In an e-mail sent to customers on Monday, the World Poker Tour’s Casino and Poker Room referred its players to InterPoker. The WPT’s poker room is scheduled to cease operations this Thursday, November 20th. Operations at ClubWPT, its subscription-based online poker room, should continue as normal.
The e-mail distributed Monday afternoon read, “The World Poker Tour wants to make certain that you get access to the best online poker available. To make this happen, we have arranged for some great deals with our partners at InterPoker. InterPoker is one of the best established and most trusted poker rooms online today.” In October, WPT Enterprises, the online poker room’s parent company, announced that it planned to terminate an agreement with CryptoLogic, effectively shutting down its online poker room. The WPT’s original agreement with CryptoLogic was signed on August 24th, 2007.
In a statement releasing the company’s 2008 third quarter results, WPT Founder, CEO, and President Steve Lipscomb cited “disappointing returns” as the chief reason for departure from the online gaming business. Instead, the company plans to direct its assets towards building three primary components of its business: “our emerging sponsor model of distributing the World Poker Tour television series, the ClubWPT.com online subscription business, and WPT China.”
About 10 days ago, the WPT announced that it had signed a sponsorship agreement with Full Tilt Poker for its seventh season, which will air on cable station Fox Sports Net. The first five seasons were shown on The Travel Channel. Then, GSN acquired the rights to Season VI before declining its exclusive option for Season VII. As part of the arrangement, FullTiltPoker.net will become the title sponsor of the World Poker Tour and receive “exclusive rights to in-show educational gaming brand integration for the 26 all-new WPT Season VII episodes,” according to the official announcement. Lipscomb told Poker News Daily that on-felt logos may also be part of the sponsorship package.
Players should open new accounts at InterPoker, meaning that the WPT is not automatically transferring its patrons over to InterPoker’s site. $90,000 Bounty Hunt tournaments are also part of the e-mail’s promotions, where the top five finishers in a series of eight tournaments compete in a bounty tournament.
Existing players on the WPT’s casino and poker room must withdraw their funds by Thursday. Any balances that remain after that time “will be credited to you by check or a refund to your credit card, Neteller, or Moneybookers account,” according to the WPT. North American customers who have questions can call 877-874-0274. International inquiries can be directed to +800-0874-0274 and a UK freephone can be reached at 00800-0874-0274.
ClubWPT is a subscription-based site that accepts customers from the United States. It offers over $100,000 each month in cash and tournaments. Six members of ClubWPT compete on televised tournaments that premiere on Fox Sports Net on Sunday afternoons and then replayed throughout the week. ClubWPT software looks very similar to the one used by Ultimate Bet and a two week free trial is available.
