A fourth poker news outlet has come forward to say the Full Tilt Poker sale to Groupe Bernard Tapie is virtually a “done deal”. Citing an anonymous source, the website PocketFives.com quoted their man as saying, “They are finalizing the deal with U.S. Department of Justice, but it’s a done deal… Tapie is getting ready to reopen Full Tilt Poker in Europe. The deal should be signed next week.”

This report comes on the heels of several other recent sources making similar claims to Wicked Chops Poker, Gaming Intelligence, and eGaming Review over the past few weeks. However, the PocketFives source is by far the most confident, although he also offered a caveat to his “done deal” comments, saying that it’s still dependent on GBT finalizing their earlier verbal agreement with the US Department of Justice.

According to the article Laurent Tapie has moved to Dublin to oversee the finalization of the sale and to begin the process of reopening the ailing online poker room that has been offline since June 29, 2011. Earlier reports had Tapie not only working to reopen the site, but also hiring software and security specialists, as well as trying to secure an online poker license from the Aldernay Gambling Control Commission (AGCC), the regulatory body who pulled Full Tilt Poker’s license last June.

Two other sources close to the situation had a slightly less optimistic view of the sale, one telling PocketFives, “I don’t want to speculate. It is anybody’s guess whether it is this week or next,” And another simply saying, “Nothing today.” There has also been very little news coming from either Laurent Tapie or one of the company’s lawyers, Behnam Dayanim, both of whom are usually amongst the first to go public with any new developments in the sale.

Even though the sale seems to be moving forward (all four outlets are amongst the most reputable and well-connected in the industry) the poker world as a whole has remained very cynical when it comes to the sale, and considering the sale has been in the works for months with little in the way of real progress, it would seem that poker players are right to view any unconfirmed sources as “reliable”.

Several new issues have arisen since the two sides first talked about a deal, and none of the developments have been good for Full Tilt Poker. First we learned that up to 20 top poker pros have borrowed in the ballpark of $15-$20 million from Full Tilt Poker over the years, and those debts are not only still outstanding but in many cases almost uncollectable at this time. There was also the launch of PokerStars ZOOM Poker, a rival to Full Tilt’s Rush Poker, which was seen as a major selling point for FT.

It looks as though this could be the week for a big announcement from Full Tilt Poker, and you can be certain that we will bring you all the details as they come to light.

Tags: Anonymous Source, Bernard Tapie, Egaming Review, Full tilt Poker, Gambling Control, Gaming Intelligence, Hiring Software, Laurent Tapie, Little News, News Outlet, Online Poker, Optimistic View, Pocketfives, Poker Gaming, Poker News, Poker Room, Poker World, Us Department Of Justice, Verbal Agreement, Wicked Chops Poker

This entry was posted on Monday, March 26th, 2012 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “Anonymous source says Full Tilt sale a “Done Deal””

1. fred davis says:

   March 28, 2012 at 8:47 am

   they should get poker full tilt open@give our money back,that is locked in thier site. many people like to play poker,all over the world. get it done,now. fred

2. Tim says:

   March 28, 2012 at 4:45 pm

   So when are they going to repay us all the money back that full tilt stole from it players