Full Tilt Poker has lost their French operating license and a lot of players to PokerStars. Regarding Full Tilt Poker’s players, PokerStars is the poker company that has benefitted the most since Full Tilt Poker last their Alderney license last week.
According to H2 Gambling Capital, PokerStars’ average poker player numbers increased by 2,607 which is 5 times the increase seen by the second largest beneficiary, Party Poker. Looking at the numbers, 41% of Full Tilt Poker players have migrated to another poker room in the first 36 hours with the rest still to appear. You would assume that some of the players have been put off by the recent problems and have their bankrolls frozen by Full Tilt Poker.
H2 Gambling Capital said “this is likely due to players being unable to withdraw balances from Tilt and some lack of confidence in playing online poker in the current climate.” Out of the 41% of Full Tilt Poker players that migrated, PokerStars picked up 27% which represents 66% of these players.
According to the LA Times, Full Tilt Poker reached an agreement with unnamed European investors which could allow US poker players to regain as much as $150 million. H2 Gambling Capital said that “after even a few days offline it may be difficult for any meaningful confidence and liquidity to be restored on the site should it be launched.”
More bad news follows for Full Tilt Poker as French regulator ARJEL has suspended Full Tilt’s license. Trading under Rekop Limited, Full Tilt Poker had its license suspended as a “precautionary” measure. The reason being is that Full Tilt Poker’s French site was down and couldn’t provide financial guarantees to continue operating as normal. ARJEL said it would work with Full Tilt Poker to ensure to protection of French poker players though.