The European toto sgp Poker Tour crowned its first champion of their second season. Jan Boubli, a former dentist from France won the largest tournament in the brief history of the EPT. He outlasted 325 other players in the $4,000 Euro buy-in event. They were all gunning for a prize pool that was worth over $1.3 million Euros. Jan Boubli won $416,000 Euros and a seat in the $10,000 Euro buy-in Grand Finale event that will be held in Monte Carlo in March of 2006. Along with Pascal Perrault, Jan Boubli is considered one of the best poker players of all time to come from France.
Here’s who made the final table including chip counts:
Seat 1: Gus Hansen (Copenhagen, Denmark) $743K
Seat 2: Patrick Mortensson (Stockholm, Sweden) $281K
Seat 3: Jan Boubli (France) $292K
Seat 4: Romain Feriolo (Marabella, Spain) $282K
Seat 5: Christer Johansson (Hollivken, Sweden) $885K = Chipleader
Seat 6: Patrick Antonius (Helsinki, Finland) $331K
Seat 7: Anton Bergstrom (Lund, Sweden) $338,500
Seat 8: Dario Alioto (Palermo, Italy) $87,500
Online Casinos Group Sees Drop In Share Price
Online casinos 888 and Party Gaming will still float on the stock exchange even though some uncertainty in the online casinos has caused the stock price to drop somewhat. Because Party Gaming’s stock has taken a recent dip on the market this has also had an affect on the 888 online casino. Initially it was thought that the stock of the online casinos could hit the market with a total value of anywhere from $1.36 to $1.59 billion. This number was recently revised to reflect the drop in Party Gaming stock and is more realistically estimated to be worth anywhere from $989 million to $1.29 billion when it hits the stock exchange.
Cassava Enterprises is estimating possible deals to hit on September 29th of this year when they float the London Stock Exchange. There has even been some speculation that the float for 888 Holdings, the parent corporation of the online casino itself may in fact hold off on the stock float due to its poor performance recently.
The online casinos operator, 888 Holdings, hopes to make $321 million later in September when it floats the stock. Ultimately they plan to sell 25% of their stock.
Sportingbet Ends Discussion talks with Empire
Sept. 20 – Sportingbet announced early this month it was in early phase merger talks with Empire, the owners of Empire Poker.
But it was revealed today that negotiations for a US$1.4bn takeover had ceased by mutual consent.
‘Discussions were at a very preliminary stage. Sportingbet can now confirm that, by mutual agreement, it has ceased discussions with Empire in respect of the potential offer,’ Sportingbet said in a statement.
Nigel Payne, chief executive of Sportingbet, said he wished Empire well in its future dealings.
Paul Leyland, leisure analyst at Seymour Pierce, said Sportingbet’s decision to end talks was probably the right one for the firm.
The mooted merger would have presented significant integration problems for Sportingbet, with Empire currently using software and payment processing from PartyGaming.
PartyGaming is thought to be interested in a possible bid for Empire, which is its largest white label partner. A source close to the company said PartyGaming was keeping a close watch on the situation.