Major dispute reported between Boss IPN and Trillion Poker

[jetset]

WAR OF WORDS BREAKS OUT BETWEEN ONLINE POKER COMPANIES

The honeymoon's over for Trillion Poker and Boss Media, it appears.

Harsh words and litigation were the order of the day this week as a serious falling-out between Boss Media's International Poker Network and one of the member websites, Trillion Poker surfaced. Reports are that Trillion is departing the Boss Media network under acrimonious conditions, threatening to lodge a garnishee order along with a Euro 45 million law suit.

Trillion players were apparently advised in an email from the company that it has sought an order freezing the bank accounts of Boss Holdings Limited, claiming that Boss and its online payments processor Webdollar would be legally pursued for alleged fraudulent and potentially criminal conduct by unamed personnel.

Andy Pyrah, the CEO of Poker Trillion, commented to Card Player.com: "As a small and new entrant to the market we are taking a zero tolerance approach to being mistreated by Boss Media. Owing to the massive irregularities surrounding Boss Media and their handling of Poker Trillion, this led to a number of contractual issues that in turn has led to us making some extremely exciting and important developments in the way in which we operate our business".

Poker Trillion also issued a strongly worded press statement, warning customers of other poker rooms on the Boss Network to be concerned about their funds:

"It is to be expected that if Boss Media follow the proper code of conduct then they will shortly make a full and complete disclosure to the Stockholm Stock Exchange on which they are listed; this invariably will have a catastrophic effect on their share price, and may even lead to the arrest by the authorities of certain members of their management team and the possible suspension of their shares.

"This in turn would mean that players not in the Poker Trillion stable could find their funds that are held by other partners of Boss Media in serious jeopardy."

Boss Media has reacted by issuing a statement acknowledging the allegations but asserting that its policy is not to comment publicly.

"PokerTrillion's allegations may however have created uncertainty among players regarding the availability of player funds. Boss Media therefore wishes clarify the situation," the statement read.

"When a partner of the International Poker Network is terminated the partner will be allowed a period to migrate its players from the network. During such period, and a period after the migration period to be agreed with the poker partner, player funds are available for withdrawal from Webdollar as usual.

"Consequently the player funds are readily available and can be withdrawn by the players at any time until Boss Media is instructed otherwise by PokerTrillion."

Whilst there is clearly much as yet undisclosed detail in the dispute, unconfirmed and speculative rumour is that it is in relation to alleged rakeback violations and the discounted tournament entries the poker room offered.

[jetset]

ONLINE POKER SITE GRANTED ORDER AGAINST BOSS MEDIA (Update)

Poker Trillion succeeds in garnishee order application

The dispute between online poker website Poker Trillion and its former network operated by Swedish Internet gambling provider Boss Media (see previous InfoPowa reports) has resulted in the award of a garnishee (or freezing) order on the bank accounts of Boss Holdings Limited and Boss Media Malta Poker Ltd.

The application, number 532-08, was heard in the First Hall Civil Court, Malta, and the order has been executed at all seven banks in Malta where the Boss Media companies hold bank accounts.

PokerTrillion.com C.E.O Andy Pyrah had earlier commented: "As a small and new entrant to the market we are taking a zero tolerance approach to being mistreated by Boss Media" in a statement on the dispute.

The order relates to a €45million initial law suit being taken by PokerTrillion.com against Boss Media and their associated companies in various jurisdictions, including but not restricted to, Sweden and Malta.

[Casinomeister]

Well that's some major headache - is this affecting all Boss properties or just their poker sites?

[dazlazz]

Bryan,

The dispute is not affecting any of the other Boss skins - from what I can gather this dispute has to do with the breaking of network poker rules.

Regards,

Dazzla

[guesswest]

I play at Trillion, though fortunately my account was empty when this came through. I'm not particularly concerned about Boss and their solvency from my understanding of what's going on, though that could change as more information comes out. It sounds to me as if Trillion didn't get proper legal advice before sending out that mail - it's quite emotive and they might have to worry about consequences in terms of defamation, even if what is said turns out to be largely true.

It's not clear precisely what's going on with this, but an explanation I read somewhere (can't remember where) and which immediately sounds likely is that this is about rakeback. Boss caps rakeback at 30% for all its skins. Trillion offer 30% rakeback to all players, but they also offer discounts of up to 50% if you want to use your rakeback to purchase seats to bigger live tournaments, so if you use your rakeback to buy an EPT seat you're indirectly receiving 60% rakeback. Rumour is Boss says this violates their rakeback policy, and Trillion says it doesn't.

IF that's what's going on I have to sympathise with Trillion - whilst the argument that it's violating the 30% cap can be made, if it's going to be made it should have been made months and many advertising dollars ago, as Boss would certainly be aware of this heavily and directly promoted scheme. Trillion have built up a big player base quite quickly, and if this is becoming an issue now it's likely in part due to pressure from other skins who are losing customers. I'll be interested to see how this turns out.

[jetset]

Thanks for that thoughtful assessment, GW, which gels with what we have heard from other sources.

Trillion must have been able to put forward a pretty good prima facie case to secure its garnishee order on all of Boss Media's bank accounts in Malta, but other than an initial brief statement (see initial post in this thread) the Swedes continue to hew to their policy of not communicating publically so far.