Full Tilt Poker, one of the largest online poker rooms in the world by traffic, and home of the highest nosebleed poker games in the world, has announced a strategic partnership with Fertita Interactive.
Fertita Interactive is a gaming company owned by the Fertitas family, owners of Station Casinos. You may have heard of The Fertitas, Frank and Lorenzo, for they are the majority owners of the UFC, Ultimate Fighting Championship, the industry leader in the fast growing sport of mixed martial arts.
The significance of this partnership is that it strategically places Full Tilt in a position to partner up with a major on land gaming company should federal legislation pass to legalize internet poker. The move comes a few weeks after PokerStars made a similar partnership with Wynn Resorts Ltd.
For the time being these partnerships are totally contingent upon the legalization of poker in the United States. According to Tom Breitling, who co-owns Fertita Interactive,”Our arrangement with Full Tilt is confidential but it is contingent on the passage of federal legislation regulating Internet poker.”
Tom Breitling, co-owner of Fertita Interactice, is a 41 year old entrepreneur from St. Paul Minnesota, who is best known for creating the Las Vegas reservation system Travelscape.com in 1998, which he sold to Expedia.com for $100 Million in 2000. In 2003 Breitling purchased the Golden Nugget properties in Nevada for $215 Million before selling the properties in 2005 for $340 Million.
In the near future we can expect strong lobbying from Full Tilt Poker and Fertita Interactive to pass federal regulations and make online poker legal. We can also expect cross promotion between the UFC and Full Tilt Poker if those laws are enacted.