Who Owns Full Tilt Poker
Citizen from near Los Angeles, California, said in a statement that he had stayed in Ireland to work on 'possible solutions to get the players repaid.' Tiltware, a California-based.
Full Tilt Poker was once the second largest poker site in the world, largely thanks to its decision to continue serving poker players in the United States after 2006.
Full Tilt 5,075 followers on LinkedIn. Full Tilt is run by gaming fanatics. We were born a poker brand and have evolved into a full gaming brand. Our dedication to building the games our. Tiltware, a California-based company, owns all the Full Tilt Poker entities. Absolute Poker co-owner Brent Beckley pleaded guilty in December to conspiring to break U.S. Laws against gambling on. Although Full Tilt has new ownership in Groupe Bernard Tapie, it is plainly evident that there is still a long road ahead for the embattled online poker site before it could ever be reactivated.
This is when online gambling legislation was introduced that led to many gambling sites withdrawing from the region.
Ultimately, however, the site suffered when its domain was seized by the US government and they transpired it, plus the site wasn’t able to pay its players their deposits back.
Today Full Tilt Poker is operational again and owned by the same company that owns PokerStars.
On this page we will look at the people that were behind the original launch of Full Tilt Poker. These include a number of the well-known poker professionals that formed “Team Full Tilt”.
The parent company behind the launch of Full Tilt Poker in 2004 was Tiltware. This software company, based in California, was founded and run by Raymond Bitar.
He was one of the individuals who was instrumental in getting Full Tilt Poker off the ground. Bitar stated that he always had a keen interest in poker, which started when he began playing at age 12. Professionally, Bitar’s background is in trading equities.
He subsequently entered into a partnership with another company to open a new trading office which he ran. It was during that time that he met, and traded for, professional poker player Chris Ferguson. It was partly through that relationship that the idea for Full Tilt Poker came about.
In 2011, Bitar was one of several people charged by the United States government in relation to online gambling activities. Charged with five counts, including money laundering and bank fraud, he faced a maximum jail term of 65 years.
These initial charges were just the start; it was subsequently discovered that Bitar, along with others, had been using funds that were supposedly ring-fenced to cover customer deposits to operate the business and also pay large salaries and dividends.
After a fresh indictment was issued, Bitar eventually returned to the US in July 2012 to face prosecutors. He issued a statement, through his attorney, saying that he understood why people were angry at him and that he should never have let Full Tilt get in a position where it could not pay players their funds.
A plea bargain deal was agreed upon in April 2013, when it was revealed that Bitar was awaiting a heart transplant.
Howard Lederer, fondly known as the Professor of Poker for his analytical approach to the game, is one of the leading players who helped found Full Tilt Poker.
As a young college graduate, Lederer was hooked on chess and even made the move to New York to be closer to the active chess clubs in the city.
It was actually in the back rooms of one of these clubs that Lederer stumbled on poker.
Lederer was soon playing up to 80 hours of poker a week in a bid to become one of the best players in the world. His game improved significantly when he started to play at the world famous Mayfair Club in New York and rubbed shoulders with other pros including Erik Seidel and Steve Zolotow.
Lederer and his poker buddies were among the first in the world to try out the newly created No Limit Hold ‘em Poker and perfected the game to the format that we all know today.
Poker genius definitely runs in the family, since Lederer’s sister Annie Duke soon picked up the bug and started following her brother around on the circuit. Duke has gone on to become one of the highest paid women players in the world, no doubt thanks in part to her brother’s guidance.
Is Full Tilt Poker Legit
In 1994, Lederer and Duke met at the final table of the World Series of Poker competition, the first time in history that a brother and sister have met across the felt at such a late stage in the tournament.
Lederer’s eyes, however, were set on the World Series of Poker tournament and his dream was finally fulfilled in 2000, when he won the $5000 Limit Omaha Hi Lo event, taking home his first gold bracelet. He had a pair after taking another event the following year.
Lederer went on to win more of the biggest live tournaments in the world, including the WPT Championship at Foxwoods in 2002, three Bellagio titles, and a host of others.
