UB's Paul Leggett Resurfaces at Amaya as Head of Online Gaming

[BUBBLES]

http://t.co/YlywAXJo2a
UB's Paul Leggett Resurfaces at Amaya as Head of Online Gaming[ return to main articles page ]
By: Dan Cypra [See all articles by Dan Cypra]
Published on Apr 29th, 2013
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According to eGaming Review, Paul Leggett (pictured), formerly the COO of Tokwiro Enterprises, which owned and operated the now defunct Absolute Poker and UB, has resurfaced at Amaya Gaming as the company's Head of Online. Read the article (paywall).

Leggett was embattled during his time as COO of Tokwiro and is now affiliated with Amaya, which oversees the Ongame Network. A source close to PocketFives said that Leggett, who is originally from Canada and lived in Costa Rica when he worked with Tokwiro, now resides in Malta.

According to eGaming Review, "[Leggett] takes over the responsibilities of Peter Bertilsson, former Managing Director of Ongame Services, who remains within the Amaya group in a consultancy role... Leggett is now in charge of the online division and 'responsible for all of Amaya's online activities.'"

Leggett was COO of Tokwiro during the investigation into the cheating scandals that engulfed Absolute Poker and UB and told PocketFives in an exclusive interview in 2008, "We just inherited this problem and we’re doing everything we can to fix it and satisfy the public. We're trying to rebuild the brand, rebuild trust, and show that we're secure. The business has never benefited from any one of these instances of cheating. It's only suffered."

Both Absolute Poker and UB are headed for liquidation, and whether players will be reunited with all or a portion of their funds remains to be seen. There has been no update about the liquidation in several months.

To that end, last August, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission, which licensed both Tokwiro/Blanca sites, released a statement that read in part, "The proposed settlement requires all of Blanca's assets to be forfeited to the United States. The U.S. Marshals office will be mandated to liquidate Blanca's assets. However, there will be no distribution of the net proceeds from the liquidation pending the resolution of claims filed by other parties who have asserted an ownership interest in Blanca's assets."

Amaya purchased the Ongame Network from bwin.party last October in a deal worth up to €25 million. Previously, Las Vegas-based Shuffle Master had agreed to purchase Ongame, but backed out in June 2012, citing market conditions in Europe.

At the time of the sale, the Ongame Network was the fifth busiest network worldwide in terms of real money ring game traffic according to PokerScout, but has since slid to #16. The drop in part was due to the loss of bwin, which migrated to PartyPoker's network, and the departure of Betfair, which moved to the iPoker Network.

What do you think? Is Leggett's hiring beneficial to Amaya and Ongame? Comment here.

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[Dan Druff]

I don't understand how these scumbags who were instrumental in the major scandal coverups keep getting hired for current poker jobs. Are there that few qualified candidates without baggage applying for these positions?

Leggett is a scumbag who lied through his teeth the entire time about both the hand histories and the "new UB". While it's true that Leggett had nothing to do with the superuser cheating at UB, and was more of a company figurehead, he had no problem lying to everyone, and is partially responsible for the eventual collapse at UB that came to light on Black Friday.

This reminds me of how FTPDoug (Shyam Markus) was hired to manage the Pokerstars-owned Full Tilt, despite Markus' repeated lies on 2+2 regarding Full Tilt's liquidity. Even if Markus was simply repeating what he was told (and not knowingly lying), only an idiot wouldn't question such claims, and Markus had no problem spoonfeeding it to the public.

[haleylh]

I'm waiting to see if Amaya announces it officially on their own site. As of earlier today, they had not. I'm also wondering how Leggett gets around the bad-actor provisions present in the Nevada online-poker regulations.

[bigPOO]

leggett gets around nev laws and statutes with $$$$$$$$$$$$

[neveragain39]

Paul Leggett has proven himself to be a hollow shell of a man, and may God have mercy on his soul.

[haleylh]

leggett gets around nev laws and statutes with $$$$$$$$$$$$

He didn't make -that- much, and I've heard he was a consistent member of the AP party scene, meaning he spent lots as well. He clearly does not qualify under the Nevada regs, but whether that's an issue for Amaya remains to be seen. I put up a post about it at FlushDraw that Druff can link to if he wants.

If there's anything new about this, it makes me want to do some digging and find out who's all behind Amaya.

[neveragain39]

Paul is a lying piece of garbage.

[Belly Buster]

Paul is a lying piece of garbage.

Paul Niggett looks as shady as fuck on that video.

[BeerAndPoker]

Paul is a lying piece of garbage.

Oh they certainly used resources to take action against the perpetrator alright.

I didn't know Annie Duke knew sign language.

[Dan Druff]

BUMP

Leggett is leaving Amaya, presumably so they can get licensed in New Jersey and elsewhere in the US:

http://www.uspoker.com/blog/paul-leg...a-gaming/6469/

He's leaving them on good terms.