In a move that hints that the sale of Full Tilt Poker to Group Bernard Tapie may actually be nearing its long-awaited conclusion, the company has posted job openings on a popular Internet job site for a considerable amount of positions that pertain mostly to customer service representative duties typically required as support desk functions.
Pocket Kings, Ltd., the parent company of Full Tilt Poker, posted positions for 14 different jobs on April 3, and lists Pocket Kings’ headquarters in Dublin, Ireland as its address. Recent industry rumors late last month alluded to the fact that Laurent Tapie, the son of Full Tilt’s buyer, Bernard Tapie, and the company’s Managing Director, has moved to Dublin to work on matters related to Full Tilt re-launching under the new ownership.
Of the 14 job postings listed, 13 are hiring in a customer service capacity, with several seeking representatives who are fluent in various languages, such as German, Italian, Russian and Romanian. The remaining job posting seeks Localization Specialists, who would entertain duties that would require them to be “responsible for the localization of all Full Tilt Poker assets including online and off line marketing campaigns and IT focused projects.” The jobs being offered at Full Tilt are typically hiring on a 2-3 month contractual basis, with a permanent role at the company a future possibility.
The sale of Full Tilt has dragged on for months, with deadline after deadline receiving extensions in the process. Players with money stuck on the dormant site have been anxiously awaiting the sale to finally go through, posting numerous threads on popular online poker forums that undeniably show the anger and hatred that many players have for the industry’s 2nd-ranked poker site prior to Black Friday.
Many industry observers were curious if Full Tilt would re-launch using the same name. After all, the Full Tilt brand has been dragged through the mud since Black Friday, from everyone such as U.S. District attorneys who labelled the site’s operations as a “global Ponzi scheme,” to poker pro Daniel Negreanu, who repeatedly referred to Full Tilt’s board of directors, Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, and Ray Bitar, as “scumbags” and “shameful little weasels.”
Thoughts of a name change can be put to rest, as the company description on the job postings says about the parent company, “Founded with the goal of creating the best online poker experience anywhere, Pocket Kings provides Technology and Marketing consulting services to the online poker industry and one of the fastest growing poker sites, Full Tilt Poker.”
Not exactly sure how a currently shuttered poker site can be called “one of the fastest growing.” Also, ask any player with money stuck on Full Tilt if playing at the site has been their “best online poker experience anywhere.”
Should the Full Tilt sale become finalized, it is believed that the U.S. Department of Justice, who is acting as a middleman in the negotiations due to asset forfeiture proceedings requiring court approval, would be responsible for reimbursing American players. The Tapie Group would carry the burden of refunding players located throughout the rest of the world. A timeline for repayment is anybody’s guess at this point.
