Any updates on the situation, and I don't mean Haysie lol
As to the deal with TSG (aka PokerStars) do you mean?
It remains BAU for now.
The deal was finalised last week, slightly sooner than expected, & 'TSG got all their financing sorted with ease.
The CMA are now looking at the deal, & that will not be resolved until around October time. Until the CMA give the green light, no integration can take place, so for now, it's just planning for the future. No other changes can or will take place until the CMA have finished their work.
And, ultimately, where will that leave Sky Poker, which I guess was the real question?
Put simply, we don't know yet. However, I'm far more confident now than I was at the time the deal was announced that a solution will be found which will please & maybe surprise the Sky Poker regulars.
Planning for SPT in 2019, for example, is currently in progress, as are many other 2019 based Promotions exclusive to Sky Poker.
Anything can or might happen, but I'm quite bullish that this is all going to turn out just fine for those who enjoy Sky Poker.
Thanks for the reply Tikay. xx As with everything that's new or getting took over, the rumour mill starts before any concrete evidence is there. Doom and gloom etc, but it can turn out to be a blessing in disguise. Thank you to those who resurected the SPT's
Is your increased confidence about the future of Sky Poker post-takeover based on any in-house dialogue you're privy to, or is it just good old-fashioned positive thinking on your part?
I know you won't be able to share any details if it's the former, but it would be nice to know if there's any tangible fuel to your fire of optimism.
I'm not adverse to a bit of change but my two biggest concerns regarding all this are that either Sky Poker ceases to exist and our accounts just get turned into Pokerstars accounts, or that Sky continues as a separate entity but opens it's doors to the rest of the world market and destroys it's biggest USP by doing so.
It's good to see so many of you care about this, so I'll address your questions, & do a sort of "where we are" series of Posts later this morning. (Am busy right now).
And if the Suits see this, & start to panic that I might speak out of turn, don't worry, I'm 100% au fait with the rules & the restrictions currently in place for legal reasons.
The responses I give will be accurate, but won't necessarily be in the right order. Sort of Eric Morecombe style.
First up, there are all sorts of legalities involved in what can or cannot be said.
TSG (TSG = "The Stars Group") are a listed company, with dual listing on both New York &, I think, Toronto stock exchanges, so now we get into the extremely serious area of "material information". Material Information is information on a business which might affect it's share price, & therefore lead to "insider trading". SB&G, of course, is now part of TSG.
So - assuming I knew - I could not say anything which would or might lead to the share price moving.
This is a very serious matter indeed. Last week, we all received a 20 page document which we had to read, understand & agree, and then sign, saying, in effect, we would not talk out of school as to anything which MAY be deemed as "material information which could affect the share price".
And, for context, we have all received statements from Mr Flint (the CEO of SB&G) & Rafa Ashkenazi, who is the CEO of TSG, welcoming us to the newly combined Group, it was a sort of rallying call, "come on guys, together we can do this" sorta thing.
The day after the deal formally completed, the CMA (Competition & Markets Authority) got involved. They said, "whoa, hold up, we need to investigate this first".
There are zero concerns as to the CMA saying "no", although I imagine a few tweaks might have to be made. It's my understanding that the CMA intervention won't be a problem, just so long as TSG play ball, which they obviously will.
So here's the thing with the CMA, & this is key to everything, & why I can genuinely say no decisions have been made, &, as of right now, we genuinely don't know how it will all pan out.
The CMA expressly forbade that TSG & SB&G get together to start planning anything. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCEs can the 2 Businesses discuss with each other what the way forward is.
SB&G staff can - & are - get in a huddle & plan stuff. TSG staff, ditto. But the 2 Businesses (even though, technically, they are one business now) cannot discuss anything with each other. No joint planning, no passing of information (as in ZERO), no new Staff or Management Structure, nothing.
So, there's a term called integration, which, really, means knitting the 2 businesses together, & it is the key to it all working successfully. SB&G have formed their Integration Team, & (I assume) TSG have put their integration team together. But they cannot talk to each other, or pass ANY info between each other.
So the bottom line of all that is that as far as I can tell, no decisions about how & where Sky Poker, or any other SB&G Product, ends up have been made. (More to follow on that).
The SMA expect to finish their work in around 3 months, so for now, it's BAU.
We can all, of course, speculate on what MIGHT happen.
First up, try to think of what sort of deal this is. Recently, Coral & Ladbrokes became one Business. Why? That was all about synergy. In short, similar companies, so by joining together, they got economies of scale, but more importantly, they can save a fortune in Staff Costs by eliminating dual roles. Every Management & staff position in the combined entity now has TWO people sitting in the chair, but it only needs one. So someone gets the tin tack. And that's the whole logic of, say, the Coral Ladbrokes deal. Saving money on duplicated roles.
