Lawsuit Filed Against Harrah’s Entertainment by Poker Site
Written by Renee K | Monday, April 5th, 2010
Everest Poker has filed a lawsuit against Harrah’s Entertainment, owners of the World Series of Poker series, only months before the poker event is due to begin in Vegas. Everest Poker’s parent company, Ultra Internet Media is claiming through the lawsuit that Harrah’s breached clauses in the three year contract that saw Everest become the on felt sponsor for the WSOP.
The group claims that since Harrah’s breached the $22.5 million contract, it would be pulling out of this year’s World Series of Poker. Specifically, the lawsuit, filed in Las Vegas, said that ESPN French affiliate RTL9 did not display the Everest Poker logo when broadcasting WSOP games, and instead showed its rival Full Tilt Poker’s logo. On a side note, the WSOP also has it’s own poker site launched this year they will likely be promoting.
Everest Poker said that it had paid $6.2 million in 2008 for the exclusivity rights, $7.9 million in 2009 and $8.4 million in 2010.
A meeting had been held between Harrah’s and Everest Poker to see what could be done about stopping ESPN using the Full Tilt logo, and ESPN eventually conceded to stop the violating. However, since the meeting in February, RTL9 broadcasts consistently featured the Rival’s logo.
“Every material breach of the agreement represents lost potential future profits, erosion of goodwill and compromise of UIM’s international business reputation,” read the lawsuit filed in a federal court.
WSOP officials are worried that with just two months to go, they are suddenly left to fill a void for an on felt sponsor for WSOP 2010. No doubt that there are only a few poker groups who can come up with the $8 million required in such as short space of time, especially when it wasn’t an expected part of their budget.
A spokesperson for WSOP, Seth Palansky, would not make any comments about the pending lawsuit at present.
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· Written by Renee K · Filed Under Poker News · Comments Off
