone of my processing

3. philosophy, experience and knowledge base.
Wish you all the best
KT
On 10-Apr-09, at 6:00 AM, Jim Ryan wrote:
Keith, I wished we had stayed in touch. I just replaced
our head of payments and fraud 30 days ago.
Couple of questions, what is your experience with
payment processing in Latin America and let me know
more about your processing philosophy. Lastly, if
memory servers me correctly you arefrom Western
Canada, where are you living now?
Best regards
Jim
From: K.A.T <akasha8@me.com> To: Jim Ryan Sent:
Sat Apr 11 17:32:45 2009 Subject: Re: Congrats
Hello Jim,

4. 1: I do not believe in Miscoding. Besides all
the legal risk, I simply believe you do
not have to. It is a lazy way for payment
professionals to deal with the various scheme
challenges and does more harm than good
in the med to long term. At Stars the
Payments team provided the Management
there with options and programs that allowed
them not to choose that path and I think it
serves them well to this day.
2: I believe Payments if used properly is one
of the greatest weapons against competition,
whether it is protecting market share or
acquiring market share from the territorial
challengers. Payment Strategy is something
when practiced effectively has a massive
effect on the operator and their
competition.
3: I believe in developing unique solutionswith
the payment suppliers to gain competitive
advantages over the rivals. Making it more
difficult for competition to acquire efficiently or
cost effectively.

5. 4: I believe that a strong focus should be in
improving cashier technology. There is a lot
of low hanging fruit can be picked up here and
lowering the "Insult Rate” to players is
something that everyone should be focused
on and striving for.
5: I believe in treating payment suppliers like
true partners, and only using suppliers that
you would want to be your partners and not
because you feel you have to or have no other
options. If they are not treating you like true
partners they have no place in the cashier as
they are touching your customers.
I have some experience with Latin America, it
seems all the big groups currently are trying to
work out solutions thatactually work there.
I am originally from Toronto but transplanted
in the 90's to Vancouver. I am currently
living in West Vancouver.
All the best

6. KT
On 11-Apr-09, at 9:27 AM, Jim Ryan wrote:
Keith let's connect after Easter. I would be interested in
exploring a project with you. Our philosophy is the same
and that is key tome. Please send me you phone
number and I will call you early next week. Regards Jim
Oct 2009
Hello Andrew,
Here’s what I would do suggest what to do
next based on the data provided to you in our
Meeting yesterday.
· Continue to refine the data with BI
and establish loss of revenue and loss
of players and at what point you lose
them.
· Get the error/insult data from the
warehouse and start to analyze it
· :Work with Product Team to
review/refine process flow from players

7. prospective for the various payment
products.
· Review process flows between your
gateway and your suppliers and see
how information is passed back and
forth and how is that information used
to streamline the players or your
engines processing
experience/performance.
· Work with your “key” suppliers to see
where your players are dropping off
and what can be done between you
and them to enhance the players
experience and increase successful
deposits.
· Based on above get the suppliers on
board; suggest changes to impact
performance supplier’s side and/or
PartyGaming Side
· Suggest tactics to increased the
numbers ofplayers attempting to
convert and successfully converting.

8. · Everyone in the payments food chain
to adopt the following philosophy: “If
that happened to me, how would I
feel?”
· •Move focus from declines and
abandonment to ‘Insult Rates’ “How
many players did we insult today
· •Drive-approach across all Payments,
Product, Development, and Suppliers.
· Assign Dev projects and prioritize
accordingly
· Execute
Microcredit Validation
I would suggest the following next steps.
· Continue to work with BI to get more
granular with the data.
· Review the process flow between
players, you and your suppliers. How it
works, what is done on all sides and

9. how to make it more efficient
· Review your limits structures
· Review the Pending Cleared part of
your credit system to why it is not used
currently as effectively as it can be.
· Review your current process for returns
and return management
· Based on the review suggest changes
that would allow you to open up the
system to provide your new and
existing players the ability to use the
methods instantly and maintain a
comfortable level of bad debt.
Based on the data provided to you and your
team. This particular solution is clearing not
working and a major roadblock for growth both
based on new players and extending life
andincreasing deposited amount by existing
players in your 2 Largest Markets.

