Full Tilt End Game Nears

As predicted in my last editorial in Card Player the end game was nearing for the final fate of Full Tilt Poker. However, like in everyday life, just when you think a deal is done it can be as easily undone and things can take an unexpected turn.
Rumours first surfaced online in late April that all was not well with the proposed Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) deal and that a surprise addition had dropped into the mix — PokerStars.

Within a day or two GBT had confirmed it had pulled out of the deal. Its statement made for bittersweet reading: “Groupe Bernard Tapie regrets to announce that, after seven months of intensive work, our efforts to obtain final approval of the United States Department of Justice of the agreement to acquire the assets of Full Tilt Poker have ended without success. Ultimately, the deal failed due to two major issues.

“The parties could not agree on a plan for repayment of ROW [Rest of World] players. GBT proposed a plan that would have resulted in immediate reinstatement of all ROW player balances, with a right to withdraw those funds over time, based on the size of the player balance and the extent of the player’s playing activity on the re-launched site. All players would have been permitted complete withdrawal of their balances, regardless of whether they played on the site, by a date certain, and 94.9% of ROW players would have been fully repaid on day 1. DOJ ultimately insisted on full repayment with right of withdrawal within 90 days for all players – a surprise demand made in the 11th hour, after months of good-faith negotiations by GBT.”

The statement continued with a jab at PokerStars: “We understand from press reports that the DOJ may have entered into an agreement with PokerStars pursuant to which PokerStars will acquire the FTP assets. If accurate, we can only assume that PokerStars determined that it was willing to accept these legal and financial risks in order to resolve its own legal situation with DOJ. If a PokerStars acquisition of FTP means that all FTP players will be fully repaid immediately, we are very happy for the players, as their final and full repayment has always been our priority.

“We only regret that such a deal would signal further consolidation of a poker market already dominated by a single player – an outcome that may raise antitrust concerns and that, in the long run, is probably not good for players and for the whole online poker industry.”

Such consolidation would have been unthinkable 18 months ago and under normal circumstances would not be good for online poker. However details of a potential deal are a long way from being known and we aren’t operating under normal circumstances.

But let’s be clear, PokerStars is not bailing out Full Tilt for the good of the players whose bankrolls are stranded. It is bailing out Full Tilt for its own ends — what those are and whether they coincide with what is good for the game very much remains to be seen. ♠