17 Nov 11
Full Tilt Poker Deal Signed; Exclusive Statement Here
Groupe Bernard Tapie has signed a deal with the United States Department of Justice to acquire Full Tilt Poker's assets. Find out more.
The long-awaited deal for Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) to take over Full Tilt Poker has been signed. The deal is between GBT and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), and it includes some form of repayment for all players who formerly held Full Tilt accounts. GBT has agreed to pay $80 million for the assets formerly owned by Full Tilt.
Full Tilt Poker Exclusive Statement to PokerStrategy.com
The following statement was sent to PokerStrategy.com from Full Tilt Poker:Full Tilt Poker is pleased that the terms of the agreement between Groupe Bernard Tapie (GBT) and the Department of Justice have been finalized, and that the agreement provides for GBT to repay or make whole players outside of the United States and for the Department of Justice to permit United States players to request compensation out of the forfeited funds. Since Black Friday, repaying customers has been FTP’s number one priority.
Ray Bitar, co-Founder of Full Tilt Poker stated: “I am extremely pleased with the efforts of the Department of Justice, and the Groupe Bernard Tapie corporation, and appreciate their continued dedication in working towards a mutually beneficial agreement that will facilitate repayment of the players ."
Now that the agreement with DOJ has been reached, GBT and Full Tilt Poker will now turn to memorializing the final terms of their agreement, to bring this matter to a complete resolution as soon as possible.
Full Tilt Poker would like to thank all its customers for their continued patience since Black Friday and during this negotiation process.
Lawyers from Both Sides Comment
In order to better understand the situation at hand, PokerStrategy.com asked Behn Dayanim and Jeff Ifrah for their thoughts on the deal.Behn Dayanim, an attorney for Groupe Bernard Tapie, confirmed that "A letter of agreement with the DOJ has been executed. It states that in the event that the Full Tilt companies consent to a forfeiture of their assets, GBT will purchase those assets. This is the first major step in the process of a sale; the next steps include Full Tilt consenting to the forfeiture and a definitive final agreement with the DOJ."
Jeff Ifrah, a lawyer associated with Full Tilt, explained that "The deal is clearly historic. It's an incredible achievement. A lot of thanks and gratitude are owed to both GBT and the DOJ. Clearly there remain a lot of questions on the logistics of a sale, including when players will get paid, how they'll file claims, and when Full Tilt will become operational. I hope I can help obtain answers to those questions quickly, and make information available to players as soon as possible."
PokerStrategy.com will continue to keep you informed with updates on this story as they become available.
by Matt Kaufman
#1
kukkiwonBG, 17 Nov 11 22:06
party?#2
subscriber, 17 Nov 11 22:06
whoooooooooooo hoooooooooo!!!!!!#3
BigAl123456, 17 Nov 11 22:09
Dogiziezzzzzzzzzz#4
kozmi55, 17 Nov 11 22:13
champagne showers :D :D#5
leidysmaritza, 17 Nov 11 22:13
when they can be the room?#6
LMIG, 17 Nov 11 22:18
go!! very nice breaking news!#7
simoska, 17 Nov 11 22:19
party rock is in the house tonight!!!#8
DeAluXe, 17 Nov 11 22:21
yea i got my 50 dollar :D#9
TonyOn, 17 Nov 11 22:22
There's no party @ Party Poker :)#10
arcnagett, 17 Nov 11 22:22
I just want the stuff i bought on Full Tilt Store in February...#11
Blade90, 17 Nov 11 22:22
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT :D :D :D This could be a good day :)#12
Vinny80, 17 Nov 11 22:25
All righty, good news after a crappy day!!#13
eteris, 17 Nov 11 22:26
one time#14
corshi, 17 Nov 11 22:26
I just want my fulltilt account to be tracked on PS.Wishful thinking.
#15
Snnirr, 17 Nov 11 22:27
When FT comes back, is my tracked account still tracked?and yea, parteeyyy
#16
Poseidon28, 17 Nov 11 22:28
yessssssssss#17
Skring, 17 Nov 11 22:33
GG!!!#18
muel294, 17 Nov 11 22:34
WIN MUCH?#19
LSFC4ever, 17 Nov 11 22:35
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA BERNARD TAPIE FOR PRESIDENT!#20
BattleHunter, 17 Nov 11 22:35
sweet ^^#21
lessthanthreee, 17 Nov 11 22:37
yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy#22
Mandator, 17 Nov 11 22:48
party rock is when I get my money back#23
ITheAnswer, 17 Nov 11 22:48
I'm just going to sleep, this is like the best good night ever...#24
TwiceT, 17 Nov 11 22:49
booooom!#25
nuno21nt, 17 Nov 11 22:52
AAAWWW YYYEEAA#26
tfsantos, 17 Nov 11 22:53
@19, that's not enough...Bernard Tapie for Pope!!!
#27
mooNkr, 17 Nov 11 23:04
If i play on Full Tilt Poker soon, I cum my pants#28
Waiboy, 17 Nov 11 23:09
Rollcoaster on the way down to the end?It'll be interesting to see what the repayment proposal/s is/are and ofc the timeframe to get back into it. Ironman status reinstated and I'm insta returning.
#29
nuno21nt, 17 Nov 11 23:09
@26 lol tfsantos#30
MrRoyalMark, 17 Nov 11 23:09
"... and includes some form of repayment"hope they won't do anything stupid...
#31
pavels4444, 17 Nov 11 23:13
cant wait to play rush again!!#32
Hergen13, 17 Nov 11 23:15
=D#33
boboistina, 17 Nov 11 23:16
no waaaaay i cant believe it the nightmare is over at last!!!!This cant get stopped or fcked up now can it? now it's not if but only when we'll get ftp back?
