Ultimately responsible for the launch of PKR, Malcolm’s role includes coordinating the process that ensures PKR secured a gaming license in a leading jurisdiction, forming the necessary partnerships with the appropriate financial institutions, hiring key employees and reporting to the Board of Directors.

“The ambition,” says Graham, “was to build a poker product online that replicated the real life experience as closely as possible. By blending a mixture of gaming design developers with the knowledge of those from within the gaming industry we were able to build a product like PKR, which resonates with the Xbox and PlayStation generation and is far superior to the 2d products rival sites offer. We wanted to make it the most fun online poker experience possible.”

And Graham has achieved just that. After logging on to www.pkr.com players are able to create their own identity with a life-like avatar and can chat to their opponents throughout the game.

“Players can use emotes and even wind each other up,” says Graham. “They like to poke fun at each other, calling their opponents ‘losers’ or ‘chicken’. This interaction and the emotes can give away quite a bit of your character and the expert players are able to read the ‘tells’ of their opponents.”

But can this ability to wind your opponents up go a little too far on occasion and spill over into something rather more harsh? Graham says online observers ensure it doesn’t get out of hand.

“It’s pretty light hearted really and 99.9 per cent of the time it’s done with great humour. But it’s a vital part of making the gaming as realistic as possible. An ability to needle your opponent can put the on the tilt and make them behave less rationally than they normally would. That’s want you get around a physical table in the real world and that’s what you get at PKR.”

But PKR is not merely about playing poker. There’s a large emphasis on building an online poker community and creating the kind of fame some of the best players can gain.

The reality element of the gaming has clearly paid off. PKR has grown membership by around 40 per cent this year, despite operating in the worst recession in generations.

“Our retention rate leads the industry too,” says Graham. “Online poker has traditionally failed to keep hold of members. Poker players can be rather promiscuous, but we’ve overcome that issue by making PKR the site everyone wants to play in.”

And there’s big money to be won. Every month players compete for a £25,000 jackpot. But some have won even more - in excess of $100,000 on one occasion.

But life was not always so straight forward for PKR. When Graham launched the company it was during a period when the American authorities had made online gaming illegal and were even locking up some of the bosses of other gaming sites.

“It was not the best atmosphere in which to raise the money,” says Graham. “In fact it was about as complicated as it gets. There was concern that Europe would introduce a similar law to that in America and we were trying to launch a new brand in the market. But, fortunately, we got the fund raising away and we’re now doing incredibly well.”

One thing PKR will not be doing is launching in America, at least not until the law changes.

“No, we won’t be doing that,” says Graham. “There are opportunities but, right now, America isn’t one of them. But we’re doing quite well enough without them, thanks.”