Last night, CommissionKing sent the word out to affiliates: “Please note that as of today, 30 June 2011, Canbet Casino will no longer be operational.
“The decision was made to re-focus on Canbet’s core business of Horse Racing and Sports Betting, and this means that all available resources will be diverted to these channels.
“We kindly request that all affiliates currently promoting Canbet Casino remove the marketing material from their sites as soon as possible.”
For the time being, Canbet will route all casino traffic to the main Canbet.com sports betting page, and affiliates will “still be credited with any revenue generated from registrations and play”.
Canbet’s affiliate network, CommissionKing, even has a plan in place to replace casino creative with betting creative for affiliates. The transition will seek to avoid broken images in case affiliate can’t immediately update their sites.
“We thank you for your support and promotion of Canbet Casino, and hope to continue working closely together marketing Canbet’s Sports and Racing products.”
Canbet Casino was powered by Microgaming.
Full Tilt sold, payments expected soon
In other news, Full Tilt Poker is still shut down after regulators revoked its license yesterday.
Some rumors have suggested that FT may deal with the situation the way lots of American poker pros talk of doing: By heading to Canada. Via a new licensing deal with Kahnawake. (That’s where CEREUS sites UB.com and Absolute Poker were licensed.)
That’s yet to be confirmed … and probably won’t be. Instead, the Los Angeles Times is reporting that Full Tilt has actually been purchased by EU investors “in a deal that could allow U.S. players to recover as much as $150 million.”
“Attorneys associated with Full Tilt said the company signed an agreement Thursday with a group of investors who would put up enough money to pay back players and in doing so attain a majority stake in Full Tilt’s Irish parent company, Pocket Kings.
“The money is also intended to allow the company to settle a civil lawsuit brought against it by the U.S. attorney’s office at the same time as the criminal indictment, the attorneys said.”
U.S. regulators hope to squeeze $3 billion out of Full Tilt, PokerStars, and UB.com/Absolute Poker. PokerStars has paid back more than $120 million of its obligation to date.