Epic Poker League Allegedly Owes $4 Million To Creditors

On 29th February, the Epic Poker League’s parent company, Federated Sports + Gaming (FS+G) filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with EPL Commissioner Annie Duke quick to explain that “this is a reorganization, not a liquidation.”
However, if the FS+G bankruptcy court records seen by Wicked Chops Insider is anything to go by, then Annie Duke’s assessment may be way off the mark. Apparently, FS+G owes over 100 creditors around $4 million, and had dipped into the financial danger zone last year, when even the  Heartland Poker Tour parent company ‘All In Poker Production,’  filed a court case for non-payment.
The Epic Poker League was launched in 2011, but it is now a question of if and not when the EPL will manage to complete its first Season. Already, no firm date has been set for the  Tournament Series Four, while it is difficult to conceive how the Season One ending $1 Million Freeroll will ever take place.
This has all lead to questions about the EPL’s management, which was highlighted succintly in an article by pokerstrategy.com, which stated:
“What happens when you host a series of poker tournaments, provide free accommodation for participants, charge no rake, add $400,000 in bonus cash to each event, pay for television time, and plan on hosting a $1 million freeroll for the top 27 players on the league leaderboard? Well, you go broke.”
If the EPL does go down in flames, it will rank amongst poker’s biggest failures, rendered even more ludicrous by the fact its inspiration, the Professional Poker Tour (PPT), billed as “the first professional poker league,” had already proved a failure and was cancelled in 2005 after just one season.
The EPL’s best chances of survival now rests with it finding a new backer to re-organize and re-finance the beleaguered poker tournament series. Otherwise, the EPL’s only positive legacy left to the poker industry will be its method of ranking tournament players known as the Global Poker Index.