Tribeca table to shed US players?

[Ian_go]

These two countries have a reputation for an extremely high level of player fraud in online casinos and poker.

[pokeraddict]

Fraud is the only thing I can come up with too. There are several poker rooms based in Israel though so it may be some sort of industry issue. There are a few sites that ban players from Israel. I've never known of a poker room banning players from Hong Kong though.

[jetset]

This probably explains it:

LONDON (Reuters) - Gambling software maker Playtech said on Monday it had agreed to buy part of rival Tribeca Tables Europe for $75 million (39 million pounds) in a company-transforming deal.

The deal brings with it a number of Internet gambling sites currently operating on Tribeca's software platform, including VCPoker, PaddyPower Poker, Blue Square Poker and Scandinavian group, Expekt.

Playtech (PTEC.L: Quote, Profile, Research) said the deal was in line with its strategy of extending its geographical reach, after the United States effectively banned online gaming at last month.

"This is a landmark deal for Playtech, which in one move, transforms the company into the world's leading poker network that excludes U.S. players," said Playtech Chief Executive Avigur Zmora.

Playtech also announced third-quarter income from non-U.S. players increased to 53 percent from 49 percent a year earlier.

"On the basis that the company (Tribeca) will generate about $16 million over the coming year from the migration date, the consideration to be paid for Tribeca will be $75 million," Playtech said in a statement.

"The maximum consideration that the company will be liable to pay is $139 million, which will be paid in the event that the revenue generated from this acquisition exceeds $29 million over the coming year from the migration date," it added.

Playtech shares closed at 190 pence on Friday, valuing the group at around 407 million pounds.

[pokeraddict]

Several of the iPokers are based in Israel and as I understand do not accept players from there. This would explain the banning of players from there by Tribeca.

[jetset]

Playtech has expanded on its original statement a little, which I think sheds more light on this. Avigur Zmora says:

"For the next 30 days, Playtech has the option of picking the parts of Tribeca's infrastructure that it wants to continue operating.

"One of the companies is in the Philippines, which produces the front end -- the look and feel (of websites)," he said.

"That's a very cheap subsidiary and we need it," Zmora added. "Everybody wants more languages, and different feel for different countries. Most probably we'll pick that."

"The other subsidiary is in India, with 120 programmers, and I think we won't take that," he said.