10. I believe with a more efficient system
Validation solution your growth rate in Canada
and Germany alone would be increase by 20-
30% and the deposit value for the lifetime of
those players would have a few hundred
dollars added to it, at the same time lower
your long term bad debt on these methods.
Again working more with BI can determine
more precise numbers for both of those Key
Indictors. I am very conservative with my
numbers above.
. As Jim mentioned to me the other day
"there's gold in them hills” I believe what I
have shown you a "vein” but only one of many
that are there.
Please look at the data provided to you. As
mentioned in the meeting it is actually much
worse. A significant portion of your players
total transactional flow and experience is not
beencaptured and not factored to the true

11. approval and Insult rate for those methods. I
guarantee you it is less than optimal
I estimate based on lack of strategy, focus,
conversion, cashier and supplier initiatives
there is a loss of 100Mil/yr in Approved
deposits from your players. I feel this number
is actually low.
All of us have spoken quite opening about the
team that is currently in place, it is clear they
are not “gold” prospectors or let alone miners
presently. I think there are many reasons for
this, some themselves and others the tools
that are afforded them.
Based on the meeting yesterday and my talks
over 2 weeks with your people currently they
do not even know what tools to ask for, how to
ask for it, and MOST important how to get it
from PG and the suppliers to be more
effective in their positions and benefit the
company. .
They are really good people that need

12. guidance into what is and is not important and
driven to execute based on vision, strategy
and Mandate.
If you would like me to continue identifying the
“gold” but more importantly how to turn into
revenue for the company I would be interested
in discussing a variety of different ways we
could do this and not disrupt the current make
up of the team.
If over the next few weeks/months you and
Jim are thinking about changes within the
team we could discuss this as well. I think it is
important to gain focus on where the gold is
and what is needed to mine it, as this will paint
a clearer picture on structural and personal (if
any) changes are required.
My preference to start would be to continue
consulting for PG and see where this leads to
base on how either my MGS or Poker stars
arrangements were structured and we agree
mutually to certain groups that are excluded
from my services.
I have been quite clear to you and Jim and

13. reached out to Jim a day after the settlement
what I am looking for. I want to focus on giving
PG a serious competitive advantage in the
market when it comes to their payments. This
is not something that can be done as a off and
on consultant that does not focus on you and
your overall company vision.
It would limit my value to your group and I do
not go from group to group that compete
against each other consulting and it is not my
interest to ever do that.
I believe in competitive advantages if I am on
the operator side and focusing to help acquire
and protect market share. That been said I get
the feeling that you are unconvinced on
whether or not I would be of tremendous value
and will need a few weeks to mull it over. If
this is the case I need to take seriously some
other projects and offers that are coming to
me, and this could conflict me with your
company. I would like to thank you and Jim for
the opportunity to come and work with some
of your team the last 2 weeks, it was a very
enjoyable experience for me and I hope they
thought the same with me.

14. Best Regards
Keith Taylor
From: Keith Taylor Sent: 09 February 2010 09:11 To:
Tod Martin Subject: FW: MC document
As discussed
> >
From: Neil Erlick
[mailto:Neil@optimalpayments.com] Sent: 12
February 2010 15:58 To: Keith Taylor Subject:
Volume
Hey – really need to figure out what’s going on
with the volume… as discussed, the new rates
were conditional on you guys ramping up to $8M-
$10M per month by February… this hasn’t
happened. In fact, volume has decreased.
I think we need to talk about implementing these

15. new rates in March instead… seems only fair.
Let’s discuss.
Let me know.
Thanks,
Neil Erlick
Vice President, Sales & Marketing
Optimal Payments
Office: + 1.514.380.2746
Fax: + 1.514.938.5618
Mobile: + 1.514.947.7310
From: Keith Taylor To: Neil Erlick
<Neil@optimalpayments.com> Sent: Sun Feb 14
08:44:52 2010 Subject: RE: Volume
Hello Neil,
Sorry for the delay in responding.
To answer your question
– really need to figure out what’s going on with the