The TSG/SB&G deal is not even remotely based on synergy, & saving staff costs. TSG coveted parts of SB&G which would improve their current Product offering - Sky Bet, for example, but also Sky Vegas, Casino, Bingo etc. Pure speculation on my part, but I think we can agree, it's unlikely 'Stars desperately wanted to buy Sky Poker for it's software or player base, right?
It comes with the package though. More follows.......
Some if you have speculated on how it will all end up for Sky Poker, with comments such as.... "....In a perfect world they keep Sky Poker as is but they give us the Stars software....."
"....two biggest concerns regarding all this are that either Sky Poker ceases to exist and our accounts just get turned into Pokerstars accounts, or that Sky continues as a separate entity but opens it's doors to the rest of the world market and destroys it's biggest USP by doing so...."
Well yes, those things are all possible, they are all options. And they might or might not happen.
There are other options though, plenty of them. I can think of at least 3 or 4 other options. But now it gets hazy, & difficult, due to the legalities around what we can or cannot say. I can - I think - say there are other options, but I can't say what they are, even assuming I knew them all. (CMA restrictions, material information etc). I know some, but doubt if I know all of them.
So nobody really knows what might happen. Or if they do, they have not told me, or, as far as I can tell, the rest of the Staff.
For now, it remains BAU. I have two specific jobs on my desk right now, both of which involve planning for next year. By necessity, (CMA, material information) that planning only involves Sky Poker as we know it.
I fully get why our players are concerned, & that's what I'm trying to address. For a moment, however, think about the Sky Poker staff. We, of all the staff at SB&G, had more to worry about than anyone else. You could lose your favourite site, we could lose our jobs.....
So on the Saturday it was all announced, I felt someone had kicked me in the ****. I was mortified, not because it was TSG, though God knows, that was some surprise, but because I assumed I'd be down the road in a few weeks. I mean, TSG are hardly likely to need some septuagenarian on their books, are they? Pretty sure they'd manage without me.
2 months on, I'm still here, helping with the planning for 2019 stuff, and far more optimistic & hopeful that several of the options under consideration might tick your boxes as well as my boxes.
So, you are none the wiser after all that, because, the truth is, nobody knows. But I'm very hopeful that the whole thing might pan out better than Team Doom & Gloom initially thought. I genuinely am, because I can now see a lot of reasons why this might all turn out for the best.
One real headache is the stop-go nature of everything.
Our software, is, well, you know, badly in need of a bit of TLC, but everything got put on hold after the deal was announced. At the time, new software was being developed - clean sheet of paper, proper job - but that got stopped, as did everything else.
That project has NOT been abandoned though. Definitely not. Not saying it will happen, but it has not been binned.
Which brings us to the existing Sky Poker software headaches & glitches, which, from time to time, folks come on here & have a little chunter about. And I completely get their frustration, I do, & so does the Business. They DO. So it was really frustrating that it got put on hold.
I'm very hopeful that BAU will resume shortly, & we can get those glitches sorted, one way & another.
Incidentally, that problem where the first hand dealt to us on a new or Final Table were invisible has - I think - been sorted.
That apart, I genuinely do NOT expect any major glitches in the current Sky Poker software to be fixed, I think The Business will concentrate on whatever new platform they eventually decide upon, & then just press on & get it sorted, rather than trying to maintain the current software beyond basic day to day stuff. Every day spent trying to improve the current software delays the new software, whatever or wherever that may be.
There MAY be some news quite soon. If there is, & if I'm allowed to, I'll let you all know.
Look I think everyone is concerned and most obviously the staff who are employed by Sky.
That being said If worst comes to worst poker will continue I would expect a migration towards sites similar to sky by those who only really play sky (think unibet etc)
I am hopeful that actually everything here could be much better long term - The biggest possible danger is just merging the player pool into stars much as they did with full tilt.
Hopefully they can see some value in the standalone poker product, Hopefully they dont think its a good idea to increase the rake on mtts and sngs as it is already high.
but what will be will be not much we can do about and not much point speculating!
One thing I'd ask you all, & that is to Post responsibly.
When the news first emerged, one chap came on here & called 'Stars everything from a pig to a dog, then said Sky Bet were fiddling so & so's who did not honour winning bets.
Which, you know, it's his opinion, & he's entitled to it I guess.
But then.......then.....he suggested the first thing 'Stars would do is close this Forum.
I mean, I just gasped.
Wonder if he saw the irony of his comments? If everyone comes on here & says 'Stars & Sky Bet are both a pile of stinky poo, well yeah, nobody should be surprised if the owners said "enough, we don't need that" would they?
