You need to be logged in to your Sky Poker account above to post discussions and comments.
You might need to refresh your page afterwards.
Business as usual at Sky Poker.
Tikay10
Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 172,074
Morning.
Quite the story on the wires in the last hour or so.
You may have heard - if not you will soon - that The Stars Group (of which SB&G, including Sky Poker are part) & Flutter Entertainment (who own, amongst others, Paddy Power & Betfair) are getting into bed together.
Here's one of the scores of Press Releases which went out in the last hour or so;
https://www.gamingintelligence.com/manda/54305-flutter-entertainment-and-the-stars-group-to-merge
The important take from this is that, if the deal gets Shareholder approval, it will not go through until the third quarter of 2020 - so that's about this time next year.
I have no idea whatsoever what this may mean for Sky Poker in the long-term - if anything. It's been 18 months since the Stars/SBG deal was announced, & nothing has changed at Sky Poker yet.
As far as I am currently aware - & I suspect this is the same for most of the businesses in the existing Group (Sky Bet, Vegas, Casino, Bingo, PokerStars etc) nothing will change in the immediate or foreseeable future.
So, until further notice, it's Business As Usual.
Quite the story on the wires in the last hour or so.
You may have heard - if not you will soon - that The Stars Group (of which SB&G, including Sky Poker are part) & Flutter Entertainment (who own, amongst others, Paddy Power & Betfair) are getting into bed together.
Here's one of the scores of Press Releases which went out in the last hour or so;
https://www.gamingintelligence.com/manda/54305-flutter-entertainment-and-the-stars-group-to-merge
The important take from this is that, if the deal gets Shareholder approval, it will not go through until the third quarter of 2020 - so that's about this time next year.
I have no idea whatsoever what this may mean for Sky Poker in the long-term - if anything. It's been 18 months since the Stars/SBG deal was announced, & nothing has changed at Sky Poker yet.
As far as I am currently aware - & I suspect this is the same for most of the businesses in the existing Group (Sky Bet, Vegas, Casino, Bingo, PokerStars etc) nothing will change in the immediate or foreseeable future.
So, until further notice, it's Business As Usual.
Comments
A cartel is always good for the punters
A quick non-update update.
There was a pitch, or presentation, to all Staff this morning, which was streamed to those of us who wfh.
The only real take from it reinforced the point I made earlier about timescales.
It needs;
1) Shareholder approval.
2) It needs to clear CMA (&/or equivalent regulatory authorities in other jurisdictions) in the UK & Ireland, USA, & Australia.
The timescale for all that was said to be 8 - 12 months. In my experience of observing these things, including the Stars deal last year, it is highly unlikely to be less than that, & might well take longer.
Until those matters are settled, nothing can or will change as a result of the proposed deal.
So BAU will continue. Whatever plans there were for Sky Poker after the 'Stars deal last year remain on the table of course. I don't know exactly what they are, & I don't know when they are planned to be implemented. If I had to bet on "how long?" though, I'd take the overs.
Whatever they were going to do, & the likely timescale, will probably still remain unchanged.
More directly, no, I don't think there will be any major upgrades (beyond day to day maintenance etc) to the existing Sky Poker software.
"....So just to confirm Tikay, that there is now a second takeover and one assumes a much bigger further delay to any changes?.....
Well the news was only released yesterday morning, so as this stage no decisions will have been made, & it will be some time before they are, if they are.
1) The proposed takeover has to be approved first by the Shareholders. (Almost certain to be approved IMO).
2) The proposed takeover has to be cleared not only by the CMA in Great Britain & Ireland, but also various other regulatory bodies across the globe. (USA, Canada, Australia & many others).
Until 1 & 2 are dealt with, no decisions will be made that change anything. In fact, based on what we learned after the Stars/SBG deal, the 2 businesses are not even legally allowed to change anything with the takeover in mind until formal approval is granted.
The timetable for the CMA to make their ruling is (at a guess)) 4 to 6 months, & as part of the Offer Documents, it has been publicly stated that it is expected that the deal will finalise (subject to all approvals) in either Q2 or Q3 in 2020. My best guess of that date will be around this time next year, so September/October 2020.
Based on all that, I would emphatically state that NO, we should NOT assume that there will be a further delay to whatever the plans are for Sky Poker going forward.
Logically, whatever WAS going to happen to Sky Poker still will, & equally, there is no apparent reason why it should be further delayed. It might be, but I would definitely not assume it.
Please note these are my personal views. The Business as such has not issued any statements or guidance to staff at my level, & I suspect that's because they don't yet know themselves what the fine detail will be. I briefly communicated with my Line Manager yesterday, but I don't believe he knows any more than what was made publicly available yesterday.
However, bear in mind the news was only announced yesterday morning, & none of the Staff will not have known a thing about it in advance. Only the Super Cheeses at Director Level or Leadership Team Level would have known.
Everyone is trying to keep us as much in the loop as possible, but right now, there's no hard info available. The takeover, of course, is not about Sky Poker, it's about much wider-ranging strategic direction, mainly as to how it affects strategy & growth for Sport Betting & Online Gaming, most especially in the USA, where Online Gaming is in the process of being legalised, which will open up massive opportunities for well-placed businesses. You may be aware that "FoxBet" recently opened for business in New Jersey, USA. FoxBet is a good example of how the parts of the Group will work together, & it's really based on the Business Model of Sky Bet here in the UK.
The news was released to the Staff at 7.45 am yesterday (Wednesday) morning. At 10am, a presentation was made by a Super Cheese to all Staff in the various Head Offices, & for those of us who WFH or could not attend, it was Streamed Live to all of us.
Since then, a stream of further e-mails & notes have been sent out by the Directors, signalling further broad-brush briefings in the next week or so.
Such as I'm allowed (& so far, they have never stopped me) I will try to keep everyone informed. However, I'd be pleasantly surprised if any fresh news as to Sky Poker will emerge yet awhile.
When really firm news becomes known, I would imagine informing you here on the Forum will be above my Grade, & we can expect Mr Tyrrell (aka Sam), to come on the Forum & make you all aware directly.
So, as the thread title says, it's "Business as Usual at Sky Poker" until or unless we hear otherwise. And that, in my personal view, means whatever WAS planned for Sky Poker, & the timetable for it, will probably remain the plan.
In the meantime, don't be shy if you have any questions. Oh, & keep playing on Sky Poker, & keep this Forum nice & busy please. Doing that might just make all the difference to whatever decisions they make.
Thank you.
NB - I'm obliged to say again, as it's all very legal at the moment as a Listed Company, that the views I have stated on the Forum are my personal views.
Great to hear the timescales allow for continuity for a good while yet....
Hopefully the next period of 'business negotiation/developments' doesn't impact on the Sky team's mgt to carry on with the range of tourneys and tours for 2020...
Can't stand the stars site, which was my first and why I came to Sky,I've tried Unibet recently( as peeps said it was the nearest to Sky..)...hmmm not too keen..AND NO CHAT!
Well we shall see, fingers crossed whatever is decided works out for the best. Sometimes we just have to make the best of what we are dealt, & we've got 9-9 four way. Maybe we should get Rose on the staff, she'd get the 9-9 through.
The main takeaway from yesterday's announcement, at the moment anyway, is that as far as Sky Poker is concerned, nothing has changed from before the announcement. (Or not that I'm aware of).
So, BAU for now.