Recently, PartyGaming, the parent company of PartyPoker, completed the acquisition of the World Poker Tour (WPT). Despite a last-minute proposal from Mandalay Media, a mobile gaming company, WPT shareholders rubber-stamped the sale for $12.3 million plus a percentage of future gaming revenues.
Poker News Daily sat down with WPT General Counsel Adam Pliska, WPT Host and Poker Hall of Fame member Mike Sexton, WPT Founder Steve Lipscomb, and PartyGaming Chief Marketing Officer Chris Welch to break down the sale.
Poker News Daily: Talk about why the WPT is a good fit for PartyGaming.
Pliska: Party Gaming was an initial tour stop sponsor of the WPT. We’ve had a long relationship starting from the beginning that was mutually beneficial.
Welch: PartyPoker wouldn’t have been the success it is today without the WPT. The fact that Mike Sexton was a PartyPoker ambassador and WPT host shows you the depth of the relationship.
PND: A last-minute proposal submitted by Mandalay Media was dismissed. Talk about the offer.
Pliska: As defined in our proxy statement, I can attest that there was an analysis of the offers. I can tell you that the company was pleased with the offer on the table from PartyGaming. When you look at the up front parts of it and the future revenue part parts of it, it made it very attractive. Throughout this process, I have come to never be surprised and I’m pleased with the results.
Lipscomb: The process was driven by our Board of Directors. They carefully did what they needed to do based on their duties to shareholders. It was an honor to have multiple parties that were interested. The final result, which was being with PartyGaming, really was the best for us.
PND: Will WPT regulars see any changes when Season 9 begins filming next year?
Pliska: What you’re going to see in Season 9 is business as usual. We’ll continue to be creative and innovate. I think, for the most part, you’re not going to see any interruptions.
PND: PartyPoker does not accept customers from the United States. Talk about being able to expose the WPT brand to the site’s customer base.
Sexton: One of the primary advantages of this whole situation is that we can expand the WPT brand worldwide. It’ll be in many more countries than it is now.
Welch: We are very excited by the partnership with the WPT. We are predominantly a European business, but we view this as one of the steps to coming back into the U.S. PartyPoker has 12 million members in the U.S. that we can cross-sell Club WPT to.
PND: Why is it important to be able to cross-sell to U.S. players?
Welch: We’re set up to take advantage of any U.S. developments. You can bet that when the market opens up, we’ll be at the forefront of it. The acquisition of the WPT will give us a substantial asset that we can leverage in the U.S.
Club WPT is a very successful subscription service and PartyPoker gets 2,000 to 3,000 downloads a day from the U.S. even though we don’t market there. As you would expect, we have a powerful marketing scheme that we will use to leverage the WPT brand across Europe.
PND: Will it be tough to bring more land-based tournaments to Europe, where you can already find series like the European Poker Tour (EPT)?
Lipscomb: We’re far from a new tour. There was no such thing as a poker tour since we launched the first once. We’ve been global since Season 1. If you are trying to launch one of the many additional tours starting to spring up in the marketplace, I wouldn’t want to be in that position, but I wouldn’t lump us in with that crowd.
Sexton: Recognize that the WPT is on television worldwide. People know who we are and what we do.
PND: Talk about the ongoing eighth season of the WPT.
Lipscomb: Seldom in the world of television do you have an eighth season of anything. It’s uncommon to have an eighth season when you’re working with the same people and they all still like each other. I truly believe that the joining of the WPT and PartyGaming is pretty exciting. Mike is the voice of poker and to have him in this great new synergy is an opportunity we’ve dreamed of.
PND: What does the future hold for WPT Enterprises, now Ante4?
Lipscomb: What we’ve announced is that we’re going to be looking for an opportunity as a publicly traded company to find businesses to join, acquire, or merge with to maximize shareholder value.
Party is the only one to settle with the DOJ. I don’t know if regulation will happen at all. Even if it does, it will probably be protectionist (no place for Party).