In 2008, he walked away with $1.25 million at the Aussie Millions competition, an event that had a whopping entry fee of $100,000. Having become one of the best-known names in the poker industry, he joined Team Full Tilt and helped to launch the new poker site in 2004.
In September, 2011, Lederer was named in a civil complaint filed by the US Department of Justice, accusing Full Tilt of defrauding players. A three way settlement between Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, and the Department of Justice followed in 2012, when PokerStars agreed to purchase Full Tilt in exchange for providing the funds to pay back Full Tilt Poker players.
Subsequently, Lederer settled personally with the Department of Justice, admitting no wrongdoing and forfeiting assets of around $2.5 million.
Phil Ivey is another poker player who helped turn the dream of Full Tilt Poker into a reality. Ivey is considered one of the most brilliant poker players of all times and has been named “The Tiger Woods of Poker” by his contemporaries.
He was introduced to poker at the tender age of five by his grandfather, who probably didn’t realize that he had a legend in the making staring back at him across their makeshift poker table.
By 16, Ivey was ready to play where the big money was, and he faked an ID and made for the casino floors of Atlantic City.
He played so long at the tables that he was nicknamed “No Home Jerome” by the other players at the casino. His long hours and dedication to the game paid off and by 2000 Ivey felt that he was ready for the World Series of Poker. He took the leap into world of professional poker, at age 24.
Ivey’s first attempt at the $2,000 No Limit Texas Hold ‘em he achieved fifth place, but it was in the $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha, where he won his first gold bracelet. Along the way he outshined some of the world’s most brilliant players at the time, including Phil Hellmuth and David “Devilfish” Ulliott.
2002 was an awesome year for the young legend, who was clearly enjoying his career. Ivey won three gold bracelets at the WSOP, a feat that has only ever been achieved by two other players: Phil Hellmuth and Ted Forrest.
In 2004, Ivey joined forces with some of the top names in the business to form Full Tilt Poker, and he became part of Team Full Tilt. His individual success didn’t stop though, and he won his fifth WSOP bracelet in 2005 in the $5000 pot limit Omaha event.
In 2006, Ivey won an incredible $16.6 million in a matter of three days after taking up a challenge put out by Texas billionaire Andy Beal. While Beal managed to beat players such as Jen Harman and Johnny Chan, he was no match for Ivey.
Ivey won his first World Poker Tour title in 2008 after making his record eighth WPT Final Table. His ultimate goal was to win the Main Event at the World Series of Poker, and he came close in 2009 when he made the final table.
His dedication to the game continued and he was playing frequently, both online at Full Tilt and live. He was fiercely protective of his private life and rarely gave public interviews. The spotlight was well on him and he was incredibly popular among aspiring amateur poker players.
Following the Full Tilt scandal he filed a lawsuit against the poker site, claiming breach of contract. He sought significant damages and asked to be released from his contract with the company.
Today, Ivey lives in Las Vegas and is still an active poker player. Indeed, he’s regarded by many as the best all around player in the world.
Christopher Ferguson, nicknamed ‘Jesus’ because of his trademark long beard and hair, is another extremely talented poker player who helped launch Full Tilt Poker.
With his Texas style hat and sunglasses, Ferguson is one of the most recognized faces on the poker circuit and cuts quite a fearful figure at first glance.
Yet Ferguson is known as a ‘nice guy’ with an incredible knack for poker, and he has managed to make some of the highest cash in recent history.
Born in 1963, Ferguson grew up in a home where mathematics was a revered subject. His ability to observe and analyze games is credited to his early childhood, and these characteristics were put to good use in college where he studied Computer Science.
It was during his student years that Ferguson was introduced to an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channel and became a highly ranked poker player. These were the early years of online poker, and Ferguson considered it a personal challenge to use this amazing tool to advance his skills so that he could eventually play in leading live tournaments.
Ferguson’s first World Series of Poker event was in 1995 and his results were poor. He realized that if he wanted to achieve his goals he had hard work ahead of him, and so he began to dedicate virtually all his time to poker from that point on.
By 2000, Chris Ferguson was a household name, having accomplished no less than seven World Series of Poker final tables and cashed in 12 events.
