Bernard Tapie+Full Tilt=Disaster Waiting to Happen

[Bootsy Collins]

As been widely reported and discussed repeatedly, Bernard Tapie or Group Bernard Tapie has been in talks to purchase and operate Full Tilt Poker. While many players are optimistic about finally getting their much overdue payments, the prospect of Tapie having his fingers controlling Full Tilt can lead to dire consequences as seen in the past.

Case 1 The Rise and Fall of FC Olympique Marseille

Bernard Tapie became FC Olympique Marseille in 1986 and while the club was successful including capturing several French League titles, things turned bittersweet in 1994. A game against a much weaker FC Valanciennes the club was able to rest several key players to avoid injuries to ensure that they would be available for crucial matches that were coming up. Three of FC Valanciennes players were bribed to fix the match in Marseilles favor. The consequence was Marseilles was stripped of the French League title that year. The club was also demoted from the French League for “financial irregularities” and Tapie was sentenced to 2 years of prison from which he only served 6 months.

Case 2 Here Comes the Taxman

Bernard Tapie was convicted of tax fraud over a luxury yacht. He has also declared bankruptcy and was unable to pursue business ventures or run for public office.

To wrap up this argument why would we want this crook to replace another crook in Ray Bitar? It is like replacing disgraced Enron CEO Ken Lay with Bernie Madoff.

[Dan Druff]

I agree. This guy looks very unethical, and I wouldn't trust him as a player on Full Tilt.

But US people don't have to trust him. If this deal goes through, US players (supposedly) get paid by the US government, not Tapie.

But yeah, non-US players should stay away.

Good chance the sale never happens, though.

[chinamaniac]

THE DEAL WILL GET DONE!!!!!

[Avon Barksdale]

THE DEAL WILL GET DONE!!!!!

Writing's on the wall bro.

[chinamaniac]

THE DEAL WILL GET DONE!!!!!

Writing's on the wall bro.

As long as they are still talking I have hope. FTP really has no choice but to cave in to whatever tapie wants to get this done. If they don't then they are going to be fucked even harder than they are now.

Until I hear "the deal is off" completely then there is def some hope

[Dan Druff]

THE DEAL WILL GET DONE!!!!!

Writing's on the wall bro.

As long as they are still talking I have hope. FTP really has no choice but to cave in to whatever tapie wants to get this done. If they don't then they are going to be fucked even harder than they are now.

Until I hear "the deal is off" completely then there is def some hope

Agree that there is hope, but as more time passes with no progress, the chance of it going through dwindles.

[chinamaniac]

THE DEAL WILL GET DONE!!!!!

Writing's on the wall bro.

As long as they are still talking I have hope. FTP really has no choice but to cave in to whatever tapie wants to get this done. If they don't then they are going to be fucked even harder than they are now.

Until I hear "the deal is off" completely then there is def some hope

Agree that there is hope, but as more time passes with no progress, the chance of it going through dwindles.

But every update for the past few months they are making progress so they grant extensions so they can get to the finish line. If they weren't making progress I don't think Tapie would be wasting their time trying to hammer this out.

[NorCal Sports]

While I agree, the Tapie group wouldn't string this along if they didn't have an interest in buying it - right now it appears they are only bidding against themselves for the 'assets' ... so no need to rush into a deal.

Other than the software, which to my understanding only has value outside US soil, I'm not really sure what they really expect to get out of this company. If the US laws ever allow online bets from non-US players, surely foreign players will be enticed to switch from PokerStars or other rooms because the US market is attractive to play on.

I maybe had a few pennies on FT when they went down - but they were leftover from when they sent me $10 for "free" a few times. Never really understood why they sent me $10 free-play vouchers, as I only deposited once for $50. Probably another reason why they were in financial trouble. Either way, if you have substantial money on the site - even with a sale, I'm beginning to doubt players are going to get anywhere close to 100% of their money back. Hope I'm wrong though.

[Dan Druff]

While I agree, the Tapie group wouldn't string this along if they didn't have an interest in buying it - right now it appears they are only bidding against themselves for the 'assets' ... so no need to rush into a deal.

Other than the software, which to my understanding only has value outside US soil, I'm not really sure what they really expect to get out of this company. If the US laws ever allow online bets from non-US players, surely foreign players will be enticed to switch from PokerStars or other rooms because the US market is attractive to play on.

I maybe had a few pennies on FT when they went down - but they were leftover from when they sent me $10 for "free" a few times. Never really understood why they sent me $10 free-play vouchers, as I only deposited once for $50. Probably another reason why they were in financial trouble. Either way, if you have substantial money on the site - even with a sale, I'm beginning to doubt players are going to get anywhere close to 100% of their money back. Hope I'm wrong though.

While this was not specifically promised, I believe the DOJ doesn't want to approve the sale unless the US players are going to get paid in entirety.

I don't think that Tapie has completely lost interest in purchasing Full Tilt, but perhaps they are reassessing its value and are trying to get some kind of break -- such as the government kicking in a little more money to pay back the US players.

[Steve-O]

I think the most important question is what interest does GBT have in an online poker site --an online poker site with a terrible brand and reputation to boot? And the answer is ZERO. I've felt all along that they were stringing this out in order to derail any other potential suitors but at the same time to get precisely what they want, which in my opinion is the FT software and specifically the Rush Poker software for their International Stadium Poker Tour (ISPT). Who wants the Full Tilt brand for $80 million and a $150 million debt to players, the vast majority of whom are unlikely to rejoin your site? I'd rather just take the software (and no debt) and go about creating my ISPT.

In the end, probably late this year, they'll say, "we tried to get the deal done but there were just too many issues." And guess who now owns the FT software and other assetts, the DOJ. Once a deal to purchase FT and get players repaid has fallen through virtually anyone can swoop in and offer the DOJ $30 million for the software and they're going to take it at that point. Otherwise this deal would have been done months ago.

