WPTE changes CFO
 

http://biz.yahoo.com/e/060925/wpte8-k.html

I had met both (soon to be former) CFO Todd Steele and Controller/CFO-designate Scott Friedman very briefly only two weeks ago when they were with Mr. Lipscomb in San Francisco at the ThinkEquity Growth Conference.

Todd Steele is joining a "private equity" firm, which means he could be joining either a "venture capital" firm, or a "leveraged buyout" firm, or a firm that does a combination of the two among other things.

Re: WPTE changes CFO
 

How will this move affect the emerging Chinese market?

Re: WPTE changes CFO
 

Oliver, I'm a fan of your work. Ignore the haters and keep it up.

Re: WPTE changes CFO
 

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Oliver, I'm a fan of your work. Ignore the haters and keep it up.

[/ QUOTE ]

here, here. I enjoy your posts even if I occasionally choose to debate your opinions on China.

Re: WPTE changes CFO
 

They need to do something. If you lose $5mil a year during the poker boom, you're doing a terrible job.

How in the hell do you lose money right now, that's what I want to know.

Personally, I hope ESPN buys WPTE or they go out of business. That's what poker really needs to happen.

WPTE is locked into a terrible TV deal until 2009 or 2010. Whoever made that deal should be fired, and I'm sure the CFO was right in the middle of it.

/rant

Re: WPTE changes CFO
 

[ QUOTE ]
They need to do something. If you lose $5mil a year during the poker boom, you're doing a terrible job.

How in the hell do you lose money right now, that's what I want to know.

Personally, I hope ESPN buys WPTE or they go out of business. That's what poker really needs to happen.

WPTE is locked into a terrible TV deal until 2009 or 2010. Whoever made that deal should be fired, and I'm sure the CFO was right in the middle of it.

/rant

[/ QUOTE ]

Further rant...

You're the only game in town, and this is your financial results....

http://moneycentral.msn.com/investor...px?Symbol=WPTE

That's solid.

Please, let someone else who knows what they are doing to a shot at this. Unfortunitely, contracts signed with all the good casinos keep this from happening (thus, a buyout or bankruptcy is needed).

Would you invest in a company that is losing money in the poker business right now? Hell no.

gg WPTE.

Re: WPTE changes CFO
 

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WPTE is locked into a terrible TV deal until 2009 or 2010. Whoever made that deal should be fired, and I'm sure the CFO was right in the middle of it.


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What are you talking about?

WPTE's legacy deal with The Travel Channel, signed in 2004 (which might as well have been 1004 the way the TV poker industry has evolved) is a MUCH BETTER deal, in terms of the amount of up front CASH, than the one Harrah's just signed with ESPN.

WPTE gets $10 million in CASH from The Travel Channel.

Harrah's received $0 in CASH from ESPN for the WSOP in 2006-2010. That's right. ESPN got video rights to the WSOP Main Event, the "World Championship" of tournament poker, for $0 in CASH.

Re: WPTE changes CFO
 

ESPN is willing to pay much more than the Travel Channel, thus the lawsuits over the PPT.

ESPN is also a much better market for the WPT. But no, they're stuck with the Travel Channel now. Would you rather be on ESPN or the Travel Channel? Would you brand be stronger on the TC or ESPN? How much money have you made so far with TC?

That's great that got $10mil upfront, but they still lost $5mil last year, which is pretty much unbelievable at this stage in the poker industry.

Say what you want about there TV deal, but I'm around people that know the situation pretty well. WPTE has done a terrible job making money, no one can dispute that.

Re: WPTE changes CFO
 

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ESPN is willing to pay much more than the Travel Channel, thus the lawsuits over the PPT.

Say what you want about there TV deal, but I'm around people that know the situation pretty well. WPTE has done a terrible job making money, no one can dispute that.

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Again, what are you talking about?

And also, where have you been since 2004?

You are still stuck in 2004, while I am talking about 2006.

In 2004, ESPN wanted to pay WPTE more money for the PPT than The Travel Channel did.

In 2006, ESPN is NOT willing to pay Harrah's Entertainment even 1 penny for the WSOP Main Event, the "World Championship" of poker.

The TV poker business has changed, and changed dramatically, from a "rights fee" product to a "time buy/infomercial" product.

Those of you who continue to claim that WPTE got a "terrible" TV deal don't know what you are talking about.

FACT: WPTE gets more money from The Travel Channel for the WPT than any other TV poker producer gets from any TV network in the world.

The only reason why WPTE loses money is because it is forced to spend millions of dollars to migrate WPTE from a TV productions business to an online gaming business, with Asia and the Chinese-speaking markets in Asia in particular, being the target markets, when WPTOnline.com is scheduled to re-launch in the 3rd quarter of 2007 with "version 2".