In 2001, Ferguson bagged the $1,500 Omaha Hi Lo Split bracelet, and two years later he won another two bracelets in another Omaha event, followed by the $2K Limit Hold ‘em and Seven Card Stud event at the WSOP 2003.
Eager to use his status to advance quality poker online, Ferguson teamed up with fellow poker players to launch Full Tilt Poker in 2004. He continued to push for the development and evolution of online poker.
He also regularly contributed to articles and publications on the subject. He managed to demonstrate the importance of bankroll management by turning $0 into $10,000 through his $10K Challenge, educating a new generation of talented online poker players.
Ferguson also continued to do well on the live poker tournament circuit, winning the 2008 NBC Heads Up Championship, taking down two finishes in the 2008 World Series of Poker event, and a second place finish in the Aussie Millions $10K HORSE event in 2009.
He finished sixth in the 2009 LA Poker Classic, winning himself a quarter of a million dollars, and fifteenth in the 2009 WSOP Europe No Limit Hold ‘em event.
Following the Full Tilt Poker scandal, Ferguson denied allegations leveled against him relating to the misappropriation of funds. Through his attorney, he suggested that the issues were the result of mismanagement rather than malice.
Ferguson is also proud of his other talents in life, such as ballroom dancing and stock trading. It’s believed he has plans to return to academia (where he spent many years) to become a professor like his father.
There were a total of 9 members of Team Full Tilt at the time of Full Tilt Poker launching.
In addition to Lederer, Ivery, and Ferguson, the team also comprised Phil Gordon, Jennifer Harman, John Juanda, Erik Seidel, Erick Lindgren, and Andy Bloch.
They all had roles to play and were all respected in the poker industry at the time. Phil Gordon was particularly involved in the development of the software and Andy Bloch is believed to have been key in recruiting some of the other members.
As with many things in life the make up of the gambling sector, especially due to online gambling, has changed massively over the last couple of decades.
In the past before online betting and gambling came about the high street bookmakers was the place to bet. The high street was dominated by the “Big 3” back then which were Coral, Ladbrokes and William Hill with numerous other small bookmakers also trying to grab a piece of the pie.
Once online gambling became popular this gave many other bookies and gambling companies not only another way of gaining customers but also a level playing field where their high street presence isn’t as important. All of a sudden there were new online bookies popping up left right and centre. Some were completely new companies and some were small independent bookmakers pushing on to the stage, it was exciting times.
The first interesting online bookmaker we will look at is Sky Bet. You may think that Sky Bet is a simple one, owned by Sky TV but that is not the case. Firstly Sky Bet came to be about when BSkyB purchased a small gambling company that included the online bookies Surrey Sports which was later, in 2002, rebranded to become Sky Bet. They grew steadily and in the mid 2000’s BSkyB purchased the 365 Media Group which included online betting sites TotalBet and UKBetting, which were then merged into Sky Bet. In a rather surprising move for some Sky decided in 2015 to sell an 80% stake of Sky Bet to CVC Capital Partners for £600m. This is not where it ends though for Sky Bet as in 2018 both Sky and CVC agreed to sell all of Sky Bet to The Stars Group for a huge £3.4bn.
The Stars Group are a huge gaming company having grown from their popular online poker site PokerStars, which also has an online casino and bookmaking site BetStars. As well as these sites The Stars Group also purchased the troubled online poker site Full Tilt Poker which ran into huge problems in America with the United States Department of Justice. Based in Canada it was viewed as a very interesting move by The Star Group to then purchase Sky Bet and expand their market share.
Another huge group these days in the world of online gaming is GVC Holding plc, which is one of the biggest gaming companies in the world, and have a very interesting history. We mentioned at the beginning of this article about Labrokes and Coral being 2 of the traditional big 3 UK bookies. Ladbrokes as a company over the years have been through some very interesting times as they expanded their portfolio into other areas such as land based casinos. Sticking to the gambling side of the business they expanded into Australia by not only operating a Ladbrokes sports betting site there they also purchased both Betstar.com.au and Bookmaker.com.au between 2013 and 2014. In 2013 Ladbrokes had also purchased the online betting exchangeBetdaq. Whilst this was all going on Coral were also experiencing interesting times having firstly purchased Eurobet in 1999. In 2005 they were then themselves purchased by Gala which ran bingo and casino operation for over £2bn, which created the Gala Coral Group. Then in another somewhat surprise move it was announced that Ladbrokes and Gala Coral were in talks about a merger and in 2016 both companies joined forces to create Ladbrokes Coral Group plc. Then in 2018 GVC Holdings took over Ladbrokes Coral for a price said to be up to £4bn.
