The Stars Group, owned by Flutter Entertainment PLC (FLTR) has announced that Full Tilt Poker will close down this week with all players on the platform to be migrated to the PokerStars platform.
Since 2004, Full Tilt Poker has been one of the major forces in the online poker world. The brand was famous for having great software, a roster of the biggest names of poker as their brand ambassadors and huge tournaments including the FTOPs series which awarded coveted avatars and FTOPs jackets to winners of major tournaments.
But despite earning a second chance to live on as a skin on the Stars Group’s platform, the brand will finally cease all operations on Wednesday 25th February 2021.
In a statement released on the PokerStars website, the Stars Group said:
“Our commitment to improving PokerStars software and the PokerStars customer experience in recent years has limited the amount of focus and resources we could apply to the evolution of Full Tilt.
“We feel it is time to consolidate brands so that everyone has access to the newest features and most innovative games which are available exclusively on PokerStars.”
PokerStars took over Full Tilt after the US government shut down both brand’s stateside operations on April 15th 2011, also known as Black Friday.
Over a year later, on July 31st 2012, and following intense negotiations between PokerStars and the US government, a deal was struck that involved PokerStars acquiring Full Tilt Poker’s assets and intellectual property. The deal was worth an estimated $731 million which included $184 million set aside as repayment for Full Tilt’s US customers.
Since then PokerStars has run the Full Tilt brand somewhat successfully, but in recent years there has been very little in the way of promotion or brand development.
So it comes as no great surprise that all Full Tilt software will be taken offline this week and that all player data including balances will be transferred to the PokerStars platform.
Ciaran has been working within the Gambling Industry as a deep analyst since 2019. His deep knowledge and understanding of all the gambling regulations, and processes makes him a true asset, and an always valuable point of view for Gambling Industry News, allowing us to cover every topics from a brand new perspective.