In an interesting sequel to this week’s revelations that the Stars Group (formerly Amaya) is a major shareholder in poker information site Poker News, the independent publication Flush Draw has revealed that the change of ownership was agreed in 2011 and followed the Black Friday debacle in which US Department of Justice enforcers effectively shut down the major online poker operators.
Flushdraw quotes a post early this year on the PFA forum by Australian poker pro Gary “OzGary” Benson, who claimed:
“Tony G (Antanas Guoga) was at the Aussie Millions so I took the opportunity to ask him about this. He confirmed that he made the deal to sell PokerNews to the Rational Group (now Amaya) with Isai [Scheinberg] personally in the 2nd half of 2011 for $30m although the handover was done progressively over a period of time.”
Flushdraw notes that no-one has contradicted this allegation, and that because The Rational Group was not at that time listed it had no obligation to report the deal.
The full story appears here: http://www.flushdraw.net/news/industry-super-affiliate-pokernews-disclosed-majority-owned-stars-group/