Pokerstrategy sues Pocket Kings for unpaid $1.2m
Case relates to marketing agreement between power affiliate and Full Tilt subsidiary - suit brought against Pocket Kings directly, rather than PokerStars, despite last week's DoJ agreement.
eGaming Review Power Affiliate Pokerstrategy.com has brought a lawsuit against Full Tilt Poker’s marketing company Pocket Kings surrounding an unpaid US$1.2m.
The company claims it was owed the sum by Pocket Kings under the terms of an existing marketing agreement signed before Full Tilt saw its operating licences suspended by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission in June last year.
Dominik Kofert, Pokerstrategy.com chief executive, told eGR: “We only filed the claim this week as we did not want to stand in the way of Full Tilt Poker reaching an agreement with the DoJ to return missing funds to the affected poker players.”
While Pocket Kings is one of a number of Full Tilt assets acquired by PokerStars under the terms of the operator’s settlement with the DoJ last week, Kofert clarified the case has been brought against Full Tilt Poker’s former marketing division rather than PokerStars itself.
At its peak, Pokerstrategy.com provided approximately 30,000 players per month to Full Tilt Poker, and is believed to have provided the bulk of the operator’s non-US players after Tilt was forced to withdraw from the US following Black Friday.
In the months after Full Tilt’s shutdown last year, Pocket Kings shed at least 180 staff at its Dublin base, where PokerStars has revealed the Full Tilt HQ will remain after its planned relaunch later this year.
Among those to depart was chief marketing officer Lothar Rentschler, who described his September 2011 resignation as “A long overdue step towards the right direction.”
Pokerstrategy is not the first company to have run into non-payment issues with Full Tilt or its subsidiaries, with Wales-based TV production company Presentable Productions cancelling filming of the Full Tilt-sponsored show The Poker Lounge following the operator’s failure to honour its payments.