World Poker Tour Enterprises, the parent company of the World Poker Tour, announced a television sponsorship deal with Full Tilt Poker.
Viewers will see changes to WPT broadcasts thanks to the deal, which gives Full Tilt the exclusive rights for what the WPTE is calling “in-show educational gaming brand integration” for all 26 episodes of the WPT that will be aired on FSN next year.
The deal comes at a time when WPTE is experiencing financial problems. There’s a good possibility that the publicly traded company will lose its spot on NASDAQ because of a recent history of its stock trading below a dollar, and the company recently reported a 39-precent drop in revenues in the third quarter of 2008, compared to the same period of 2007.
For the first nine months, 2008 revenue fell 22 percent to $22.9 million, and the company’s net loss for 2008 is already at $11.1 million, a 42-percent decrease from the same period of 2007.
The company also is closing its WPT-branded gambling site because of poor results.
Also, Lakes Entertainment, a casino owner and operator who owns 61 percent of WPTE stock, decided to end its ownership stake with WPTE by handing out its 12.4 million shares of WPTE stock to Lakes Entertainment company shareholders on Nov. 28.
