Tapie signs up Partouche as ISPT partner

Groupe Partouche has been confirmed as an organising partner for next year’s inaugural International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT) event in London.

The France, Gibraltar and Belgium-licensed operator will host online satellites for the event, which is due to take place at Wembley Stadium in London from 31 May-6 June next year.

Laurent Tapie (pictured) and Prosper Masquelier, founders of the tour, both worked together at the operator’s online arm Partouche Interactive when it was set up in 2008 following Groupe Partouche’s acquisition of Tapie’s livebetting.com site.

Tapie had already struck a provisional software deal, understood by eGR to be with Partouche, before his consortium Groupe Bernard Tapie emerged as the leading bidder for Full Tilt Poker, meaning the collapse of that deal has had little bearing on the emergence of the ISPT. The start date, however was moved back from a provisional time of September 2012 for unspecified reasons.

Tapie’s plans to attract former Pocket Kings staff to his new Ireland-incorporated company Gcubed, which ultimately failed to come to fruition, are also not believed to have impacted the direction taken by this tour.

The tournament has a €20m guaranteed prizepool and will see players able to buy in directly to the Wembley event or qualify through satellites on Partouche’s software. According to the ISPT site the founders expect to attract 30,000 players, with more than 2,000 already signed up, and it will be broadcast on six television channels.

Partouche’s involvement with the ISPT comes three months after the operator announced it had partnered with France Pari with a view to relaunching livebetting.com with an English-language, Malta-licensed site.