Full Tilt Poker re-opens real-money at 12 noon GMT

New owner PokerStars will begin offering FTP real-money games at 12 noon GMT today following arguably one of the most audacious takeovers in online gaming history.

Full Tilt Poker will begin offering real-money games at 12 noon GMT today following arguably one of the most audacious takeovers in online gaming history earlier this year.

New owners PokerStars, under its Isle of Man Rational Group subsidiary, will re-open FTP’s dot.com doors to players at midday today UK time. This follows its acquisition of its former rival after it settled a civil case with the Department of Justice in July this year following the fallout of Black Friday in April 2011.

A pop-up window launched at 12 noon with the words: “Real money has launched. Gogogo!” However when eGaming Review attempted to make a deposit at that time the site issued a message saying: “We can’t process your request right now, please try again soon”.

Just over a year after the events of Black Friday, which saw both company’s US-facing dot.com sites shut down by the DoJ on 11 April 2011, PokerStars began settlement negotiations with US authorities that would also include paying back US and rest of the world players as well as acquiring former number two poker site FTP for a total sum of US$731m.

Less than three months later on 31 July this year, PokerStars’ long-awaited takeover of Full Tilt Poker was given the green light after the $731m deal was approved by the DoJ in New York.

The agreement saw the Isle of Man-based operator take over the assets of its fallen competitor while simultaneously reaching a repayment plan for Full Tilt’s players and ending the civil forfeiture proceedings against the former Alderney licensee.

A statement from Full Tilt at the time read: “The government has agreed that all of Full Tilt Poker’s US players will have an opportunity to request that they be compensated out of those funds for their losses.

“In addition, within 90 days, PokerStars will make available for immediate cash withdrawal or play the account balances for all of Full Tilt Poker’s non-U.S. players,” it added.

A transfer agreement signed by Tiltware board members Bitar and Howard Lederer and PokerStars executive board member Mark Scheinberg, among others, explained that “The transferee [PokerStars] shall not assume any liability or obligation in respect of the Forfeited assets or the Business, except as required by law.

Today’s re-launch marks the first time since June 2011 that players have been able to download and play on the FTP client, after PokerStars acquired the assets of the former Alderney licensee in July. Full Tilt’s homepage makes reference to the Isle of Man egaming licence awarded to the operator earlier this month.

Players with accounts on both PokerStars and Full Tilt will be able to “pair” their accounts on the two sites by following instructions in the PokerStars client, while players will be permitted to make transfers of funds between the two sites.

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