WPT and China Agreement Finalized

On August 8th, 2007, the world poker tour finalized its agreement with Chinese officials regarding the promotion of poker in China. World Poker Tour Enterprises CEO Steve Lipscomb signed the agreement, which states a five year sponsorship and promotion deal with the CLSA to help market the Chinese national traktor tour.

Traktor, or more commonly know as tuo la ji, is a well-known Chinese card game and the World Poker Tour, in exchange for $3 million worth of investment, will get the first crack in any negotiations and the right to match any deal regarding poker in the country.

This move by the WPT is a gamble, because poker remains a questionable issue in China, but the sheer potential of the market is significant enough if this question is solved, giving the WPT an important position at this emerging market.

Steve Lipscomb will be less than happy that the finances of the WPTE showed a net loss of $3.3 million for this quarter or a slide down of $0.16 per share. Compared to the same period last year, the WPTE showed a $2.6 million revenue or $0.12 per share gain.

The loss of the WPTE for this quarter includes the write-off $2.3 million of gambling assets regarding WPTE's rejected plan of making their own gambling platform. Total profits at $7.7 million are slightly more than expected but still represent a 30% percent decline compared to the same time last year.

Costs were larger for the 2nd quarter too mainly because of the abandoned software plans of the WPTE. The predictions for the 3rd quarter are similar last year, with predictions of a total profit of $4.5 million.

On a bright side, the World Poker Tour is now debt free and ended the quarter with a cash investment of $34.6 million. World Poker Tour Enterprises Chief Executive Officer Steve Lipscomb commented that they have made progress for 2007 and are happy that they are able to continue that, like the agreement with GSN to again broadcast the Season Vi of the WPT.

He also added that they have successfully debut their gambling site on the platform made by Cryptologic. They are also continuing to promote the WPTE in other countries like the Netherlands and a whole lot more.

September 24, 2007
Jeremy Evans