“I would characterize my view as positive,” said Dayanim in an interview with PokerListings. “We are reasonably optimistic we can get this deal done over the next few weeks.”
He was quick to point out that it was far from a done deal and there are still some hurdles that need to be overcome for the deal to succeed.
“Any time you’re dealing with a company in distress, understanding the financial position of the company is incredibly important,” he said.
According to Dayanim the deal is further complicated by the legal implications regarding the DOJ and both Full Tilt and the individuals behind the company. On top of that the deal involves parties from a number of jurisdictions.
“All of those things together make this a complex deal and, frankly, the novelty makes it hard as well,” he said. “There has never been a deal like this.”
One ongoing issue is the players who owe debts to Full Tilt. Last month Dayanim confirmed 19 players owed money to the site including Phil Ivey, Erick Lindgren and Mike Matusow.
Nothing has changed on that front, according to Dayanim.
“It’s still an issue in that those debts have not been resolved,” he said. “We’re continuing to work on that. There are no new names to add to that list but we’re also not taking off any names from that list.”
Dayanim went on to say the Bernard Tapie Group is optimistic it can work around that issue but it’s still a major problem.
The deal is very important to the thousands of players with money trapped on Full Tilt and Dayanim mentioned the group is not taking the potential acquisition lightly.
“This is a very important deal for the Tapie Group,” he said. “I will say that Laurent Tapie has been working tirelessly to make this deal happen over the last several months.”
The Bernard Tapie Group surprised the poker world last year when it announced the massive International Poker Stadium Tour that would start with an event at Wembley Stadium complete with a €20,000,000 prizepool.
Dayanim took the time to clarify the two are completely separate entities and the IPST is not contingent on the Full Tilt deal going through.
Yesterday Full Tilt CEO Ray Bitar broke his nearly year long silence regarding the site and apologized to players from the extreme delay in getting players their funds back.
Dayanim didn’t have many thoughts on Bitar’s disclosure.
“I don’t see it as harmful in any way and I don’t see it impacting the deal in any way,” he said.
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