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Late last year, NFL player Blake Martinez retired from the sport of football in order to pursue his passion of trading and selling Pokémon cards. The endeavor worked out well for him, generating over $11 million in just a year. Now, accusations of scams and other misconduct have been brought against Martinez. As a result, his channel ‘Blake’s Breaks’ has been banned from doing business on Whatnot, a popular streaming marketplace for trading card games.

Martinez has been accused of being dishonest to his customers and audience members in a number of ways. First, claims have been made that he deliberately removed high value cards from packs sold to customers (after opening them publicly on stream) in order to re-sell them individually for more money.

He’s also been said to have manipulated live bets on his channel. These bets would be made by viewers with varying amounts of money over what types of energy cards would appear in a newly opened pack of Pokémon cards. Allegedly, Martinez took advantage of a system which told him in advance what energy cards would appear, arranging them in such a way that no one who placed a bet was capable of winning the jackpot.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg, but needless to say, Pokémon TCG fans aren’t very happy with Martinez just now. As a result of the accusations, Whatnot has banned him from selling or streaming via their platform. Martinez has yet to respond to the ban, but you can read Whatnot’s official statement on the matter below, or click here for a video breakdown with even more information.

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Comments (2)

the_crimson_lure

8M ago

So that's how he made that 11 million!!!


tendonin

8M ago

As long as Pokémon keeps getting reduced to mere nostalgia, there will be no end to the Pokégrifters exploiting the Pokésuckers. Stay classy, fellow millennials.