Look I think everyone is concerned and most obviously the staff who are employed by Sky.
That being said If worst comes to worst poker will continue I would expect a migration towards sites similar to sky by those who only really play sky (think unibet etc)
I am hopeful that actually everything here could be much better long term - The biggest possible danger is just merging the player pool into stars much as they did with full tilt.
Hopefully they can see some value in the standalone poker product, Hopefully they dont think its a good idea to increase the rake on mtts and sngs as it is already high.
but what will be will be not much we can do about and not much point speculating!
Lets just hope it works out
All noted Danny.
As to the emboldened part, let me tell you this. The folks who run this Business are bright, fearfully bright. And I'm very confident they will arrive at the right solution.
Comments
If what you are implying is anything like the end result, I think there will be a lot of happy and relieved players around these parts.
Thanks for the update.
GL all of us.
Is your increased confidence about the future of Sky Poker post-takeover based on any in-house dialogue you're privy to, or is it just good old-fashioned positive thinking on your part?
I know you won't be able to share any details if it's the former, but it would be nice to know if there's any tangible fuel to your fire of optimism.
I'm not adverse to a bit of change but my two biggest concerns regarding all this are that either Sky Poker ceases to exist and our accounts just get turned into Pokerstars accounts, or that Sky continues as a separate entity but opens it's doors to the rest of the world market and destroys it's biggest USP by doing so.
Yours in hope,
Yours in echo.
And if the Suits see this, & start to panic that I might speak out of turn, don't worry, I'm 100% au fait with the rules & the restrictions currently in place for legal reasons.
The responses I give will be accurate, but won't necessarily be in the right order. Sort of Eric Morecombe style.
OK, let's get started. I have a Meeting at 10.30 this morning, so it may take a while to explain everything, such as I can. Please be patient.
So.....
First up, there are all sorts of legalities involved in what can or cannot be said.
TSG (TSG = "The Stars Group") are a listed company, with dual listing on both New York &, I think, Toronto stock exchanges, so now we get into the extremely serious area of "material information". Material Information is information on a business which might affect it's share price, & therefore lead to "insider trading". SB&G, of course, is now part of TSG.
So - assuming I knew - I could not say anything which would or might lead to the share price moving.
This is a very serious matter indeed. Last week, we all received a 20 page document which we had to read, understand & agree, and then sign, saying, in effect, we would not talk out of school as to anything which MAY be deemed as "material information which could affect the share price".
So please be understanding of that.
And, for context, we have all received statements from Mr Flint (the CEO of SB&G) & Rafa Ashkenazi, who is the CEO of TSG, welcoming us to the newly combined Group, it was a sort of rallying call, "come on guys, together we can do this" sorta thing.
But, there is a fly in the ointment........
The day after the deal formally completed, the CMA (Competition & Markets Authority) got involved. They said, "whoa, hold up, we need to investigate this first".
There are zero concerns as to the CMA saying "no", although I imagine a few tweaks might have to be made. It's my understanding that the CMA intervention won't be a problem, just so long as TSG play ball, which they obviously will.
But the devil is in the detail........
So here's the thing with the CMA, & this is key to everything, & why I can genuinely say no decisions have been made, &, as of right now, we genuinely don't know how it will all pan out.
The CMA expressly forbade that TSG & SB&G get together to start planning anything. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCEs can the 2 Businesses discuss with each other what the way forward is.
SB&G staff can - & are - get in a huddle & plan stuff. TSG staff, ditto. But the 2 Businesses (even though, technically, they are one business now) cannot discuss anything with each other. No joint planning, no passing of information (as in ZERO), no new Staff or Management Structure, nothing.
So, there's a term called integration, which, really, means knitting the 2 businesses together, & it is the key to it all working successfully. SB&G have formed their Integration Team, & (I assume) TSG have put their integration team together. But they cannot talk to each other, or pass ANY info between each other.
So the bottom line of all that is that as far as I can tell, no decisions about how & where Sky Poker, or any other SB&G Product, ends up have been made. (More to follow on that).
The SMA expect to finish their work in around 3 months, so for now, it's BAU.
We can all, of course, speculate on what MIGHT happen.
First up, try to think of what sort of deal this is. Recently, Coral & Ladbrokes became one Business. Why? That was all about synergy. In short, similar companies, so by joining together, they got economies of scale, but more importantly, they can save a fortune in Staff Costs by eliminating dual roles. Every Management & staff position in the combined entity now has TWO people sitting in the chair, but it only needs one. So someone gets the tin tack. And that's the whole logic of, say, the Coral Ladbrokes deal. Saving money on duplicated roles.
