Several days ago, the poker world was shocked to hear that Groupe Bernard Tapie was pulling out of buying Full Tilt Poker due to complicated negotiations with the US Department of Justice. They were equally as shocked when PokerStars immediately stepped in to buy Full Tilt Poker from the US DOJ.
Since that time, there's been a lot of speculation on exactly what PokerStars would be getting out of Full Tilt Poker if the deal is in fact completed. Now we have the opinions of some of the online poker industry's heavyweights to give us a peak into PokerStars' true intentions.
Groupe Bernard Tapie believes that the deal is being made in order to free Isai Scheinberg and Paul Tate of any legal matters with the US DOJ. Their statement read as follows:
We understand from press reports that the DOJ may have entered into an agreement with PokerStars pursuant to which PokerStars will acquire the FTP assets. If accurate, we can only assume that PokerStars determined that it was willing to accept these legal and financial risks in order to resolve its own legal situation with DOJ.
Assuming US online poker is finally legalized and regulated, the deal would enable PokerStars to profitably license the FTP software to companies; Bodog Poker hit upon this reason when they wrote:
I think it has to do with the software. I think they will keep the Full Tilt software ‘clean’ and license it to new operators in regulated states and jurisdictions looking to get into the online poker space.
If PokerStars does buy Full Tilt Poker, it would most likely mean that some-$300 million in player deposits would be paid back to those with money stuck on FTP.
