Playing your cards right

Mr Donovan soon hopes to be dealing with Ben Affleck

Celeb Poker's David Donovan, along with his three brothers, is a company director for the family owned business, Choice.

A couple of years ago, he also decided to venture into the gaming industry and create his own online poker system.

He has a wealth of knowledge about poker and online gaming and his ambition was to bring together the public with celebrities to play what he says is people's most popular pastime.

What was your first car?

The first car I owned was in 1981 and it was a Ford Capri 1600 LS, which was previously owned by my mum.

What my mum didn't know was that during a test drive, I parked on a hill and left the handbrake off which resulted in the car shooting off backwards and landing in someone's garden.

After that scary moment, I decided that perhaps I should now purchase the car.

What was your first job?

My first job was as a sales assistant along with my three brothers, Mark, Philip and Neil, for my father's company Choice Discount Stores. My average weekly wage packet was about £25.

Who is your biggest inspiration?

My biggest inspiration has to be my father because of his success in his own business that he created 38 years ago.

Learning his business skills has taught me the techniques needed for a successful business. Today, he is still going strong.

Also, my wife Linda gives me a lot of inspiration as well as being a perfectionist.

How did you come up with the idea for your business?

The web is full of poker rooms and casinos but none of them give the players the unique experience of interacting with celebrities whilst they play.

This was why I came up with CelebPoker. I wanted members of the public to be able to play online and be able to chat to celebrities electronically about whatever they wanted to.

The irony is, is that there are many poker-loving celebrities who are just as keen to log on and play.

We started with celebrities from UK and Ireland; initially it transpired that the bulk of the celebrities came from the sports world. This has since grown to encompass TV and Radio.

In future, we want our members to be able to "see" as well as talk to the celebrities. Sometime this year, we will have live real-time video streaming on the site.

This will allow people to see the celebrities as well as talk to them. Imagine seeing Ben Affleck in his dressing gown whilst playing him at poker. The dream is very close to becoming reality.

What's the best bit of business advice you've had?

Teamwork is what I believe to be the most important part of building a company.

I am lucky enough to have a great and hungry team like my wife Linda Donovan, Patrick Keane and Andy Whittaker behind me who are willing to put in as many hours that are needed to get things done the right way.

Together, everybody achieves more.

What business story has grabbed your interest recently?

Due to the business that I am in, I would have to say that the recent story about Ben Affleck winning $356,400 at a poker tournament that also earned him a seat in next year's World Poker Tour Championship.

That is really grabbing my attention because in the interest of CelebPoker this is exciting news as these are the type of celebrities we are currently negotiating with - and yes, Ben is one of these.

What was the proudest moment of your career?

I have two proud moments really, and the first has to be our initial celebrity we secured at CelebPoker - who happened to be "The Rogue Trader", Mr Nick Leeson.

Considering he lost £860m, asking him to play and hoping he doesn't lose our money was quite novel.

The second was watching celebrities play along with the public on our system and the fascinating questions that are frequently asked to the celebrities, such as "Okay Nick, where did you stash all that money?"

It makes me really proud to think that CelebPoker.com put these people together.

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Interactive celebrity poker room Celebpoker.com has a staff of 50 people and is moving into the world of "live" tournaments - in August the public will get the chance to play against celebrities in the flesh.

The group also hopes to have a live streaming feature available to enable players to watch and talk to celebrities as they play.

The latest celebrity to sign up with the firm is Young Guns star Lou Diamond Philips.