The TSG/SB&G deal is not even remotely based on synergy, & saving staff costs. TSG coveted parts of SB&G which would improve their current Product offering - Sky Bet, for example, but also Sky Vegas, Casino, Bingo etc. Pure speculation on my part, but I think we can agree, it's unlikely 'Stars desperately wanted to buy Sky Poker for it's software or player base, right?
It comes with the package though. More follows.......
Some if you have speculated on how it will all end up for Sky Poker, with comments such as....
"....In a perfect world they keep Sky Poker as is but they give us the Stars software....."
"....two biggest concerns regarding all this are that either Sky Poker ceases to exist and our accounts just get turned into Pokerstars accounts, or that Sky continues as a separate entity but opens it's doors to the rest of the world market and destroys it's biggest USP by doing so...."
Well yes, those things are all possible, they are all options. And they might or might not happen.
There are other options though, plenty of them. I can think of at least 3 or 4 other options. But now it gets hazy, & difficult, due to the legalities around what we can or cannot say. I can - I think - say there are other options, but I can't say what they are, even assuming I knew them all. (CMA restrictions, material information etc). I know some, but doubt if I know all of them.
More follows.....
So nobody really knows what might happen. Or if they do, they have not told me, or, as far as I can tell, the rest of the Staff.
For now, it remains BAU. I have two specific jobs on my desk right now, both of which involve planning for next year. By necessity, (CMA, material information) that planning only involves Sky Poker as we know it.
I fully get why our players are concerned, & that's what I'm trying to address. For a moment, however, think about the Sky Poker staff. We, of all the staff at SB&G, had more to worry about than anyone else. You could lose your favourite site, we could lose our jobs.....
So on the Saturday it was all announced, I felt someone had kicked me in the ****. I was mortified, not because it was TSG, though God knows, that was some surprise, but because I assumed I'd be down the road in a few weeks. I mean, TSG are hardly likely to need some septuagenarian on their books, are they? Pretty sure they'd manage without me.
2 months on, I'm still here, helping with the planning for 2019 stuff, and far more optimistic & hopeful that several of the options under consideration might tick your boxes as well as my boxes.
So, you are none the wiser after all that, because, the truth is, nobody knows. But I'm very hopeful that the whole thing might pan out better than Team Doom & Gloom initially thought. I genuinely am, because I can now see a lot of reasons why this might all turn out for the best.
One real headache is the stop-go nature of everything.
Our software, is, well, you know, badly in need of a bit of TLC, but everything got put on hold after the deal was announced. At the time, new software was being developed - clean sheet of paper, proper job - but that got stopped, as did everything else.
That project has NOT been abandoned though. Definitely not. Not saying it will happen, but it has not been binned.
Which brings us to the existing Sky Poker software headaches & glitches, which, from time to time, folks come on here & have a little chunter about. And I completely get their frustration, I do, & so does the Business. They DO. So it was really frustrating that it got put on hold.
I'm very hopeful that BAU will resume shortly, & we can get those glitches sorted, one way & another.
Incidentally, that problem where the first hand dealt to us on a new or Final Table were invisible has - I think - been sorted.
That apart, I genuinely do NOT expect any major glitches in the current Sky Poker software to be fixed, I think The Business will concentrate on whatever new platform they eventually decide upon, & then just press on & get it sorted, rather than trying to maintain the current software beyond basic day to day stuff. Every day spent trying to improve the current software delays the new software, whatever or wherever that may be.
There MAY be some news quite soon. If there is, & if I'm allowed to, I'll let you all know.
Look I think everyone is concerned and most obviously the staff who are employed by Sky.
That being said If worst comes to worst poker will continue I would expect a migration towards sites similar to sky by those who only really play sky (think unibet etc)
I am hopeful that actually everything here could be much better long term - The biggest possible danger is just merging the player pool into stars much as they did with full tilt.
Hopefully they can see some value in the standalone poker product, Hopefully they dont think its a good idea to increase the rake on mtts and sngs as it is already high.
but what will be will be not much we can do about and not much point speculating!
Lets just hope it works out
When the news first emerged, one chap came on here & called 'Stars everything from a pig to a dog, then said Sky Bet were fiddling so & so's who did not honour winning bets.
Which, you know, it's his opinion, & he's entitled to it I guess.
But then.......then.....he suggested the first thing 'Stars would do is close this Forum.
I mean, I just gasped.
Wonder if he saw the irony of his comments? If everyone comes on here & says 'Stars & Sky Bet are both a pile of stinky poo, well yeah, nobody should be surprised if the owners said "enough, we don't need that" would they?
I still think about his comments every day.
As to the emboldened part, let me tell you this. The folks who run this Business are bright, fearfully bright. And I'm very confident they will arrive at the right solution.