WPTOnline.com "version 1", which operates primarily in the UK, loses money and will continue to lose money until the plug is pulled because the software is not scalable.

WPTE's legacy TV contract with The Travel Channel, which gets WPTE $10 million a year, is a year-to-year option which The Travel Channel can choose to exercise approximately 60 days before the start of filming for a new WPT season. Those options only run through "season 8", or the 2008-2009 season.

Re: WPTE changes CFO
 

So are you saying Harahs doesn't make any money for the TV broadcast of the WSOP?

That's obviously not correct.

Harah's makes more money from the WSOP than WPTE makes in entire year, I'd be willing to bet.

Harah's makes a pretty good amount of money from my company. Party Poker pays a ton, and ESPN does not keep all of it.

When Harah's does their 3rd Q earnings report, we'll probably be able to see how well they did.

The bottom line is WPTE isn't making money in a booming industry. Now they're trying to get involved in another market they don't have the money to be involved in (online poker).

WPTE is a dud. You must be an investor to be arguing so hard for them. They've proven their ability so far. No investor in their right mind would invest in that company right now.

WPTE tries to screw over business partners like they have some great brand or something. They don't.

Time will tell.

Re: WPTE changes CFO
 

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The only reason why WPTE loses money is because it is forced to spend millions of dollars to migrate WPTE from a TV productions business to an online gaming business

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WPTE lost money in 2002, 2003, made $750k in 2004, and lost $5m in 2005. I don't think you can blame all of their losses on online gaming. I don't even think they announced the first version of their online room until March of 2005.

Re: WPTE changes CFO
 

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The only reason why WPTE loses money is because it is forced to spend millions of dollars to migrate WPTE from a TV productions business to an online gaming business

[/ QUOTE ]

WPTE lost money in 2002, 2003, made $750k in 2004, and lost $5m in 2005. I don't think you can blame all of their losses on online gaming. I don't even think they announced the first version of their online room until March of 2005.

[/ QUOTE ]

WPTE made money in 2004, at the peak of TV poker ratings in the U.S.

WPTE lost money in 2005 due to the start-up of WPTOnline.com, and due to the up front expensing of the production cost of the PPT TV project.

WPTE will make money from the WPT TV product in 2006 and 2007.

WPTE is also building its cash reserves by 1) finally getting PPT Season 1 on the air, and 2) selling 100% of its investment in PokerTek.

WPTE was forced to migrate to the online gaming business because WPTE sees its US TV rights fees revenue stream eventually going away.

Re: WPTE changes CFO
 

[ QUOTE ]
So are you saying Harahs doesn't make any money for the TV broadcast of the WSOP?

That's obviously not correct.

Harah's makes more money from the WSOP than WPTE makes in entire year, I'd be willing to bet.

Harah's makes a pretty good amount of money from my company. Party Poker pays a ton, and ESPN does not keep all of it.

When Harah's does their 3rd Q earnings report, we'll probably be able to see how well they did.

The bottom line is WPTE isn't making money in a booming industry. Now they're trying to get involved in another market they don't have the money to be involved in (online poker).

WPTE is a dud. You must be an investor to be arguing so hard for them. They've proven their ability so far. No investor in their right mind would invest in that company right now.

WPTE tries to screw over business partners like they have some great brand or something. They don't.


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Harrah's and ESPN now split the sponsorship revenue from the integrated sponsorship deals such as PartyGaming and Miller Brewing.

Harrah's does make more money from its 50% share of the Miller Brewing and PartyGaming deals than WPTE gets from The Travel Channel. That is a given and is to be expected since Harrah's currently has the defacto "world championship".

Will Harrah's continue to have the defacto "world championship" of poker once the COMMUNIST PARTY of the People's Republic of CHINA decide where the majority of gamblers in the world can play Texas Hold'em?

Don't bet on that yet.

WPTE is allied MGM MIRAGE, which is allied with Stanley Ho and his daughters in Macau.

The Ho's have connections to the upper echelons of the Chinese government.

PartyGaming? I don't see any sign that PartyGaming is aware of what China means to the company's future yet.

One more uncertainty: will the U.S. Senate pass a law prohibiting the likes of Harrah's from doing business with companies, such as "software development companies", that are AFFILIATED with online gaming entities?

If so, then the WSOP may eventually have to leave Las Vegas and move to either London, or better yet, Macau in order for Harrah's to harness all available revenue streams.

The control of the global poker industry is far from being played out.

While PartyGaming and Harrah's have the lead now, the one entity out there that is capable of changing everything, namely the COMMUNIST PARTY of the People's Republic of China, hasn't decided at this time who it wants to control the poker industry by 2015.