{"id":6069,"date":"2012-03-11T12:00:58","date_gmt":"2012-03-11T12:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gaming-awards.com\/NEWS\/?p=6069"},"modified":"2012-03-11T12:00:58","modified_gmt":"2012-03-11T12:00:58","slug":"bernard-tapie-ftp-weekend-special-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gaming-awards.com\/NEWS\/bernard-tapie-ftp-weekend-special-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Bernard Tapie & FTP \u2013 Weekend Special (Part 2) [3]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Following on from Saturdays article part one <\/a>on Bernard Tapie & Full Tilt Poker, we now look at other aspects, such as who would lead FTP2, should GBT finally manage an agreement?<\/p>\n

Also in this second part, we talk to two gaming lawyers on the logistics of opening up the Full Tilt Poker site again and finally we look at the numbers and how if all fails, what would the long suffering poker players hope to get back should the Groupe Bernard Tapie deal fall through.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Laurent Tapie head of FTP2
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Is the 36-year-old son of GBT founder Bernard Tapie and Managing Director of the company Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT). Laurent has been very much the focal point of anything to do with the beleaguered online poker site Full Tilt Poker (FTP) over the months since the announcement was made that GBT were going forward with the acquisition of FTP.<\/p>\n

However, since Laurent has been to the fore in the GBT\/FPT drama, not all he states has been correct and he does seem like someone who needs controlling. In the first few months of the deal, Laurent Tapie made many statements, most notably at the end of September, Laurent made the statement that FTP would be up and operational by January 2012. It is well understood that when he made that announcement his father then reeled Laurent in for making such an outlandish forecast and now relies on their lawyer Behn Dayanim to make any future announcements.<\/p>\n

It does seem that the young Tapie, does speak sometimes before his brain is engaged, also there has been much concern within the poker community that the GBT\/FTP deal is only a publicity stunt for their highly ambitious “International Stadiums Poker Tour”\u00a0 (ISPT<\/a>) that interestingly starts this September. The ISPT<\/a> is a guaranteed $30 million pot, to be held in Wembley Stadium and broadcast around the world.\u00a0 Many industry observers feel the publicity from Full Tilt of course helps their promotion of the ISPT<\/a>. This in its self is not wrong, however should the GBT deal fall through, most of the industry will look at this whole episode as one big publicity stunt.<\/p>\n

The question then pointed at the founder of the ISPT<\/a> (Laurent Tapie) is, was this all a ruse to get us all to take note of the ISPT<\/a>?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The legal side<\/strong><\/p>\n

The iGaming Post spoke to two leading gaming lawyers to find out what the legal aspect of the GBT\/FTP deal is, both are based in the UK, however both lawyers asked not to be named along with the firms they represent, as this may impact on their representation of GBT in the future. To respect this we will only call them Lawyer A & Lawyer B.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Q: Why has only one company come forward to purchase the FTP brand, it was the second largest poker site on the planet and reportedly made $1 million a day in profits?<\/p>\n

A: (Lawyer A) “The issue with any interested party to take on the debts and operate FTP, is the legal framework that is needed to ensure there is no exposure to the future operator. This is most certainly what the GBT team are finding a problem with now. It is not just a matter of working out a structure to repay players, but to ensure there is not going to be any future legal issues, involving players funds, deposits & former directors of the company.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Q: What is the greatest obstacle for GBT to overcome before they can agree the purchase?<\/p>\n

A: (Lawyer B) “Repayments, it seems they have covered the exposure of former Directors and removed that obstacle, however the biggest issue is the repayment process to players. There is also the big possibility that once that is in place, there could be law suits against the new FTP for interest on those over due payments. Remember it will be more than a year in the waiting.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A: (Lawyer A) “It is believed that, GBT are looking into the opportunity of only paying back the original deposits of players, remember they currently have no exposure to online players. If GBT walk away they owe nothing and the poker players have almost no chance of recouping their deposits, so the possibility of being allowed to offer the original deposit back only is legally is an option. On the poker players side, this would cause several law suits aimed at the new company, in my opinion. Would GBT want this while launching FTP2? Certainly not and of course this may impact on their licensing application having law suits against them. Certainly GBT would request each and every player sign an acceptance of final payment, hence making it very difficult then for any future law suits.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Q: What is the future without GBT?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A: (Lawyer A) “Without an investor FTP would be wound up, administrators would then be given the task of selling any and all assets of the company and then start the process of paying back creditors. However normally in these cases, all creditors are asked to attend a meeting and explained the situation. This would seem unlikely for the majority of creditors to do so, given geographical locations. So a notice would be posted on the FTP site explaining the process. Normally a list of creditors is then drawn up and negotiations start on repaying those companies or individuals.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A: (Lawyer B): “The problem for the poker players as a group is they are the largest creditor, however the list could work on the oldest dated creditor and largest owed together. In this case and given the funds available to pay creditors, there is going to be many that will never see any funds returned.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Money<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is understood that there is some $300 million outstanding to poker players globally, the US DOJ has some $80 million in frozen bank accounts and there may be some others that the DOJ has or can get. Let us say there is some $200 million outstanding for players owed. Should the assets of FTP be sold and from recent reports <\/a>that the software of FTP is worth around $37 million, then that would go into the repayment pot. Given other assets related to the company, maybe totaling $13 million that makes $50 million grand total.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A simple calculation makes it look like each and every players maximum return would be 25c on each dollar they have deposited. This is not exact science, as it is almost impossible to know every dollar involved in FTP. That really would be best case scenario, the time taken and the mechanism on paying players back their return would be mammoth.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information<\/strong><\/p>\n

Until GBT make some official updates on progress, how the players structure for repaying them is made, there will be continued speculation. The iGaming Post invites any representative from GBT to offer a full interview, in explaining the situation to the many thousands of frustrated poker players around the world.<\/p>\n

There was a large amount of sympathy towards GBT from poker players when the news broke that they were trying to purchase the once great poker site, however this is disappearing quickly as the continued lack of proper communication from the potential savior continues to frustrate.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Part two of our full in depth look at the GBT\/FTP deal, who are the players, what do the lawyers think and how does the money stack up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6086,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[9,46,12],"class_list":["post-6069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-releases","tag-featured","tag-ftp","tag-poker-2"],"yoast_head":"\nBernard Tapie & FTP \u2013 Weekend Special (Part 2) [3] - iGaming Post<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/gaming-awards.com\/NEWS\/bernard-tapie-ftp-weekend-special-part-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bernard Tapie & FTP \u2013 Weekend Special (Part 2) [3] - 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