William Hill among five bidders set for FS+G auction
Assets of company, which include Epic Poker League and Heartland Poker Tour, expected to sell for seven figures, four months after bankruptcy filing.
Federated Sports+Gaming, the company which owns the rights to the Epic Poker League and Heartland Poker Tour, is set to auction off selected assets at an auction in Washington DC this evening.
The auction will also see the rights to the company’s poker player ranking system “ the Global Poker Index “ change hands. The assets for sale are expected to raise a sum in the region of seven figures. It comes less than four months after FS+G announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, stating that “Our company needs a new start.”
eGaming Review understands there are five parties involved in the bidding process. These include land-based casino operator Pinnacle Entertainment, which first entered talks to acquire the Epic Poker League on its own in January, and London-listed operator William Hill, which last week saw its application for a Nevada online poker licence receive a recommendation for approval from the Silver State’s Gaming Control Board.
A source close to the matter told eGR “I believe it [William Hill] is looking for both the Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) and Epic “ it shows they really want to be involved in things in the United States.
Among the other bidders are All-In Entertainment, the former owner of the Heartland Poker Tour, which was sold to FS+G in June 2011, and Chilipoker CEO Alex Dreyfus. The identity of the fifth bidder, based in the US, is unknown.
When filing for bankruptcy in February, FS+G pledged to keep its various brands – which also include the Epic Poker game on Facebook and the epicpoker.com website – “moving forward with a continued spirit of innovation”. The prospect of entering into a partnership had been mooted at the time, but it now looks as though the various assets will be taken forward under new ownership.
One outstanding issue which could yet impact on the auction is the status of FS+G’s various creditors, who one eGR source has suggested “Have secured debts that they can redeem against the assets.”
According to poker blog site KickassPoker, the presence of FS+G executives “ including former UltimateBet pro Annie Duke and former World Series of Poker commissioner Jeffrey Pollack “ as secured employees could potentially entitle them to the first US$2.1m to be recovered from any assets sold. This is anticipated to be a factor in the sale price at this evening’s auction.