16. volume… as discussed, the new rates were
conditional on you guys ramping up to $8M-$10M
per month by February… this hasn’t happened. In
fact, volume has decreased.
Where are we today?
1: We have settlement issues with Barclays that
need to be sorted. As far as I understand we still
are chasing funds previously processed through
you from them.
2:We have issues with the Playtech Brands/ RISK
Department working through Optimal with the
current processes in place
3: We have a problem currently with our routing
and/or Optimal processing on PG’s account as
compared to Playtechs approval rates (attached
supplied byYOU)
I would advise that we solve the above issues one
by one and once solved volume will come.
It makes no sense for me to allocate more volume
through the channel when
1: corresponding banking relationships issues

17. holding up our funds up in transit.
2:Our Playtech Brands are experiencing less that
100% service from their RISK teams based on
current procedures in place.
3:We figure out why we have a 38% approval rate
with the PG Brands and Playtech brands have
68%(which is low BTW as well)
Your comment
I think we need to talk about implementing these
new rates in March instead… seems only fair.
Let’s discuss.
This is up to you, I was not part of whatever deals
you made in the past here.
We have had our dance in the past on what I
believe Optimal is when it comes to an competitive
advantage and very quickly after I started at
Stars, the migration off of their platform had
began.
We also had the dance when UIGEA happened
and they attempted to hold on to Stars funds from
the Wallet.

18. We both know the results of both those initiatives
and I am sure your group does not want to go
through that with me again.
I am a big boy and have come here with Open
Eyes and relooking at Optimal with a clean slate
willing to have my mind changed.
. Comments like above does not help change my
mind on what I believe Optimal is. Which is at
best Neutral in whether or not If I can have a
competitive advantage using them. I need all the
Competitive Advantages here we can get to eat
back Marketshare.
Please show me what I am not seeing!
Based on our approvals rates you provided for a
month, and god only knows how long they went
on for, that alone is COMPETITIVE
DISADVANTAGE.
I like you personally Neil, and I always have.
I’ve had it mentioned by you that Optimal wants
to be a primary supplier on our platform and

19. willing to do what it takes
To get volume and EARN primary status is very
easy, we solve the problems first before throwing
more volume at the problems. .
You help me solve problems I have with other
suppliers, getting more volume.
Today we have problems everywhere, but
particularly with Optimal, that need to be solved
together before we move forward.
I’ve had it mentioned to me a couple of times
about the relationship between Optimal and
PG, With Mitch, Marco, Joel, you with them
and you with Andrew K, Juan, Neil and Jim ect.
All I can say about that, is I run Payments, Risk
and Game Fairness now.
My superiors bought me here to do that, not to be
told what to do. With regards to the others here in
the past and how they believe Payments really
works, #
all I can say, is it was sub-optimal at best and

20. that is an understatement.
An example is with the Approvals rates through
you provided attached.
I look forward to this week solving the problems
above and then moving forward.
All the best
KT
From: Jim Ryan Sent: 14 February 2010 11:15
To: Keith Taylor Subject: Re: Volume
Interesting. Do you have a view why the Playtech
acceptance rates are so better than our own?
Regards Jim
From: Keith Taylor Sent: 14 February 2010 12:01
To: Jim Ryan Subject: RE: Volume
Yes,
In a nutshell our processing and retry strategy is no
strategy at all. We light up quite a few issuers and

21. the schemes fraud alerts as we look like what is
known as a potential “violator” pattern.
. We have no BIN or MID profiling. We have
no smart switching we have no real retry strategy
based on change of status message from our
partners
We have no real conversion initiatives tailored to
the players and what their issue truly is
We send cards to acquirers we know will not
approve and we try them automatedly 2 times with
two different banks, which has separate terminal
and merchants IDs. Network do not know this is
PG, it is Based on TID and MID’s.
The average players tries 2 times that chances are
go to another 2 banks again with Merchant ID’s
and Terminal ID’s, many cards are getting locked
down as it looks like stolen cards and is a potential
violator pattern.
Than we try to convert these players to Entropay
and the player goes through thewhole process and
many of the cards are locked down and they fail
reducing our conversion rate. Separately Entropay