[Dan Druff]

I believe there are two aspects of value to acquiring FTP:

1) The ability to make some money on the non-US market, which will return to SOME degree if the word gets around that it's a completely new set of owners. This won't make huge money, but it will add up over time.

2) The ability to be in place to offer to sell or lease the software to a US-based poker room when everything becomes legal. Or perhaps even being able to offer US-based poker when everything becomes legal, figuring that they will be eligible for a license after saving all of the US players from the Black Friday disaster.

I still think it's a



for $250-300 million, and Tapie might, as well.

[Steve-O]

1) The ability to make some money on the non-US market, which will return to SOME degree if the word gets around that it's a completely new set of owners. This won't make huge money, but it will add up over time.

This is probably true, but they are basically starting a site from square one (perhaps less than square one considering the damage to the brand, the financial issues, and so on) and it would probably be easier and more profitable to just start your own onlined poker site for that kind of money! They still need to hire all sorts of technical people and most of the competent FT employees have already moved on --for one thing full tilt's software has been offline for 9 months which is like having a 13" balck and white TV with a rabbit ear antenna in terms of hows fast poker sites advance.

2) The ability to be in place to offer to sell or lease the software to a US-based poker room when everything becomes legal. Or perhaps even being able to offer US-based poker when everything becomes legal, figuring that they will be eligible for a license after saving all of the US players from the Black Friday disaster.

Again, this would only require them to have the software.

If their REAL goal was to have an online poker site they would haved had this thing wrapped up months ago. If Full Tilt can be ressurected at +$1 million/month (which seems reasonable considering their past peaks), they would be stupid to screw around trying to get a slightly better deal:

#1 they are losing $1 million+ every month they are offline
#2 who knows how much brand damage is being done every day they are offline

I just don't see any logical reason for them to drag out the sale, but feign interest at every opportunity, other than they are trying to pull their own version of a bait and switch --They basically have all of Full Tilt's assets on layaway, and when nobody wants it anymore due to its absolute insolvency they are going to tell the DOJ that they only want the software. Be like going to K-Mart and wanting a monitor, but putting the last computer in the store that comes with it on layaway; then when the comp is obsolete you tell them you don't want it, but would be interested in the monitor for a lesser price ----not the best analogy, but I think it gets the point across

[NorCal Sports]

I see your points. Tapie obviously would like a piece of the US market with a software license, and that's the only way I see getting a fairly quick return on your investment. Problem I see is, that means PokerStars is probably entitled to license or re-enter the market as well. Most legislation I've scanned over usually has some kind of provision for these sites, but I guess if it's important enough to the DOJ for FT people to be paid, they might allow something like this to happen.

Having plenty of time looking back, I guess I kind of see BF as a way for the US Government to 'clear a path' for their big boy donors in Las Vegas and New Jersey. Clearing out FT and PS is like giving them directions to the buried treasure. It's possible the likes of Harrahs and MGM make a case that licensing FT and other black friday software makes sense for them, but I doubt it. By now, they surely have the pieces in place to move on without that. Why would the DOJ want to funnel money back to PokerStars or 'new' owners of full-tilt anyway?

In the back of DOJ's mind might be Ub/AP people who are pretty much 100% never getting a dime back, if they can muster up even half of the FT players money - maybe they strike a deal.

I can see why it's taken so long, and without any US/State laws in place at the moment - that might string things out a little longer. Sorry if you're stuck a good amount on the site, I sincerely hope you get all your money back.

[chinamaniac]

http://gamingintelligence.com/manda/...deal-this-week

[Steve-O]

http://gamingintelligence.com/manda/...deal-this-week

I hope this is true (and gaming intelligence is a spot-on outfit) but if their source is Behnam Dayanim this means squat (and I'm not paying the 200 quid to find out): "Tapie and the owners of Full Tilt agreed to extend their deadline for completion until this Friday (March 16th) to allow for further due diligence and sources on both sides are confident that the deadline will be met" Sounds like the same-old same-old to me.

China, where are you from in MA?

[JACKDANIELS]

interesting post bootsy

i knew the story of marseille but i had no idea tapie was the man running the show at that time. no doubt now he is a very shady character and we can only guess what his motives are.

after full tilt shut down i had high hopes one of the uk bookmakers would buy the site. most already have online poker sites the majority of which are just skins on ipoker. i think buying the software and rebranding in their own name could have been huge but for whatever reason it didnt happen.

[chinamaniac]

[QUOTE=Steve-O;2983]

China, where are you from in MA?

originally billerica

[Steve-O]

[QUOTE=chinamaniac;2989]

China, where are you from in MA?

originally billerica

I'm about 30 minuts closer to Foxwoods than you.

[chinamaniac]

Diamond Flush reporting the deal is not dead according to her close sources and another announcement should come very soon

[Cupid Stunt]

http://www.pokernewsdaily.com/full-t...mminent-21389/


Full Tilt Poker/Groupe Bernard Tapie Deal Finalization Could Be Imminent

According to various sources, the deal between the embattled online poker site Full Tilt Poker and its supposed savior, the French investment firm Groupe Bernard Tapie, is set to be finalized, potentially as early as tomorrow.

The noted gaming magazine eGaming Review has stated that the deal between the two companies should be completed within the next week or two, but another outlet is predicting an even faster completion. The online site Gaming Intelligence has reported that the deal may be completed as early as tomorrow. In their analysis, Gaming Intelligence states that “Tapie and the owners of Full Tilt…extended their deadline for completion of the deal to this Friday (March 16)…sources on both sides are confident that the deadline will be met.”



We shall see...