In a whirlwind of rumors and unofficial confirmations, the poker community was sent into a frenzy Tuesday as word came out that it is not going to be Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) that will buy Full Tilt Poker, but rather Full Tilt’s rival, PokerStars. As part of the alleged $750 million deal, PokerStars will reportedly settle Full Tilt’s issues with the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) and reimburse Full Tilt’s ex-customers.
The rumors started flying around the internet early in the morning in the eastern time zone, but nobody knew for sure if what was being said was true. People started believing there could be some truth to them, however, when Noah Stephens-Davidowitz, one of the founders of the now defunct Subject: Poker website and moderator on the Two Plus Two poker forums, posted on Two Plus Two, “I don’t know if this is actually true, but a number of inside sources contacted me to tell me to undelete this thread. So, this thread is staying open for now.”
Stephens-Davidowitz is about as far as one can get from a rumormonger, so his approval of the thread meant something.
More concrete, though still unofficial announcements from respected sources came out as the morning went on. First, Alexandre Dreyfus, CEO of Chilipoker, tweeted, “Pokerstars buys FullTilt for a consideration of $750m, including settlement with DOJ and full balances of players (330m). I’m impressed.”
Then, at around noon ET, GBT released a statement announced that its efforts to acquire Full Tilt had failed. As part of the statement, GBT said, “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.”
GBT cited two “major issues” for the collapse of its purchase efforts. The first was a disagreement between GBT and the DoJ on a repayment plan for “Rest of the World” (ROW) players (non-U.S. players). GBT wanted to restore ROW balances, allow players to logon to the re-launched site, and begin staggered withdrawals based on the size of a player’s balance and the amount they play on the new site. All players would be able to cash out completely by a certain date and it was estimated that 94.9% would be fully repaid on the first day of business. The DoJ wanted all players to be fully repaid within 90 days, no ands, ifs, or buts about it. The second problem revolved around legal complications.
For its part, PokerStars has yet to confirm any of the rumors. At 12:39pm ET, PokerStars’ Head of Corporate Communications Eric Hollreiser posted on the Stars corporate blog, “We’ve had a lot of enquiries and there’s lots of speculation on the forums, so I wanted to address the PokerStars chatter. As you know, PokerStars is in settlement discussions with the U.S. Department of Justice. As such settlement discussions are always confidential, we are unable to comment on rumors. As soon as we have information to share publicly, we will do so.”
Again, while there seem to be legs to the rumor that PokerStars is in the process of buying Full Tilt Poker, they are still just rumors at this point. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for updates on this potentially industry-shaking development.