#34
PocketAcesJohn, 17 Nov 11 23:21
I'm going to hug the next french person i see and tell them how much i love there people!#35
fruktpuff, 17 Nov 11 23:23
Look what can happen when you have 80000 "One time!" at once!#36
djknockout, 17 Nov 11 23:28
Viva La France!#37
TiciBoy, 17 Nov 11 23:30
yeeesssssss!#38
dreamer14, 17 Nov 11 23:34
I love Tapie ♥ :-D#39
Anger86, 17 Nov 11 23:36
Cool! I can play again. It has been a long time ... since ...#40
FatSunny, 17 Nov 11 23:38
Lets see the statement first#41
stinkie24, 17 Nov 11 23:41
damm sounds good!!! but this worrys me-----------> includes some form of repayment for all players who formerly held Full Tilt accounts. some form i want my whole bankroll back =)#42
Fongie, 17 Nov 11 23:42
Cool, lets see how long actually getting the money will take though =)#43
tofu22, 17 Nov 11 23:56
i would think they would want it up and running asap. before new year maybe?now i've got two small BRs :)
#44
Heffron89, 17 Nov 11 23:56
please let me track to pokerstrategy now! :)#45
Heffron89, 17 Nov 11 23:57
#43 1st January I heard ^^#46
Gerovit, 17 Nov 11 23:58
meh#47
SickoHands, 18 Nov 11 00:03
Mr Boombastic !#48
Tim64, 18 Nov 11 00:08
Wonderful news! I hope it's not too long before they get up and running. Then we'll see how loyal everyone has become to their new sites... :)#49
wiathphkRwi, 18 Nov 11 00:20
too da fullest!!!!#50
rubenbakag, 18 Nov 11 00:34
yupi xD#51
Cen7, 18 Nov 11 00:44
so when will be online , it will be ?:D#52
keoghh, 18 Nov 11 01:12
#27 Calm down son#53
mihaiee, 18 Nov 11 01:30
jizz in my bankrol#54
Dan7777, 18 Nov 11 02:13
I want that Tapie touch me like the lovers do#55
Elcarita, 18 Nov 11 02:21
#9 LOL'd so hard#56
YourDoomPoker, 18 Nov 11 02:29
SHIP!#57
Cpwpoker, 18 Nov 11 02:44
New episode of Full tilt drama series :Christmas gift for poker players around the world in advance
#58
gadget51, 18 Nov 11 02:59
Question I have is: 'Why did all this shit happen in the first place? politics? confused dot com but im Brtish#59
stevegold87, 18 Nov 11 03:06
This is great#60
MUTA777BOR, 18 Nov 11 05:12
WAMOOOOOO!!!!!!!!#61
vladimir980, 18 Nov 11 05:48
woooow ... great, great, great :)))))#62
BoyRobot777, 18 Nov 11 07:08
yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee#63
BrendanH, 18 Nov 11 08:24
Nice news to start the weekend with!#64
Pe6o0o, 18 Nov 11 08:30
Damn my 21st birthday just got from awesome to legendary :)))#65
JohnTheGreatest, 18 Nov 11 08:41
Yeeeehhhhaaaaaaa! :)#66
kirezafirov, 18 Nov 11 09:06
go go go GBT!!!#67
RazDirk, 18 Nov 11 09:10
WINNN <3 omg so much happy tears :D#68
Kaitz20, 18 Nov 11 09:34
Nice news :)#69
Snodreliss, 18 Nov 11 09:41
I just got my life back.#70
pokermachy, 18 Nov 11 09:50
My head is going to explode with all those hours I'm going to spend with rush :) ONE TIME is here guys!#71
arsenalpz, 18 Nov 11 10:17
My first ONE TIME!!! Tapie please dont screw it!!!#72
nmilan84, 18 Nov 11 10:57
One time!!!!#73
svenolow, 18 Nov 11 11:56
Finally : )#74
stinkie24, 18 Nov 11 12:13
lets hope we get paid 1$ per $ and not some shady deal!!!#75
T3rMiT3, 18 Nov 11 13:59
Omg... What a bad joke!#76
Saka000, 18 Nov 11 14:20
Happy new Full Tilt year!!! :)))#77
ExternalUseOnly, 18 Nov 11 17:30
Fantastic news :)#78
PocketAcesJohn, 18 Nov 11 17:44
Feeling a 24hr session the day there back online :)#79
nathanrenard, 18 Nov 11 18:42
@78 +1And will be back at running towards Black Member again.
#80
mongomob, 18 Nov 11 19:50
any word on when they'll start up???#81
JazBenz, 18 Nov 11 23:32
best scenario would be if things just continued to go as before, meaning people still have their tracked accounts and bankrolls *fingers crossed*#82
B0YNAMEDSUE, 19 Nov 11 00:56
"One time!" really does work, I guess. I'm gonna play Rush Poker until I throw up!#83
glavaoo7, 19 Nov 11 05:01
see you again! do#84
w34z3l, 19 Nov 11 23:52
I just don't believe it. Something will go wrong. I'd wager we don't get our rolls back at least until february next year, and that's IF we get them back.#85
pavels4444, 20 Nov 11 10:13
#84 you def won't get your whole roll (if you have a big one) until february next year. That's almost for sureStill better to believe you get it sometimes
#86
tammyccc, 22 Nov 11 15:27
so when can wee play again?#87
illium, 02 Feb 12 16:00
Without assurances the FTP will honour all Non-US accounts they will be unable to offer new customers bonuses or rakebacks. I recommend that they offer bonuses to existing account holders not to withdraw their funds immediately, perhaps for a period of 6 months. That way they can maintain their client baseand encourage new players. After all GBT will want to run FTP as an ongoing business.