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Annie Duke

Statement Regarding Wicked Domains And Federated Sports+Gaming

by Wicked Chops Entity on 4.9.2012 in Poker News | 2 comments

Not a very wicked logo.

“I can dodge bullets, baby.” – Phil Hellmuth, 2005

“Holy crap we dodged a bullet there, baby.” – Wicked Chops Poker, 2012

If you’ve read the last Federated Sports+Gaming bankruptcy filing you may be asking yourself, “Wtf, why did they purchase nearly 100 ‘Wicked’ related web domains?” Well, here’s the story.

From January 2010 through August 2010, the company that eventually became Federated Sports+Gaming was in negotiations with the Entities Who Comprise Wicked Chops Poker to acquire Wicked Chops Poker as part of a larger media development strategy. When it became clear that FS+G had not yet raised the financial capital to make such an acquisition, or perhaps that they had changed direction on making acquisitions in general, we began negotiating to work as consultants for their company. Eventually, we settled on a web and content development agreement.

However, their contract terms contained highly prohibitive intellectual property clauses, outlining that anything we created for their website was the property of FS+G for perpetuity. After we looked up the meaning of perpetuity, we refused to sign the contract.

During these negotiations, we progressed their web strategy, completing a large portion of consulting work up-front and for no pay in order to keep a tight overall development deadline on track.* We continued to ask for the name of their new company and league as we developed the web strategy–but like this puppy trying to get up, it just wasn’t happening.

In early November 2010, FS+G finally agreed to remove the prohibitive intellectual property language from their web development contract. At this time, Jeffrey Pollack and Annie Duke requested a meeting with the Entities to discuss the “state of the state.” At this meeting (yet before we actually received the revised contract), after an hour of discussions about The Social Network and how Mark Zuckerberg tried to screw over his friend Eduardo Saverin**, Pollack and Duke revealed that they planned to name their company and new organization the Wicked Poker League.

Our initial reaction was that Wicked Poker was an awful name for a pro player league.

Our second reaction was they legally couldn’t do such a thing, and we hired an intellectual property attorney to handle the matter.***

We came to find out that FS+G executive Jeffrey Grossman acquired the domain wickedpoker.net in late July 2010 (as well as, it seems, almost ONE HUNDRED other Wicked domains), and that we were repeatedly misled by Pollack and Duke as this information was kept from us for months.

At this point we got Keyser Soze levels angry, and the rest is history.

While we very publicly (and privately) advised against many things FS+G/Epic eventually did regarding their business and were not surprised by what happened with the company, we sincerely hope that all the people they owe money to somehow, eventually, get paid.

Look for a more detailed version of the events on Wicked Chops Insider sometime in the near future.

* Note to poker industry: ALWAYS get paid up-front.

** Not kidding. That actually happened.

*** Order of reaction is actually accurate–as “brand guys” we felt so strongly that Wicked Poker was an awful name for the league, we overlooked the fact that they were apparently trying to screw us.

Tagged as: Annie Duke, Epic Poker, featured, Federated Sports + Gaming, Jeffrey Pollack

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Epic Failed

by Wicked Chops Entity on 2.29.2012 in Poker News | 3 comments

Apologies for the obvious headline...

The parent company for Epic Poker–Federated Sports+Gaming–filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy yesterday.

The news was announced via a statement from Jeffrey Pollack on the FS+G website.

The shame here is how badly Epic unintentionally misled the pros who supported their league. A major reason many pros played in the events was the equity in the overlays and the promise that, if they qualified, they could play in the $1M season-ending championship freeroll–something that will obviously not be happening now.

Also, while many had figured out as much, Annie Duke‘s letter as to why Epic postponed Event #4 and the Championship seems like complete and total B.S. in light of today’s news.

The silver lining in all of this is that the bankruptcy could make the potential Pinnacle Entertainment acquisition of Epic more likely now. As we’ve written before–the one profitable “crown jewel” asset within FS+G–the Heartland Poker Tour–should be of significant value to Pinnacle. If Pinnacle is smart, they’d retool Epic around that HPT model, launch a national tour, and build a brand with massive domestic reach for when the U.S. market is eventually regulated.

Don’t get us wrong, this is a sad day. Poker needs more success stories, not less. But in the end, this was something many of us believed was inevitable for over a year.

More analysis of this to come…

Tagged as: Annie Duke, Epic Poker, featured, Federated Sports+Gamin, Jeffrey Pollack, Poker News

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Epic Poker League Suspends Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson

by Wicked Chops Entity on 9.21.2011 in Poker News | no comments

Damned if they do, damned if they don’t: Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson have been suspended indefinitely from the Epic Poker League.Awkward.

Today the Epic Poker League announced the suspensions of Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson.

Lederer is the brother of Epic Poker League commissioner, Annie Duke.

From the statement:

“…Epic Poker League’s Standards & Conduct Committee indefinitely suspended League members Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson. The Amended Complaint named Lederer and Ferguson as defendants, specifically in relation to their roles as directors of Full Tilt Poker from April 2007 to April 2011….Although the Amended Complaint constitutes a civil, and not criminal, action and facts are alleged but not yet proven, “the specificity of the allegations and the fact they came from the United States government made this the right course of action in the best interests of the players in the League…The Committee will continue to monitor the legal actions. “If other members are named in the actions, the Committee will consider additional disciplinary action.”

The suspensions of Ferguson, and in particular Lederer, is yet another PR blow for the fledgling league.

