Full Tilt Poker Buyers Negotiate with DOJ

November 21 - Last week Groupe Bernard Tapie, the French firm seeking to buy controversial online poker site Full Tilt Poker, announced that it has signed a deal with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to help the acquisition go forward.
 

According to The Wall Street Journal, Groupe Bernard Tapie has agreed to pay the DOJ $80 million for Full Tilt Poker's assets.

Behnam Dayanim, acting for the French group in the United States, said the Full Tilt Poker acquisition by Groupe Bernard Tapie will aim to kick start the website's operations outside the United States once it has been given the green light.

Earlier this year, the French firm, which is owned by entrepreneur Bernard Tapie, a politician, businessman, singer, actor and former owner of Adidas, announced an exclusive deal to takeover the beleaguered Full Tilt Poker.

Tapie's expertise lies in salvaging struggling companies and returning them to profitability, including Adidas.

Laurent Tapie, who now heads his father's operations, said in an interview that he intends opening the site up for business in January 2012, keeping its original identity.

Full Tilt Poker Players Seek Return of Money

While the details of the new deal are undoubtedly interesting to the online poker industry, what interests former players at Full Tilt Poker most is when and if they will see their money returned to them.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are owed to players who had their Full Tilt Poker accounts frozen in April this year, despite promises by the online poker site that it was making efforts to see the money returned.

According to Full Tilt lawyer, Jeff Ifrah, the deal with Group Tapie is a "creative solution."

"The question now is, with the agreement behind us, how is this going to work?" he said. "Are the players going to get everything back, what's the process for filing claims and so on. These are things that the players are concerned about now."

According to Ifrah, Full Tilt Poker's current chief executive officer, Raymond Bitar supports the Full Tilt Poker deal and will not profit in the sale of the company, nor will he be able to gain a stake in the new company.

An emailed statement by Full Tilt Poker said that the online poker site would now be able to work out the final terms of the agreement with Group Bernard Tapie in order "to bring this matter to a complete resolution as soon as possible."