You actually maybe a little surprised at all the other sites that GVC Holdings now own and operate as they have been steadily building up their portfolio. They had already purchased Betboo and Sportingbet (apart from the Australian arm) by 2013 and in 2016 bought the Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment which itself had merged together from Bwin and Party Gaming companies back in 2011. As well as those sites such as Bwin and the Party site such as Party Poker and Party Casino, GVC Holdings now own many others as well like Neds, Cheeky Bingo, Casino King and Foxy Bingo. It really is an impressive portfolio.
Full Tilt Poker
William Hill has been an interesting company though as although being one of the biggest gambling companies about and despite many approaches and rumours have still not been taken over. William Hill plc owns the William Hill brand and are listed on the London Stock Exchange, the FTSE 250. William Hill had quite an impressive portfolio in Australia before offloading the whole lot to Crownbet, who are in turn owned by The Stars Group. They did however complete the purchase of Mr Green in 2019 who had themselves in 2018 purchased Evoke Gaming Ltd who own numerous sites including Redbet.
Another interesting merger was back in 2016 when Irish bookmaker Paddy Power merged with Betfair (who had purchased Blue Square bookies in 2013) to become Paddy Power Betfair plc, which later renamed to become Flutter Entertainment plc. The group also owns the Australian sportsbook Sportsbet.com.au, daily fantasy sports site FanDuel, Adjarabet, which operates in Georgia and also TVG which is a broadcaster in the United States who broadcasts US horse racing. The story doesn’t end here though as there is a proposal to merge Flutter with The Stars Group to create the worlds largest gaming company.
Another group who have been expanded in recent years is the Kindred Group which was formerly known as Unibet Group plc. Unibet have made a number of acquisitions over the years including Bet24 and the online business of former bookie Stan James. One eye opening move that really pushed Kindred forward was their purchased of the 32Red Group which included the 32Red Casino which is widely regarded as one of the best online casinos in the world, as well as the popular Roxy Palace Casino. Other popular brands under their umbrella are Maria Casino and Bingo.com, with various other brands targeting different countries and regions.
One more company that has continued to expand and buyout other betting site is the Swedish online gaming company Betsson Group. Although most of their products are generally aimed at Scandinavia and mainland Europe they have a number of sites that target the UK. Their biggest site was always Betsson and in 2011 bought all the shares in the Betsafe Group to have 2 top European bookmakers sites as well. In 2012 they also acquired the Nordic Gaming Group which included NordicBet. In 2017 they also purchased NetPlay TV’s assets which saw them expand further into the UK market as the purchase included Jackpot247 and SuperCasino plus Vernons. Betsson Group now also own the RaceBets site which specialises in horse racing and greyhound racing from around the world, as well as a number of other gaming sites targeting mainland Europe.
888Holdings are another company who have built up quite an impressive portfolio of different gaming sites but mainly in the bingo and casino sectors. Although they operate 888Sport and other 888 brands like casino, bingo and poker they also own popular bingo sites such as Red Bus Bingo, Wink Bingo and Posh Bingo amongst others.
Not all online bookies are now owned buy huge companies listed on stock markets, which is partly what makes this industry so interesting. For example one of the most popular and largest bookmakers in the UK is Betfred which is still owned by the founder Fred Done. Another gaming company and arguably one of the largest bookmakers in the world is Bet365 and again is still owned by the Coates family having been founded by Denise Coates. BetVictor are also operating as an independent bookmaker as well, although they aren’t now own by the Chandler family.
It is safe to say that with the ever evolving world of online gaming and betting this certainly isn’t the end of the mergers and acquisitions with gambling sites coming and going what seems like almost every month. Whatever does happen in the future we’re sure there is going to be plenty of entertainment along the way.