Back to Square One for Full Tilt Poker – 08-25-11
August 25 – It was bad news for Full Tilt Poker players who were pinning their hopes on acquisition talks between the beleaguered online poker room and a team of anonymous European investors.
Since April 15th, Full Tilt Poker players have been trying to get their funds paid out after the Department of Justice seized its domain name. Full Tilt froze their accounts and an estimated $100 million is yet to be paid out.
Over the past months, Full Tilt has continually claimed that it is nearing the completion of a deal that would see money invested into the group, with a priority to pay out players as soon as possible.
Unfortunately, these hopes were dashed after Pocket Kings, the brand owner of Full Tilt, issued a statement which read:
“Full Tilt Poker moniker, concluded the exclusivity period of negotiations with their current potential investor…While Pocket Kings Ltd. plans to continue discussions with its current investor, the company has now begun negotiations with additional potential investors to conclude the sale/partnership of the Full Tilt Poker brand and its assets.”
It seems that the investors were simply put off with the package deal they were setting themselves up to buy, including a lawsuit with the Department of Justice and millions of dollars owed to angry players.
Request to Delay AGCC Hearing
In addition to the statement that negotiations were off with the group of investors, Full Tilt Poker’s attorney, Jeff Ifrah will apply to the Alderney Gambling Control Commission to reschedule a planned hearing on the issue of non-payment to US players, which was due to take place before September 15th.
A previous hearing on July 26th resulted in the online poker room being granted a postponement as they said at the time that the hearing could affect the outcomes of negotiations.
“Nobody wants to come to September 15th and not have a deal which is either finalized or close to finalization to the point that it can be shared with Alderney and result in the extension of that date,” said Ifrah.
