Bookmaking giant Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. yesterday won the bidding in the auction to take over the Heartland Poker Tour. The winning bid of $300,000 includes the tour and other assets of the bankrupt Federated Sports+Gaming.
Pinnacle Entertainment Inc. on Thursday won an auction to take over the remaining assets of the bankrupt Federated Sports+Gaming, including the rights for the Heartland Poker Tour.
Yesterday's auction saw Pinnacle acquire the remaining assets of FS+G for with a credit bid of $300,000.
As FS+G already owes Pinnacle around $2 million as part of its bankruptcy filing, the bookmaking giant will not actually have to pay anything, but will merely cut the $300,000 from the amount owed by the FS+G estate.
Federated Sports+Gaming was founded in 2011 by among others Jeffrey Pollack and Annie Duke. The entity introduced the highly ambitious Epic Poker League, offering major tournaments for a selection of the world's pros, in a series of three events with added prize money.
The concept also included a $1 million
freeroll for the top finishers of the league.
However, after spending up to $17 million and only generating scarce revenues, Federated Sports+Gaming filed for Bankruptcy in February 2012, owing as much as $7 million to a number of creditors, including Pinnacle Entertainment.
Part of the debt came from the acquisition of the Heartland Poker Tour, for which FS+G ultimately failed to make the agreed payments.
The auctioning off of the remanning assets will now likely mean that the Epic Poker League is put to rest once and for all.
Questions still remain about whether or not the league's partner casino will be obliged to host the final $1 million freeroll, as Nevada gaming law could force it to do so.
The takeover also included nearly 100 domains, registered by Federated Sports+Gaming immediately before February's bankruptcy claim.
Read the full court document from yesterday's auction
here.