Poker News

After several years of solo operation, Devilfish Poker has been sold to an English gaming group in an effort to expand that company’s profile further into the online gaming world.

The sale was announced prior to the Christmas holidays. The Weather Lottery offers lotto operations as a method of fundraising and, in July, entered into the online sports betting world under the FC BETZ flag. When it opened FC BETZ, it announced a deal with one of the founding clubs of the English Premier League, Coventry City and other soccer outlets.

What the company lacked, however, was an online poker operation that would allow it to expand fully into the online poker world. With the purchase of Devilfish Poker, The Weather Lottery will have such an outlet. The deal is worth a reported £330,000, with £40,000 of the purchase in cash and the remainder to be offered in stock.

In an article in the Yorkshire Post, The Weather Lottery chairman Tim Razzall put forth the reasoning behind the purchase of Devilfish Poker. “The board considers its acquisition at a time when there is still considerable untapped potential for development fits in with our gaming strategy. Devil Fish Poker has an established brand name in a sector that is complimentary to the existing gaming operations of TWL.”

Because the company didn’t previously host an online poker room, Razzall feels that Devilfish Poker is the “missing link” in its chain of products: “We have a growing database of users in both FCBetz.com and FC Lotto, some of whom will wish to take advantage of the Devilfish Poker products.”

The legendary English player David “Devilfish” Ulliott, who has been the face of the company since its inception, founded Devilfish Poker. At one point, it was a part of the UB.com brand, but after Ulliott’s sponsorship with the online poker room wasn’t renewed, it became its own entity under the Devilfish Gaming PLC banner. It also received a great deal of attention from Ulliott’s shrewd promotional character.

During the 2005 Full Tilt Poker Invitational, which was broadcast live from Monaco, Ulliott raised the ire of Fox Sports Net, the broadcast outlet for the show. Although Fox Sports Net had a policy against any dot-com advertising on its airwaves, Ulliott managed to get a plug in for Devilfish Poker through a strategically placed advertisement on the inside of his jacket. The resulting plug earned Ulliott a ban on playing in any Fox Sports Net poker production.

According to the story in the Yorkshire Post, Devilfish Poker did not show a profit on its books. At the end of June, operating losses of £106,331 on gross profits of £783,353 were reported, with Devilfish Poker showing liabilities at the sale date of £10,802.

The Weather Lottery is actively traded on the London Stock Exchange under the symbol TWL. After the announcement of the purchase of Devilfish Poker, the company’s stock showed a sizeable increase in trading, reaching a high of 89 pence on Christmas Eve. By the end of the trading day, it had settled to 66 pence, a 10% increase over its starting price.

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *