Partouche marketing director resigns
Jean-Jacques Ichai steps down after controversy over prizepool guarantee at live tour - update: resignation rejected and he will remain in his role.
Groupe Partouche marketing director Jean-Jacques Ichai has tendered his resignation, apologising to group president Patrick Partouche over comments made ahead of the operator’s ongoing flagship live event.
The Partouche Poker Tour (PPT) sparked controversy this week after it looked as though Ichai’s claims about a 5m guarantee in a TV interview months before the event “ a guarantee also publicised on certain promotional materials “ would not be honoured.
Following complaints from players on social networks, many of whom posted screenshots of the supposed 5m guarantee, Patrick Partouche yesterday held a press conference at the PPT main event in which he announced that this year would be the event’s last.
“The Partouche Poker Tour bears my name, that of my family. I will not accept, my staff will not accept, that people can say ‘Partouche are thieves’, ‘Partouche are cheats’,” he said.
Meanwhile Ichai said in a post on his personal Facebook account: “I had no memory of my TV interview or announcing the guaranteed tournament. My President, Mr Patrick Partouche spoke that day without the knowledge of the video. I want to apologize specifically against him…and the Partouche Poker Tour team and all the players.”
There is no suggestion that the International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT), with whom Groupe Partouche is to play a prominent organisational role in next year’s inaugural event, will be affected by the goings-on at the Partouche Poker Tour.
However, at the time that ISPT signed up Partouche as an official partner it purported to have a ‘20m guarantee’ for the series, while now the figure is merely listed as a ‘20m prizepool’.
Update: Patrick Partouche has revealed that the company will honour the guarantee in the PPT, for which there was an overlay of 736,880, acknowledging in a letter: “There may have been some misunderstanding caused by the way this event was promoted in the media and the confusion which has since followed.” Jean-Jacques Ichai’s resignation has been rejected and he will remain in his role, however the plans to discontinue the PPT have not changed.