While the 2011 WSOP brought in record numbers, and the WPT and EPT continue to exceed expectations, the EPL’s second Main Event brought in only 97 players, around a 30% drop from the first event (the second ProAM performed even worse, dropping over 50% in participation). The inaugural event was won by David “Chino” Rheem, who then was quickly put on probation for debts owed to the poker community (a slippery slope given the industry). Then, during the second ProAm, Michael DiVita, a registered sex offender, won a Main Event seat, but was not allowed to play in the Main Event or even claim the value of his $20,000 seat.  DiVita claims he was bullied/intimidated by league officials into just accepting a refund of his $1,500 ProAm buy-in.

Now with the Lederer and Ferguson charges, the company effectively finds itself in a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t” situation.

Yes, the civil charges against Lederer and Ferguson are damning. But typically in America you’re still innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. So despite the “specificity” of claims against Lederer and Ferguson, and whatever the poker community’s (justified) feelings towards them may be, due process is still due process. The league could’ve (and we’d argue should’ve) waited until a judgment was made against Lederer and Ferguson before making any decision–or at least waited to see if actual criminal charges are filed.

By not doing so, they’ve established themselves as the judge and jury and moral arbiters of the poker community. And while they have every right to do so if they want to, they’ve set themselves up for more and more difficult decisions down the road.

However, and ultimately in their defense, they may not have had any choice in the matter. The shareholders and management of Epic likely recognized the potential shitstorm of having the brother of their commission–Annie Duke–receiving a mountain of bad mainstream press, and wanted to distance the company–and Duke– from it. “Hey–we suspended the commissioner’s own brother–that’s how serious we take these charges,” is a good story to spin to advertisers, TV networks, and investors.

So are Epic’s ethics committee’s decisions painting the league in bad corner after bad corner? Yes. Should Epic have suspended Lederer and Ferguson so soon without any criminal charges or due process? We’d say no–at least not yet. But did Epic have any other choice? Probably not.

Read Epic’s announcement here.

Tagged as: Annie Duke, Chris Ferguson, Epic Poker League, featured, Howard Lederer, Poker News

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Epic Poker League: What Will Be Considered a Success?

by Wicked Chops Entity on 8.5.2011 in Poker News | 10 comments

Annie Duke is betting that Epic Poker's success will be thiiiisss big.

The Epic Poker League holds their first Main Event on Monday.

Giving credit where it’s due: going from a PowerPoint concept to an actual real, living event with a (time-buy) TV partner and palpable enthusiasm from a swath of players in one year is a major achievement.

But getting there is one thing. Making it a success is another.

With that in mind, what will constitute a success for Epic, from the public’s perspective?

In talking with a number of people in the industry, we’ve condensed the general consensus for what would be considered Epic success…

[click to continue…]

Tagged as: Annie Duke, Epic Poker League, featured, Jeffrey Pollack, Poker News

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Federated Sports+Gaming and Heartland Poker Tour?

by Wicked Chops Entity on 6.15.2011 in Poker News | no comments

The Heartland Poker Tour has a new boss.

Federated Sports+Gaming announced the acquisition of the Heartland Poker Tour yesterday. While the announcement wasn’t terribly clear on how HPT will be integrated with the upstart league (other than possibly being a Pro-Am feeder), it’s still an important industry development, and another clear sign that FS+G is going to spend some cash.

However, like the Rolling Stones song “Mixed Emotions,” we have mixed emotions on this one.

On one hand, HPT is inarguably the most under-reported success story in the industry. The tour has consistently grown over the years, enjoying great brand loyalty among its customers. HPT actively competes with–and often beats–the WSOP Circuit for participation across middle-U.S.-American casinos. The tour has also expanded to massive domestic TV distribution. Simply put, it’s a great talent acquisition, as HPT co-founders Todd Anderson and Greg Lang are among the best in the industry at what they do.

But as a branding and business fit? It’s like fitting a square peg through a round hole.

FS+G was originally positioned as a “pro” league. However, most of its recent focus has been on the amateur ranks.

The company is failing miserably at filling tables for their Pro-Am satellites, despite seeing strong attendance across the street at the 2011 WSOP and from Venetian Deep Stack events. In fact, FS+G is frequently not being able to meet their 5-person minimum requirement to just hold a Pro-Am qualifier. Rumors abound that the Palms is none too happy about FS+G’s inability to drive foot traffic to these qualifiers.

So maybe HPT helps them reach more “amateurs.” But how much value does that really have? FS+G, at least originally, didn’t seem to have much stated intention to load their events with more regular Joe’s instead of pros.

FS+G also has been touting a “major” TV distribution partner, which everyone believes to be CBS (although recent rumors suggest it’s more likely to be the significantly less-household’d CBS Sports). When that relationship inevitably goes sour (poker productions on TV without PokerStars or Full Tilt ad dollars to support it just don’t have a chance), maybe FS+G can tap into HPT’s distribution reach.

Whatever the case, more likely than not, this acquisition was likely done for one major reason: positive EBITDA.

By all accounts, HPT is doing well. You can’t run a TV tour for as many years as they have and not have it translate into a profitable venture. Adding a valuable asset with positive EBITDA to FS+G’s arsenal should help in their future fund-raising efforts. It’s ultimately a very important cog in FS+G’s future plans.

For HPT’s sake, we hope this acquisition doesn’t muddy their branding waters. They’ve built an impressive business (and business model) serving a specific niche in the industry better than anyone. So aligning themselves with a not-so-impressive business (and business model) may prove to be tricky.

At the end of the day, like that song from Asia, only time will tell.

Tagged as: Annie Duke, Federated Sports + Gaming, Heartland Poker Tour, Jeffrey Pollack, Poker News

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