Element Partners LLC has now officially become the newest owner of the World Poker Tour (WPT). Allied Esports Entertainment, Inc, and Ourgame International Holdings, Ltd, approved the sale via two separate shareholder votes conducted a few days ago.
The $105 million acquisition deal should have been finalized several weeks earlier, but an internal dispute among Ourgame’s board members delayed the entire process. Allied Esports needed to wait for those issues to be resolved before it could conduct a vote on the sale, since 30 percent of the company is still owned by Ourgame.
WPT Sale Timeline and Challenges
Back in January 2021, Allied Esports first announced that it was going to sell the WPT brand to Element Partners, a private venture-capital firm, under a $78.3 million deal.
The sale was expected to be closed later that month, but casino-entertainment company Bally’s Corporation interrupted negotiations by launching a higher offer of $90 million. A bidding war then ensured, with Element increasing its initial bid to $90.5 million. Bally’s re-upped the ante to $100 million, but Element just wouldn’t give up and ended the bidding war with a $105 million offer in March, which was considered by Allied as a “superior proposal”.
Negotiations then resumed to finalize the sale, but a leadership dispute within Ourgame delayed the approval. The boardroom conflict revolved around how the company would distribute the WPT sale proceeds. It resulted in the expulsion of three board members, who were later found out to be facing massive debt and several lawsuits for corporate disclosure non-compliance.
The three former board members demanded that the larger bulk of the WPT sale funds go directly to Irena Group, a minority owner of Ourgame. All three serve as executives for the controversial company.
The ousted board members allegedly threatened to “obstruct” Ourgame’s operations if their wishes weren’t met. They later called an emergency meeting in May in an attempt to oust the remaining board of directors. The planned corporate coup did not materialize, but it further delayed the approval of the sale.
Allied was supposed to hold a shareholder vote on June 28, but was forced to postpone it, pending a June 30 scheduled meeting within Ourgame. The company finally approved the proposal, but via a close vote, with a 54.4% to 45.6% margin. The three former board members also failed in their bid to funnel a significant portion of the sale proceeds to Irena Group, as the money will now go to Ourgame’s other business endeavors.
Allied waited for the final outcome of the Ourgame meeting before conducting its own shareholder vote just a few days ago. The company’s CEO Frank Ng conducted a video conference during which shareholders were asked to cast their vote. It was a brief affair, with final approval granted within just six minutes.
WPT’s Owners Over The Years
The WPT has passed through several hands since the brand was established in 2002. It was first acquired by PartyGaming in 2009 for $12.3 million. In 2011, the WPT was officially taken over by bwin.party Digital Entertainment, which was formed following a merger between PartyGaming and Bwin Interactive Entertainment.
The WPT and Ourgame first worked with each other back in 2012 when both companies entered into a five-year branding deal. Through that partnership, WPT was able to expand across China and the Pacific Rim.
In 2015, bwin.party eventually sold the WPT to Ourgame under a $35 million deal. But in 2018, China launched a massive crackdown on social poker apps, prompting Ourgame to give up its poker portfolio. Later that year, Ourgame decided to sell the WPT to Black Ridge Acquisition Corp, headed by Poker Hall of Famer and WPT Chairman Lyle Berman.
Black Ridge later renamed to Allied Esports Entertainment, and while it was initially assumed that Ourgame had already quit its poker assets by selling the WPT, it emerged that the company still holds a 30% stake in Allied.
Element Partners has yet to issue an official statement as to its future plans for the WPT now that it has successfully acquired the brand.