22. the issue is compounded by the cards that are not
hostile but there could be another issue, NSF for
instance, we try to convert them to Entropay to go
through the whole process and declined again.
Instead of if we have a high probability chance that
they decline for a card was NSF, we pop up hello
MR Customer would you like to use another card
or use your bank account.. Increasing the case of
happy customer converting into a method where
they have a high probability of success getting to
the table quickly.
An example is below with Entropay

23. We process this way for all methods and have not
considered error messaging or transactions
profiling or smart switching important
I am strong with Key suppliers as you see in
mails, but I believe my true strength’s are
Payments Engine ,
Least resistance Routing
Least Cost routing
Cashier Technology

24. smart switching capbilities,
dynamic context sensitive messaging for retry
stratagies, conversion initiatives or pop up chat
for specific issue resolutions
retry strategies with the engine constantly
adjusting for optimization.
Mayank is starting to grasp what I want to build
here for a true competitive advantage over our
rivals that will allow us to literally eat their
marketshare.
Mayank is so excited as he tells me he has
validated the numbers and we are on to the
Modeling Phase . Literally it is a Brain for
Transactional profilingwith smart switching based
on status changes for retries, conversion
initiatives.
I guess the bottomline here is our engine and
processing strategy today and for years and
years is even worse than Albert Einsteins
definition ofInsanity :doing the same thing over
and over again and expecting different

25. results. We do the same thing over and over again
but we do notknow the results. I mean this
literally and will show you whenever you would
like what you look at from BI and what is really
going on with the system that is not counted.
You will be very surprised
All the best
KT
From: Jim Ryan Sent: 14 February 2010 12:16
To: Keith Taylor Subject: RE: Volume
You have my attention. I am keen to see your
plan.
Regards
Jim
On 04/16/15 11:05PM, Keith Andrew Taylor wrote:
--------------------
Hello Mr. Leonoff,
I am not sure if you remember me, but we had conversation in Gibraltar a few years back.

26. I just wanted to say the you should be proud of yourself and your team. What all of you have been able to
do the last 18 or so months. I had not been a fan of Optimal and the various companies in one way or
anotherassociate since back in the St Kitt's days(I lived there 3 years) I always got the impression that the
attitude was to the customer " I am doing you a favour" In my experience with Optimal in particular
PokerStars and PartyGaming I saw nothing of competitive advantage only neutral at best, and the drive
internally at Optimal to do initiatives was lacking atleast with me. If there is one thing I love love SUPER
love is initiatives and I saw no opportunity or desire on Optimals part to do them.
I was very hard on Neil E. ( WhomI think the world of as a PROFESSIONAL and GREAT GUY) but
when you are tasked with eating and/orprotecting marketshare, you need all your supplier doing initiatives
with you to get that 2,3,4,5 % difference and do this all day long everyday of the year non stop or you are
just a SUIT and PLANT in the office that is concerned about themselves and not customers and TAKING
OVER yourmarket.
As a payment professionalI want to thank you as I look at Optimal in a whole different way now and feel
and see so many possibilities. We you are a guy like me with projects or initiatives always going on in
many sectors in one way or anotherI am always look out for more options. I see Optimal as one now and I
thank you for that
I wish you continued ass kicking success, a very happy and fun summer.
All the best
Keith Taylor
PS if you see Neil E, at the water cooler please tell him hello from KT
Keith Andrew
Taylor
To Joel Leonoff
Date Apr 17
On 4/17/15, 5:29 AM, Joel Leonoff wrote:
--------------------
Appreciate the email Keith. Hope all is well on your end
Stay in touch
All the best
Joel
Thanks for responding
I am in a magical teepee I help build last summer 3 hours north of toronto
and the bears are waking up. Life could not be betterand the first time
in 14 months I bought a phone as only so many of my ninjas can read the
clouds I send and now I am ready to WORK
Hope to run into you somewhere in this wonderful world
Best Regards

27. Keith
https://soundcloud.com/kats-meow-productions/romains-deep-house-mix-
live